We always camped in the open at night. Sometimes we would be by a trout stream where we could get some rainbow trout that were just wonderful eating. Other times by a lake, and one time right out in the desert without water, and by the time we reached water the next afternoon the horses were nearly famished. Guess we were lucky to get to water. This place that we found water was right out in the middle of the desert. I suppose that you could call it an oasis although there were no palm trees around it. This small lake was hundreds of feet deep and had a small overflow that ran for a short ways out in the desert sands so there was plenty of fresh green grass for the horses. We remained there for several days so as to give the horses plenty of time to rest up. The mothers washed clothes, did some baking and plenty of resting. There was a lot of fish in this small lake and we could help ourselves to all we wanted. There was a small catwalk built at the edge of the lake for the purpose of getting water and one day when no one was with me I went out to this catwalk with my fishpole to catch a fish. I had no more than dropped my hook into the water than I had a fish and as I turned to land the fish I apparently looked down into the water and with the bright sun shine on the water I turned dizzy. I thought surely I was going to fall into that deep water, but thank goodness I managed to get off the catwalk. I don’t believe you could have paid me enough money to get me to go back on that walk. You see, I couldn’t swim.
After we got to Ontario, Oregon, my dad and Uncle Elmer chartered a freight car and loaded the horses, wagons and all of the other gear into the car. Dad found a barrel some place to put in the freight car to put water in for the horses while on the train ride. I had to help carry water to fill the barrel. There was a small boy at the place where we pumped the water and he had a real nice puppy. This boy tried to act smart while we were carrying the water so he would toss the puppy up in the air and catch it. He thought this was real cute, but once when he tossed the puppy up in the air he missed catching it and it landed on the ground. Poor puppy, the fall to the ground killed it. It hurt me very much to see the boy treat the puppy this way as I had been taught to be kind to all animals.
Dad rode in the freight car so as to take care of the horses while on the way to Wessington Springs, South Dakota. The rest of us rode in the passenger train.
At Wessington Springs the two families separated. Uncle Elmer bought a farm out of town. Dad fixed up our covered wagon again and we started west. When we got to some relatives that lived about thirty-five miles west of Pierre and ten miles north of Hayes we visited there for several days. This was during haying time. Of course I had to help in the hay fields. I drove a team of horses hitched to a hay sweep. With this hay sweep I would drive the horses so as to gather the hay out in the field and bring it to the hay stacker that would put the hay up on the stack.



