You must know that father was not the only man in Ashley that intended
to build up a new home in California. More than half of the people
were making preparations for the journey, and when we finally set off
the procession was very imposing, with more than fifty wagons, not one
of them drawn by less than three yoke of oxen or four pairs of mules;
there were cows almost without number and a flock of thirty or forty
sheep.
I said to myself then, that we need have no fear the savages would try
to make trouble for us, because when they saw so many people, the poor,
ignorant things would believe everybody on the banks of the Mississippi
was heading for California, and it would be a very brave Indian who
dared be other than polite to such a large company.
[Illustration]
Even though you had never before heard of Pike County, it would have
been most interesting to see the people of Ashley on the morning we
set off. As Ellen Morgan, a particular friend of mine who was going to
California also, said to me just before we drove away, "It is much as
if all the folks in the world had come to see us leave town."
The streets were actually thronged, as I have heard it said the streets
of a large city oftentimes are, and what with the shouts of the men,
the screams of the children, and the lowing of the cattle, it was quite
as much as I could do to make myself heard when I tried to tell Ellen
that at the last minute mother had given permission for her to ride in
our wagon.
Of course the noise in the street could not have been as great as I
fancied, for Ellen had no trouble in hearing me, as was shown when she
came running back to our wagon with her Sunday frock and other valuable
things neatly done up in a corn sack.
Then it seemed to me that no improvement could be made upon our manner
of traveling, for we two girls were to be together all the while, and
even when the weather was stormy, it would seem really cozy under our
double thickness of osnaburg cloth.
[Illustration]
It surprised me very much because mother acted as if it saddened her to
set off on what could not fail to be a delightful journey. I saw tears
in her eyes when she came out of our old home for the last time, and
wondered if she was sorry because she was leaving the house where we
had lived so long, or whether she believed we would never find another
such delightful town as Ashley.
[Illustration]
Of course I felt just a little tearful when those people who were to
remain at home gathered around the wagon to say "good-by"; but there
were so many of our neighbors in the company we would not have a chance
to be lonely, and I was certain that all the friends we were leaving
behind would soon join us, having come to realize, as had father, that
California was the only proper place in which to live.