The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-07-28
AWAY DOWN SOUTH.


4 letter bearing that citys pust-uErk.
have not forgotten how Florida always seeIn-
ed 10 you 10 be a nineteenth century fairy
land, and when Madame Murbiaz asked me
if | could tell her where 10 get IL goeerness
for her two motheriess little granddaughter
| told her Of yon she wants you to come
al once. carlos, her son, will write you, but
| wished TO prepare the way for him. They
live in u picturesque old spanish house five
miles up the 81. Johns river, on geza-Iike
Wild Rose Island; the house is two eentu-
ries old, and well worth seeing. You must
come"
Zoe was eager to goa once. bat her parents
demurred she was their only daughter, and
they thought she could not be spared how
ever, being an American girl, she soon gain
ed her point, and started for the South. She
had never travelled alone, and her journey
from her Ohio home To our oldest city, SEEM
eli long. indeed, TO think of. But you know
how more than willing our travelling publici is
TO give all aid to pretty young girls, and the
trip was delightful. " How like a yeritable
city in Spain 81. Augustine is" she said AZ
Lou and Fred took her to their picturesque
old home in narrow, old-tinIed Treasury
street.
"A walk through some parts of it i very
like looking al ~ many pictured pages Of
slanisiI-Amerioan history Fred Forest
said. " But the picturesque old houses, with
their scraggy yerandas and latticed windows,
are nicer To- sketch than to live in Lou
said. Sine hated disorder. How very mar
row this street Is, Doe said, as several foot
passengers received q shower both Of mud
and water from their carriage wheels the
second story p~orticoes almost meet | really
think two persons might clasp hands over ii"
= Indeed they can 1t was meant TOR peo-
pie, not horSeS. When it was first made no
nurses foot was allowed To step inside the
city streets.
Fred SAW Zoe was charmed with their
quaint. low, ~mueh-Porticoed little house.
Around it was an Old walled garden, well
shaded by orange, lemon, and palmetto trees,
and fragrant with flowers. They were all
sitting here that evening when IA tall, dark,
handsome young man tame down the long,
wood walk. lie was Defurtroy after ex-
changing greetings, he asked when Miss VII
Dur was expected. she set NO definite time
when she wrote me.
am Miss Wilbur, Zoe said.
He looked at her pretty, ryyoung looking
face, and gasred, = impossible.
Allow me to contradict you, | an Miss
Wilbur, she said, the pretty wild rose bloom
coming and going in the dimplei cheek.
Pardon me, he said, humbly, thought
you looked too young 10 be the person Fred
has been telling me about.
Zoe was eighteen, but her life had been
one long summer time of play and pleasure.
and the years that had brought her no pain
or trouble, left her no worry or care. She
SEEMED a child.
You shall not leave here for several days
yet Lou sad she must see Il little OF the
city first.
You can keep her if you ike Us, to-, he
sal d, with his grave smile the girls and
mother are sleeping | viii bring them here,
if may.
DO, said Lou " nothing could be nicer"
Fred added his invitation, and Deturtroy
went to hunt his family.
The Forests and Deturtroy often made such
Informal visits.
Why did her foreiat hers build ~ far away
from their old city walls and watch towers ?
Here would have been a safer place in those
times"
The man who built Wild Rose plantation
house was married 20 a little Hougonot his
naughty kinspeople hated the pretty little
French heretic, and made her ~ miserable
her husband went 70 Wild Rose Island. that
she might have some peace. This man : son
married a pretty Indian maiden. but two or
tnree years afterwards she WIS ound dead
where Madame's rose garden nov Is. over
the almost two centuries that have gone 10y
since then. only three Spanish brides have
entered the old house"
Then there Is a chance for one. Zoesaid
laughingly.
No, there is not though Carlos i not
married, le j. mol free you must moi think
twiee about the handsome dark-eyed Span
lard
l. he engaged Zoe asked.
Z" Yes. and has been for twenty years.
Twenty years If he Is old enough for
that, the unknown Is welcome To him /
have no wish To marry my great GRANDPA
TIERS elder brother, said Zoe.
" He is thirty" said Lou
Then he was engaged when he was ten =
Ye; you SET there were families Of
Deturtroy in ~. Augustine when Florida be-
came L. ;. property, fifty years ago one
family went To Cubd when the stars and
stripes came into the city. They still live there
and are very poor. and also very proud OF
their pure Spanish blood-the Wild Rose Is
folks are wealthy, but in their veins is a
of French. English and indian
blood. Then, when lnez was two and Cortos
the Deturtroy father met and betrothed
them. You see Inez has the blue blood, and
Deturtroy the money" Why does lac not
Inez Is twenty-five, and you know
a Spaniard says a woman ought 10 die at ."
said.
He Is far more interested in the develop
ment Of the South's vast mineral wealth than
be is in matrimony. though Inez Is superbly
handsome, said Lou.
Hush, There are the Deturtroy, said
Fred. Speak of his Satanic majesty, and
you are sure to smell br imstone."
Does winning ways and unaffected man
ner pleased Madame very much Then her
Of b~lu-Ling 50 pretty when spoken 30,
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