ST. AUGUSTINE
"Oh, isn't it beautiful!"
"The most gorgeous place I ever saw!"
Alice and Ruth were standing in the doorway of the hotel to which the
moving picture company had been taken. They were looking out into the
ladies' court--into a sun-lit and palm-girded garden, wherein a fountain
played, the water falling with a musical tinkling.
Birds flitted here and there amid the bright flowers, but to the moving
picture girls the palms seemed the most wonderful of all. Such palms!
"I never realized that the great Creator could make anything so
beautiful," murmured Ruth, reverently. "And, Oh! Alice; to think that
_we_ can enjoy it!"
"Yes, isn't it wonderful, after all the storm and stress of the fire, to
be in this lovely, calm place?"
"And the best part of it is that we're getting _paid_ for it!" observed a
voice behind the two girls. They turned, with a start, for they had lost
themselves in a dreaming reverie, to find Russ and Paul smiling at them.
It was Paul who spoke.
"It does seem a shame to take the money under these circumstances," added
Russ, with a laugh.
"It's like a vacation," agreed Alice. "Oh, but isn't it just--just too--"
She was evidently searching for a fitting simile.
"Alice," warned Ruth, gently. She was endeavoring to wean her sister from
the habit of using slang expressions; but Alice always boasted that she
liked to take "short cuts," and that slang--that is, her refined
variety--offered the best method of accomplishing this very desirable
object.
"Oh, I was only just going to say--scrumptious!" laughed the younger
girl. "You don't mind that; do you, sister mine? This is really the most
scrumptiously scrumptious place I've ever seen!"
"I'm afraid you're hopeless," was the smiling retort.
"Well, it's certainly swell--that's my word for it," answered Russ, with
a frank laugh.
Indeed, Mr. Pertell had not spared expense in taking out his moving
picture company. And he had a method in going to one of the largest and
finest hotels in St. Augustine. He intended to stage some scenes of one
of the Southern plays there, and having his actors and actresses right in
the hotel made it much more practical.
"Let's take a walk," proposed Russ. "There's nothing to do to-day."
It was the morning after their arrival and Mr. Pertell was not quite
ready to proceed with making films. The fire aboard the _Tarsus_, and the
necessity of taking another vessel, had rather upset everyone, so a day
or so of rest had been decided upon.
"Where shall we go?" asked Alice, readily falling in with the proposal.
"You'll come, won't you, Ruth?"
"I think so--yes."
"There are lots of places to see," suggested Paul. "This is the oldest
city in the United States. I've got some guide books up in my room, and a
lot of views. We'll pick out some points of interest and visit them."
"We'll have plenty of chance to see the sights," remarked Russ. "I
understand there are to be a number of films made in the city and
vicinity, so you'll probably have to act out around Fort Marion and at
Fort Mantanzas, as well as in the slave market. I'll be with you in a
minute. I just want to get my little hand camera, to make a few
snap-shots."
While waiting for him and Paul to return, the girls slipped up to their
room a minute.
"Just to freshen up," as Alice put it, though really there was no need in
her case, nor on the part of Ruth, either. The day was perfect--like
summer--and the girls, knowing they were coming to the land of the palm
and orange blossom, had brought suitable dresses.
Ruth wore white, with a mere suggestion of trimming in blue, and with her
fair hair and blue eyes she was a picture that made more than one
man--elderly as well as young--turn for a second look.
The darker beauty of Alice was well set off by her dress of light tan
pongee with maroon trimming, and her sparkling brown eyes were dancing
with life, and the love of life, as she came out to join her sister and
the young men.
"Primping, as usual," mocked Russ, but with a laugh that took the sting
out of his words.
"Naturally," agreed Alice, determined not to let him "fuss" her.
They strolled out under the beautiful loggia, through an avenue of palms
and many tropical plants, and breathed deeply of the perfumed air.
"Oh, it is perfect--just perfect!" sighed Ruth. "I think the Garden of
Paradise must have been in Florida."
"There you go!" cried Alice. "First you know you'll want to go off and
live the simple life under a palm tree, with bananas for lunch and
oranges for dinner. And when your--er--your hero--we'll say, comes riding
on that milk-white steed I so despise, you'll be so thin that he won't
know you."
"Thank you!" returned her sister. "But a _svelte_ figure is much to be
desired these days."
"Not that you're getting stout!" declared Alice. "Really it is I who
ought to diet on bananas and--"
"Orange blossoms," finished Paul.
"Thanks," and she bowed gracefully to him.
"Well, Paul, where is it to be--you're the guide?" asked Russ, as they
emerged on King street. "Where's your map?"
"I have it. What do you say we go out to the old city gates, and then to
Fort Marion?"
"Wherever you say," agreed Alice. "It is all new to us."
They soon reached the north bend of St. George street and stood before
the old city gates. These once formed part of the northerly line of
defence of the ancient city.
"Built in 1743," declaimed Alice, as she read from the bronze tablet set
in the masonry by the D.A.R. "My, how long ago that seems; doesn't it?"
"A mere trifle!" replied Russ, airily. "Get together there, and I'll snap
you," he invited. "If you think that's old we'll go to the Fountain of
Youth a little later, and renew our youngness."
"Oh, is that really here?" cried Ruth, with such sudden interest that
they all laughed.
"Yes, my ancient sister, it is," said Alice. "Dost wish to quaff a cup?"
"Merely for the novelty of it--yes," answered Ruth, and she too, laughed.
Her cheeks were the color of bridesmaid roses, and Russ, as he looked at
her, wished--
But there--What's the use of being mean and telling on a good chap?
The pictures taken, they strolled on. At Fort Marion, on the banks of the
Mantanzas River, they found much of interest; but agreed to explore it
more in detail at another time.
"You'll have to be filmed here, anyhow," Russ told the girls. "There's an
important drama, with several scenes, laid here."
"Are we in it?" asked Ruth.
"Yes, the whole company; and Mr. Pertell said he'd have to hire some
supers, too."
By this Russ meant that the manager would have to engage extra persons to
impersonate the unimportant characters in the play, as is often done in
"mob" scenes in the theaters.
"Now for the orange grove, and then--the Fountain of Youth!" cried Paul,
as they came out of the old fort.
"What a delightful combination!" exclaimed Alice.
"Youth--and--orange blossoms!" and she clapped her hands, her eyes
shining.
"Be careful," warned Ruth in a low voice, as the young men went on ahead.
"Why, sister of mine?"
"Don't talk so much of orange blossoms."
"Pooh! I'm not thinking of getting married!"
"Oh, Alice!"
"Well, wasn't that what you meant?"
"Not at all, I only meant--"
"I don't believe you knew what you did mean. Come on, we'll be lost!" and
she caught Ruth by the arm and hurried on after Russ and Paul.