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

SooHy now; dnO Unen, WOaC VIII tHe
flowers and the warm weather, she will
forget by degrees that 1t ism It the South
the poor, homesick darling.
81 only hope she will live till spring."
said Aunt Priscilla.
In some way or other Florida took a
cold at last and had to he kept in bed
several days, the ole aunts towering over
her like so many ravens worried out of
their wits lest Florida were going to
leave them now, and whispering about
it over the fire enough to tease her into
fresh fever. ''I'm not going to die, -
Fhe said, hoarsely, raising on one elbow
and breaking in on a whispered
conversation. ''You know I
couldn't leave my mother. God
wouldn't take me away from
her, and my father, tOo-that is, If he
loves her, and l know he does, for she
says so. I'd just as lief die if it WASH t
for her. 1 don't see what anybody
what Serena-wants to live for in q
country where You re prisoner, if you
do have flowers in the window. I feel as
though 1 must fly! Our roses at home
reached up and lay on the roof of the
house in great mat And then she
choked up and fell back among her pill
lows once more.
1t was not much wonder that Hubby
was superstitious as TO iIl-luck. The first
day Florida came down stairs after her
illness the browning storm of the year
was roaring through the sky and rocking
the house-a terrific March gale, which
Aunt Priscilla made worse by cxclaiming
every few minutes: ''Just think of the
poor sailors out at seal
81 don t want to think of them!''
Fo
at sea once and he never came back -
And then her mother broke into avid fit
of crying, and Florida hung round her
neck with kissing and eXclaiming, and
the crying became uncomfortable, and
her mother had TO go to bed and have hot
camphor and hot-water bottles and rub
bling and soothing. And altogether it
was hard winter for the. poor old aunts,
who had not before come into much con-
tact with violent emotions, as well as for
other people.
Florida was looking ont of the window
dTearily when the storm had cleared
away; she saw only one wide, white ex-
pance, the trees swinging off their loose
snow and their bare stems and sprays
looking as if they had all withered long
ago. ''How can they ever have any
leaves again?'' she cried. 81 don't be-
lieve it. You see, youself, they re dead.
And 1 wonder where your snOwdrop bulbs
are now?'' she said.
''Oh, they're all right, replied Sc
rena. ''You see. -
CAN right!'' said Florida, with more
scorn. ''They can't be. They were
frozen long ago. There's nothing left of
them. Oh, must stay here always! If
my dear father could only come and take
me home. The water is so soft and beau
tiful all round the island, the palmettos
and the orange trees and the Spanish
daggers are all so alive! L don t want to
live if 1 must live here!''
''l' IN sorry you re so homesick, - said
little Serena at last. But [ don It think
you re very good hammered. -
Just then the hired man brought in
some fresh maple-sap that Hubby pro-
ceeded to boil down for them, and Flor
ida, tasting hers from the middle of
dish of snow, confessed that life was
worth living, after all.
But March now was passing away.
The wild rose stems were red; the willow
stems were like flames of fire; the long
days with their strong suns were telling
on the snow; bare ground appeared on
the old burrows in the fields. But when
Florida woke IN the night and saw the
full moonlight streaming over the hills
where still lay shining ice stretches, she
saw also very well, she was sure, that
neither March nor April made any differ
euoe in this frozen world. One day
there was a little tWitter in the air.
''There IS a robin?' cried Huldy, run
ming to the window.
''ApriI fool!' said the hired man,
looking round the laurel bush, whistle
in hand.
''wel, its no Odds" said Hubby.
"There'u be plenty of robins soon.
Look! 1 do believe. There's a blue
bird, Miss Percy, sure's you re borni'
And Florida heard gush of song and
saw flash of azure as she spoke.
What did it mean? she asked herself.
Was it possible that any bird could live
outdoors here? And tho very next morn
ing there was pair of robins pulling at
the string that Miss Susanna had hung
outside the blind fI've read about it
in books,'' said Florida, looking at
them, but 1 never exactly believed it.
The only thing that troubles me is that
mamma has told me, but then she may
be mistaken, for here 1 see with
my own eyes ice and snow, ice and
snow. nothing but ice and snow and bare
dead DOughS. And the more she
thought about it the more nothing could
convince Florida that all the outside
world was not the same thing as dead.
The poor child had been, in fact, so
overpowed at first by the sight of the
frosty world that even after the naked
earth was here and there to be seen,
after Huldy's shoes showed the mud, to
her mind the ice and SNOW still covered
it, and that all the more, as now she
did not look out of the windows much,
the glitter of the snow having so hurt
her unaccustomed eyes that she had
worn a green shade over them and sat
with her face turned from the light for a
week or two.
But inconsistencies is a fixed disease,
and this poor little girl was homesick for
her palm tree, her lemon tree, her broad
galleries, her own netting hung bed, her
lovely sea Dreaming up the gardens
foot, for her home and the life there on
the Southern island, and for her dear
father, whose loss she could not and
would not understand. Indeed, every
once in a while, when they were alone
her mother would start up,
walking the floor and wringing her
hands, and would cry out: ''I don't
believe it! won't I can't! It must be