enough there lay a black snake almost as long as Mark was tall,
which he had just succeeded in killing with a stick.

Mrs. Elmer shuddered at the sight of the snake, though her husband
assured her that it had been perfectly harmless even when alive.

Not far from where the snake had been killed they found a spring
of water bubbling up, as clear as crystal, from a bed of white
sand, but giving forth such a disagreeable odor that the children
declared it was nasty. Mr. Elmer, however, regarded it with great
satisfaction, and told them it was a sulphur spring, stronger than
any he had ever seen, and that they would find it very valuable.
They all drank some of the water out of magnolia-leaf cups; but
the children made faces at the taste, and Mark said it made him
feel like a hard-boiled egg.

A path leading from the spring at right angles to the road from
the river took them into a large clearing that had once been a
cultivated field, and on the farther side of this field stood the
house. As they approached it they saw that it was quite large, two
stories in height, with dormer windows in the roof, but that it
bore many signs of age and long neglect. Some of the windows were
broken and others boarded up, while the front door hung
disconsolately on one hinge.

The house stood in a grove of grand live-oaks, cedars, and
magnolias, and had evidently been surrounded by a beautiful
garden, enclosed by a neat picket-fence; but now the fence was
broken down in many places, and almost hidden by a dense growth of
vines and creepers. In the garden, rose-bushes, myrtles,