With shy head hanging and many a blush, she said she had been married
but four months. Her husband, who was a Mormon, was then at one of his
other ranches, where he stopped for weeks at a time. I surmised that she
was not his first wife, but warned by her attitude, forbore to question.
She told me of her limited opportunities and narrow horizon. With
wistful eyes she listened to my descriptions of large cities. She
herself had never been further than Ogden, and only twice to that
metropolis. The furnishings of the house were crude in the extreme, and
she confided to me her longing for curtains such as she had once seen in
Ogden, and hoped to have a strip of carpet for the parlour floor some
time.
Suddenly she flung herself on her knees at my side and buried her face
in my lap, while great sobs shook the slender body. She was all alone
she said, all, all alone, and she was afraid. Her mother had eleven
children and was always too overworked to listen to her daughter’s
nonsense, as she called it. I gently raised the child—she was but
sixteen years of age—to my lap, and with tender words and petting calmed
the storm of sobs. When she could listen I advised her as best I could,
and wrote a set of instructions to guide her in the coming hours of
need. Poor little wild rose. I dread to think of what the future holds
for her, so sensitive, so frail.
Once more we took a train and soon landed in Ogden. Turning to the left,
we crossed the river and came to a large cottonwood grove. Here we
pitched camp and Dan took up the never-ending search for work. Last
night he came home with a big watermelon and the welcome news that he
was to start work on Monday morning. So for a few days at least I am
free to rest and sew.
SEVENTEEN
_August 22nd_,
ON THE SACRAMENTO RIVER.
SEVENTEEN
_August 22nd. On the Sacramento River._
Well, little book, my entries are almost finished, for the business of
building a new niche in the world with nothing but our bare hands will
leave scant time for keeping a diary.
Dan had several days’ work in Ogden. Then we took a passenger to the
first stop west as usual and there boarded a freight. We had not gone
far when a trainman thrust his head into the car in which we were
riding, and failing to see me huddled in a corner, accosted Dan.
“Hello, Jack. What are you riding on?”
“A union card,” replied Dan, following the accepted formula, and pulling
the card from his pocket for inspection.
“And what else?” queried the brakeman.
“A dollar,” said Dan.
“Not enough, Jacko. It’s two dollars or nothing on this division. Cough
up.”
So Dan gave him the two dollars and the train moved out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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