A Little Girl in Old San Francisco

  CHAPTER II

  OLD SAN FRANCISCO

  Was it any wonder the old explorers missed the narrow outlet from thegreat bay when the hills from the farther shore cast a great gloomyshadow, and dreary rocks flanked the shore, inhabited by cormorantsand auks and gulls, screaming out their discordant music? What if thetide did run out sweeping like a torrent--were they going to breastthe danger back of it? Was the great rocky point worth theirconsideration? In the islands off the shore seals and sea lions had itall their own way and basked and frolicked in the sunshine.

  It had changed then, in the early fifties, but half a century hasalmost forgotten the bareness of it then. And yet it was magnificentin the October sunset as the old ship made its way, puffing from thestrains of its long journey. They had nearly all huddled on deck toview their land of promise. There are few enthusiastic emigrants now,everything is viewed with commercial eyes. Afar to the westwardstretched the magnificent ocean, a sheet of billowy ranges tipped withmolten gold, changing to a hundred iridescent tints and throwing upthe gold again in prodigal fashion, sweeping it over to foreign seas.And, on the other hand, the mile-wide gap, the gateway to thewonderful land, tranquil enough now, with frowning rocks like thecave of Scylla on the one hand, that was to be transformed into awonderful city. They are piloted through to the great magnificent baythat seems endless at the first glance of its seventy miles. Northwardlong lines of rolling hills, purple and blue and black, with glints ofthe setting sun fighting the shadows like some strange old gods withtheir fire-tipped arrows. At the south it fades into misty dreamland.Red Rock stands up defiant. And so they look at their new country andthen at each other. There is shipping at the rude wharves, and theyfind a place to anchor, but it is too late to look for a home and sothey make themselves content. But if they thought they were coming togreat space, and semi-loneliness they were mistaken and confused bythe noise and tumult, the crowds, the bustle of business, the peopleof all countries it seemed.

  "Why, I had no idea," the women said to one another. "The place mustbe overcrowded."

  What chance was there then for women who had come to seek theirfortunes?

  They soon found that San Francisco was the stopping place of nearlyevery nation, and yet there was room for more, and work for thosewilling to do it.

  Mr. Dawson came down to meet his wife the next morning, and was madeacquainted with the little party that had become such friends in theirlong journey.

  "We can take some of you in if you will accept the accommodations," hesaid cordially. "They might be worse," with a shrug of the shoulders."Luckily, I escaped being burnt out. Will you come and take a view ofour town?"

  What an odd place it was, built on the hills like Rome. On the oceanside great frowning rocks that suggested fortresses. At the extremeend, the highest of hills, the city began, and it spread out overlittle valleys and other hills, sloping to the busy, beautiful bay.And it seemed right in the heart of it lay devastation, debris andashes. Hundreds of men were clearing, laying foundations again,rearing new structures.

  "It was an awful fire," explained their guide. "We had thoughtfireproof bricks and iron-bound structures would at least stay thedevastating hand of destruction, and even that proved useless. But forthe loss one might have enjoyed the magnificent spectacle of theimmense fiery field. The fierce roar of the flames, the shouts andshrieks of the flying people, the glowing crackling mass sendingspires up to the very sky, it seemed, was something we shall neverforget. It was said to have been visible a hundred miles away."

  The ruins were startling even now. Then the party turned, crossedMarket Street and came into Spear Street. Here there was a ramblingframe building that had been added to several times, two stories forthe most part, but a long ell of only one story. The main end bore thename of "Dawson House." It was not a hotel, and had no bar, that usualaccompaniment. Round in the next street, Mr. Dawson had a clubhousethat supplied this want, and all games of chance, but this place wasof the better sort.

  The Farnsworths had gone to friends only a few squares from the wharf.Mr. Dawson made friends at once with young Folsom and offered him aposition.

  "I'm in for the gold fields," he declared with boyish eagerness.

  "You'd better consider a day or two," suggested his mother.

  "And I'll take the mother, too, if she is as good a housekeeper as shelooks to be," Mr. Dawson subjoined laughingly. "If I don't, youngfellow, some man will snap your mother up before you'll have a chanceto see the color of his eyes."

  "Well, here are four husbandless women," she retorted gayly. "He couldhave a choice."

  They were ushered into a spacious room with a painted floor andnondescript furnishing. In one corner was a large desk at which sat aclerk. This opened into a dining room, in which the long table wasseldom without a guest. Several were seated there now. On the otherside were two smaller rooms tolerably well furnished, one a sleepingchamber.

  "You'll find we're suffering from the want of woman's hands andwoman's wit. I could hardly believe my wife had consented to come. Yousee those who are worth anything are soon offered homes of their own,and the others----" He made a peculiar little gesture, that elicited ashrewd smile from Jason Chadsey.

  It was comforting to find a place of refuge so soon, they all thought.On the second floor were lodging rooms for the better class. The ellwas fitted up with rows of bunks, and there was seldom a vacancy bymidnight.

  Laverne kept tight hold of Uncle Jason's hand, and when Mr. Dawsonsmiled over to her, half hid her face on Uncle Jason's ample frame.

  "Are we all going to live here?" she asked in a low tone.

  "For a little while, I think. We would not want to go away alone. Andthere must be some one to keep the house when I get one."

  "But you know that I helped mother, oh, for a long while. Sometimes Ichopped up the wood. And in the autumn I dug the potatoes and huskedthe corn, but we had to kill the poor hens, after all," and shesighed. "I swept up the house, too. Oh, I can do a great many things."

  He took the slim little hand in his and tried to smile over hereagerness, but his heart ached as he thought of her mother, and thehardships he could not save.

  "Will it be winter soon?" she inquired.

  "Not a Maine winter, my child. I believe there is no real winter."

  "Everything looks queer and dried up, yet it isn't cold. And what agreat city, it is almost as large as New York."

  He laughed at that, then he was grave a moment. "It may be as great,some day. The Pacific will be a big rival to the Atlantic."

  "To think we are clear over here! Why don't they build arailroad--just so?" and she made a mark with her small finger.

  "No doubt that will come also."

  They made arrangements about staying for the present. It seemed queerto the child that the friend she had known so long should be Mr.Dawson's wife. Already she was giving some orders and telling whatshe wanted done, and did not seem a bit afraid of the portly man whocould speak so sharply to the Chinese servants.

  Laverne thought them very odd. She had only seen pictures of thembefore. They walked so softly in their pointed slippers, and looked alittle like women in their loose blue shirts with hanging sleeves. Thelong queue twisted around their heads, and their slanting eyes seemedweird enough.

  She saw many other queer people in their walk back to the boat. UncleJason thought it too long, but she pleaded so to go. There were othercurious dark-eyed and dark-skinned men, small and bright Japanese shecame to know, and tall Spaniards in picturesque attire with handsomesashes about their waists; Indians, too, and a group of squaws girtabout with blankets, two carrying their babies on their backs, andthese made her think of the Maine clear across the continent, for youoccasionally saw them there.

  The old vessel seemed almost like home to her. They gathered up theirluggage and that belonging to the ladies and ordered it sent to theDawson House. Then they went up on Telegraph Hill, and half the worldseemed spread out before them. The sun was shining in well-nigh
blinding brilliancy. There was the narrow passageway that hardlylooked its real width, there was the northern peninsula, MountTamalpais, Belvidere, Sausalito, and all the places she was to come toknow so well. And there over the bay were the low spurs of the CoastRange, at whose feet were to spring up towns and cities. The baylooked to her like a smaller ocean. But boats were plying back andforth. And they could see the other hills about, and the townspreading here and there outside of the burned district.

  Suddenly she said she was very tired, and her steps lagged a little.Uncle Jason would have been glad to carry her, he had occasionallycarried greater burdens in times of peril, but that would be hardlyadmissible, they were going downhill too, which was easier. She hadnot seen all the strange people yet, for they met a group ofPortuguese sailors with big hoop earrings, who were gesticulatingfiercely, and some Russians with high caps and black, bushy beards.She was glad she had studied so much geography on shipboard, and shebegan to feel quite wise about different countries.

  When she reached their present home she begged that she might go tobed. She did not want to eat even a tempting bit of cake. Mrs. Dawsontook her into her room and put a pillow on the lounge, and while theothers talked and planned she slept soundly.

  "What a pretty child she is," Mr. Dawson said. "You will have to watchher closely that no one steals her."

  "Oh!" Uncle Jason said thoughtfully. But in this wild, bustling lifefew would want to be burdened with a child not belonging to them.

  When Laverne woke there was a queer, rushing, rustling sound, and itwas dark like twilight. Where was she? What was happening? Then shesprang up and remembered. The ladies were talking in the next room.Oh, it rained and the wind seemed blowing a gale.

  "Oh, what a nice sleep you have had!" exclaimed Mrs. Dawson. "And nowyou must be hungry, though we shall have dinner in a very short time.You look rested," and she smiled cheerfully.

  "Yes, I am. I don't know what made me so tired." She had not climbed ahill in a long while.

  "We didn't have any hills to climb on shipboard, and in all thesemonths we did get out of practice," said Miss Holmes. "I was tired aswell. And now the rainy season has begun, and Mr. Dawson has beensaying that in a week or two the country will look like spring."

  "And won't there be any winter? Though I don't like winter very much,"she added naively. "Only the sledding and skating."

  "I shouldn't care to live in Maine," and Miss Gaines gave a littleshiver. "All my life I have longed for a warm winter climate. And ifthis doesn't suit, I shall go further south."

  "You women without husbands are very independent," laughed Mrs.Dawson.

  "You certainly can go where you like if you have money enough to takeyou there," was the reply. "Verne, come sit here and tell me if youlike San Francisco as well as the ship and the voyage."

  "It's queer and such lots of queer people, and how they can understandeach other I can't see, for they all seem to talk different. I'drather not live on a ship all my life."

  "Then do not marry a sea captain. But your uncle may take a fancy togo to China or Japan. It is not so far from here. Grace, have youwritten any letters this afternoon?"

  "No," replied Miss Alwood. "I think my friends will not be immediatelyalarmed."

  "And this little girl has left no relatives behind, I heard her unclesay. Haven't you any cousins?"

  "My mother had no brothers or sisters." Then she remembered how littleshe had ever heard about her father.

  Mrs. Dawson brushed her hair and they were summoned to dinner. Theyhad the upper end of the table. Two other women came in with theirhusbands. There were some Spaniards among the men, and a few verydark, peculiar-looking people. There was a great deal of talking intongues unknown to the little girl, but some of the voices had a soft,musical sound.

  The little girl was really hungry and enjoyed her dinner. Afterwardmost of the party played cards. The other lodgers were of the commonersort, had a dining room to themselves, and generally sallied out inthe evening. Fights were not infrequent and the harmless phases ofgames degenerated into gambling.

  Miss Holmes had not mastered the art even on the long voyage. She tookLaverne under her wing now.

  "You and I will have to learn Spanish," she said. "Once Spain ownedall this country."

  "And will we have to learn all the other talk? I know some Indianwords, there were two old Indian women in our town, and in the summersome of the tribes would come down. But Chinese--that funny readingthat comes on tea chests----" and a knot gathered in her forehead.

  "We will not take Chinese the first. I have a friend who went out as amissionary and who can talk it fluently. But all down along the coastit is settled by Spaniards, and they were in South America, you know,and it seems as if half the people here were talking it. Then it is astately and beautiful language. You know you learned some French onshipboard."

  "And there are so many things to learn. There were so few in ourlittle place. They spun and knit and sewed, and you made bed quilts incase you were married. Mother had two she had never used, and a greatcounterpane grandmother had knit."

  "Yes. It is a pity they couldn't have been saved for you. I have achest of heirlooms stored in the house of a cousin at Dorchester, andsome Revolutionary relics. My grandfather fought in the war. And Ihave left them all behind."

  Miss Holmes gave a little sighing laugh. She could not tell whethershe was glad or sorry that she had taken this long journey to astrange land.

  "What did Spain want of America?" queried the little girl.

  "Oh, don't you remember how they came to Mexico for the gold. Therewas Pizarro and Cortez----"

  "And poor Montezuma in South America. Are there any real gold mineshere?"

  "Not just in the town."

  "Then no one will come and fight us and take the gold away," she saidwith a sigh of relief.

  Uncle Jason gave a dry smile. There was fighting enough, he had foundalready.

  "Would you care for the gold?" The child raised soft, inquiring eyes.

  "Why, yes; I should like to have a share of it. But I do not think Ishall go and work in the mines."

  "Did they fight very much at the fort. And who did they drive away?"she asked in a rather awe-stricken voice.

  "Oh, my child, they did not fight at all. The country belonged to us.The gold was free for any one willing to mine. We shall see the mencoming in with their bags of gold dust and nuggets, and though theymay talk fiercely and quarrel, they need not disturb us," and MissHolmes smiled reassuringly.

  "Uncle Jason will not go," she said confidently, after quite a pause.Then she glanced over to him and smiled, and was answered in return.

  He lost that trick and the next and Mrs. Dawson won his money. It didwell enough to play for fun on shipboard, the captain had strictlyforbidden gambling, but here one would not dream of such a thing. Thestakes were not high, however.

  He was thinking of his little girl and whether he had done wisely tobring her here. He had planned this journey before he knew whether thelittle girl was dead or alive; at any rate he had supposed she wouldbe in the keeping of her own father. And the pitiful story of thewoman he had loved, and would have slaved for had she been his, hadroused all the chivalrous feelings of his nature. And that she shouldgive him the child who had her smile and her soft, appealing voice,and the pretty eagerness that had cropped out now and then, though itwas the fashion to repress it, seemed so wonderful and so sacred tohim, and occupied so much of his thoughts that he never dreamed ofaltering his plans, or whether they would be best for her. Everythingwas so different, such a hurly-burly, that he wondered if a littlegirl could be brought up clean and wholesome and happy. A touch ofuncertainty was creeping through every nerve. A man's life was sodifferent. And there must be some one to guard her since he had tomake the fortune for her. Would Miss Holmes do? They had become greatfriends. Then Miss Holmes had the Eastern refinement and uprightness.

  He had not counted on sharing her with any one, his ideas had beenvague and imp
ractical and he would have to remodel them.

  "Upon my word, I never knew you to play so poorly," laughed Mrs.Dawson teasingly; "I believe you are half asleep."

  "I think that must be it. I am a landlubber to-night, so I beg you toexcuse me," and he rose.