ut to break camp and
return to the settlement instead of trying to get relief to the four
unfortunates still at the mountain camp.

Very soon thereafter, a messenger on horseback from the Fort delivered
a letter to Lieutenant Woodworth, and a fourth party was organized,
"consisting of John Stark, John Rhodes, E Coffeymier, John Del, Daniel
Tucker, Wm. Foster, and Wm. Graves. But this party proceeded no farther
than Bear Valley on account of the rapidly melting snows."[13]

The return of the party after its fruitless efforts was not made known
to Elitha and Leanna; nor were they aware that Thomas Fallon, with six
companions, had set out for the mountain camps on the tenth of April.

Neither fear nor misgivings troubled us little ones the morning we
started out, hand in hand, to explore our new surroundings. We had
rested, been washed, combed, and fed, and we believed that father and
mother would soon come to us. Everything was beautiful to our eyes. We
did not care if "the houses did look as if they were made of dry dirt
and hadn't anything but holes for windows." We watched the mothers
sitting on the door sills or on chairs near them laughing as they
talked and sewed, and it seemed good to see the little children at play
and hear them singing their dolls to sleep.

The big gate to the adobe wall around Captain Sutter's home was open,
and we could look in and see many white-washed huts built against the
back and side walls, and a flag waving from a pole in front of the
large house, which stood in the middle of the ground. Cannons like
those we had seen at Fort Laramie were also peeping out of holes in
these walls, and an Indian soldier and a white soldier were marching to
and fro, each holding a gun against his shoulder, and it pointing
straight up in the air.

[Illustration: ELITHA DONNER (MRS. BENJAMIN WILDER)]

[Illustration: LEANNA DONNER (MRS. JOHN APP)]

[Illustration: MARY DONNER]

[Illustration: GEORGE DONNER, NEPHEW OF CAPT. DONNER]

Often we looked at each other and exclaimed, "How good to be here
instead of up in the snow." It was hard to go back to the house when
sisters called us. I do not remember the looks or the taste of
anything they gave us to eat. We were so eager to stay out in the
sunshine. Before long, we went to that dreary, bare room only to sleep.
Many of the women at the Fort were kind to us; gave us bread from their
scant loaves not only because we were destitute, but because they had