At last it was finished and ready for delivery, and we awaited the
coming of Captain Charley. My brother watched the boats come in and
after the third day of watching he was rewarded by seeing the craft
moving slowly up the slough, heavily laden with lumber and bags of
potatoes and other articles needed in the market and for building.
When the vessel was made fast to the dock Brother George came home and
reported, and we were all excitement to know if it was to be a
reality or a joke in regard to the flag. Next noon brother went down
and when he saw the captain he went to him and told him that the flag
he had ordered was finished, and it was a beauty, too. "All right,"
said the captain, "let me see the flag and I'll be on hand with the
gold in an hour." The flag was opened in the cabin of the craft and
when the captain saw the beautifully finished flag he had no words to
express himself. He just gazed upon it like a child with a new toy. At
last he turned to his sideboard and took from it two decanter stands
with bands of silver two inches high and heavily wrought edge on the
bottoms of the finest polished wood and in the center a silver deer's
head, with the name of the vessel in silver. He soon wrapped these
beautiful stands up and handed them to my brother, besides the
fifty-dollar slug. He sent them as a compliment to the young lady of
fifteen years who could make a flag of this sort with such exquisite
neatness. When brother returned it was our turn to be astonished to
see these beautiful decanter stands, fit to grace the sideboard of any
mansion in the land, and they were mine, and also the slug which
brother tossed into my lap. When I saw it I could not believe my eyes.
It looked as big as a cart wheel to me, for I never possessed so much
money in all my life before. You can readily believe it was a ten
days' wonder.
[Illustration: Bear flag made by Maggie R. Kroh (Mrs. Blake-Alverson),
1852, for a Sacramento river schooner, the first flag used at that
time. Compensation was a fifty-dollar gold slug.]
We had moved into our new home on San Joaquin street and the cost had
been great. To have a house in those days was a luxury and it was
always the rule of our family not to owe anything that could be paid.
We all worked toward that end, so when everything was paid there was
not so much income as of old. Following the hardships of crossing the
plains, father was never himself again, and we felt that he had earned
his rest after all these years of church work and mission-building
from one state to another. He had got so far away from the Eastern
Board of Missions and had always been such a tower of strength in all
his work that they neglected him and he felt it, in spite of all his
tenderness of heart towards the church and humanity. He gradually
failed and gave up all work and contented himself in his garden, shop
and library.
My sister Mary was always my guide in everything. For a few days I
kept my precious slug and looked at it and thought how much money it
was. One evening I heard father and mother talking together after they
had retired. The door of our sleeping apartments were always open into
the hall, in case of sickness or accident, and for some reason I could
not go to sleep. As I lay there I heard father and mother planning
some problem. I could not hear all, but I understood there was some
money needed. In the morning, after all the work was done and I was
sitting by my sister's side sewing with her, I told her what I had
heard before I went to sleep. "Yes," she said, "Father has still
something to pay and he feels he cannot take any more from the family
allowance, for there are so many of us." "Oh," I replied, "He can have
my slug. I wonder why he did not tell me he needed it." I soon had the
precious money in my hand and sister and I found a box to put it into.
The following little letter had to go with it: "My dear father and
mother: I am so glad I was able, with my sister Mary's help, to make
the pretty flag and so get this fine piece of gold to help pay on the
dear home which Mary, Jane, Sallie and I helped to buy for you with
the day's work with our boarders. It was a happy and cheerful task to
help you in building the first dwelling house in our dear Stockton.
Now it will all be yours as long as you live. I willingly give you my
flag money, so you will not have to fret any more over the debt of
the house. Always, your laughing, happy girl, Rosana Margaret."
The box and letter were put at father's place on the dinner table and
after he was seated he noticed it. Putting on his glasses he said,
"Children, what have we here. It is not my birthday." Not a word was
said while he read the letter, then he opened the box and saw the
bright golden slug. He laid down his glasses and looked over at me and
said, "So Rosana Margaret, it was by your cheerful handiwork that the
last burden has been lifted." I quietly lifted up my face and said,
"Father, Tilly helped me and we are glad you won't have to trouble any
more." He then lifted up his hands and said, "Let us ask God's
blessing." If prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or
unexpressed, then I think the offering on Abel's altar was not more
acceptable before the Lord than was the prayer of my most reverent
father as he prayed for a blessing on his family, far from the scenes
of his early life and all that went to make him happy when he and
mother went hand in hand out into God's vineyard to do God's work, he
as an ordained man of God and she an ideal minister's wife who never
faltered in her duty through the roughest pioneer days in the swamps
of Illinois to the last journey to California to build up the Church
of God even here in the farthest west by the Golden Gate. All that was
mortal of these two faithful pilgrims rests in the new cemetery in
Stockton, always united in life and in death were not divided:
"What's this that steals, that steals upon my breath,
Is it death? is it death?
If this be death, I soon shall be
From every sin and sorrow free.
I shall the King of Glory see,
All is well, all is well."
(Father and mother's last hymn.)