of blood or kindred, nor having
any hope of reward, except the grand consciousness of doing a noble
act--makes his conduct shine more lustrously in the eyes of every person
who admires nature's true and only nobility."

Chapter XVIII.

Arrival of the Third Relief
The Living and the Dead
Captain George Donner Dying
Mrs. Murphy's Words
Foster and Eddy at the Lake
Tamsen Donner and her Children
A Fearful Struggle
The Husband's Wishes
Walking Fourteen Miles
Wifely Devotion
Choosing Death
The Night Journey
An Unparalleled Ordeal
An Honored Name
Three Little Waifs
"And Our Parents are Dead."

Eddy, Foster, Thompson, and Miller passed Nicholas Clark and John
Baptiste near the head of Donner Lake. These starving fugitives had
journeyed thus far in their desperate effort to cross the mountains.
Of all those encamped at Alder Creek the sole survivors now were George
Donner, the captain of the Donner Party, and his faithful wife, Tamsen
Donner. Under the snowdrifts which covered the valley, lay Jacob Donner,
Elizabeth Donner, Lewis Donner, Samuel Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, Joseph
Rhinehart, and James Smith. One more was soon to be added to the number.
It was the man whose name had been given to the company; the only one
who died of a lingering, painful disease. The injury of George Donner's
hand had grown into a feverish, virulent ulceration, which must have
partaken of the nature of erysipelas. At all events, mortification
had set in, and when the third relief party arrived it had reached his
shoulder. In a few hours at most he must die.

Foster's party found that much suffering had occurred at Donner Lake
during the tearful days which elapsed between Reed's departure and their
own arrival. Mrs. Lavina Murphy had charge of her son, Simon Murphy,
her grandchild, George Foster, of the child James Eddy, and of the three
little Donner girls, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza. All dwelt in the
same cabin, and with them was Lewis Keseberg. Foster and Eddy found
all there, save their own children. They were both dead. Keseberg has
generally been accused of the murder of little George Foster. Except
Mrs. Murphy, the oldest of those who were with Keseberg was only nine
years of age. All that the children know is that Keseberg took the child
to bed with him one night, and that it was dead next morning. One of
the little ones who survived--one