The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962 Page: 524
663 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Valentine.51 The message was a great relief to us both. We wasted
some time taking the wrong road, but we got a rabbit thereby. We
knew the road went to the left of the black hill so were not worried.
It was a good road too, and driving across the plain was not hard.
Our little donkeys traveled very well. It was seven o'clock when we
left the ranch and we traveled till it was too dark to see a good
camping place. The rain woke me and we draped the buggy with
tent cloths and crawled under. Another time I should drape one
over the tongue. It wasn't easy arranging our blankets under there.
Our ceiling wasn't high enough, and there were too many chandeliers,
&c., extending down from it to bump our heads.
SEPTEMBER 1
It was rather cold before daylight and the rain beat in. We woke
finally to find puddles all around increasing in width and depth, so
we crawled out and ate our can of beans and biscuits. The rain
stopped soon, but our blankets were pretty wet.
The rain would have bothered us very little if it had not been for
the roads. They were fine the night before but were now almost
impassable for us on account of the mud. We bogged up several
times. Carey's shoes were in a fearful state, almost dropping off,
but we both had to walk a large part of the way. We should have
reached Valentine by eleven in the morning, but it must have been
nearly two.
There were many prairie dogs along the way. The impudent rascals
squeaked at us and jerked their tails, knowing we could not catch
them.
We could see Valentine miles ahead of us. I thought it was only
about a mile and a half when one of the ranchmen passed and said
it was about three and a half.
We were, we thought, too dirty to go to a restaurant, so waited till
we could get out of town for dinner. Carey had to buy shoes, leggings,
and a shirt and socks. He threw his old shoes and socks in the alley
where, I am afraid, they seriously interfered with traffic.
We traded as far as we could at the "Boston store" where the
proprietor seemed to cater more to the "common run." The people
in the other store appeared coldly superior. We had many errands
to do-a telegram to Mr. Greene, the post office, six-shooter repaired
(?) by the blacksmith, burros watered, and canteen filled. While
I was waiting for Carey, Balaam, being hungry, was restless. She got
one foot over the cross pole [breast yoke] in front (I forgot its tech-
5'Carey remembered, that:
When we started out of the hills toward Valentine we saw a train some twenty
miles away going down the Southern Pacific tracks, which we could see for many
miles. The lonesome whistle of the engine came up to us. That had the same
impact on both of us that the white cliffs had on Miss Young. It created a yearning
to get back to civilization.524
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962, periodical, 1962; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101195/m1/584/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.