The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-01-12

their childhood. Times have changed
since then and parents go without, il
scrimping is necessary.
Two wagons across the mountains; two
sent down the river. There are ye
other two. In one of these woman
with her infant in her arms had ridden
over all the dreary miles that intervene
between the Missouri and the Columbia
Sick when the burden of the great jour
ney began; the baby six months
old. Who shall voice the suf
erings of an invalid on that
long and tedious journey? The
weary days in which the stomach turned
in loathing from the rusty bacon
and hard bread that was the
only food to be had; the feverish
nights in which the narrow, close
wagon box seemed coffin in which she
was entombed with every sense al We;
the heartaches occasioned by the daily
prospect of dying and leaving her baby
uncared for in the wilderness. Unwrit-
ten forever must be the slow torture of
such months. Our invalid, her pale,
pinched features and large, wistful eyes
framed in the grim setting of the soiled
wagon cover that had been her only
shelter for six weary months of suffering,
babe us good bye at The Dalles, and
three days afterward consumption
had claimed another victim and her
wasted form was laid away in the old
military cemetery near that city.
The other wagon? It, too, halted at
The Dalles, the owner having for some
days been sick, and feeling totally unable
to brave the storms of the mountains
Weeks after we learned that another
grave had been made am ong strangers,
and another had reached the immigrants
goal only to die upon its Threshold.
The goal reached. Winter was now
fairly upon the immigrants. The two
remaining families separated to find
shelter and food until spring. A desert
ed cabin on the river bank near the old
town site of Champoeg, then more i'm
portant village than Portland, was the
abiding place of one of these. One
room, wide earthen fire place with a
mud and stick fue, an earthen floor, u
window consisting of square in the
wall covered by portion of an old sheet
to keep out the wind and admit the light,
two ''stick-tight" bedsteads against the
walls, table improvised from boards,
two benches-these were the appoint.
ments of the home which they had trav
eled six months to reach. The dwelling
was lighted in the evenings by a lamp of
the most primitive type-being merely
battered tin pie-pan filled with
grease, in which foated twisted rag for
q wick. There was danger that the sup
ply of grease would fail and the house
hold be left in utter darkness, so the
frugal housewife blew the light out as
soon as possible each evening. On one
of these occasions the master of the cabin
home placed the platter lamp upon
bench and stepped outside for wood to
replenish the fire. Quick as thought
the frugal wife blew out the light; in
came pater familias and leisurely seated
himself in the lamp, while he proceeded
to mend the fire. This disaster involved
the family in darkness for week on &C.
count of the wanton waste of oil, and
the good man was forced to keep to his
bed until noon next day while his thrifty
wife washed and dried his only pair of
pants.
Early in January came terrific snow
storm. The white drifts piled high
about the little cabin. The OK team had
further dwindled, until single yoke re-
NAMED; these were without shelter, and
since the snow had come without food.
During two of tine worst nights the faith
full beasts were taken into the cabin and
shared its poor protection with the fam
lily. Afterward the plying woman inn
improvised covering for each out of
the battered wagon sheet that had done
duty across the continent. With this
protection and the daily telling of trees
for browse they came bravely through
the winter, and thu next season earned
for their owners many dollar in team
ing between Salem and Chsmpoeg.
Five months in this isolated region,
this pioneer woman lived without seeing
another woman. The daily bill of fare
was bread, tea and sour molasses. This
was UNMARRIED for months. At last, one
day, the husband borrowed q gun and
killed two grouse and to complete the
happy change ID fare and routine q
woman, real, lite woman, came trudg-
ing through the damp forest to the
cabin, bringing IS neighborly offering
a rasher of bacoI and o small pail of
milk. What feast they had. The but
ter and potatoes Il Fosters were now re-
manded to SECONDARY place. The poor
woman, then q homesick stranger in o
strange land, records through all the
succeeding yearspf her life nothing that
has given her suih an exquisite throb OF
pleasure az. the tight of the green ging
ham sun-bonnet bobbing through the