Page:Life Among the Piutes.djvu/13

 My grandfather met him, and they were soon friends. They met just where the railroad crosses Truckee River, now called Wadsworth, Nevada. Captain Fremont gave my grandfather the name of Captain Truckee, and he also called the river after him. Truckee is an Indian word, it means all right, or very well. A party of twelve of my people went to California with Captain Fremont. I do not know just how long they were gone.

During the time my grandfather was away in California, where he staid till after the Mexican war, there was a girl-baby born in our family. I can just remember it. It must have been in spring, because everything was green. I was away playing with some other children when my mother called me to come to her. So I ran to her. She then asked me to sit down, which I did. She then handed me some beautiful beads, and asked me if I would like to buy something with them. I said:—

“Yes, mother,—some pine nuts.”

My mother said:—

“Would you like something else you can love and play with? Would you like to have a little sister?” I said,—

“Yes, dear mother, a little, little sister; not like my sister Mary, for she won’t let me play with her. She leaves me and goes with big girls to play; “and then my mother wanted to know if I would give my pretty beads for the little sister.

Just then the baby let out such a cry it. frightened me; and I jumped up and cried so that my mother took me in her arms, and said it was a little sister for me, and not to be afraid. This is all I can remember about it.

When my grandfather went to California he helped Captain Fremont fight the Mexicans. When he came back he told the people what a beautiful country California was. Only eleven returned home, one having died on the way