82 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



me what sentiment I had, but it came back, temporarily at 

 least, at the sight of the graves of these emigrants, particularly 

 of those of women and children. In fancy I saw the fever- 

 stricken wife and mother borne along through grinding sands 

 or jolting over stony roads or rocky fords, until, the dread 

 hour imminent, the train stops on the Sweet AVater. This 

 seems to have been a vale of death, and that the sick who had 

 thus far come, arrived here but to die. In this assemblage of 

 both sexes and ages, ranging from childhood to advanced years, 

 there are affection and kindly feeling, so different from what 

 exists in our rough crowd. The train halts until the last scene 

 in the life of the dying is over. No sick-chamber with rich 

 belongings and comforts are hers. The mildewed wagon- 

 cover makes the walls and ceiling ; the hangings, the rough 

 clothing of the family. The doorway is the arched cover, 

 and it looks appropriately toward the west ; and the descending 

 sun directs its last glances within on the dying form. Kind 

 hands minister to its wants, and when the life goes out, they 

 perform the last sad rites. Among the less sympathetic of 

 the emigrants there may be impatience at the delay; for behind 

 them are murderous Indians, and the cold wind blowing 

 around them, and the snow on the distant mountains, warns 

 them that the storms of winter may engulf them before the 

 journey is over. A shallow grave is hollowed out, the coffin- 

 less body laid therein, am id the weeping of women and children, 

 and the sad looks of the men who quickly cover the body 

 with earth and protect it with a cairn of rocks. Or it may be 

 a child that dies, when we can imagine the parents' feelings 

 as they lay it away in that desert solitude, and, taking up the 

 burden of their journey, pass on, never to see its resting place 

 again. You who ride by in your palace cars, wining and 

 dining as you go on your profitless excursions, cannot imagine 

 the trials and sufferings of the pioneers who first settled the 

 country where you enjoy your junketing. 



