Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-10-14
A CURIOUS LEGEND.
BY A TRAVELLER.

For years there stood upon the old 10
rem property, good long distance from tne
kitchen door of the mansion, queer sSone
well. 1t was of carven stone, with gro,
tesque heads and faces on every side, ana
behind it the head and body OF some fiend-
ish-looking thing-a sort of satyrit seem
ed-with such fierce expression in its car
ven eyes that all children were afraid OF 1t.
A rustic shed covered the we'll. Ivy crept
over it, and half hid the stone face. AND
it was certainly a veIy picturesque object
There had never been either windlass OF
sweep only a chain fastened to the rool
of the she'd, to which the bucket was at
tached but the water was always so hlgr
that it was very easy to draw it IN thii
way.
In connection with this well, however,
something very remarkable had occurred
In the year 1914, when the house was frs
occupied by the family, a young girl
Kathrine Doren by name, the youngest
daughter of the house, had gone to the
we'll in the edge of the evening to fill pail
She never returned. Her friends went il
search of her, and found the pail on the
wells curb
1t was thought at first that she was
drowned, but this was not the case. How
ever, she was never seen again. Hel
friends fanced she had been murdered
strangers believed that she had eloped with
some lover; but no one ever knew what
had become of Kathrine Doren.
Meanwhile, her niece, child at the
time, grew up, married, and had daugh
ter, whom she named Kathrine, after hel
lost aunt.
Forty years from the day on which the
first Kathrine had disappeared, this Sc
cond Kathrine, then seventeen years old,
went in the cleaning of an autumn day to
the stone we'll to fill china pitcher
Again the same thing happened; the
pitcher was found on the we'll curb, and
Kathrine was never seen again. The whole
country was secured; posters were pasted
up in every town, advertisements inserted
in every paper; but the mother died OF
grief without having heard any tidings Of
her daughter
Since then in every generation. the same
thing had happened. Seven girls had gone
to the well for water and never been seer
since, and, strangely enough, each had been
named Kathrine.
Yet so skeptical are the people of to- day.
that no one really believed all that was
said and it was thought in the ne1ghbor
hood that the Dorens were a race given to
elopement, and that the girls took advan-
tage of the legend of the we'll.
In the year 1914 the old house was a
crumbling edifce, that rocked in the wind
when it blew strongly and the widow OF
the last Doren, to whom it fell on the death
of her husbands father, hesitated about
taking up her abode there; but she was
poor and really had little choice. So to
h. o1I cIxo
daughter, Kathrine-a girl Of eighteen,
blue. eyed, golden-haired and bonny.
The widow had heard the story
of the disappearance Of the girls, but
had scarcely believed it, and had never re-
in utter ignorance of it, and of the WE'LL
beauties at every turn, and at last actually
danced with delight before. the old stone
well.
Like well in an old fairy story, nam
ma" she ex claimed as she described it
ut makes me feel as though we really
ought to find an old castle somewhere to
match it. Just the well for trysting-
place"
eff remember rightly it has been an
unlucky well enough for the Doren wo-
men," said the widow.
"Tell me the story mother" cried Kath-
rine.
"No; idle tales like that are best untold, -
said the widow. s.No doubt it is yerv good
cold water: but VIXEN YOU meet your sweet
heart, hope it won't be at the veil. but
under your mothers ewes in the house
here"
Kathrine laughed.
"The sweetheart must come first.'' she
said and began to help her mother TO do
the housevork.
But she kept thinking of the we'll; and
that evening, at dark. she took from the
shelf in the kitchen pitcher, quaint as
the house itself and without saving anv.
thing to her mother. ran down the garden
path. It was two hundred wears from the
day on which her ancestress, the first lost
Kathrine, had thus gone to tho old stone
well-two hundred years to the day aud
the hour. if this, the eighth Kathrine. had
but known it. But she did not
She tripped along to the well. swinging
the old blue pitcher in her hand She
reached it. and bent over the curb. A dim
reflection of her own face greeted her
Chow high the water is !'' she said ssJ
can reach it with the pitcher" and bent
lower still.
But, failing to reach the water, she set
the pitcher on the curb, and caught the
chain which Ecld the bucket.
On the instant it seemed to her that tbe
stone satyr behind the fountain dsrted his
his head forward and rolled his great ewes,
and at the same instant great hands seized
her arms and dragged her downwards.
The poor girl struggled and tried to
scream. The water was in her eyes her
ears and her mouth; the blood rushed to
her head. Still the great hands held her.
until suddenly she found herself leaving the
water. She stood in great cave of White
stone. with stalactites hanging from the
roof: and the thing that held her she conld
not see, for it was behind her.
The stalactitss glittered like diamonds
they draped the entrance to anothar cave.
This. however. as she was still nushed for.
ward. she saw to be gorgeous with n5arls
and opals and sea gems Of all sorts. In its
midst. under q Sparkling canopv. Law ?
beautiful young being, like man, but
more radiant. more splendid-a man whose
ewes were Jewels, whose teeth were pearl.
whose lips were coral. He looked at her