Up to this time mother and I had but little trouble in preparing the
meals whenever we came to a halt; but I heard some of the men say that
within a few days after we were once on the trail, all this would be
changed. There would be many times when we might not find sufficient
fuel to keep a fire in the stove, when we would feel the pangs of
thirst because of not being able to get enough water, and when, the
stock of provisions which we had brought with us having been consumed,
we would know what it was to be hungry.
When I repeated to mother what I had heard, she nodded her head
sadly, replying that she had thought of all these things when father
first determined to seek a new home in the California country, and
she doubted not that we would come to know much suffering, before we
arrived at our journey's end.
As may be supposed, I was not in a cheerful mood when Ellen and I went
to bed that night. During the half hour or more while we lay there
wakeful, we spoke of all the possibilities of the future, and almost
regretted that our parents had decided to leave Pike County, for
surely they could find nowhere on the face of this earth a place more
agreeable in which to live.