The Slower Road

… Continuing on from the previous post …

“On the morning of the 21st, I was up as usual, that is, early, getting ready to leave. I was strongly urged to stay and get breakfast before starting. Having been well cared for I could but stop; a good breakfast was at my disposal. While getting my breakfast I inquired for the lady of the house, when soon she came. I bade her good morning and said, ‘I am about to leave you and thought I would like to bid you goodbye.’ ‘Why need you start so early?’ she said. ‘It is my custom; if I make an early start I can make a long or short day as I choose. I am informed that I shall have many sloughs to get through, some of them are deep and will be troublesome to get through.’ ‘Yes, I am afraid you will, and bad to get over. The rain we had a day or two ago made the marshes bad. I suppose it will be of no use to offer you any more than I have already done for your cow?’ ‘Madam, you have already offered me more than she is worth. I have been told many times that I could not get her East. At all times I have thought to the contrary, and it is my desire to give it a fair trial. The cow has not been milked this morning, but I intend to, give me a pail and I will milk her.’ I milked and gave the the lady the milking, saying, ‘My dear friend, this is all I can do. I have but one dollar; that is all the money I possess. I have as much grain as will last me to Corinne. Then I can get a sack and have as much as will pay for the same.’ ‘Stranger, your cow has paid your bill and more. Here is a lunch for the day,’ she answered. ‘Thank you, good morning.’ ‘Good morning, I hope you will get along all right.’

“It was just six o’clock as we left Kelton and on passing the blacksmith’s shop he called out to me, ‘Here, friend traveler, is something you will need after crossing the sloughs. It’s worth all I ask. You can not travel until you get rid of the mud; you will know more after you have crossed one.’ ‘What do you ask for it?’ ‘Oh, I sell cheap. It will be nothing to you, that is cheap enough.’ After thanking him I moved on, soon coming to one of these sloughs.

“These sloughs are flat or level pieces of land, of from forty to one hundred rods in length, composed of sand, mixed with salt and alkali. When rain falls on this soil, it becomes soft like mortar, for plastering. It is not deep, from one to three inches, but its adhesion to the boots, wheels, or feet of animals is very strong.

“I drove on to this slough, mud we will call it. As I walked through, my feet seemed to double in size; so did the horse’s and cow’s, and the rims of my wheels became very thick and clumsy. It does not fall off as ordinary mud will; it hangs like a load-stone until you scrape it off with some instrument. The blacksmith had given me the right kind of an instrument, it was nothing more or less than a shovel; the blade was two inches wide, three inches deep, and about one-eighth of an inch thick and about one foot long.

“After crossing one of these sloughs, I would have a half mile or more of good road before coming to another. After passing through one, I would clean off the mud from my boots, the horse’s and cow’s shoes, and from from the rims of my wheels, but with the latter I was not so particular. I found it best to remove the mud at once before it became dry, as it hardened as quick as cement.

“In traveling about seven miles I crossed five of these sloughs. At noon I stopped, giving my cattle water and grain and took a bite myself.”

The next morning, Mr. Johnson “was up as usual getting ready to move onward. I gave the animals their breakfast and was greasing the wheels of my wagon when my friend of the station came along. ‘Well, stranger, I see you are making ready to go on. How did you sleep last night?’ ‘Well, the first part I slept with my eyes open, and the latter much better with them closed, the trains having passed.’ ‘Our breakfast is about ready, come in and have a dish of hot coffee. It takes milk to make good coffee, I find.’ ‘Yes, it improves it very much.’ I went and took breakfast with them, and as I was leaving said to them, ‘Friends, I feel very grateful to you for the kindness to me. I am sure, could my cattle speak, they would also. Good morning.’ ‘Good morning,’ was answered. ‘Take the first right trail after crossing the railroad, it is the best and the nearest.’ It is just six o’clock as we move on another stage of our journey.

“After crossing the railroad I left the road to my left, my trail taking me down into the canyon, while the railroad went around, both coming together again before reaching Kelton, which place I reached at eleven o’clock. I drove down to the stockyards and asked the proprietor if he would sell me some hay to bait by horse and cow. ‘Lead your cattle into the yard and we will feed them on hay.’ ‘How much will you ask me?’ ‘Fifty cents a head.’ ‘Will you sell me some to take outside of the yard?’ ‘No, not a pound.’ I went down town, coming to a small barn. I stopped and went into the barn and heard someone say, ‘Whoa, Fanny, whoa.’ On looking around I saw a lady putting a saddle on a horse and I said to her, ‘Madam, I have just come into town and stopped back at the stockyards to see if I could buy some hay for my cattle; I have a horse and cow. I am a traveler, I have come a long distance and still have a longer distance before me.’ ‘Where are your cattle?’ ‘Outside the barn.’ She stepped out, saw them and said, ‘You have a fine-looking cow. Where have you come from?’ ‘I have come from California.’ ‘Not with that horse and cow?’ ‘Yes, I have.’ ‘Drive to the barn, take the horse out of the carriage and lead her into that stall, put the cow into the next and give them all the hay they wish; there is grain, help yourself,’ said the lady. I did as told. ‘How long do you intend to stay?’ she asked. ‘I would like to stop over until tomorrow morning. The cow gives milk, but she has not been milked since last night.’ ‘I would like the milk; I keep an eating-house on Main street. I will get a pail for the milk,’ she said. She brought me the pail, I milked and gave it to her, when she said, ‘This is a fine mess and a large quantity of milk; I would like that cow. Come in and have some dinner.’ I took dinner with the lady and as we were about to leave the table, a gentleman came in and sat down to dinner.

“The lady said, ‘This is my husband, stranger. This man says he has traveled from California to this place with a horse, carriage, cow and dog, and is going east, to Massachusetts.’ ‘Then you are the man I read of in some Western papers?’ he said. ‘I am, sir.’ ‘You are a gritty fellow to undertake such a journey. There is not a young man that dares do as much.’ ‘His cattle are in our barn, go and look at them after dinner.’ ‘I will, wife.’ He went to the barn and looked my cattle over, saying, ‘He has got a fine-looking cow and a good one.’ ‘John, look in this pail and see what a large mess of milk he has taken from her,’ said the lady. The husband left, but as he went out he told everybody that I had arrived, and the people came to see me. The landlord said to a friend, ‘Bill, the man from California had got along with his horse and cow; they are in my stable, come and have a look at them; my wife thinks everything of the cow.’ They came. ‘Well, stranger, you have a fine horse here.’ ‘Yes, she is a Morgan mare.’ ‘I see she is. Where is the cow?’ ‘Here she is.’ ‘She is a daisy; handsome and beautifully marked. Have you come from California with this horse and cow?’ ‘I have, sir.’ ‘You are a brick, well burned. If you succeed in this enterprise we will run you for next president.’ “

… to be continued …