The San Francisco call., 1898-12-25

said to cheer him. The next day he fell off his pony and died. The men dug shallCw grave with their knives and laid him to rest
 Father Fish said he thought the Lord would bring him through because he came in such good cause. He in- tended to raise enough money to pay off his churchs debt, back in Northern Indiana.
 Then there was Gould He would pick up everything the rest threw away, until he had so much that MT. Brier gave him an OK to carry his load. Gould repented and had a most happy conversion out in the desert.
 Before the bread gave out one man, Croker, who was in our party com- plained of the short allowance of bread. l told him we must save it as long as possible, and he said with an oath, that he would have it while it lasted. You shall,' I said, but that won't be long" and it wasn't. Then he left our mess. Before we were through that journey I heard that man begging for even the entrails of a crow.
 Did I nurse the sick? An, there was little of that to do. I always did what I could for the poor fellows, but that wasn't much. When one grew sick he just lay down, weary like, and his life went out. It was nature giving up. Poor soulsi
 Soswe went on and on until the morn ing we arrived at San Francisuuito ranch Oh. that was a beautiful morn ing. Just before this the men had killed wild mare and two colts and thescompany ate the meat with relish, but it tasted too sweet. This morning, February 12, 1850, the sun was bright and the grass and flowers seemed like paradise after the awful sand and rocks of the desert. One of the men shot a hawk and another a rabbit and we were preparing to have a feast on them, when we heard more shooting ahead. The, wind blew toward us the sound of lowing cattle and, we were. in great wonder. The Jayhawkers came rush ing back with diiated eyes, saying they had seen ten thousand head of cattle and wagon tracks and believed we were near a farm. Oh, what an excitement came over us. Soon we came up to where the Jayhawkers had killed some cattle and saw thousands of head all around and the men eagerly cut off pieces of the warm, raw meat, ready to devour it, when an old Spaniard and some Indian vaqueros came galloping up on fine horses.
 Our men expected trouble and held their guns ready. The Spaniard was amazed at our appearance, l suppose. We looked more like skeletons than hu- man beings. Our clothes hung in tatters. My dress was in ribbons, and my shoes, hard, baked, broken pieces of leather. Some of the company still had the remains of worn-out shoes with their feet stickine through, and some wore pieces of OK hide tied about their feet. My boys wore oxhide moccasins.
 Patrick knew a little Spanish and said to the Spaniard, pointing to MT. Brier, Padre"
 The old man took off his hat, bowed and said in broken voice, Poor little Padrei" He led us up to his house and the old lady there burst out crying when she saw our condition. They were very kind and cooked us a grand feast, killing the finest animal among their cattle in honor of the padre
 Our stomachs were too weak to di- gest the solid food and we nearly died in fearful agony after eating so heartily.
 In the midst of our awful pain Dr. Irving of Los Angeles happened along and by the use of medicines relieved us. But for him some would have died, for the men were rolling in fearful pain, all bloated, on the ground. We rested at the ranch and then travelled on to Los Angeles without trouble, being aid- ed all the way.
 It was like coming back from death into life again. It was long, long. weary walk, but thank God, he brought us out of it all.