Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865Herndon, Sarah Raymond
History
Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865
Herndon, Sarah Raymond
Overland journeys to the Pacific; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
When the captain saw that the train would soon be out of our sight, he
went to Mr. Morrison, who was on horseback, and said, “Ride quietly
back and warn those girls of their danger, there are Indians around.
They have been seen by the guard, on the island, and by the herders,
in the hollows of the bluffs this morning. They would not be safe one
minute after the train is out of sight.”
They had kept it quiet, as they did not wish to cause unnecessary
alarm, for they knew there was no danger, for the Indians knew they
were being watched, and besides we are too many for them. Mr. Morrison
started, but not quietly; he snatched off his hat, whipping his horse
with it, passed Mr. Kerfoot’s wagon as fast as his horse could go. Mr.
Kerfoot asked, “What is the matter?” Some one said, “Indians!”
He wound the lines round the brake-handle, leaped from his high seat on
the front of the wagon, grabbed the first horse in reach, snatched Mr.
Gatewood’s boy out of the saddle, jumped on the horse and came tearing
toward us, lashing the horse with his long whip--his hat flew off soon
after he started, but he did not know it. He passed Mr. Morrison, and
meeting Cash, he stopped long enough to bring his whip over her horse’s
haunches with all his might, and sent her flying toward the train. He
next met me--for I started, when I saw them coming, and was perhaps a
hundreds yards ahead of Neelie--and stopped and said, “Miss Sallie, do
you know that we are in the very worst Indian country there is on this
road?”
He did not wait for a reply, but went on to Neelie, who was looking
all about to see the Indians. He gave her pony a cut with his whip,
as he had Cash’s, and we went flying over the ground, Neelie’s merry
laughter pealing forth. Mr. Kerfoot did not speak to either of us.
Mr. Morrison had turned back with Cash, and scolded all the way, she
said he stuttered and stuttered, until she had hard work to keep from
laughing. The captain had stopped the train, and we were greeted with
loud cheering and hurrahs.
There was considerable joking about our being anxious for an adventure,
and the young men were profuse in their declarations about what
they would have done if we had been captured by the Indians. Every
one laughed about our “narrow escape,” as they called it, except Mr.
Kerfoot; he was pale and trembling. It is a shame that he should have
been so unnecessarily frightened by our thoughtlessness, and I believe
he thinks it was my fault. I wonder what he would have thought if I had
left Neelie to come alone?
* * * * *
Wednesday, June 14.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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