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A CALIFORNIA GIRL
BY EDWARD ELDRIDGE
The Abbey Press
PUBLISHERS
114 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK
London Montreal
Copyright, 1902
by The Abbey Press
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Prologue 5
I. Clara Lawton 7
II. Ranch Talk 9
III. The Marriage of Charles Herne 21
IV. Julia Hammond 25
V. Ben West 35
VI. Stella Wheelwright 39
VII. Penloe 43
VIII. Ben West's Experience in the Klondike 54
IX. An Arrival 63
X. Mrs. Marston 70
XI. Saunders' Customers 85
XII. Penloe's Sermon 88
XIII. Return of Ben West 104
XIV. Five Years After Marriage 113
XV. A Conversation on the Porch 116
XVI. Tiestan 124
XVII. Penloe's Original Address 143
XVIII. Letters Received by Penloe 163
XIX. Mrs. West Relates Her Dream 170
XX. In the Mountains 174
XXI. A Wedding in Orangeville 184
XXII. The Herne Party 201
XXIII. A Visit from Barker and Brookes 218
XXIV. Out of Bondage 233
Epilogue 248
PROLOGUE.
This book is not written for the specialist, but for that restless,
seething multitude known as "the masses." It is written for busy people,
for workers, such as the shop-girl, the factory-girl, the clerk, the
mechanic, the farmer, the merchant, and the busy housewife; but
ministers, lawyers, and doctors may find food for thought within its
covers.
My heart goes out to God's secular army, composed of those who have
neither time nor opportunity to go through learned treatises and
scholarly essays, yet whose natures are hungering for something better
than they see and hear about them. So I have tried to weave into this
story the best and latest thought that has been given to the world,
believing it to be what the workers most need in the performance of
their daily duties, and what will help them out of bondage.
People whose reading and observation have been limited may think that I
have drawn on my imagination altogether for most of the material in this
book. I can assure them that such is not the case; much of it is real.
In regard to Penloe, there have been men who had greater spiritual gifts
than he, and I call to mind one, still living, whose illuminated
countenance and remarkable personality are superior to his. In Penloe is
seen the interior life of the Hindu combined with the best practical
thought of the West.
Let a youth or maiden commence to live the life described by the man who
won the heart of the "Oriental Lady," related by Penloe in his
"Original Address," and he or she will then realize the facts which have
made the characters of Penloe and Stella.
To any sensitive, fastidious reader I would say, it becomes an author,
in order to be true to life, to present certain characters as they
really are, and put into their mouths the language they actually use.
Whatever there is of error in the book is the result of egoism; whatever
of truth and love is the work of Him who has brought me up out of the
marshes and lowlands, and caused me to drink at the crystal fountains of
the hills.
THE AUTHOR.
A CALIFORNIA GIRL.
CHAPTER I.
CLARA LAWTON.
"Well, dear," said Mrs. Lawton to her daughter Clara, "the home you will
enter to-morrow as a bride is very different from the home that I
entered as your father's bride. Our home was a log cabin in the Michigan
woods, with only an acre of clearing, where the growing season is only
about four months long and the winter eight. Snow lay on the ground six
months of the year, from one to three feet deep. In our cabin, we had
the bare necessaries and your father had to work very hard cutting
cord-wood for a living; but we were very happy, for we had love and
health; and need I say, dear, what a joy it was to us when you entered
our cabin as a passenger on the journey of life.
"My wish for you now is, that you may find as much happiness in the
companionship of Charles Herne as I have had in your father's, and as
much joy in the advent of a little one in your home as I did in you."
"You have always been one of the kindest and best mothers a girl ever
had," said Clara, warmly.
"I have tried to be," said Mrs. Lawton, simply.
Clara Lawton was twenty-two years of age, prepossessing in appearance,
with a bright, happy expression. Her nature was deep and affectionate,
her tastes domestic and social. When she was twenty, Mr. and Mrs. Lawton
had moved to California and settled in the pretty little city of
Roseland, which nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.
At a camping party Clara had first met Charles Herne, and the outcome of
that meeting was that to-morrow would be Clara's wedding day.
Who can describe the thoughts that filled the mind of Clara the night
previous to her marriage? Who, indeed, can describe the thoughts that
fill the mind of any maiden as she lays her head on her pillow the night
previous to her marriage?
All her life she had been taught to consider this the most important
event of her life, the acme of happiness, the end and aim of her
womanhood. The thought of her own little world and the decrees of the
great world at large alike hold her to that belief. That she is a soul
in process of development; that marriage is only one step towards
something higher; that the true union is the joining of hands to work
for humanity, are doctrines which would sound strange in her ears. She
feels that great change that is coming into her life, and her thoughts
are in accordance with her character and circumstances. One bride may be
filled with the sadness of unwilling acquiescence, another with the joy
of complete absorption, a third with the excitement incident upon an
entire change of environment. Clara Lawton's sweet nature prompted only
tender thoughts of the parents she was leaving, strong love for the man
who was to be her husband and the desire to be a true wife and make
their union a happy one.