Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-05-31
under its covering of vines and flowers.
The taste displayed throughout is simple,
with an antique cast. =:

under Its covering OF vines and flowers
The taste displayed throughout is simple
with an antique cast. ::
The building consists of. two stories, will
a garrett above. The garret is lighted b!
two dormer-windows, pierced through thl
|sloping roof on the western side. These
windows look out on wide valley deceud
ling to the rivers brink on Cascade Sc
in frame of verdure; and then on the rug
lged and bold hills rising beyond the stream
and, stretching far away towards sunset
This landscape is inimitably delightful
The spot was first selected by romantic
artist, whose -story I .may tell at another
time.
When yet child, occasionally passed
a night, or holiday, at Fall-view; (fol
such is the name Of the mansion y and
shall never forget the pleasure these visits
gave me. During this time, the household
was composed of 'Mother Shelby'-as all
the neighborhood, young and old, called
her-her son, Charles, and her niece, Mel
I lie Wilson. Mrs. Shelby was, indeed, g
mother to all. She was constantly engaged
in some act of kindness ministration
! of mercy and charity. Charles was frank.
hearted, sociable lad; Nellie was beau,
tiful, 'violet.eyed', little girl.
Mother Shelby had seen fifty or more
summers languish. In her youth she had
been exceedingly beautiful; possessing
that ETHEREAL loveliness which belongs to
the nervo-sangrine temperament. She had
been educated well. She had by nature a
gay and cheerful spirit, warm heart, and
native simplicity of taste and naiveness Of
sentiment, which led her, sometimes, into
excesses in her girlish days. Her only sac-
complishment' was the soft sweet music,
which her mother had taught her to make
on an old dulcimer-a sacred relic of her
family.
[ gradually became acquainted with every
thing of interest in the old mansion. My
attention was chiefly engaged by the dulci-
mer and its music, and two pictures that
hung on the walls in Mother Shelby's room.
Often l would leave Charles and Nellie at
play, and go into her room to look at one,
and listen to the other. They wrought a
spell on my childish Imagination. One of
the pictures represented shipwreck. The
waves of the sea were lashed into fury by
hidden breakers; the wrecked vessel was
sinking; and human beings were making
the last struggle before going down to their
coral sepulchres. Under this picture, in
the margin, were these words: s7he sea
hath one.'
The other picture displayed young fe-
male, clad in white sleeping-robe, and ly.
ing on a couch. The linen covering was
folded back, and revealed an arm, neck and
features, of great natural symmetry and beau
ty, but showing too plainly by their haggard-
ness, that Death bad set his seal upon them.
A warm, lustrous, summer day looked in
through an open window. The wan gaze
of the sick maiden rested upon the family
pictured landscape without There was an
expression of deep yearning, love and hope,
mingled with regret, in the eye. Under
this picture were written the simple words /:
SARAH SHELBY
There was something in these pictures,
and the mysterious words beneath them,
that gave an air of plaintive and pathetic
tenderness to the music of the old dulcimer.
They were sacred. They told of the loved
and dead. They were the gateway, through
which Memory went to the land of faded
hopes and crushed affections. They threw
over the room quietude, in which the mu-
sic sounded strangely.
became anxious to solve the mystery.
My sympathy was raised indefinitely; and
it longed for satisfaction. I often stood and
questioned the pictures; but no voice, no
distinct meaning, came in reply. guessed
at the truth, vaguely. Then I would ask
Mother Shelby multitude of questions
about them. She became convinced of my
feelings. She wanted Charles and Nellie
to learn of their kindred. So, one evening
she called US to her side, and gave the de-
sired clue to their secret meaning.
Sarah Shelby was her first child and on
ly daughter. She inherited her mothers
beauty and temperament Besides these, she
exhibited servid love of nature and art,
drawn from the Italian blood which flowed
in her veins. This love intensified her ideal
faculties, and rendered her constitution fra
gile. Her spirit drained the fountains of
health, in its eagerness to seize upon all
shapes of loveliness. Her graceful form,
her fawn-like eyes. her golden tresses, which
she often wore loose and flowing, and the
pervading spiritualness of her countenance,
spoke of 'beauty that languishes into the
tomb
Her nature was in sweetest harmony with
the beauties of creation. From childhood
she loved the garret of the old mansion
There she would 60 and look out, through
the dormer-windows, on the golden wheat
fields in the valley, on the silver Cascade,
and on the blue hills beyond, with a quiet
rapture peculiar to herself. They filled her
with a deep thankfulness for her very ex.
istence Sometimes, when there, she would
hear her mother singing "BEN. BoLT," or
some other quaint old song then she would
melt to tears.
The Spring of lS- ripened into early
Summer, which brought with it Henry
Herbemont, distant relative, to spend a
month or so in the Up-Country. He and
Sarah had never before seen each other; but
from letters interchanged by their parents,