During all that night it rained; but shortly after midnight there came
up such a terrific storm of thunder and lightning that it seemed as if
the very heavens were bursting.
Then all our men and boys were forced to go and quiet the cattle, for
the beasts were even as frightened as we girls were, and, so father
said, would have stampeded, leaving us to spend the next day searching
for them on the prairies, had it not been for the precautions of our
people.
When I complained to mother, just after father had gone out into the
tempest, that this journey to California was nothing like what I had
pictured it, she said mildly that if I was growing disheartened now, it
would have been better had I never set out from Pike County, for thus
far matters had gone much to our convenience and that shortly we would
find real trials and real troubles.
Next morning, however, my spirits rose, for the sun was shining
brightly when I awoke; but word was passed around the camp that
instead of setting off at once, we might spend two hours drying the bed
clothing and such of our belongings as had been saturated during the
storm.
Then there was presented such a scene as would have interested any one
who had never witnessed the like before. On every wagon tongue were
hung blankets and garments of all kinds, and over the wheels of each
cart lay feather beds or bolsters, until it must have looked as if
every member of our company had spent a day in washing, and was now
about to do the ironing.
[Illustration]
Eben Jordan went here and there, aiding this one or that when he had
done what he might for his mother, all the while singing "My name it
is Joe Bowers," until, even before our breakfast had been cooked, fully
half the company were joining in that foolish song. Mother said almost
fretfully, when Ellen and I took up the refrain, that she wished the
senseless words had never been written, or that we had never heard
them.