I have heard him say that he never saw weather
so cold, but that he could keep from freezing by walking. So by dint
of much walking he succeeded in reaching home without being frozen.
Their wagons were so full of hides that they had to sleep on the
ground, and he said that on waking in the morning he often found
himself buried in snow. Wood was scarce, and they sometimes had to
haul it quite a distance to build their camp fires at night, and it
was sometimes so stormy that they could scarcely cook.
During the journey one wagon-load after another of returning Pike's
Peak adventurers had fallen in with them, and kept together for the
sake of company and protection against the Indians, until they made
quite a train. By common consent--accordin' to the human nature of the
thing, as they say on the plains--father came to be considered the
boss of the train. There was a ranch near the road, kept by a
Frenchman, who had an Indian wife. He had grown rich selling whisky
and provisions, and wood and hay.
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