TOLD IN LETTERS.
_Extracts from Polly Oliver's Correspondence._
SAN FRANCISCO, November 1, 188--.
DEAR MARGERY,--I have been able to write you only scraps of notes
heretofore, but now that we are quite settled I can tell you about our
new home. We were at a hotel for a week, as long as I, the family
banker, felt that we could, afford it. At the end of that time, by
walking the streets from morning till night, looking at every house
with a sign "To Let" on it, and taking mamma to see only the desirable
ones, we found a humble spot to lay our heads. It is a tiny upper
flat, which we rent for thirty dollars a month. The landlady calls it
furnished, but she has an imagination which takes even higher flights
than mine. Still, with the help of the pretty things we brought with
us, we are very cosy and comfortable. There is a tiny parlor, which,
with our Santa Barbara draperies, table-covers, afternoon tea-table,
grasses, and books, looks like a corner of the dear home sitting-room.
Out of this parlor is a sunny bedroom with two single brass bedsteads,
and space enough to spare for mamma's rocking-chair in front of a
window that looks out on the Golden Gate. The dining-room just holds,
by a squeeze, the extension-table and four chairs; and the dot of a
kitchen, with an enchanting gas-stove, completes the suite.
We are dining at a restaurant a short distance off, at present, and I
cook the breakfasts and luncheons; but on Monday, as mamma is so well,
I begin school from nine to twelve each day under a special
arrangement, and we are to have a little Chinese boy who will assist in
the work and go home at night to sleep. His wages will be eight
dollars a month, and the washing probably four dollars more. This,
with the rent, takes forty-two dollars from our eighty-five, and it
remains to be seen whether it is too much. I shall walk one way to
school, although it is sixteen squares and all up and down hill. . . .
The rains thus far have been mostly in the night, and we have lovely
days. Mamma and I take long rides on the cable-cars in the afternoon,
and stay out at the Cliff House on the rocks every pleasant Saturday.
Then we 've discovered nice sheltered nooks in the sand dunes beyond
the park, and there we stay for hours, mamma reading while I study. We
are so quiet and so happy; we were never alone together in our lives
before. You, dear Peggy, who have always had your family to yourself,
can hardly think how we enjoy being at table together, just we two. I
take mamma's coffee to her and kiss her on the right cheek; then
follows an egg, with another kiss on the left cheek; then a bit of
toast, with a bear-hug, and so on. We have a few pleasant friends
here, you know, and they come to see mamma without asking her to return
the calls, as they see plainly she has no strength for society. . . .
POLLY.
P. S. We have a remarkable front door, which opens with a spring
located in the wall at the top of the stairs. It is a modern
improvement and I never tire of opening it, even though each time I am
obliged to go downstairs to close it again.
When Dr. George came last week, he rang the bell, and being tired with
the long pull up the hill, leaned against the door to breathe. Of
course I knew nothing of this, and as soon as I heard the bell I flew
to open the door with my usual neatness and dispatch, when who should
tumble in, full length, but poor dear Dr. George! He was so surprised,
and the opposite neighbors were so interested, and I was so sorry, that
I was almost hysterical. Dr. George insists that the door is a trap
laid for unsuspecting country people.
November 9.
. . . The first week is over, and the finances did n't come out right
at all. I have a system of bookkeeping which is original, simple,
practical, and absolutely reliable. The house-money I keep in a
cigar-box with three partitions (formerly used for birds' eggs), and I
divide the month's money in four parts, and pay everything weekly.
The money for car-fare, clothing, and sundries I keep in an old silver
sugar-bowl, and the reserve fund, which we are never to touch save on
the most dreadful provocation, in a Japanese ginger-jar with a cover.
These, plainly marked, repose in my upper drawer. Mamma has no
business cares whatever, and everything ought to work to a charm, as it
will after a while. But this first week has been discouraging, and I
have had to borrow enough from compartment two, cigar-box, to pay debts
incurred by compartment one, cigar-box. This is probably because we
had to buy a bag of flour and ten pounds of sugar. Of course this
won't happen every week. . . .
I wrote Ah Foy a note after we arrived, for he really seems to have a
human affection for us. I inclose his answer to my letter. It is such
a miracle of Chinese construction that it is somewhat difficult to get
his idea; still I think I see that he is grateful for past favors; that
he misses us; that the boarders are going on "very happy and joy;" that
he is glad mamma is better, and pleased with the teacher I selected for
him. But here it is; judge for yourself:--
SANTA BARBARA, November 5.
DEAR MY FREND.
I was joy pleased to received a letter from you how are Your getting
along and my Dear if your leaves a go We but now I been it is here I am
very sorry for are a your go to in San Francisco if any now did you
been it is that here very happy and joy I am so glad for your are to do
teachers for me but I am very much thank you dear my frend.
Good-By. AH FOY.
November 15,
. . . The first compartment, cigar-box, could n't pay back the money it
borrowed from the second compartment, and so this in turn had to borrow
from the third compartment. I could have made everything straight, I
think, if we had n't bought a feather duster and a gallon of kerosene.
The first will last forever, and the second for six weeks, so it is n't
fair to call compartment number two extravagant. At the end of this
month I shall remove some of the partitions in the cigar-box and keep
the house-money in two parts, balancing accounts every fortnight. . . .
November 24.
. . . My bookkeeping is in a frightful snarl. There is neither
borrowing nor lending in the cigar-box now, for all the money for the
month is gone at the end of the third week. The water, it seems, was
not included in the thirty dollars for the rent, and compartment three
had to pay two dollars for that purpose when compartment two was still
deeply in its debt. If compartment two had only met its rightful
obligations, compartment three need n't have "failed up," as they say
in New England; but as it is, poor compartment four is entirely
bankrupt, and will have to borrow of the sugar-bowl or the ginger-jar.
As these banks are not at all in the same line of business, they ought
not to be drawn into the complications of the cigar-box, for they will
have their own troubles by and by; but I don't know what else to
do. . . .
December 2.
. . . It came out better at the end of the month than I feared, for we
spent very little last week, and have part of the ten pounds of sugar,
kerosene, feather duster, scrubbing-brush, blanc-mange mould, tapioca,
sago, and spices with which to begin the next month. I suffered so
with the debts, losses, business embarrassments, and failures of the
four compartments that when I found I was only four dollars behind on
the whole month's expenses, I knocked out all the compartments, and am
not going to keep things in weeks. I made up the deficit by taking two
dollars out of the reserve fund, and two dollars out of my ten-dollar
gold piece that Dr. George gave me on my birthday.
I have given the ginger-jar a note of hand for two dollars from the
cigar-box, and it has resumed business at the old stand. Compartment
four, cigar-box, which is perfectly innocent, as it was borrowed out of
house and home by compartment three, also had to give a note to the
sugar-bowl, and I made the ginger-jar give me a note for my two dollars
birthday-money.
Whether all these obligations will be met without lawsuits, I cannot
tell; but I know by the masterly manner in which I have fought my way
through these intricate affairs with the loss of only four dollars in
four weeks, that I possess decided business ability, and this gives me
courage to struggle on.
December 30, 188-.
. . . We are having hard times, dear old Margery, though I do not
regret coming to San Francisco, for mamma could not bear the slightest
noise or confusion, nor lift her hand to any sort of work, in her
present condition. At any rate, we came by Dr. George's orders, so my
conscience is clear. . . .
Mrs. Chadwick has sent us only sixty-five dollars this month, instead
of eighty-five. Some of the boarders are behind in their payments.
The Darlings have gone away, and "she hopes to do better next month."
Mamma cannot bear to press her, she is so kind and well-meaning; so do
not for the world mention the matter to Dr. George. I will write to
him when I must, not before.
Meanwhile I walk to school both ways, saving a dollar and a quarter a
month. Have found a cheaper laundry; one dollar more saved. Cut down
fruit bill; one dollar more. Blacked my white straw sailor with
shoe-blacking, trimmed it with two neckties and an old blackbird badly
molted; result perfectly hideous, but the sugar-bowl, clothing, and
sundry fund are out of debt and doing well. Had my faded gray dress
dyed black, and trimmed the jacket with pieces of my moth-eaten
cock's-feather boa; perfectly elegant, almost too gorgeous for my
humble circumstances. Mamma looks at me sadly when I don these ancient
garments, and almost wishes I had n't such "a wealthy look." I tell
her I expect the girls to say, when I walk into the school-yard on
Monday, "Who is this that cometh with dyed garments from Bozrah?"
Mamma has decided that I may enter a training-school for kindergartners
next year; so I am taking the studies that will give me the best
preparation, and I hope to earn part of my tuition fees, when the time
comes, by teaching as assistant. . . .
I go over to Berkeley once a week to talk Spanish with kind Professor
Salazar and his wife. They insist that it is a pleasure, and will not
allow mamma to pay anything for the lessons. I also go every Tuesday
to tell stories at the Children's Hospital. It is the dearest hour of
the week. When I am distracted about bills and expenses and mamma's
health and Mrs. Chadwick's mismanagements and Yung Lee's mistakes (for
he is beautiful as an angel and stupid as a toad), I put on my hat and
go out to the children, poor little things! They always have a welcome
for me, bless them! and I always come back ready to take up my trials
again. Edgar is waiting to take this to the post-box, so I must say
good-night. He is such a pleasure to us and such a comfort to mamma.
I know for the first time in my life the fun of having a brother.
Ever your affectionate POLLYKINS.
The foregoing extracts from Polly's business letters give you an idea
only of her financial difficulties. She was tempted to pour these into
one sympathizing ear, inasmuch as she kept all annoyances from her
mother as far as possible; though household economies, as devised by
her, lost much of their terror.
Mrs. Oliver was never able to see any great sorrow in a monthly deficit
when Polly seated herself before her cash-boxes and explained her
highly original financial operations. One would be indeed in dire
distress of mind could one refrain from smiling when, having made the
preliminary announcement,--"The great feminine financier of the century
is in her counting-room: let the earth tremble!"--she planted herself
on the bed, oriental fashion, took pencil and account-book in lap,
spread cigar-box, sugar-bowl, and ginger-jar before her on the pillows,
and ruffled her hair for the approaching contest.