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.
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