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ALONG THE WAY

John Waghelstein

The morning mist was beginning to thin with the intrusion of
the new sun but it still hung in the hollows and in the wooded places.
A tall man knelt before a small pile of kindling wood, struck a match
and nursed his little blaze into a fire capable of cooking breakfast.
He wore heavy corduroy trousers tucked into high leather boots, a
flat-brimmed hat, and a homespun shirt. The boots, coupled with his
plow-steady gait, branded him as a tiller of the soil. His tall son ap-
peared from behind the wagon carrying a bucket filled at a nearby
stream. From inside the Conestoga the clattering of utensils and the
low voices of the women could be heard.

The youngest member of the family was driving in the two cows
for milking. The boy's smiling face was a riot of freckles and his
bare feet clutched at the dew-wet grass with a tenacity that only the
feet of a ten-year-old can possess. He whistled to the brindle cow and
laid on his switch with feigned brutality. He thought how much more
exciting it would be in Oregon than it had been in Missouri. The
drought-ridden land that crumbled in the palm of your hand and
blew away held for him nothing but a memory. His father had said
that the rich Oregon soil was as black as coal and although he had
never known his father to do anything exciting he was glad when they
left their farm. And besides, there would be no schools. Only men's
work, for a while anyway.

Their journey thus far had been marred by a broken axle in one
of the river crossings; and despite the fact that they had dropped be-
hind the train, there was good reason to believe that they would over-
take it by nightfall.

Inside the wagon the farmer's wife busied herself and her eighteen
year-old daughter, Vinah, with the morning chores. The mother
smiled a knowing smile as she watched her daughter move above the
confines of the prairie schooner. There was a great need for women
in this young land by the sea and she had no fears that her daughter,
although a little headstrong, would not soon have a husband. As for
the girl, she thought only one thought and that was to get as far away
as possible from that small Missouri town where everyone made it a
point to mind everyone else's affairs. They deemed it a crime for her
to enjoy herself. She was young, good-looking and liked to dance
and sing. She planned to live her Own life but the women of the

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