Page:From the West to the West.djvu/223



XXX

BOBBIE GOES TO HIS MOTHER

JEAN'S aching tooth suffered a relapse, and the suppuration that ensued made her seriously ill. On the 14th of August her father again made an entry:—

"Five of our escort have left us, taking with them a wagon-bed left by the wayside by somebody whose cattle have died or strayed. They made a clumsy boat of the square-bottomed thing; and with this frail craft, which they successfully launched in the tortuous waters of the Snake, they expect to find safe navigation to its confluence with the Columbia. Although it was a relief to get rid of some of them, chiefly because they thought they knew so much more about my business than I was able to learn, I am apprehensive of results solely on their account. Snake River doesn't look to me like a safe stream to be trusted. But it was a relief to see them go, because we are yet many hundreds of miles from our goal, and our supplies of food and means of transportation are getting more precarious daily.

"August 15. Lost another ox by drowning.

"August 16. Weather insufferably hot. Lost an ox to-day from eating a poisonous herb. At this rate we shall soon be left with one wagon. The cattle must hustle for food after every day's pull, making it very hard to keep life in their poor skeleton bodies."

On the evening of the 18th Jean resumed her writing, which ran in part as follows:—

"The long and dreary road is rough and hilly, and the yielding sand is deep. We found to-day at noon a patch of dry grass, and stopped to graze our famishing cattle. But we neglected, by some mischance, to fill our w