wreck, and helped get it off, and brought it here to Key West. Now
we are waiting for a court to say how much it was worth to do it.
I shouldn't wonder if they allowed as much as a thousand dollars,
for the wreck was a big ship, and it was real hard work.

"This is an awfully funny place, and I just wish you were here to
walk round with Mark and me and see it. It is on an island, and
that is the reason it is named 'Key,' because all the islands down
here are called keys. The Spaniards call it 'Cayo Hueso,' which
means bone key, or bone island; but I'm sure I don't know why, for
I haven't seen any bones here. The island is all made of coral,
and the streets are just hard white coral worn down. The island is
almost flat, and 'Captain Li'--he's our captain--says that the
highest part is only sixteen feet above the ocean.

"Oh, Edna! you ought to see the palm-trees. They grow everywhere,
great cocoa-nut and date palms, and we drink the milk out of the
cocoa-nuts when we go on picnics and get thirsty. And the roses
are perfectly lovely, and they have great oleanders and cactuses,
and hundreds of flowers that I don't know the names of, and they
are all in full bloom now, though it is nearly Christmas. I don't
suppose I shall hang up my stocking this Christmas; they don't
seem to do it down here.

"The other day we went out to the soldiers' barracks, and saw a
banyan-tree that 'Captain Li' says is the only one in the United
States, but we didn't see any monkeys or elephants. Mark says he
don't think this is very tropical, because we haven't seen any
bread-fruit-trees nor a single pirate; but they used to have them
here--I mean pirates. Anyhow, we have custard apples, and they