Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-06

mother. went wandering about the house
at night, came looking at her in her
sleep, of which she was wholly con-
scious; the way she elasped her in the
day, as If fearing loss of all that was
left; the gloom and grief every where
about, and she aching in her own heart
and its longing for her father.
Then. too, she became aware in time
of other trouble, although no one told
her about il in so many words. There
was no one now that could attend to her
fathers business in the oocOanut islands
and the orange groves OF which he had
charge; there was no money. either.
And presently she understood. as II still
under that nightmare, that they were TO
go and leave their lovely home and go TO
their fathers aunts, who had sent for
them, and would take care Of them, and
who lived in regions that TO Florida
seemed regions of terror.
Here q great palm tree grew over the
house and hung its mighty plumes In an
intensely blue sky; in the garden the
cape iasmines made the air rich with
their wide, creamy blossoms III their
season, and an orange tree and lemon
tree kept IL sweet the year round; every
wind that stole through the shining
and just now the roses were i'll their sec
ond bloom, snd q long line of them
swung their red beauty between Flori-
d8's eyes and the sea, whose single
roller curled in with soft lights in its
pale green hOllows, at the foot of the
gardens garden, sea, a sky where 1t
was always summer.
And they were going to leave it and go
up into the frozen North She had heard
about that-ths dull skies, the cherries
days, the shivering weather, the frozen
North It seemed to Florida more that
she could bear, and she hid her face in
her mothers lap to hide her tears with
it, 'fThere, - said her mother at last :,
ave mustn't fret any more, darling.
And there ism It any choice about it. IN
is simply necessary. We ought to be
glad to go. We ought to be thankful.
We are going day after tomorrow morn
ing. Besides-we may like 1t. -
''Like it!'' cried Florida, with fresh
tears ''I thought you would sympa-
thize with me, mammal And then the
little mother and Florida cried together,
and a half hour afterwards Florida was
going down the garden with big banana
leaf for her parasol, giving her dear
hooks and corners last survey and say
great pink winged, spOon-bill and white
herons, and 10 the nest of hooking
birds, And her mother found her fast
asleep, with the sunset light pouring over
her, beside her little pet alligator. who
watched her as immoVably as if he had
been cast in IRON
After reaching the mainland they made
the journey by rail. For the mother
could not bear to go by the water on
which Florida 8 father disappeared from
her sight. And Florida was so tired
with jolting in stage coaches and jarrIng
in railway trains that she hardly saw
anything at last but the procession of
faces that went and came as she lay on
the pile of shawls and clo8ks, dizzy and
doing and quite worn out.
One night at length she was helped
from the car and into a covered wagon
and wrapped about with all sorts of
fieecy things. CTS the frozen country :,
l suppose, she muttered dreamily
After another while she found herself in
a lighted room that daZZled her and then
she was conscious of the kind faces and
tender arms of her fathers aunts, and
then she sank among pillows and elder
down quilts, away, away, to land
where it was always sleep.
1t was late in tho forenoon when