The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic FateHoughton, Eliza Poor Donner
History
The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner
Donner Party; Overland journeys to the Pacific
I had promised to be very careful and to try never to tell another lie,
and I had been unhappy enough to want to keep the promise. But, alas,
my sympathy for Jakie led me into more trouble, and it must have been
on Sunday too, for he was not working, but sitting reverently under the
tree with his elbows upon a table, and his cheeks resting in the
hollows of his hands. Before him lay the Holy Scriptures from which he
was slowly reading aloud in solemn tones.
Georgia and I standing a short distance from him, listened very
intently. Not hearing a single English word, and not understanding many
of the German, I became deeply concerned and turning to her asked,
"Aren't you awful sorry for poor Jakie? There he is, reading to God in
German, and God can't understand him. I'm afraid Jakie won't go to
heaven when he dies."
My wise little sister turned upon me indignantly, assuring me that "God
sees everybody and understands everybody's talk." To prove the truth of
her statement, she rushed to the kitchen and appealed to grandma, who
not only confirmed Georgia's words, but asked me what right I had to
believe that God was American only, and could not understand good
German people when they read and spoke to Him? She wanted to know if I
was not ashamed to think that they, who had loved me, and been kind to
me would not go to Heaven as well as I who had come to them a beggar?
Then she sent me away by myself to think of my many sins; and I,
weeping, accepted banishment from Georgia, lest she should learn
wickedness from me.
Georgia was greatly disturbed on my account, because she believed I had
wilfully misrepresented God, and that He might not forgive me. When
Jakie learned what had happened, he declared that I had spoken like a
child, and needed instruction more than punishment. So for the purpose
of broadening my religious views, and keeping before me the fact that
"God can do all things and knows all languages," grandma taught me the
Lord's Prayer in French and German, and heard me repeat it each night
in both languages, after I had said it as taught me by my mother.
It was about this time, that Leanna confided to me that she was
homesick for Elitha, and she would go to her very soon. She said that I
must not object when the time came, for she loved her own sister just
as much as I did mine, and was as anxious to go to Elitha as I had been
to come to Georgia. She had been planning several weeks, and knew of a
family with which she could travel to Sutter's Fort. Later, when she
collected her things to go away, she left with us a pair of beautifully
knit black silk stockings, marked near the top in fine cross-stitch in
white, "D," and under that "5." The stockings had been our mother's.
She had knit them herself and worn them. Georgia gave one to me and
kept the other. We both felt that they were almost too sacred to
handle. They were our only keepsakes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account