No reader can
fully realize how much we had to say and do to keep up courage, and it
is to this more than anything else that we did which kept up the lagging
energies and inspired the best exertion. I don't know but we painted
some things a little brighter than they were, and tried to hide some of
the most disheartening points of the prospects ahead, for we found the
mind had most to do with it after all. We have no doubt that if we had
not done all we could to keep up good courage, the women would have
pined away and died before reaching this far. Whenever we stopped
talking encouragingly, they seemed to get melancholy and blue.
There was some pretty good management to be exercised still. The oxen
were gradually growing weaker, and we had to kill the weakest one every
time, for if the transportation of our food failed, we should yet be
open to the danger of starvation. As it was, the meat on their frames
was very scarce, and we had to use the greatest economy to make it last
and waste nothing. We should now have to kill one of our oxen every few
days, as our other means of subsistence had been so completely used up.
The women contracted a strange dislike to this region and said they
never wanted to see any part of it again.
As the sun showed its face over the great sea of mountains away to the
east of Death Valley, and it seemed to rise very early for winter season
we packed up and started west on the big trail. Rogers and I took the
oxen and mule and went on, leaving the others to accompany Old Crump and
his little charges.
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