If all the way had been as difficult as the start, we might never have
gained the other side; but as we advanced the surface grew harder and
harder, until finally even the shoes of the horses failed to make any
impression upon it. Then I heard father say, as he came back from time
to time to speak with mother, that it appeared to him as if we were
traveling over a solid crust of salt.
At the end of an hour, perhaps, we came upon what Ellen called another
"soft spot," and for a distance of two or three miles the oxen strained
and tugged at the yokes as they barely succeeded in drawing the wagons
at a snail's pace.
Then we girls had most terrible forebodings, for it seemed certain we
could never hope to cross that place before all the company had died
from thirst.
To our great relief as well as the relief of the cattle, we came upon
a hard surface once more, and the oxen were urged to their utmost speed
in order to make up for the time we had lost while toiling through the
salty dust.
There was no halting for dinner. Now and then we ate the corn bread,
for with such terrible anxiety in our hearts none of us were conscious
of hunger; but again and again and again did we sip the cold coffee,
using it sparingly, however.