The Colonel, at Home in Sonoma County [pp. 200-208]

The Colonel, at Home, in Sonoma County.
THE COLONEL, AT HOME, IN SONOMA COUNTY.
AFTER the close of the War of the
Rebellion, the Colonel - finding himself
nearly moneyless and quite guiltless of
renown -decided to migrate, to begip
life anew in some other land remote from
that of unhappy memories. Acting on
this decision he closed up his affairs,
and with his earthly possessions- consisting chiefly of a band of fine, healthy
children -sailed for the E1 Dorado of
the West, and in due season touched its
magic shore.
By fraud or other nefarious means,
considered in his code of life execrable,
a Kentucky gentleman may have been
robbed of fame justly his, of land, gold,
and other things his by right of inheritance or otherwise; but no machination
of his enemies, no scheming of those
opposed to him in politics, no threats
from encroaching poverty, have ever
succeeded in depriving him of that aml)le and becoming leisure which fits his
status in life, and makes him to the uneasy Yankee a wonder and a glory. And
the Colonel,- conservative and faithful
to the type of his fathers,- his foot well
planted on California's soil, looked composedly about, and showing no haste to
purchase land, waited to find a piece
matching that mapped out in his own
rllind..
Several years were spent in visiting
the different counties celebrated for
their productiveness and equable climate. The nearest approach to the distinguishingfeatures of Bourbon County,
Kentucky, minus its objectionable ones,
was the goal of the Colonel's desire.
At last, he found it in Sonoma County,
where upon the Santa Rosa - a stream
small, but not too small to bear a poetic
name —he pitched his tent, and there,
little by little, became the dignified
possessor of twenty acres of fine orchard
land, planted with prunes, now in full
bearing.
It was at a fortunate period of his
life- his children grown into men and
women, bearing their own burdens and
responsibilities; his land paid for, and
his prunes sold, on the trees, at three
cents a pound that we made his acquaintance; and now, falling into the
sear and yellow leaf, the fire of his
Southern blood toned by time and circumstances into a gentle, pervasive, persuasive heat, the Colonel beguiled us
into idleness through many an hour,
while we listened to accounts of his later
exploits as well as to reminiscences of
his "Old Kentucky Home" and the
manner) and customs there prevailing.
With a peculiar touch, all his own, he
idealized the history of Sonoma County,
and made it a charming agglomeration
of truth and fiction. Passing through
his mind, dull facts took on a glow and
brilliancy of color marvelous to contemplate; after their baptism of fire in the
heated imagination of the Colonel they
- if facts be self conscious - must, to
say the least, have felt flattered at the
result.
A pleasing instance is the story of the
good Friar Amoroso, who in I823, (so
say the annals,) in his mad enthusiasm
for the conversion of souls, pushed into
Sonoma County in search of new fields
of endeavor; there, coming upon a
young Indian maiden, he seized and
dragged her to the nearest water at
hand, and christened both her and the
stream "Santa Rosa." This legend as
it came from the Colonel possessed a
romantic beauty, a delicate finish, not
found in the chronicles of the State,
which are but bare and meager regarding the subsequent events and adventures in the young woman's life.
200
[Feb