auction."

The sponge crawls of which the old man spoke are square pens make
of stakes driven into the sand side by side, and as close as
possible together. In some of them at Key West Mark and Ruth saw
little negro boys diving to bring up stray sponges that the rakes
had missed. They did not seem to enjoy this half as much as Mark
and his boy friends used to enjoy diving in the river at Norton,
and they shivered as though they were cold, in spite of the heat
of the day.

When the children told Mr. Elmer about these little, unhappy-
looking divers that night, he said,

"That shows how what some persons regard as play, may become hard
and unpleasant work to those who are compelled to do it."

Several days after this Mr. Elmer engaged a carriage, and took his
wife and the children on a long drive over the island. During this
drive the most interesting things they saw were old Fort Taylor,
which stands just outside the city, and commands the harbor, the
abandoned salt-works, about five miles from the city, and the
Martello towers, built along the southern coast of the island.
These are small but very strong forts, built by the government,
but as yet never occupied by soldiers.

In one of them the Elmers were shown a large, jagged hole, broken
through the brick floor of one of the upper stories. This, the
sergeant in charge told them, had been made by a party of sailors
who deserted from a man-of-war lying in the harbor, and hid