Page 12 - GA Gold Rush

water along the way. And, Mary, of course, brought along her

favorite rag doll Ma had made from the scraps when she makes

our clothes.

However it wasn’t that much of a burden to load the
wagon. After we packed, got the oxen ready, and loaded

everybody onto the wagon, we were off. I was nervous, and

excited, but I couldn’t find out what side I was leaning towards. I
was just ready to try and find some gold.

The trip seemed long and only one day had gone by.

Although I couldn’t help admiring Duke. He would sometimes

get tired and trott along in the wagon’s shade. It was so cute.
After a long day we decided we better get a good night’s

rest. I slept with Duke, Ma slept with Mary, and Pa slept

towards the oxen, making sure if they were restless or

rambunctious, he could deal with them.
I woke up, thinking I would have to do my chores, but no.

Pa who was the only one already awake, said “Quite Laura. The

rest are still sleeping, and we wouldn’t want to make little Mary
cranky.” “Okay,” I said, “but is there anything I could do, because

I feel like I should be doing my chores.” “Oh,” he chuckled “sweet,

sweet Laura. I guess you could fill the water buckets from the
stream down there.” Then he handed me a bucket for the oxen

and a bucket for us. “What stream?” I asked, having no sense of

direction of the land. “Over there.” he said, pointing to the far

right.
I then walked off with the two buckets. I leaned down and

filled a bucket of water. Then, I repeated. I picked up the two

buckets of water, and started to walk back. Sounds so simple

right, well clumsy me had to spill one on my dress. I was very