Elsie and Her Loved Ones

by Martha Finley

  CHAPTER III

  DR. TRAVILLA, coming out the next morning upon that part of the gallerywhere their party had spent the previous evening, found Mr. Lilburn andthe captain pacing to and fro, chatting and laughing as if enjoyingtheir promenade.

  “You see we are ahead of you, Harold,” said the captain, when morninggreetings had been exchanged.

  “Yes; very much?” asked Harold.

  “Enough for a stroll around this great building to note its size andarchitectural features. ’Tis an immense pile and well arranged forcomfort and convenience.”

  “And in a delightful situation,” supplemented Mr. Lilburn.

  “I agree with you both and am entirely willing to spend some days orweeks in it if you wish,” returned Harold; “provided the situationagrees with my patients, as I hope and expect it will,” he added.

  Just then Lucilla, Evelyn and Grace added themselves to the littlegroup, and pleasant morning greetings were exchanged, the captainbestowing a fatherly caress upon each daughter—Evelyn being asaffectionately greeted as either of the other two.

  A few moments later they were joined by the rest of their party, andall descended together to the dining-room to partake of an excellentbreakfast. Soon after leaving the table they were out for the day’ssight-seeing and adventures. They visited parks, gardens, a museum, anostrich farm, and a number of other attractive places, then took a finedrive along the beach, returning in time for the evening meal at theirpleasant house of entertainment.

  So delightful did they find Hotel del Coronado that they lingered therefor a week.

  Then they left it for San Diego, which they found wonderfullybeautiful, with one of the finest harbors in the world. It wasdelightful to sit and gaze upon the blue, sunlit bay, and breathe thedelicious sea breeze.

  Then there were most enjoyable drives to be taken, visiting variousattractive spots within a few miles’ distance.

  One day they drove to Lakeside, twenty-two miles away, where they atea good dinner at the hotel, then wandered across the mesa in its rear,and had a lovely view of its little lake.

  Another day they drove into the Monte, a large park of a thousandacres. There were great trees—elders, willows, sycamores and live-oakswith enormous trunks, with plenty of flowers underneath them and uponthe rocks, wild peonies, with variegated leaves, wild galiardia, tinystarry white flowers, pretty forget-me-nots, and others too numerous tomention. Many kinds of beautiful ferns, also.

  There seemed to be a different drive for every day in the week, allbeautiful and enjoyable. So a week passed most pleasantly, thenthey took the Surf line from San Diego to Los Angeles. It was aseventy-mile ride, but with so much that was interesting to see andgaze upon, and such delicious air to breathe, that it did not seem along or wearisome trip. There was the great ocean, with its curling,sparkling waves, and seals and porpoises frolicking in the water, gullscircling above them, and from the ground flocks of birds starting upin affright at the approach of the train. Then when the train carriedthem away from the view of the ocean there were the wonderful groves ofgreat trees, carpets of wild flowers, and the towns of Santa Ana andAnaheim.

  “What is the name of the place we are going to, papa?” asked Ned, asthey drew near the end of their short journey.

  “’Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles,” replied the captain, gravelyenough but with a gleam of fun in his eye.

  “What a long name!” cried Ned. “I should think they would have to makeit shorter sometimes when they’re in a hurry.”

  “Yes, sometimes it is called ‘The City of the Angels,’ but even thatis too long; so it commonly goes by name of Los Angeles.”

  “Oh, that’s better,” said Ned; “just a long enough name, I think.”

  They found Los Angeles a handsome city, environed by gardens filledwith beautiful flowers. They spent a few days there, then went onto Pasadena, nine miles from Los Angeles, hearing that it was eighthundred feet higher and the air much drier; information which drew fromDr. Harold the opinion that it would be much more beneficial for hisinvalids.

  They found it a very Eden-like place, situated in the beautiful SanGabriel Valley, and at the foot of the Sierra Madre range of mountains.

  “Pasadena, ‘the Crown of the Valley,’” murmured Grandma Elsiedelightedly, from the carriage window, as they drove to their hotel.

  “It looks a veritable paradise,” said Violet; “it reminds me of adescription of Pasadena I heard given by a lady at the Hotel delCoronado. She said one would find plenty of flowers in bloom, but atthe same time you would need to wear flannels and sealskin sacks; therewould be snow-capped mountains and orange blossoms; the trees are greenall the year and you go outdoors in December to get warm; where ratsbuild in the trees and squirrels live in the ground with owls.”

  “And where the boys climb up hill on burros and slide down hills onwheels,” laughed Grace. “I hope we shall see some of those funny thingsand doings.”

  “I hope we shall,” said Lucilla, “and I particularly want to see thehedges of calla-lilies, geraniums and heliotrope.”

  “Well, I think we are likely to stay long enough for you all to seewhatever there is to be seen,” said the captain.

  “Yes, I am glad we don’t have to hurry away,” remarked Grace in ablithe and cheery tone.

  “As we all are, I think,” said Grandma Elsie. “I don’t know who couldfail to desire to stay awhile in so lovely a place as this.”

  “And we will have nothing to call us away until we are all ready togo,” said Captain Raymond.

  But their arrival at their house of entertainment now brought theconversation to a close.

  They found Pasadena so charming that they lingered there week afterweek. The town was beautiful, protected on three sides by mountainranges and surrounded by groves and gardens, trees and hedges. Therewere roses clambering to the tops of houses and covered by tens ofthousands of blossoms, and there were passion vines completely coveringthe arbors. There were hedges made of the honeysuckle, the pomegraniteand the heliotrope. Marengo Avenue they found lined on both sides bythe beautiful pepper tree.

  There is a fine hotel called The Raymond, but it was closed at thistime; so that our friends, though attracted by the name, could seeonly the grounds and the outside of the buildings. It is set upon ahill commanding a fine view, and in the winter season is filled tooverflowing, but it is always closed in April. They found the hill onwhich it stands an excellent point of view of the country, and itselfa mountain of bloom, color and fragrance; and it was evident that theviews from the windows and broad verandas—views of orchards, gardens,pretty villas, purple foothills and snowy ranges, must be fine indeed.

  “What a beautiful place it is,” exclaimed little Elsie when they hadgone about the house, viewing it and grounds from side to side. “I wishit was open so we could stay here. Papa, it has our name; are the folkswho own it related to us?”

  “I don’t know, daughter, but I hardly think so; it is not an uncommonname,” replied the captain.

  “It’s a good name; I don’t want any better,” said Ned sturdily.

  “I’m glad you are satisfied, and I hope you will never do anythingto disgrace it,” said his father, with a gratified smile and anaffectionate pat of the small hand which happened to be held in his atthe moment.

  Our party found a great deal to interest them in and about Pasadena.There were the fine hotels, the pleasant boarding houses, the PublicLibrary in the town, and three miles away the old mission of SanGabriel. They made various trips in the vicinity of the town—to Mt.San Antonio, ten miles away, but none too far for a little trip, theythought; also to Mt. San Jacinto, whose height is twelve thousand feetabove the Pacific.

  Our friends found Pasadena so delightful that they lingered there forsome weeks. Then they passed on in a southerly direction till theyreached the lovely city of Santa Barbara, where they lingered stilllonger, finding the place itself wonderfully attractive and the manydrives in the vicinity delightful. They found th
at there were as manyas twenty-eight distinct and beautiful drives, and almost every daythey tried one or more of them. They greatly enjoyed the scenery—themountains, the valleys, the beautiful villas, with their trees,shrubs, vines and flowers, one grape-vine in especial with a trunkeight inches in diameter, with foliage covering ten thousand squarefeet, and which they were told yielded in one year twelve thousandpounds of grapes.

  Another drive took them to the lighthouse, where from the balconythere was a fine view of the fields below, the blue sea beyond them,and the blue sky overhead. There was hardly anything which the ladiesof our party and little Elsie enjoyed more than the sight of the vastprofusion of roses—hundreds of varieties and vines covering many feetof arbor or veranda.

  Santa Barbara proved a place hard to leave, and they lingered there fora number of weeks, all of them—especially those who had been on theinvalid list-feeling that they were constantly gaining in health andstrength. News from their homes was favorable to their stay; everythingseemed to be going on very well without them; so they yielded to thefascinations of this Western fairy land and lingered weeks longer thanthey had intended when they came.

  The summer was nearly over; they began to think it time to be on themove toward home, and after a little talk on the subject decided tostart the next day, go on to San Francisco, tarry there a few days,then travel eastward to their homes.

  Evelyn was the most eager for the start; it seemed so long since shehad last seen her young husband, and they were hoping he might get afurlough and spend some weeks with her at Crag Cottage, their prettyhome on the Hudson.

  They tarried in San Francisco long enough to acquaint themselves withall its beauties, then wended their way eastward as fast as the carscould carry them. They felt it still too early in the season for animmediate return to their southern homes, but they scattered to variousplaces in the north-some to visit relatives, some to the seaside, whileseveral accepted an invitation from Evelyn to spend some weeks at CragCottage. She knew that her aunt, Elsie Leland, was already there, andhad everything in order for their reception. Grandma Elsie, Dr. HaroldTravilla, Grace Raymond and her sister, Lucilla, were the others whoaccepted the invitation. But Captain Raymond, Violet and their twoyounger children expected to visit for some weeks one of Long Island’sseaside resorts.

  Max had written to Evelyn that he hoped for a furlough that wouldenable him to join her at their cottage and spend with her the fewweeks she would care to stay there; and she was looking forward to thatreunion with eager delight, while journeying from far-off California tothe home of her childhood.

  “Father and Mamma Vi,” she said to them as they journeyed through theState of New York, “stop with me at Crag Cottage and make at leasta little visit there. I think you will see Max if you do. I have afeeling that he will be there to meet us on our arrival.”

  “Thank you, daughter,” returned Captain Raymond, with a look ofpleasure, “I shall be happy to accept your invitation if it suits mywife to do so. What do you say, Violet, my dear?”

  “That I accept gladly! I shall be pleased to see both Max and thepretty cottage; as well as to be Eva’s guest for a few days.”

  “And what will Elsie and I do?” asked Ned, with a roguish look. “Go onto the seashore by ourselves?”

  “No, little brother, we wouldn’t any of us be willing to trust you todo that,” laughed Evelyn, “and large as you are, I think the cottagecan be made to hold you two in addition to the others.”

  “Oh, good! I’m glad of that, for I always enjoy a visit to CragCottage,” cried Ned, clapping his hands in glee.

  “And I hope you will be often there visiting your brother and sister,”said Evelyn, smiling affectionately and patting the hand he had laidupon the arm of her seat.

  Her invitation was not extended to other members of the party, astheir plans were already made. Mr. and Mrs. Lilburn had already leftthem to visit their relatives at Pleasant Plains, and Mr. and Mrs.Horace Dinsmore had announced their intention of visiting theirs in theneighborhood of Philadelphia.

  “We will reach New York presently,” remarked the captain, after alittle, “and there we will leave the train and go aboard the Dolphin,if, as I have every reason to expect, she is lying at the dock there;and we can all journey up to Crag Cottage in her.”

  “Which will be a pleasant change from travelling on land in a car,”remarked Lucilla.

  “You will go with us, will you not, Chester?” asked Evelyn.

  “Thank you,” he returned heartily; “I must leave my wife with youand hurry on home to attend to some professional matters that I haveneglected too long in my desire to fully recover my health.”

  “Be careful that you don’t lose it again,” said Dr. Travilla, warningly.

  “Oh, yes, for your wife’s sake be careful,” urged Lucilla, a look ofanxiety on her usually bright, happy face.

  “You may trust me for that, I think,” Chester returned laughingly.A few hours later they reached New York, and as they left the trainEvelyn was overjoyed to find herself in her husband’s arms. Hisfurlough had been granted. He had already been aboard the Dolphin andwas able to assure them that everything there and at Crag Cottage wasin order for their reception.

  They had already bade good-by to Mr. and Mrs. Horace Dinsmore, whowere going on at once to Philadelphia, Chester with them as far asthat city, so the party for the Dolphin went aboard of her without anyunnecessary delay, and immediately journeyed in her up to their desiredhaven.

  It was a short voyage, made doubly pleasant by the happy reunion ofnear and dear ones, for it was a great joy to Max to have his wifeagain by his side, and father, young stepmother, sisters and brotherclose at hand; all showing delight in the reunion and great affectionfor him. The presence of Grandma Elsie and her son, the good andlovable physician, was no drawback upon the felicity of any one of them.

  And a most joyous and affectionate greeting awaited them all onreaching their destination, Mr. and Mrs. Leland and their sons anddaughters evidently delighted at their arrival; a natural consequenceof the many ties of kinship existing among them.

  Mrs. Leland had done her part well; she had capable servants under her,the house was in beautiful order, and the table well served. Severaldays passed most delightfully, mostly on shore, though some littletrips were taken in the yacht. Then the Raymonds began to talk ofleaving, but were urged to stay on a little longer.