The Slower Road

When we last heard from Mr. Johnson, he’d reached Blue Creek station and had (finally!) been able to give his thirsty horse and cow some much-needed water.

Later that day …

“I kept on the old trail, following it for some four miles. I found that this trail went to Corinne, but it was going to make twenty-five miles more of travel, so I at once left this trail and struck across to the railroad trail coming to Quarry station. From this place to Corinne was a good road all the way, and we reached Corinne about dark. A little distance off I saw a man with a lantern go into a barn, and I went for him as he was coming out and said, ‘Good evening. Friend, I have just arrived in town, I have a horse and cow and wish to stop for the night; I would like some hay for my cattle, can you accommodate me, sir?’ ‘I have hay. Stranger, which way are you traveling, sir?’ ‘I am traveling east.’ ‘Traveling east, sir,’ he repeated and then stepped out to where my cattle was. ‘You say you have come from the west, sir. What part of the west?’ ‘From California.’ ‘What, with that horse, carriage, and cow? You must be the man I read about in a western paper, who is going east?’ ‘Yes, sir; I think I am. The papers are ahead of me.’ ‘Lead your horse up to the barn, take her from the carriage, remove the harness and put her in that stall. The cow, what shall we do with her?’ ‘She will stand beside the horse; she knows her very well.’ ‘Well, put the cow beside the horse and give them all the hay they will eat. Grain, do they know what it it?’ ‘Yes, sir. They have had grain every day since I left home.’ ‘Home! Where is your home?’ ‘My home is in Massachusetts. When I said home, I meant where I started from.’ ‘What part of California did you start from, sir?’ ‘From the northern part, Eureka city, Humboldt Bay.’ ‘That is a long distance; more than a thousand miles.’ ‘Yes, sir. More than three hundred north of San Francisco.’ ‘Well, sir; you have done well, but you have not gone half the way yet.’ ‘No, sir; not more than a quarter.’ ‘Come into the house and get something to eat, your cattle are doing well.’

“We went into the house, my host saying, ‘Wife, here is a man that has traveled more than thirteen hundred miles, with a horse and carriage, and leading a cow all that distance. This is the man we read of in the papers coming from California to Massachusetts. I have just put his cattle in the barn and they are feeding on hay, and I asked him in to get something to eat. What have you got that is good for him? I think he is worthy of something good.’

… “After supper I went back to the barn and gave the cattle more hay and some grain. Then I did not recollect having loosened my dog, so I went and got him and returned back to the house. The wife then asked, ‘Has that dog too, come all that way?’ ‘He has,’ I answered. ‘Oh, you little beauty, you shall have some supper.'”