and
girls had gathered sacks of pine cones, stacking these pine sticks
over the cones, and it looked as though we were making a defense. All
the guests were assembled on the porches of their cabins and at the
log cabin and as soon as darkness came these cones were lighted and
fire crackers, pin wheels, rockets and red light flashed forth, a
never-to-be-forgotten sight of lights and shadows. The tall pines rose
in the background like dark sentinels guarding the happy spirits in
their nightly revels. It was after ten o'clock when the last shower of
rockets went up and lighted the heavens with the beautiful gold and
silver showers, a befitting close for such an eventful day of
enjoyment.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

IN OAKLAND. SAD ACCIDENT. BRUSH AND EASEL. KIND FRIENDS.

In the first part of May my son, William, moved from Alameda to
Oakland and I left the Thirteenth street home and joined his family at
324 Tenth street, in one of the Tutt flats. We had hardly got settled
when in September my son was stricken with typhoid fever. He was taken
to the sanitarium. I was obliged to move to 212 Eleventh street and
begin anew my music and art. I remained there two years and over. I
then moved to 116 Eleventh street where I found an ideal studio in the
Abbott residence. There I remained until the earthquake, after which I
moved to my present abode. This was on October 1, 1907. From 1903 I
continued my voice teaching and have been successfully teaching in
Oakland since. Since my affliction I have sung on several special
occasions, twice on July Fourth and also for the G.A.R. I will sing
for them as long as I can sing acceptably, and as long as I am able to
sing they will have me. We have grown old together and I suppose no
Daughter of the Regiment has ever been so loyally loved as I have been
all these years. No joyful occasion is complete until I have been
bidden. I have been invited to the Memorial Day exercises,
installations, banquets, socials and yearly gatherings. I began when
they marched away in 1861 and our concerts were many to supply the
things they needed, when disaster overtook them, when they returned
wounded. We visited the hospitals, buried the dead and brought comfort
to the widow and orphan. My duty and loyalty is not finished until I
have done what I can for every brave comrade that shouldered the gun
and marched in the ranks of the army of the U.S.A.

In 1902 I greeted the new year sitting in an invalid's