Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-22
and was about to sample again, until we
| hal actually to choke him off.

then waited IOr II Jay OF TWO more, the /
grass was small While here in camp Mr. |
Johns concluded that as the grass was
scarce he would like to send back TO the !
river at the Indian mission and get little
more corn, lest his horses would suffer be-
fore grass would be plenty. | volunteered
to go back for the corn with q friend. He
sent also for brace Of saddle-bag pistols
he had seen at the trading post.
We saw the Indian children of the mis-
sion al breakfast; heard brave sing He
Oh. he no, hi oh, no no. and repeat, each
time descending in the scale lower and
lower till the sounds seemed to come from
away below the stomach-and was I'M
doubtedly an example of the pure Indian
guttural-and then ended the verse by
three loud yclls-war- whoop probably-of
triumph, because he had not sunk beyond
his depth in low music. followed by the
words Z" Omaha Omaha" Then we left
with our sacks of corn for oar train. On
our return two Indian horsemen rushed
from a ravine to cur left toward us, evil
IDENTIFY intending to make us stampede and
rob us. But our horses were gentle and
theirs turned aside when getting within
ten PAGES Of US.
A FINAL START.
Monday morning has come our oxen
are yoked and our teams harnessed, and
we turn our faces westward, as civilization
had done long before. If | had thought
should be from April to September on the
lonely desert or plains, | should have lost
patience. And yet the fare was the same
| 500 by OK team and 800 by railroad now.
| The only difference was that / got across on
credit, but the bill was presented in due
time and the money paid. | was TO be a
passenger, but / drove the OK team and
stood guard as regular as if | had been
kt-nr irf, fant- IN n
! Irishman who paid fare on the canal-bOat
and then walked and drove the mules,
paleS by the side of it, And do not think
| that in this narrow circle of life, when
your home is on the road by day and in the
tent or guard at night, that all affection is
destroyed. Should you sleep on guard and
| an OK be stolen, you may have to leave
wagon and the provisions 1t contains,
which may be your life, behind you. To
goad an OK that is saving your life by haul
| ing your sustenance from day to day, and
that may in sickness draw you to your in
tended home is verify like torturing your
own self. In short, the animals become a
part of ones self, and in patience and labor
the old trip across the plains endowed us
with the " labor and the patience of an OK"
| We soon reached the Elk Horn river, and
at the ferry found it deep, blue, placid
| stream.
IOhDlNS The Little MODDf.
And now the Rock river train is again
about TO show its prowess About three
miles away from the Elk Horn is a little
stream, called on our guide-books, Little
Muddy. 1t carried only few feet of water
in a muddy bed, and carried it very slowly.
| The banks were very steep and not sloped
by the helping spade. There was but one
track across it, and having reached it first,
| about half OF our train had passed over,
when up drove the swifter-moving horse
trains just ferried over the Elk Horn, driv-
| ing up to the banks of Little Muddy The
oxen SHE'D away from the horses. The
| first horse train took the ford and drove
over, and the next followed and without so
much as "by your kindness" were cross
ing over while we were to wait their pleas
| ure. But plucky OK driver seized the
| reins of the leaders of the third team and
| turned the whole machine down stream.
| nearly capsizing it. The driver of the
horse team had very long and elegant
whip, which he piled with the dexterity of
an old stager to the back of MIN who guided
his leaders away from the ford. Pat
| Lynch, from me country" sprang for
ward with his OK -goad, and showed him
self as ready with switch repartee as their
countrymen usually are with wit of the
| same name. The whip man got rather the
worst of it, and finding himself forced in
| the wrong direction, said: In Ohio | was
a Presbyterian elder, and thought had all
my passions under control, but somehow
or other on the plains | am moved by i'm
pulse and all the Maynard forces of self
| interest and my religion seems left be-
hind" And it is nearly always so. need
not tell how many crossed back to help
settle this matter" and how well pre-
pared with arms, and how reckless our
men seemed to be. All is level on the
plains. Religion passes for little. Learn
ing is worthless. Why, we would not haul
a gilt edged, unabridged Webster two miles
| if given us for nothing.
! a man sold me gold watch, keepsake
from his only brother back East. He
parted with it for much needed cash, with
| the condition if | got through with it he
would like to redeem it. l sold the watch
for a pack horse at the Sink of the Hum
boldt, and wasted no words on sentiment
tality. Ny friend Hyatt, who brought up
at Marysville, sent to redeem it, but had no
word of condemnation for me that did not
come home to himself
vIcIssITUDEs OF THE WAY.
But now we move onward for the Platte
river. A wide stream, clear as crystal,
winding its way from the mountains to the
Missouri. We now begin to see the new
made graves. Here one and there an
other. By and by we pass five or six day,
| and finally the number reached twenty
| five a day; all died of cholera Yet we
| learned that on the other side of the Platte
and along the Blue river, the harvest of
death is much more plenteous. We finally
reached the end of timber, and are $50
miles below Fort Laramie. Here we must
! try our wagon tires and reset them if nee
essary. Our wagons needed no resetting,
and so ] had day for a buffalo hunt nv
companion ofthe hunt was VIM. Stoddard
the same man who in late years attempted
to guard the notorious Wells. the murderer,
| from NicolauS to Sacramento, and was
killed III the suburbs of this city. He in
formed me that day that he was nephew
of Daniel Webster. Suffice il for this hunt
that we killed no buffaloes, but we saw one
shot down by Stafford of our train We
espied the buffalo at distance and sought
to get shot at him by crossing hollow to
nearer ridge of ground, but when we
reached there he was yet long ways off,
and We saw Stafford between us and the
buffalo, crawling up for a shot He APP
| preached as near as he could under cover
and then, still being too far of to shoot eff
iectively with his light gun, he arose and
ran as rapidly as possible directly towards
the game, getting within q hundred yards
| or so before being seen, and then fired for
the immense fellows heart The ball
| struck IN his side just back of the fore leg,
and he dropped. Stoddard and l fired our
runs in the direction of the buffalo, so as to
have part in the fun, and then ran for
the grand game. | was dispatched 10
camp for a wagon, and returned to the Vi
entity of the game at dusk to find that all
had left, and we must make our way back
about six miles-over sand hills and deep
cutters in a dark night. Choosing two
stars that were in the direction of our
camp we started home, but did not reach it
till near midnight.
We had barely taken sigh of relief
when we learned that Mr. Cheney, a law
yer from Illinois. asd one of our compan-
ions, was dead of cholera, and that Nc
! kenzie IL think / have the rame) was
dying. The next morning a broad grave
was dug by the roadside, and the two were
laid side by side. covered with willows. a
| chapter read from the Book Of Life. a SOL
| emn soBg was sung, and then we covered
| them, to lie until the last trump should
call them forth. We planted little head
board at the grave. to mark the spot, and