f Alcatraz Island, grim rocky
guardian of the Golden Gate, and all the ships of the Pacific fleets
making their slow way in to their docking places. How often must
she have looked out upon those returning wanderers of the deep and
thought with a tender sadness of that day in the treasured past when
the Silver Ship sailed away with her and her beloved towards the
enchanted isles!

[Illustration: The house at Hyde and Lombard Streets, San Francisco,
with some alterations in the way of bay windows, etc., which have been
made since Mrs. Stevenson sold it.]

Once she stood watching from these windows for the transport that was
coming in with soldiers from the Philippines, among whom was her
nephew, Edward Orr. As the ship hove in sight she sent her grandson
flying to the roof to wave a welcome with a large flag, and almost the
first thing the homesick young soldier saw as he turned eager eyes
shorewards was the fluttering banner high on the house-top on the
hill. Having nothing else convenient with which to return the salute,
he and his mates snatched a sheet from a bunk and waved it from a
porthole. Meanwhile Mrs. Stevenson had despatched her son to hire a
launch and take the mother and sisters of her nephew out to meet him,
and as soon as the sea-worn and tired young soldiers had landed at the
Presidio she sent out baskets of fruit and bottles of milk for their
refreshment.

Island memories were always dear to her, and when one day she heard
that a ship had come into port manned with sailors from Samoa, she at
once sent to the dock and invited them all to call on her. Soon the
dark-skinned, picturesque troop, shy but proud of the attention shown
them by Tusitala's widow, arrived. The _ava_ bowl was brought out and
placed before them as they sat cross-legged on the floor in a
semi-circle, and after the brewing of the _ava_ it was drunk with all
the proper ceremonies of speech-making and exchanges of compliments.
Mr. Carmichael Carr, who, with his mother, the well-known singer, was
one of the visitors that day, writes: "I have a wonderfully clear
picture of the reception Mrs. Stevenson gave and the South Sea men she
had gathered around her--their strange appearance and incantations and
the peculiar drink they brewed."

At the Hyde Street house she received many distinguished
people--actors, writers, singers, and even royalties. There Henry
James, S. S. McClure, David Bispham, William Faversham and his wife,
ex-Queen Li