noon
Strewn here and there through this sandy expanse lovely oases , locally known as `` hammocks '' , usually in hollows , and consisting of several acres of rich soil where tropic and sub-tropic trees grow as luxuriantly as in a jungle , where undergrowth and vine run riot , where orchid and airplant and wondrous-hued flowers blaze through the green gloom of interlaced foliage . This , roughly , is a bird 's - eye glimpse of the southeastern stretch of Florida , a region of glory and glow and fortunes and mystery . -LRB- Which is perhaps a momentary digression from our story , but will serve , for all that to fix its setting more vividly in the eyes of the mind . -RRB- When Milo Standish came back from Miami that noon he professed much loud-voiced joy at seeing his guest so well recovered from the night 's mishaps . At lunch , he suggested : `` I am running across to Roustabout Key this afternoon , in the launch . It 's an island I bought a few years ago . I keep a handful of men there to work a grapefruit grove and a mango orchard and some other stuff I 've planted .