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A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO
* * * * *
THE "LITTLE GIRL" SERIES
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW YORK
HANNAH ANN; A SEQUEL
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BOSTON
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD PHILADELPHIA
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD WASHINGTON
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW ORLEANS
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD DETROIT
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD ST. LOUIS
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD CHICAGO
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD QUEBEC
* * * * *
A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO
LLBY
AMANDA M. DOUGLAS
New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
1905
Copyright, 1905
By Dodd, Mead & Company
All rights reserved
Published September, 1905
TO
MARTHA REDINGTON
To you who have enjoyed the charms and wonders of the newer city, the
old and remarkable may have a charm. Half a century is not much in
which to rear the Queen City of the Western Coast.
With a friend's regard,
The Author.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA 1
II OLD SAN FRANCISCO 15
III MAKING A NEW HOME 27
IV A QUEER WINTER 43
V PELAJO 59
VI A DIFFERENT OUTLOOK 79
VII A TASTE OF GAYETY 94
VIII GIRLS AND GIRLS 107
IX A PARTY AND AN ADMIRER 124
X ETHICS AND ETIQUETTE 138
XI IN THE SUNSHINE OF YOUTH 155
XII NEW EXPERIENCES 174
XIII BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL 189
XIV A WEDDING AND A PARTING 205
XV THE ENCHANTMENT OF YOUTH 223
XVI IN THE BALANCE 241
XVII THE DECISION OF FATE 258
XVIII TO SEE YOU ONCE AGAIN 276
XIX THE GUIDING FINGER 292
XX AN ENCHANTED JOURNEY 313
CHAPTER I
FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA
It was a long journey for a little girl, so long indeed that the old
life had almost faded from her mind, and seemed like something done in
another existence. When she was younger still she had once surprised
her mother by saying, "Mother, where did I live before I came here?"
The pale, care-worn woman had glanced at her in vague surprise and
answered rather fretfully, "Why, nowhere, child."
"Oh, but I remember things," said the little girl with a confident
air, looking out of eyes that seemed to take an added shade from her
present emotions.
"Nonsense! You can't remember things that never happened. That's
imagining them, and it isn't true. If you told them they would be
falsehoods. There, go out and get me a basket of chips."
She was afraid of telling falsehoods, most of those rigid people
called them by their plain name, "lies," and whipped their children.
So the little girl kept them to herself; she was a very good and
upright child as a general thing and knew very little about her tricky
father. But she went on imagining. Especially when she studied
geography, which she was extravagantly fond of, yet she could never
quite decide which country she had lived in.
Through those months of journeying in the big vessel over strange
waters, for she had been born in an inland hamlet with a great woods
of hemlock, spruce, and fir behind the little cottage, and two or
three small creeks wandering about, she had many strange thoughts.
Though at first she was quite ill, but Uncle Jason was the best nurse
in the world, and presently she began to run about and get acquainted.
There were only a few women passengers. One middle-aged, with a son
sixteen, who was working his way; a few wives emigrating with their
husbands, three women friends who were in the hope of finding an
easier life and perhaps husbands, though they hardly admitted that to
each other.
She often sat in Uncle Jason's lap, hugged up to his breast. Of
course, her mother had been his sister, they had settled upon that,
and he did not contradict. She was lulled by the motion of the vessel
and often fell asleep, but in her waking moments these were the
memories that were growing more vague and getting tangled up with
various things.
Her father had taught school at South Berwick the winter she could
recall most readily, and came home on Saturday morning, spending most
of the time at the store. Woodville was only a sort of hamlet, though
it had a church, a school, and a general store. Sometimes he would go
back on Sunday, but oftener early Monday morning. Then late in the
summer he was home for a while, and went away after talks with her
mother that did not always seem pleasant. He took very little notice
of her, in her secret heart she felt afraid of him, though he was
seldom really cross to her. And then he went away and did not appear
again until the winter, when there seemed a great deal of talking and
business, and he brought a boxful of clothes for them, and seemed in
excellent spirits. He was in business in Boston, and would move them
all there at once, if grandmother would consent, but she was old, and
had had a stroke, and could not get about without a cane. The old
house was hers and she would finish out her days there. Of course,
then, her mother could not go. She had a new, warm woollen frock and a
cloak that was the envy of the other children, and absolute city shoes
that she could only wear on Sunday, and, of course, were presently
outgrown.
She studied up everything she could concerning Boston, but her mother
would not talk about it. In the summer, grandmother had another stroke
and then was bedridden. It was a poor little village, and everybody
had hard work to live, summers were especially busy, and winters were
long and hard. Grandmother was fretful, and wandered a little in her
mind. Now and then a neighbor came in to spell Mrs. Westbury, and
there was always some mysterious talking that her mother did not care
for her to hear. Grandmother lived more than a year and was a helpless
burden at the last. After she had gone the poor mother sank down,
overwhelmed with trouble. David Westbury had persuaded the old lady to
sign over the house for a business venture he was to make in Boston
that would put him on the road to fortune. And now it was found that
he had decamped, that there had been no business but speculating, and
she no longer had a home for herself and her child.
They were very poor. People bore straits bravely in those days and
suffered in silence. The poor mother grew paler and thinner and had a
hard cough. In the spring they would be homeless. By spring she would
be--and what would happen to the child! A little bound-out girl,
perhaps.
Laverne was not taken into these sorrowful confidences. She did not go
to school, her mother needed to be waited upon. One bright afternoon
she went out to skate on the creek. The school children joined her,
and it was almost dark when they started for home. The little girl's
heart upbraided her, but she had carried in the last armful of wood,
and had not told her mother. What would they do to-morrow!
She went in hesitatingly. Oh, how good and warm the room felt and two
candles were burning. A man sat beside the stove with a sort of frank,
bright, yet weather-beaten face, a mop of chestnut-colored hair, a
beard growing up to his very mouth, but with the brightest blue eyes
she had ever seen, merry blue eyes, too, that looked as if there was
just a twinkle back of the lashes.
"This is my little girl, Laverne," said her mother. "We have always
called her Verne, seeing there were three of the same name. And this
is"--the mother's tone had a curious tremble in it, as if she caught
her breath--"this is Uncle Jason."
The first glance made them friends. They both smiled. She was like her
mother in the young days, and had the same dimple in her cheek, and
the one in her chin where the children used to hold a buttercup. She
put out both hands. They had been so lonely, so poor, and she was
glad all over with a strange feeling, just as if they had come to
better times.
What a supper they had! She was very hungry. She had been quite used
to eating bread and molasses, or a little moist brown sugar. And here
was a great chunk of butter on the edge of her plate, and the room was
fragrant with the smell of broiled ham.
If she had known anything about fairies she would have believed in
enchantment at once. And there was part of a splendid cake, and orange
jam, and she could hardly make it real. No neighbor had known all
their straits, and the little girl had borne them as bravely as her
mother. Then, so many people had pinches in the winter, for crops were
often poor.
She helped her mother with the dishes and then she sat down on a stool
beside Uncle Jason. Presently, her head sank on his knee and she went
fast asleep. She never heard a word of what her mother and Uncle Jason
were saying.
At nine o'clock he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the
bed, and she never woke up while her mother undressed her. He went
over to the store where he had bargained for a room. The storekeeper,
Mr. Lane, had been as much surprised to see Mr. Chadsey as Mrs.
Westbury. He had been born in the old town and his romance had
blossomed and blighted here.
"Now, I tell you," Seth Lane said to his wife, when the store was shut
and they were preparing for bed, "if that scalawag Westbury was dead
there'd be a weddin' in this town straight away. My, how Chadsey was
cut up over hearin' his mean villainy an' gettin' hold of the house!
I never b'lieved the old woman knew what she was about. And Chadsey's
come back in the nick o' time, for I don't b'lieve she'll go through
March."
Jason Chadsey planned for their comfort, and went to Boston the next
day, but could find no trace of David Westbury, dead or alive.
As for the little girl, when she woke up in the morning she thought
she had had the loveliest dream that could ever haunt one. But when
she saw the bountiful breakfast she was amazed to the last degree.
"Was Uncle Jason really here?" she asked timidly. She was quite sure
her mother had been crying.
"Yes, dear. He has gone to Boston and will be back in a few days. Oh,
Laverne, I hope you will learn to love him. Some day, when you are
older, you will understand why he came back, and he will be your best
friend when"--when I am gone, she was about to say, but checked
herself, and substituted "all your life. When I was a little girl he
was a kind and generous big boy. Then he went to sea, and was back
only a few times. For years I had heard nothing from him--he has been
round the world, everywhere. And he has a big, tender heart----"
"Oh, I am sure I shall be glad to love him. Why, you seem to go right
to his heart;" and the child's face glowed with enthusiasm.
"Yes, yes." She began to cough and sat down suddenly, putting her
handkerchief to her mouth.
"The salt, quick, Verne," she gasped.
She lay on the old wooden settee and stuffed her mouth full of salt.
"Oh, what can I do?" cried the child, in mild alarm.
"Run for Aunt Cynthy Beers. Tell her to come quick."
The neighbor, who was the village nurse, came back with the child.
Then she was despatched for the doctor. He shook his head gravely.
"Doctor, you must keep me alive a little while longer," she pleaded.
"Oh, you are good for some time yet, only you must not make the
slightest exertion. Cynthy, how long can you stay?"
"Ten days or so. Then I have to go over on the Creek," she answered
laconically.
"That will do." Then he gave sundry charges to Miss Beers, and left
the remedies she was to use, but that lady knew what was meant.
Mrs. Westbury beckoned the nurse to her when he had gone.
"Don't tell Laverne," she said. "Don't say anything about----"
"That's cruel. Why, she ought to know and be prepared."
"No, no; I will not have a word said. I cannot explain, no one can.
And if she took it hard, don't you see, it would drive me wild and
shorten my days. I'm all worn out. And she will be provided for."
Everybody was kind and solicitous, sending in cooked food, offering to
sit up at night, but Miss Beers was equal to all demands. The sick
woman really did improve. Laverne hovered about her mother, read to
her out of her geography and Peter Parley's history, as well as the
sweetest hymns out of the hymn book. Jimmy Cox came over and did the
chores, provided the wood, took Verne out on his sled, and the days
passed along. Jason Chadsey returned. Miss Beers had to go her way,
and a neighbor came in to do what was needed. One day, before the
minister and the Squire, she gave her child to Jason Chadsey, who
promised to care for her and educate her, and keep her from all harm.
"You both know that I loved her mother and would gladly have married
her in the old days, but untoward fate intervened. I could find no
trace of the child's father. She has no near relatives to care for
her, so I shall be father to her, and Heaven may judge me at the
last."
He was holding the child on his knee that evening, "You are to be my
little girl always," he said, with tender solemnity. "You shall be
made happy as a little bird. And if you will only love me----"
"Oh, I shall, I do. And will you stay here? Mother will be so glad.
She was longing so to have you come back. You will never go away
again?"
"Never from you, my little girl;" and he kissed the child's trust into
perfect belief.
There were two more alarms, then the frail life went out peacefully.
The child was stunned. It had seemed right for grandmother to leave a
world that she was forgetting about, but Laverne could not understand
all the mystery. Her mother had always been quiet and reserved, it was
the fashion in those days, and the child could not miss the things she
had never had. And neither could she ever have understood her sorrow
over the great mistake in giving her such a father. But Heaven had
helped her to make amends, for the child was the embodiment of her own
youth. It was all she had and she gave it to the man who had loved her
sincerely, glad and thankful that she was not to be left to the
uncertain charity of the world.
The frightened child clung very closely to him. The worn furniture and
bedding were distributed among the neighbors, a few keepsakes
collected, a few good-bys said, and good wishes given, and they went
first to Boston and then to New York. Then they were to go to the
wonderful land of gold and sunshine, California. They found it on the
map. And there was the long, long sail, and the little girl was going
far away from the only sorrow of her life, that was so strangely
mingled with the only dear love. For while the other had been hedged
about with the severe training of the times, afraid of sinfulness in
indulging in what was called carnal affections, even in loving a
child, now she had the utmost tenderness lavished upon her. She had no
one but him, and that was a continual joy and kept his heart at high
tide. She was all his.
Later she was to know about the young love between them, and how when
her mother was just fifteen he had shipped for three years aboard a
merchantman. They had sailed about the Eastern seas, bought and sold,
and at last started for home, to be wrecked, and nearly all had
perished. Of the few saved there were no tidings of Jason Chadsey.
Laverne waited and hoped and came to her twentieth birthday. David
Westbury was considered a smart young man. He had been a clerk in a
store, he had worked on a newspaper, and taught school, and could
turn his hand to a good many things. He had a smooth tongue, too, and
a certain polish in his manner above the country youths. Grandmother
espoused his cause at once. Jason Chadsey was dead, lovers were not so
plentiful in these small places, where the enterprising young men went
away. It was hard to stand out against one's own mother, and all the
years to come to be taunted as an old maid. And so Laverne married
David Westbury, and when her little girl was a month old he came back
not altogether penniless, but it was too late.
He had roamed about the world a good deal. He had made money, and
spent it freely, lost some of it, helped friends in distress. Now, he
was going out to that wonderful land that had been the dream of the
Spaniard, and another nation had brought the dream true. He would
visit the little old village once more, and see how it had fared with
his early love and his old friends, and then say good-bye forever. And
knowing she was near to death, Laverne Westbury told him her sad
story, and he read between the broken sentences that he had been her
early love, her only love.
So they whiled the time away, the man's dreams growing more vivid, the
child's fading. They passed strange countries, there were seas of
peerless blue, seas of emerald green, then strange colors commingled.
There were cloudless skies and broad sheets of sunshine that seemed to
envelop the whole world in a blaze; there were nights of such glowing
stars as one seldom sees on land, there were gray days with sullen
winds, and storms that sent a thrill to the stoutest hearts, when the
vessel groaned and creaked and the women cried in terror. But Laverne
only crept closer in Uncle Jason's arms and felt safe.
They stopped here and there at a port, places they hunted up on the
map, cities that seemed marvels to the little girl, shores with waving
blooming forests and almost steaming fragrance. Strange birds, strange
many-hued fish, darting hither and thither, seaweed that in the
sunshine looked like masses of bloom, or living things swimming about.
Curious people, too, speaking languages no little girl could
understand, then leaving the warmth, and shivering with blasts of cold
air, wonderful islands and capes jutting out--some bleak and bare and
rocky, others shining in verdure and waving smiles of welcome, it
seemed; going safely round the Horn with half their journey done and
finding more wonders, great mountain ranges, shores thickly studded
with islands, natives swimming about like fishes, queer, half ruinous
old Spanish towns, and when they stopped at a port, such a clatter of
tongues, such a screaming of voices, such a confusion, one was glad to
get out of it to lovely, enchanting peace once more.
Warmer grew the air with a languorous, permeating fragrance. Moonlight
silvering the water that leaped softly up and down as if playing hide
and seek with the next wave. All the boundless space lighted with it,
going round the world, swelling, decreasing, a golden crescent, then a
pale gibbous thing and afterward darkness when the ship crept softly
along.
If one came in near the shore it was like the blast of a furnace.
Then, passing the equator with the queer ceremony among the sailors,
and looking across at the little neck of land joining the two
countries, past Central America, which the little girl insisted made
three Americas. She had listened to the tales of the early explorers
and their cruel lust for gold until she had shuddered.
"Uncle Jason, are you going for gold in California, and will the
people murder whole nations and rob them? I would rather not have the
gold."
"No, my little girl; and the country that has the gold belongs to us.
But it has many other delightful things as well. It is not like bleak
Maine."
"What a strange journey it has been, and oh, how beautiful most of the
time. I do not believe I shall ever be afraid of storms again."
"You have made a most excellent sailor. It will seem queer to be on
land again. You will keep your sea legs for some time to come."
"Sea legs?" She laughed inquiringly.
"The faculty one acquires of walking with the roll of the ship.
Sailors always do it on land. And you will see that you have an
inclination to go from side to side as if the street was hardly wide
enough;" and he looked at her out of humorous eyes.
He had a way of nearly shutting one eye, which gave an absolutely
funny expression to his face. He had buffeted so many storms and
narrow escapes that he looked fully ten years beyond his age, which
was but thirty-five. He had a tall, vigorous frame, with a little
stoop in the shoulders and a way of sitting down all in a heap. The
little girl told him he made a cave for her to sit in. Every day she
loved him more dearly, and to him she was the one thing that
brightened his way and gave him new aims. He had been going to
California simply to see a strange and new land. He had not been won
by the wonderful tales of gold, he had cared very little for wealth.
But now he would make a fortune for her and have it so safely invested
that she should not come to want if she lived to be old. He could
never forget the afternoon he had come to Laverne Westbury's home,
that she had been warned to leave in the spring, and found her almost
on the verge of starvation, too proud to keep asking charity, worn out
and disheartened, with only the county house looming before her.
Little Verne should never know this, never suffer as her mother had
done.
And this was one reason he led her thoughts away from the old life.
She was too young to know that he had loved her mother, she took the
relationship for granted. And even on the long voyage there had been
so much to entertain her. The only child on board, and a winsome one
at that, she had been a universal favorite; and Jason Chadsey hardly
less so. The trio, as the three single women had been dubbed, though
the married ones often said "the old maids," after a little,
established very friendly relations with Mr. Chadsey. Miss Holmes was
past thirty, and had worn herself almost out teaching school. A sea
voyage had been prescribed to avoid consumption, that scourge of the
eastern towns. She had gained in health and strength, and certainly in
looks. When she found the little girl and her uncle poring over their
old map, she brought out some of her school books, to Laverne's great
delight. Among them was the story of the Argonauts that caught the
young imagination, and even Dick Folsom became interested in the
various explorers who had dreamed of gold and of the straight route to
China. Miss Gaines had been a dressmaker until a troublesome pain in
her side warned her to seek a different occupation, and Miss Alwood
had kept house, done nursing, and they had planned to make better
fortunes in the new country, where there were fewer women. Mrs. Dawson
was going out to meet her husband, who had been among the
"Forty-miners," and now kept a sort of lodging ranch, that with her
help could be transformed into a regular hotel, much in demand at that
time.
And so they had made quite a little colony on shipboard. Slowly they
came up the Pacific Coast, past the long peninsula of Southern
California, and there, fairly in sight, was the Golden Gate.