Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-02-17

]
The old woman sat down upon the
stone sill, and wiped the perspiration
from her brow.
We've run risk" she said; eff we'd
ha' fingered another half hour 'twould
| ha been the last O. us. No one ever lives
| as once sets eyes upon the bride. One
man was foolhardy enough to try it long
ago; he waited and watched to see the
bride come, and he was never heard of
again"
She must be a terrible bride, them"
| answered, sitting down beside her;
won't you tell me about her? Tell me
! the story from beginning to end. There
| is story, isn't there?"
"Oh, yes, I've told it hundreds O. times
in my day. Listen, and you shall hear it.
| 1t all happened centuries ago, when the
| old church yonder was just a building.
"A great gentleman come across the
sea from England-Lord Stewart by
| name. He lived in a great house down
among the hills below there, and had no
end O. servants, and dishes O. gold and
silver to eat out of, and fine carriages to
est lady in the whole country, and the
handsomest. She had skin like the
snow, and cheeks like primroses, and
| eyes like stars, and she wore gowns O.
the finest silk ever wove
well, Lord Stewart meant to marry
her to some great man who was to come
| across from England; but the Lady
| Beatrice, that was her name, what
should she do but fall in love with the
head architect, who was building the old
church down yonder
He was fine young fellow, but he
| come O the people, and wasn't over rich,
and he daren't show himself at Lord
Stewards great house; so every evening
at twilight the Lady Beatrice she comes
down to the church to meet him, and
they walks up and down, talking O
their love, till the midnight stars were
a shining overhead.
Lord Stewart he knows nothing
about it, and he sends to England for the
fine gentleman to come over and marry
his daughter. And he comes, and puts
| a glittering ring on Lady Beatrice's fin
ger, and the wedding day is fixed, and the
| wedding finery making up-white silks
and satins, and laces, such as never was
seen afore under the sun.
"And Lady Beatrice is afraid to say a
word, but she goes on meeting her lover.
Every evening at twilight she goes down
to the church, and if he isn't there she
falls to singing in her soft, sweet voice,
md ha hn,.
walk up and down together.
But at last the wedding day comes,
and the wedding feast is cooked, and all
the grand wedding guests invited. And
the wedding finery is all in readiness,
and Lord Stewart commands his daugh-
ter to get ready for the marriage. And
she dare not disobey, or open her mouth
to tell him word about the man she
loves. So she sits white and still like
ghost, while they robe her in the white
silks and laces, and jewels, and then
they lead her down the great stairway,
and put her in the waiting carriage, and
the grand wedding party drives down to
the new church. They are to be married
there, the very first marriage before the
new altar.
"A groom gallops ahead, to bid the
head architect have the bells in readi-
ness to ring for the wedding, and he goes
up on the dizzy steeple, in great hurry,
to see for himself that all is right. He
has heard nothing Of the marriage, and
has no dream that Lady Beatrice is to be
the bride.
ho
the grand party comes dashing up, and
he sees Lady Beatrice come walking up
the steps, all in her white silks and laces,
with her white veil flowing to her feet,
and she a leaning on the arm of the fine
English gentleman. All in a minute it
flashes through his mind, what Is a going
to be-that Lady Beatrice has played
him false, and has come to church to be
made another mans bride.
'He grows blind and sick, and reels
where he stands, and presently he falls
headlong down from the dizzy steeple
He strikes the f1agstones in the court
yard, right at Lady Beatrice's feet, as she
comes sweeping up on her bridegroom's
arm.
falls on her knees beside him, with an
awful cry. The blood stains her white
marriage robes, and the white roses in
her hair fall out, and lay dabbled in a
pool of red blood.
"They raise her up, and carry her off,
but the wedding does not go on, for the
poor lady lies in swoon, and that night
she dies, calling on her dead lovers
name.
''The next day, when the men came to
wash away the bloodstains from the
flagstones where the poor architect fell,
they find that Lady Beatrice's bridal
roses have taken root, and are growing
betwixt the flagstones in the COURTYARD
and instead of being white, they are
blood red
That's the story of the brides roses!
And for hundreds and hundreds of years
they have grown and bloomed in that
same spot; and every night, as surely as
the dark falls, the poor, broken-heart
lady comes singing, with her white
laces, and her long marriage veil a trail
ing and rustling, and she stoops down
and gathers the red roses; but when the
next morning comes they are blooming
again as fresh as ever. Winter or sum-
mer the brides roses never fail. "-Peo-
pies Home Journal.
because my eyes are nearer to the ham
mer than my ears