Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/25

 shrubbery. It was hard service for the teams in the lead, so the strongest teams were put in the van, but these were changed every day. Part of the time we followed a train for pack animals and horsemen.

One day, as the train was slowly tramping along over a wide plain, a party of horsemen appeared in our front about a mile from us, coming down a little hill toward us. A man of our party was riding a quarter of a mile in advance of the train when those horsemen came in sight, and he, supposing them to be a party of hostile Indians, came galloping back, lashing his horse with his hat, which he carried in his right hand, and shouting at the top of his voice, "Injuns! Injuns! Corral! Corral! Corral!" The corral was soon formed and all in readiness to do battle, but there was some excitement and confusion. I was at that time in the little red wagon with mother, and I noticed she had a bright brass pistol in her hand. I think I did not know before that she had a pistol. I looked at her face and I thought she was a little pale but not scared. The party we thought were Indians soon came up to us. They were mountain men or trappers, so the train was soon on the march again.

I remember one afternoon, when the teams were tired and some of the oxen limping with sore feet, I was looking far away in the direction we were traveling, across a dreary sage plain, to all appearances extending to the end of the earth, and I got to wondering where we were trying to get to, and asked the question, when someone said, "To Oregon." I did not know any more but was satisfied. I think I made up my mind then and there not to ask that question any more, but to wait and not draw out that answer, which afforded me no information. To me, "Oregon" was a word without meaning.

After traveling a long way, it seems to me over a vast level country almost without timber, we saw broken country and hills far away in the direction we were traveling, and I heard it remarked that somewhere in the hilly country we could begin to see, was the Sweetwater River. This was good news to me, for I fancied that when we got to that river I would have all the sweet water I could drink. When we came to the river, which was a small shallow stream flowing gently along over yellow sands, I ran down to the water's edge, and