t history and the cause of their
present sad condition, and gradually obtained from her the information
that their father and mother were dead, and that, having heard of the
mines of California, her brother had sold off his farm in the backwoods,
and proceeded by the overland route to the new land of gold, in company
with many other western hunters and farmers. They reached it, after the
most inconceivable sufferings, in the beginning of winter, and took up
their abode at Little Creek.

The rush of emigration from the western states to California, by the
overland route, that took place at this time, was attended with the most
appalling sufferings and loss of life. Men sold off their snug farms,
packed their heavy waggons with the necessaries for a journey, with
their wives and little ones, over a wilderness more than two thousand
miles in extent, and set off by scores over the prairies towards the
Ultima Thule of the far west. The first part of their journey was
prosperous enough, but the weight of their waggons rendered the pace
slow, and it was late in the season ere they reached the great barrier
of the Rocky Mountains. But severe although the sufferings of those
first emigrants were, they were as nothing compared with the dire
calamities that befell those who started from home later in the season.
All along the route the herbage was cropped bare by those who had gone
before; their oxen broke down; burning sandy deserts presented
themselves when the wretched travellers were well-nigh exhausted; and
when at length they succeeded in reaching the great mountain-chain, its
dark passes were filled with the ice and snow of early winter.

Hundreds of men, women, and children, fell down and died on the burning
plain, or clambered up the rugged heights to pillow their dying heads at
last on wreaths of snow. To add to the unheard-of miseries of these
poor people, scurvy in its worst forms attacked them; and the air of
many of their camping places was heavy with the stench arising from the
dead bodies of men and animals that had perished by the way.

"It was late in the season," said Kate Morgan, as Larry's new friend was
named, "when me brother Patrick an' I set off with our waggon and oxen,
an' my little sister Nelly, who was just able to run about, with her
curly yellow hair streamin' over her purty shoulders, an' her laughin'
blue eyes, almost spakin' when they looked at ye."

The poor girl spoke with deep pathos as