So we encamped early, and mother decided to set about churning, for
long ago our store of butter had been exhausted. We had but a small
quantity of cream, all of which had been saved since morning.
No sooner had she begun her work than fully half the women of the
company followed her example, and at the side or in the rear of nearly
every wagon was a churn set out with either the girls or the boys
working the dasher.
As Eben Jordan said when he offered to spell me at the churn, it looked
as if we people, who had set out from Ashley to find a new home in the
land of California, had decided to abandon the idea and turn all our
attention to making butter.
[Illustration]
Next morning we were forced to continue the journey before having
breakfast, for we were nearing the Kansas River, and would arrive there
about noon if the march was begun as soon as daylight. Even then there
would be hardly more than time before the sun set to get all our train
over, for the stream was so deep that it could not be forded, and we
must send the wagons across in boats.