Jim said, “That sounds easy.”

When we were packing, sure enough, every one of the elder women and some of the girls brought something for us to take with us to eat.  Jim told them that we were a thousand times obliged to them all, but we could not take anything but a few loaves of bread, and then, as was usual, in his joking way he said with a glance at me, “I know, Will feels bad to leave that cake, and he will dream of seeing cakes for a week, but I can’t indulge him this time.”

When Jim had done speaking, one of the girls, that we had taken breakfast with handed him a small sack, and told him not to open it until we camped that night.  At this moment Mr. Tullock, came to us and said, “Here, my friends, is a recommendation, and I think every grown person in the train has signed their name to both of them, and all the company have asked me to say a few words for them.  If either or both of you ever come to California, we want you to find some of us and make your home with us as long as you wish, for you will always find a warm welcome with any of this company.”

I had been acquainted with Jim Bridger several years and this was the first time I had ever seen him overcome with feeling.  His voice shook so he could hardly thank the people for their kind words and when it came to shaking hands and biding them good bye, he almost lost his speech.

But it was over at last and we mounted our horses and left them.  For the first ten miles I don’t think Jim spoke ten words.  Finally he said, “Well they were a good crowd of people, weren’t they Will?  If I ever go to California and can find any of them, I mean to stay all night with them, for it would be like visiting brother or sister.”

We now began to calculate where we should camp that night.  I said, “Let’s make a dry camp tonight, we can fill our canteen, and water our horses at a stream that crosses the trail, and then we can ride on till dark.  In doing this way we will avoid the Indians and will not have to guard against them in the night, for the Indians invariably camp near the water.”

We made a long ride that day and picked a nice place to camp that night.  As soon as we had unsaddled and unpacked our horses, I said, “Jim, I will stake the horses if you will make a fire.”  When I came back from attending to the horses, Jim said, “Look here, Will, see what them girls gave me, but I guess they meant it for you.”

And he showed me the sack which the girls had given him as we were leaving them that morning.  I looked into it and saw two large cakes and a good-sized piece of roasted Elk calf.  The reader may imagine how good this nice food looked to two hungry men, and we surely did justice to it.  When we were eating, Jim made the remark that it would be many a long day before we met with such a company again as those we had left that morning.  He said, “In nearly all large companies there are cranks, either men or women, and sometimes both, but all that outfit were perfect ladies and gentlemen, and they all seemed to want to do what was right, and the men were all brave and the women were sensible.”