As soon as Mrs. Lennox stirred in the morning, I ran to her and had a good cry.  She threatened all sorts of things for the man who had caused me such torture, and declared that he believed everything he heard.  He did not seem to remember how many hundred miles away Sonora was, nor how many loaded cannon there were at the Fort.  I felt better satisfied, however, when she told me that she had made up her mind to start for Sonoma the next day.

After breakfast her younger boys wanted to see the Walla-Wallas, and took me along.  A cold breath from the Sierra Nevadas made me look up and shiver.  Soon Captains Sutter and Kern passed us, the former on his favorite white horse, and the latter on a dark bay.  I was delighted to catch a glimpse of those two good friends, but they did not know it.  They had been to see the Indian ponies, and before we got to the big gate, they had gone in and the Walla-Wallas were forming in line on both sides of the road between the gate and the front of the store.

Only two Indians at a time were allowed to enter the building, and as they were slow in making their trades, we had a good chance to see them all.  The men, the boys, and most of the women were dressed in fringed buckskin suits and their hands and faces were painted red, as the Sioux warriors of Fort Laramie painted their cheeks.

The Lennox boys took greatest interest in the little fellows with the bows and arrows, but I could not keep my eyes from the young princess, who stood beside her father, the chief.  She was all shimmering with beads.  They formed flowers on her moccasins; fringed the outer seams of her doeskin trousers and the hem of her tunic; formed a stripe around her arm holes and her belt; glittered on a band which held in place the eagle plume in her hair; dangled from her ears; and encircled her neck and arms.  Yet she did not seem to wear one too many.  She looked so winsome and picturesque that I have never forgotten the laughing, pretty picture.

We started back over ground where my little sisters and I had wandered the previous Spring.  The people whom I remembered had since gone to other settlements, and strangers lived in the old huts.  I could not help looking in as we passed, for I still felt that mother might not be dead.  She might have come down the mountain alone and perhaps I could find her.  The boys, not knowing why I lagged behind, tried to hurry me along; and finally left me to go home by myself.  This, not from unkindness, but rather love of teasing, and also oblivion of the vain hope I cherished.

Mrs. Lennox let me dry the dishes for her after the noon meal, then sent me to visit the neighbor in the next house, while she should stow her things in the wagon and get ready for the journey.  I loved this lady[15] in the next house as soon as she spoke to me, and I was delighted with her baby, who reached out his little arms to have me take him, and raised his head for me to kiss his lips.  While he slept,