Under golden skies; or, In the new Eldorado; a story of southern life

Front matter

DER GOLDEN SKIE

THE LIBRARY

OF

Dedication

fc

TO

THE "BRAVE AND NOBLE HEROES OF AMERICA,

Chapter I

One, two, — Dr. Leslie paused suddenly in his walk and bent his head in an attitude of rapt at tention, and for a moment listened.

Vaguely, from a distance, away in the direc tion of the quiet Moravian town which nestled twin-like beside its favored sister, rang out in solemn chimes from the old church gable, three, four, five o'clock! — the mellow sound throbbing and receding upon the crisp morning air like a half-heard, elusive strain of melody as it teasingly touched the consciousness, — then lan guished and died away in the restful stillness.

The balmy spring weather was gloriously beau tiful, such as comes to the Old North State in the month of May, and the soft air smelt of the blended fragrance of roses and violets. The heaven was without a cloud, but a pearly white mist loitered in the atmosphere of the upper calm which the rosy radiance of the ascending sun began to lift as it rapidly suffused the eastern horizon.

During the night a gentle rain had fallen, and under the first quivering sunbeams of dawn the waving grasses and tender foliage of the trees and shrubbery took on a deeper brilliancy.

As Dr. Leslie slowly paced back and forth the long veranda of his handsome residence, inhal ing with a sense of the keenest enjoyment the dewy freshness of the early morning, there was no sound as yet astir about the house and prem ises save the echo of his own measured footfall, and the rapturous trill of a mocking bird that swayed himself to and fro on the topmost bough of an ancient oak on the velvety green lawr- ; but low and indistinct at first, then deepening in in tensity every moment, the sound of busy life in creased. To the eastward the shrill whistle of the steam-engine, mellowed by the distance, shortly followed by the sudden clash and clangor of moving trains. Somewhere round the corner a drowsy cock crowed long and mournfully, then another and another took up the friendly chal lenge, answering defiantly and vigorously, while the resonant notes seemed to hang tentatively in the clear fragrant air. Across the way a savagelooking dog, cropped-cared and short of tail, pranced and barked furiously at a stray cat he had nosed prowling suspiciously about his pri vate domain, and when he had rebuked the feline tramp for its intrusion it had fled precipi tately to the top of the gate post, where it sat curling and beating its tail in a tigerish sort of way and glaring angrily down upon its noisy tormentor.

When the town clock sent forth another warn ing the bright, busy city was fairly awake The great factory whistles screamed and shrilled in every direction, and soon the streets were thronged with workmen, clerks and salesmen, gayly jesting and gossipping together as they hurried along toward the scene of their daily

!;isks.

Ere long the noisy clattering and jangle of grocery-, milk wagons and drays added variety to the medley, while above the din rose the harsh discordant clangor of the electric street cars, half filled with passengers, as they whirred and dashed breezily past along their level track.

Dr. Leslie paused when he had reached the end of the veranda where a luxuriant rose- vine clam bered over the roof, to pluck a cluster of the fra grant flowers, and just then a suddenly awak ened wind swayed the heavily freighted branches and flung a shower of golden rose petals at his feet, making yellow stains upon the polished floor.

As he turned to resume his walk, in the full enjoyment of the vivid picture before him, his ear caught the grinding noise of brisk, heavy footsteps coming up the graveled walk. His handsome face beamed with a perfunctory smile as he cast a swift glance in the direction of the sound, and he walked alertly forward to the front of the veranda.

"How are you, Leary? Come in, come in, you are out early, ' ' said the doctor, with the cordial familiarity in tone and manner of an old friend, at the same time extending a plump white hand as his visitor hesitated upon the steps.

" No, thanks; I haven't time really. I just called to see if Carl has decided to go with me to Europe ? He told me he thought he should be able to get off by the time I was ready to leave. ' '

Mr. Leary took off his stiff black hat and leaned against one of the fluted pillars, and ner vously combed his long fingers through his dark hair, which was beginning to show strands of gray.

" Well, yes; that is a matter I want to speak with you about. Come, let us talk it over."

Dr. Leslie stepped quickly into the hall, laid the roses he held in his hand upon the table, and brought out two chairs.

" Carl ran over to the University day before yesterday," he resumed, " to take part with the Glee Club in a concert. What I want to say is this: he is anxious to go abroad, and I've always intended he should as soon as he had finished his studies at the University ; and really I do not know any better opportunity for him to take this trip than now. The president of the University, who takes a great interest in him, has advised him to go by all means, spend the summer trav eling with you on the continent and then enter at Heidelberg or Leipzig. I heartily approve of the plan. We've talked the matter over with his mother aud it meets her approval also."

Mr. Leary listened with a look of pleased sat isfaction, occasionally nodding his head softly, and otherwise manifesting the most vivid inter est. Then he said approvingly :

44 Yes, it seems that one's education can hardly be called complete in this day without an Euro pean excursion as a final touch to the home polish. As soon as my wife found out that I was going abroad, she insisted that I should put off the trip a few weeks until Kate was graduated from the Academy, so they could accompany me. I am glad now that I did so."

'• How soon do you expect to start, and on what steamer?" Dr. Leslie asked.

" That I don't know just now. I am expect ing letters this morning which will influence my decision. I think the Germanic sails about the first of June, and it is more than likely I shall go by that. ' '

Mr. Leary got upon his feet and hastened to say, as he looked at his watch : ' ' But I must be going. Can't you come down, say about ten or eleven o'clock ? and by that time I may be bet ter able to give you my plans and the outlines OL my trip.''

" Yes, I'll be down sometime during the morn ing. Can't promise what hour. But won't you stay and breakfast with me? — be glad to have you." Dr. Leslie had risen, and stood with his hands clasped behind him.

" Thanks — not this morning, I've been to breakfast." They still stood talking in the fash ion common to men -when discussing a subject of mutual interest. Mr. Leary looked at his watch again; " I shall expect you down soon— in the course of an hour or two; good-bye."

He started off at a quick, light pace. Half way down the walk he stopped and called back ; " By the way. have you heard anything from our old friends out in California lately ? I mean Arnold, Glen wood and Talbot ? "

' ' No, not for some time, why ? ' ' Dr. Leslie asked quickly while a sudden change passed over his face. The other hesitated a moment as if debating whether to answer directly. But he only said hurriedly — almost abruptly : ' ; Oh, never mind now. Don't let me forget to give you the last San Francisco papers when you come down."

Dr. Leslie watched his retreating figure until it had passed out of sight. He was satisfied that Mr. Leary had some definite motive for asking him that question, and he could not repress the impulse to wonder what he meant. He tried to shrug away the unaccountable depression that seemed obscurely taking hold of him. From conjectural thoughts his mind easily slipped into pensive reveries, and as his revery deepened, the shadow that drifted across his face evidenced that he suffered.

In this moment of retrospection, he went back as far as the fifties — as remotely as 1859. With out conscious mental effort he recalled minute details that he believed he had entirely forgotten. Tie remembered reading a book some years ago, giving a most glowing account of the richness, beauty and vastness of California, which lauded the country with little regard to accuracy, the object being to start immigration. The book had been the means of inducing his own parents to go to that beautiful Eldorado.

Among the families who had immigrated from North Carolina with Dr. Leslie's parents were the Glen woods, his nearest maternal kin, and the Arnolds, Learys and Talbots, the children of whom were his playfellows. He, himself, was too young to have any recollection of the dim fear of danger attendant on so long a journey, but he had often heard his parents recount their trials, until he felt that he too remembered it all and had shared in their anxieties. But he did recall the feeling of wonder and delight he had experienced on coming back to his native place with his widowed mother and two sisters soon after the civil war, and discovering what a mag nificent country they had left behind to cast their fortunes in a strange land.

Ignorantly, as thousands of others had done before them, they had left a land of splendid and endless possibilities, embracing every variety of scenery, soil, climate and production — from blue mountain peaks and pasture lands, to vast plains and river valleys of bottomless alluvium, teem ing with all the fruits and fabrics of arctic, tem perate and semi-tropical realms — a land that had the finest deciduous trees in the world, the great est variety of flowering plants, so botanists averred, and a larger variety of mineral wealth than any other State in the Union. All this they had left, and for what purpose ?

That they might secure a little more filthy lucre, perhaps more easily and readily, but which fortune;, they would have realized at home had they been content to remain within her borders and seek the knowledge and skill wherewith to develop the boundless resources within their reach.

The tide had turned now — yes, was rapidly turning — and he felt a joyous pride in the fact ; glad, too, that he had come back to labor and die among a people whose creative power, intel ligent enthusiasm and iron-hearted ambition were working out miracles far beyond the most extravagant things that had ever been prophe sied about the Old North State.

Indeed, progress had gone on so quietly and unostentatiously in the latter years, that now the whole country was amazed at the develop ment. Assuredly there was no place between the two oceans equal to North Carolina for in vestment. Gould, Corbin and Vanderbilt had found it out soon, and this had promptly led the van of an immigration from Northern and West ern States, which was now growing apace.

Then, with an intensity of sad feeling, Dr.

Leslie mentally recurred to the career of his father. He had been a man of courage, sagacity and generous instincts, and at his death, which occurred many years ago, his family had come into possession of the handsome fortune which he had accumulated so rapidly, and seemingly, so easily. But his death had been a signal for a, significant change in the future plans of his family.

After so many years of absence they indulged in some misgivings as to whether they should be able to repurchase the old homestead, and it was with pleased surprise that they had found little difficulty in doing so.

Money, as we all know, is a powerful alchem ist; ancl under its transforming touch the old brick mansion of the Leslies, with its imposingfront, impressing one with an air of comfort and homely solidity, literally blossomed as the rose, and to the well- trained eye of the stranger even, it was luminous with intimations as to the real social status of the occupants.

The ringing of the breakfast bell interrupted Dr. Leslie's meditations, and when he entered the bright, pretty room the breakfast was upon the table, but the three occupants had been waiting.

Mrs. Gray son, his widowed sister, a well-pre served woman, gentle and refined in manner, and still wearing the garb of widowhood, though in a modified form, sat by an open window arranging a basket of freshly cut flowers, the sunlight falling upon her sweet, calm face while she talked to Nellie, her little daughter, who was clipping the stems of some of the choicest roses and dressing a tiny vase of her own which stood upon the window-sill. Carl, her son, a hand some young man of not quite twenty-two years, stood beside her, one hand easily resting upon the back of her chair, and in the other he held The Sentinel, a daily paper, from which he had been reading to her a spicy editorial on a mooted question of local interest.

The room, which was large and lofty, had that air of comfort and refinement which bespoke the cultivated taste of the owner, as well as the ap propriateness of its purpose. Everything seemed specially suited to it, from the pretty etchings on the frescoed wall, and a few rare pieces of bric-a-brac scattered about to please the eye, to the white damasked table with its exquisite ser vice of rose-tinted china and resplendent silver.

"Oh, Uncle Ralph, you're late.' exclaimed Nellie whirling around as Dr. Leslie entered the room ; ' ' Mamma rang the breakfast bell twice ; and why didn't you come ? "

' ' I was talking with Mr. Leary when the first bell rang, I suppose, and didn't hear it," Dr. Leslie explained to Mrs. Grayson's glance, and Nellie's good-natured plaint. " I'm sorry I kept you waiting, but I'll try not to do it any more."

" See here, Uncle Ralph, aren't these beauti ful ? — and ugh ! " smelling them — " they are just as sweet as can be! " shouted Nellie, holding up with triumphant glee the flowers she had been arranging.

"Yes, they are as pretty and sweet as little Nell. ' ' he said with a specious brightness, encir cling the tiny waist with one arm, and kissing the dimpled cheek. " But let's have breakfast now, and not keep mamma and Carl waiting any longer. ' '

18 UNDKB GOLDEN SKIES; OR,

" All right, sir." She set the vase upon the table between her own and her uncle's plate, and climbed nimbly up into her baby chair on his right. She scarcely waited for him to finish the blessing before she began again with voluble ani mation.

" Mamma's going to take her flowers to Daisy Nelson, because Daisy says she loves to have flowers about her when she's sick — said she got so tired looking at the dark-papered walls : and the pictures of those old-timey, funny looking men hanging over the mantel looked as if they were making faces at her. I asked her to let me pull them down and burn them up, but she wouldn't do it — she said her mamma would scold us like anything if we did."

" How is the child, Helen ? have you seen her in the last day or two? " Dr. Leslie addressed himself to Mrs. Grayson, who had taken her seat at the head of the table.

" I'm afraid she isn't any better. I was to see her on yesterday. Mrs. Nelson said she had taken no solid food for several days. I don't like her symptoms, and wish you would call to see her to-day if you can."

" Yes, I will," he assented. " But I must see Leary the first thing this morning on some busi - ness, and afterwards I'll call to see the child. I hope yet she may pull through this last attack. "

For a moment he paused, then turned to Carl.

" If you have no special engagement for this morning, I should like yon to go with me to Leary's office. He and I were talking about— But Dr. Leslie was interrupted by a tap on the door.

'What is it. Virgil?"

A servant had entered the room with the morn ing's mail, which he handed to Carl, who sat nearest the door. The letters were all addressed to his uncle except one, which was for himself from a old schoolmate whose familiar hand writing he readily recognized. He handed the magazines to his mother, the letters and papers to his uncle, and then prepared to read his own letter.

" I guess my letters can wait, " said Dr. Leslie, eyeing the budget as he laid it beside his plate and went on with his breakfast.

' ' Uncle Ralph you do get so many letters ! Do you read every single one of them and send an swers to them ? " asked Nellie earnestly, survey ing her uncle's mail.

" Why, yes. my dear, I read them all, but it is not always necessary to answer every one I get. When you are older and learn how to write maybe you'll help me with my correspondence — be a sort of private secretary for me, you know. Many charming women are making an undenia ble success in such a position at present. ' '

" Oh, I'll never be smart enough to write for you, Uncle Ralph. ' ' Nellie paused and was silent for a moment, then she burst out as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to her — something she had never thought of before, but something luminous with possibilities for her uncle.

" Why don't you get married, Uncle Ralph, and then you would have some one to help you to write your letters ? That would be the verv thing."

A warning look and a significant shake of the head from her mother silenced her, while she wondered what she was saying so dreadful that her mother would want her to hush.

Meanwhile Carl had read his letter. With a troubled expression on his face he resumed his breakfast, trying to appear as usual, but failed utterly.

After making a light breakfast he strolled to the window and looked out, then walked back and stood with one arm resting on the mantel.

11 Uncle, I have a letter from Cecil Brian; you remember him I suppose ? ' '

" Brian? Cecil Brian? " Dr. Leslie contracted his eyebrows. '' Yes, I think I do remember the name. ' '

Carl refreshed his memory.

" He is my old friend and classmate, and I in troduced him to }ou at the University Com mencement last summer. He and I were grad uated at the same time. Cecil writes me that he has decided to go to Europe this summer to study Art. He says he wishes t > spend one year in Paris and afterward spend several months visit ing the most famous art galleries in other Euro pean cities. He wants to join Mr. Leary's party, and so writes to know when he expects to go abroad, and all the particulars.

" In about two weeks he will be in Philadel phia, and says if Mr. Leary has decided to leave at about that time, he will join him in Philadel phia and accompany him to New York. Now if I can find out from Mr. Leary to-day, what his plans are, I can write Cecil at once."

" That was my object in asking you to go with me this morning," said his uncle. '* It was to talk this matter over. But I'll run through my mail now, and in about an hour and a half I'll meet you at Mr. Leary's office."

Dr. Leslie curned and began opening his let ters.

Carl still lingered in the room, but he had moved to the window again. In the interval of silence that ensued a shadow had overspread Mrs. Grayson's usually calm face.

Carl stood irresolute for a second's space, then crossed the room to his mother and stooped and kissed her; then suddenly left the room.

" Dear boy; how I shall miss him when he's gone, ' ' Mrs. Grayson said, as if talking to herself.

She sighed softly, took up the magazine and as she turned to quit the room cast a swift glance at her brother, and the expression on his face at once arrested her attention. She stopped abruptly. He was intensely absorbed reading a letter which was closely written on crisp white note paper, and of considerable length.

As he eagerly read on, thrusting the loose sheets between the trellises of his ringers,, an ashy pallor settled on his countenance. He pres ently looked up, and rose, apparently with an effort.

" Helen, come with me into the sitting-room, " he said ; " I have a letter to submit to you, and I wish your advice."

" Certainly, Ralph ; I am sorry too that you've received news that gives you pain," she said very gravely ; then followed her brother to the sitting-room, and when she had entered he handed her a letter which was post- marked San Francisco, and directed in large but not very legible handwriting.

Then he drew a chair near the centre table confronting her, and while waiting for her to read the letter, battled the ground over and over again with the bitter memories of the past.

Chapter II

After Mrs. Grayson had read the letter there came a singular calm. In the last few minutes she appeared to have grown older, her face re flecting the expession of her brother's visage, from which all life seemed to have gone out.

He raised his eyes to her face and saw the ex pression of expectancy upon it.

" I have so much confidence in your judgment, Helen," he began, " that I wish your advice in a matter of such vital importance as this. Ar nold's letter demands a definite and immediate response. ' '

Dr. Leslie's tone was quiet, and in a measure he .had regained that calm superiority of manner which habitually characterized his bearing, but which a momentary weakness had shaken.

Mrs. Grayson stopped and picked up a part of the letter that had slipped to the floor, and when she had lifted her head, her face was suddenly agio ,%• with the new, noble purpose which filled her heart, and became almost radiant as she bravely addressed him.

" Ralph, if you have forgiven Frank Arnold for all the injury and sorrow that his sin and duplicity brought upon you in your early years —forgiven him for robbing you of so much that made life happy and beautiful — forgiven your once trusted and devotedly loved friend for com ing between you and the one woman to whom you had declared your love and hope — and the memory of which still brings mournful shadows to your face — then surely your own heart will dictate to you the best answer to return to a dy ing man's request, when he asks you to take his orphan child under your roof and guardianship, and be to her a counselor and a protector. ' '

She paused and looked into his dark gray eyes, which were misty with tears. She put out her hand and laid it on his. The soft touch of the warm palm seemed to soothe him.

" Thank you Helen," he said. " I fully com prehend what duty requires of me, and your wise reasoning commends itself to my better na ture ; but for a time I was so jarred and stunned by Arnold's unexpected and extraordinary letter that I was quite powerless amidst the ebb and flow of conflicting emotions to determine what course best to pursue. I realize, too, the grave re sponsibility I must ass-ume in becoming the counselor and guardian of Arnold's child."

" Ralph, my sympathies are already deeply enlisted in behalf of this poor child, and I believe that I shall love her very dearly, even if she but be half as lovely as her father has represented. ' '

" How old is she ? I do not remember whether Arnold or Mr. Bently stated."

" Singularly enough her father failed to men tion her age, and so did Mr. Bently, his solicitor who subjoined the postscript on a separate sheet after Mr. Arnold's death,'' said Mrs. Gray son. "• As she is the youngest, and I infer from this letter the only surviving child of three children by his second marriage, presumably she is not more than eight or nine years of age. Mr. Arnold spoke of her as ' Little Ruth ' all through his letter. ' '

She paused a moment, then went on. " It is passing strange to me that he should have called this child for the wife whose fair young life he blighted, and whose proud sensitive heart he so mercilessly broke after one short year of married misery and neglect. ' '

There was a tender vibration in Mrs. Gray son's voice, as if she were trying to suppress unbid den tears.

" When was Arnold's letter written ? "

4k On the 10th, and this is the 18th. Sho?jld Mr. Glenwood and his family leave San Francisco for New York the first week in June, as they purpose doing — so Mr. Bently writes — and if Ruth is to accompany them to the latter city in the event Mr. Bently hears from you favorably before they start, you would better answer his letter by return mail."

The clock on the mantel struck ten. Dr. Leslie rose at once. •' It is useless to wait dinner for me, Helen," he said. " I had hoped to dine with you ana your friends to-day, but I hardly think I shall be able to do so now. I shall go to Leary's office the first thing, for I suspect Carl is waiting for me there, then call to see several patients, and afterward come by Mrs. Nelson's to see Daisy."

Mrs. Grayson made no answer, for her brother crossed the room while he was still talking, passed on to the veranda and called to Virgil to saddle his horse.

It was all plain now, why Leary had asked him about their old friends in California. Doubt less he had seen an account of Arnold's death. He winced as he thought of what his interview with Mr. Leary must inevitably lead to after the matter of Carl's trip had been discussed and arranged, and now he rather shrank from meet ing him — his trusted friend too, so soon after the old wound had been probed.

When he had gone Mrs. Grayson walked to the window and looked vaguely out on the sun shine gold that filtered through the tender leaves and glinted on the rippling wavelets in the basin of the fountain. How lovely it all was ! There seemed nothing to mar the exquisiteness of the perfect scene ; and yet what a depth of anguish there was in her wearied heart.

So vividly came to her as she stood there, the closing lines of ' ' The Tapestry Weavers ' ' — that beautiful poem which on one memorable occa sion she had heard recited with such thrilling pathos by the late Henry W. Grady, of Geor-j gia — the Hero of his nation — one who was so generally admired and so much beloved that to hundreds of thousands throughout the sunny Southland his early death came as a personal be reavement.

She seemed strangely lifted up by the ever lasting Arms of Love as the Angel of peace sooth ingly whispered:

" And when his task is ended, and his web is turned and

strown " He shall hear the voice of the Master. It shall say to

him, 'Well done!' "And the white-winged angels of heaven, to bear him

hence, shall come down ; " And for his wage shall give him, not coin, but a golden

crown."

Nellie's voice broke the silence. At that mo ment she came laughing and romping up the serpentine walk, with a skip and a bound, swing ing her broad-brimmed hat, and Bruce, her large New Foundland dog, racing playfully by her side.

" Where have you been, Nellie ? " asked Mrs. Grayson. " Your slippers are muddy, and your sash all crumpled. Come here and let me ar range it, and then let Julia brush your slippers. "

Mrs. Gray son gently drew Nellie towards her, smoothed out the creased folds of her sash and then fastened it. Then she brushed back some of the straggling strands blown from her flossy curls, which hung like tangled silk over her dim pled shoulders.

Nellie looked down with an apologetical ex pression at her muddy shoes, then round at her mother.