It was only natural she should be worried about making such a great
change, for all father's worldly goods consisted of the Pike County
plantation and the live stock, and if, after selling the land and
spending very nearly all his money to provide for the journey, we found
that California farms were no better than the one we were leaving, it
would be the saddest kind of mistake.
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"Your father has set his mind on going; the homestead has been sold,
and we must make the best of it, Martha, hoping that half the stories
we have heard about California are true," she said to me so many times
that I came almost to believe it was a foolish venture upon which we
were about to embark.
Then, when I began to wonder how we were to live during such a long
journey, and asked mother if it would be possible for us to cook and
churn and do the family washing while traveling in an ox wagon, she
would say with a sigh:--
"Don't, Martha, don't ask questions that I can't answer! It seems to me
almost certain that we shall starve to death before getting anywhere
near California, even if we are not killed by Indians or wild beasts,
without having had time to get very hungry or dirty."
Yet we did travel the two thousand miles, walking the greater part of
the way, and although there were many times when all of us were hungry,
none actually starved to death; nor were we killed by wild beasts or
Indians, else I could not be here in this beautiful place writing this
story.
Father spent days and days getting ready for the moving. After he
had finished the preparations, I thought the journey would not be so
terribly hard, because he had arranged everything so snug and cozy for
mother and me, that it really seemed as if we might take actual comfort
in case we could make shift to do housework in a wagon.