Not until nearly six o'clock were all our company on the western side
of the river, and then I supposed that we would immediately make camp;
but to my surprise word was given for the train to move on, and we
journeyed three miles more, coming to the bank of Soldier Creek before
darkness.
It was at this place that a most pleasant surprise awaited us. Colonel
Russell's wife, who had walked ahead while our train was being ferried
across the river, found quantities and quantities of wild strawberries
near the camping place. As soon as we women and girls arrived, we set
about gathering the berries, until each family had a good supply of
the luscious fruit. Milk was not a poor substitute for cream to us who
had been living upon corn bread and salt meat ever since we left the
settlement of Independence.
During the next two days we traveled steadily onward, slowly, to be
sure, but yet each step, as Ellen said again and again, was taking us
nearer the end of the journey. In time I came to be impatient whenever
a halt was called, so eager was I to have done with riding, for however
comfortable a girl might make herself in one of the wagons, her limbs
were certain to become cramped before night.
[Illustration]
On the third day after crossing the Kansas River, the leaders of our
company decided that a halt was needed in order to give the animals a
rest. Their hoofs had become dry and cracked from traveling over the
matted grass of last year, which covered the prairie even beneath the
new crop, and it was necessary that something be done for them without
delay.
I had been looking forward to a full day's halt, even though impatient
when we were not moving forward, for Ellen and I had planned to wander
as far from the encampment as we could, searching for flowers and wild
peas, which grew there in great abundance, so we had been told.