Mother left us to ourselves during half an hour or more, and then told
us plainly that we were showing ourselves to be very foolish girls.
She insisted that we eat the harder portions of the corn bread; that we
take frequent drinks of the coffee, and, above all, that we resolutely
calm our minds.
It must have been that amid all my distress I fell asleep, for suddenly
I heard, as though coming from afar off, shouts of joy and the voices
of men calling one to another.
Starting up, I asked mother what was happening, and gazed around
wildly, for night had come and the moon was not yet risen.
"Thank God! the desert has been crossed, and we have come at last to
where water may be obtained!" my mother cried fervently.
She leaped out of the wagon, we two girls following, and, running
hurriedly, we went to where the men, boys, and animals had gathered in
a group.
I believed we had come to a stream of sweet water, but it was only a
narrow brook, where ran hardly more than a thread of water which had
already been trampled upon by the animals until it was like liquid mud.