by Jesse Wiley
“What do you say, kids?” Pa asks. “It’s not much farther. Can you make it to the trading post?”
He asks the three of you. But since you’re the eldest, Hannah and Samuel will follow your lead. What do you say?
If you say you want to unload some extra supplies now, turn to page 83
If you say you can keep walking to the trading post, turn to page 112
Return to page 11
Caleb, can I show you something?” you say.
“What is it?” Caleb sounds a little annoyed now.
“See that tree with the fallen branch and moss on one side?” You point. “We passed it yesterday.”
“I don’t think so,” Caleb says.
A man from another wagon hears you and comes closer. “I noticed that, too,” he says. “But I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.”
Caleb gets upset, and he and the man argue. You watch Caleb sweat and turn red in the face. Finally, he throws up his hands, and furiously turns to you.
“If you think you know better, then you figure it out. Find yourselves another wagon captain!”
You are stunned. Caleb has been a great wagon captain so far, but now you have pushed him away. He wants to disband the wagon train and leave. Some families agree with him, while others agree with you.
Everyone pleads for him to reconsider, but Caleb’s mind is made up. You look at Joseph and Eliza, who just shake their heads sadly at his stubbornness.
Half the group follows Caleb. The other half has heard gold is up for grabs in California. They’ll make their own train, and follow the California Trail.
Your family doesn’t really have a choice, since Caleb doesn’t want you around. It looks like you’ll be panning for gold soon . . . that is if you manage to make it out to California.
THE END
Return to page 87
We’ll wait for the ferry,” Ma says firmly.
Caleb nods his head in agreement. “It’s decided,” he says. “We’ll camp here for the next few days. And in the meantime, we can hunt and fish to stock up on extra food.”
Samuel claps his hands. He’d been the pickiest eater out of all of you.
You help Pa set up the tent, and then you roll out your mat and blanket. The wagons are all lined up in a semi-circle along the riverbank, which Caleb refers to as a “corral.”
“This way the animals are protected from bandits,” Pa had explained to you earlier. “And the corral stops them from straying off. See how the wagons form a fence?”
The next day, Pa and some other men hunt for buffalo. You and the other kids head out to search for fruit near camp.
“Look at these!” Hannah cries out. She points to a bush full of big, juicy blackberries. You’re surprised, because Caleb had said berries wouldn’t be ripe yet, but these are tender and juicy. You fill your tin cup until it’s overflowing. And after Ma says the berries are safe to eat, you fill your mouths, too. Everyone’s lips turn purple from the sweet juice. A few hours later, Pa and the hunters return with a bigger prize. Three buffalo!
That night, thick buffalo steaks sizzle on the cast-iron pan over the campfire. You feel lucky as you sink your teeth into the juicy meat. Dessert is even more delicious. Ma has used the sweet-and-tangy blackberries to whip up a warm cobbler with a crumbly bread topping. You look around, and everyone seems just as satisfied as you. You’re pretty sure they are all glad to have waited for the ferry.
After dinner, you help Ma round up the oxen that have been grazing nearby, outside the corral. You count five, but your family owns six. Where did the last ox go?
“Is that a bell?” Ma asks. You strain your ears, and hear the faint tinkling of a distant cowbell. It must be the missing ox.
“Yes,” you say. “He must have wandered away. I’ll go fetch him while you take the rest of the team back to camp.”
You walk in the direction of the sound, and stop to listen again. The cowbell is quiet now, but you do hear rustling. You head farther into the woods. Suddenly you see the shape of the missing animal. Phew! But wait . . . it has a leather rope around its neck. And it’s being led away by a Native American boy not much older than you!
Your heart starts to pound wildly. Is this boy stealing your ox?
For a moment you freeze, uncertain of what to do. Should you run back to camp and tell your family that your ox is being stolen? Or should you try being friendly by calling out to the boy? Maybe he’ll just give the ox back.
What do you do?
If you run back to camp, turn to page 123
If you smile and approach the boy, turn to page 141
Return to page 103
Pa, look at those wagon ruts,” you say to your father. “See? They’re going the other way.”
“Are you sure?” Pa asks with a surprised look.
“Caleb led us in a circle,” you continue. “We should be going in the direction of those tracks.”
Pa stops to inspect the wagon ruts.
Another man nods his head. “I think you’re right. I was wondering the same thing myself. Maybe Caleb is confused or maybe his compass is broken.”
“I already tried to tell him I thought so,” you say.
“Well, we’ll all have to talk to him again,” the man says firmly. “We need to stay on the Trail.”
That night, when you camp, the man takes Caleb aside. You see Caleb get upset, but then he calms down and agrees to let you lead the way.
The next morning, you follow the wagon ruts. You hike until late afternoon and come across a trading post set back in a small canyon. Perfect! But as you get closer, you realize it is abandoned. The wind is howling and it gives you a spooky feeling. And, mysteriously, the wagon ruts just stop. It’s as if the pioneers who went down this path just vanished!
“Now what would you like us to do?” Caleb asks you, clearly annoyed by your interference.
You look at Pa and the other man. No one knows what to say.
Finally, Pa speaks.
“It’s getting late, so I guess we’ll make camp,” he says. “Tomorrow, we’ll head back the way we came and try to find the Trail.”
No one uses the word “lost,” but you know you are, even worse than before. You try not to think about it as you fall asleep to the howling wind, but fear grips your heart.
WHOOSH! You feel a flash of heat and wake to roaring flames. The campsite is burning! The animals start to panic, and everyone is screaming and scrambling to put out the fire. Ma and Pa throw pails of water, while others try to smother it with blankets.
By the time the fire is out, half the camp is destroyed. Three wagons are burnt down to the wheels. Your faces are covered with soot, and you can’t stop coughing from the smoke. But luckily, everyone is alive.
No one can figure out how the fire started. But the bigger problem is how you’re going to get anywhere now.
THE END
Return to page 87
I think we should wait till May,” you say. “We’ll move faster if the oxen don’t have to carry their own feed. People say land is plentiful in Oregon, so we shouldn’t have any problems if we don’t rush.”
“I agree,” Pa says. “The newspapers say Oregon has lots of beautiful land, and rain for our crops. And we have a lot to get done before we leave, so we could use a few weeks to prepare!”
For the next few weeks, you camp outside town and prepare for your journey. You spend your days helping Pa ready the wagon, or with Ma going to shops to buy food, clothes, and camping supplies. Ma haggles over the prices of everything from matches to shoelaces.
“Whoa! Look at that!” Samuel says, pointing to a gigantic canvas sack of flour.
“It says it weighs a hundred pounds,” Ma says. “That’s heavier than you or Hannah!”
You’re in Wyatt’s General Store. The friendly storekeeper piles all your goods in a corner.
“We’ll need bacon,” Ma says. Your eyes open wide as the storekeeper weighs a fifty-pound slab of fatty bacon. You
’ve never seen one so enormous.
“Won’t it spoil?” you ask.
“Nope,” the shopkeeper says. “I pack it with bran, which keeps the fat from melting. It’ll stay fresh for months.”
You point to a brown patty. “What’s that?”
“Those are compressed vegetables,” the shopkeeper says proudly. He explains that the vegetables are thinly sliced, then squeezed until all the liquid comes out. “This makes a dried vegetable cake. When you’re ready to eat it, you just break off a piece and add water.”
Samuel wrinkles his nose. “Yuck!” You all laugh, but you can’t help but agree with him.
You stare at the huge pile of flour, coffee, bacon, sugar, salt, and beans. Ma says you need to take two hundred pounds of food per person on the Trail. But you wonder how boring it will be to eat the same few things every day.
Before you know it, it’s time to set off on the journey. The ten-foot-long wagon is almost fully loaded now. Besides the food, it’s full of spare parts, like extra wheels and a wagon cover. There’s a water barrel, too, and some farming tools, cooking pans, tin dishes, and cups. The matches are stored in a watertight bottle. You also have a tent, and layers of woolen clothes and blankets to keep everyone warm and dry. Almost every inch of space in the wagon is used.
“Tomorrow’s the big day,” Pa says, “and it looks like we still have $42 left to spend on supplies.” You started out with $1,000 Pa saved up from working long hours over the past year.
“What else should we get with the extra money?” you ask.
“More food,” says Ma. “We don’t want to run out.”
“More spare parts for the wagon,” says Pa, at the same moment. “In case something breaks while we’re on the road.”
They look at each other.
“How about some of those compressed vegetables?” Ma says. “We could use the vitamins. Or some cornmeal to make our meals more interesting, or molasses for cooking sweeter desserts.”
“We could use an extra wheel and axle for the wagon,” Pa responds. “And you can never have enough spare bolts.”
What should you buy with the extra money?
If you get more food, turn to page 19
If you get the wagon parts, turn to page 94
Return to page 11
You decide to tell the captain of the wagon train what you saw. The next day, as you hike along, you ask to talk to him.
“Of course,” he says in a friendly tone. As you speak, he listens carefully, taking you seriously.
“Thank you for telling me,” he says. All day you see him talk to other people. You guess he’s asking if they have seen or heard anything, too.
That evening, when you camp, the wagon captain approaches the man. He says something, and the man’s face turns red. They end up yelling at each other.
It makes you nervous to watch, and you’re shocked by how angry they are. What have I started?
That night, while you’re in your tent, you hear loud voices right outside.
“How dare your little brat accuse me of stealing!” the man bellows furiously.
“Hold on now,” Pa says. “Let’s not get too excited.”
“Yes, please,” Ma says. “We don’t want any trouble. We were just being extra careful.”
“Well, I suggest you be careful somewhere else,” the man says in a threatening tone. “This wagon train isn’t for you. I was checking the bolts on everyone’s wagon wheels, making sure the wheels are safe.”
You’ve been kicked out of the train because of your suspicion and mistrust. There’s safety in numbers out here on the prairie, but now your family is left alone to fend for yourselves.
Pa looks at you with a sad expression as the rest of the wagon train pulls away. It’s a long way to Oregon.
THE END
Return to page 38
You turn as quickly as you can and start to run.
“Get back to camp!” you shout to Hannah and Samuel, who scurry away.
As you start to follow, you see something small moving in your path. It’s a bear cub! You pause, uncertain of where to turn.
Just then, you feel a terrible pain through your leg, and you fall to the ground. The grizzly has caught up to you and slashed you with her claws!
“OW!” you scream. You scramble to your feet and grab a big branch. You swing it at the bear, then run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.
Your leg is throbbing, but you keep moving. Luckily, the bear has reached her cub, and she ignores you now.
Once you’re certain you aren’t being chased, you stop. Panting and wheezing, you look down at your leg. You can’t see much in the dark, but your clothes are torn, warm, and wet. You must be bleeding.
You limp back into camp, and someone yells when they see you. Ma and Pa come running over.
“Did . . . Hannah . . . and . . . Samuel?” you pant.
“Yes, they are okay,” Ma says. “Oh, no! Your leg!”
“And Archie?” you ask.
“Archie is fine,” Pa says. “What happened?”
“Bear,” you say.
Everyone gasps. The bear attacked! You tell them what happened.
“Bears usually leave people alone,” Caleb says. “She must have been protecting her cub.”
Pa takes a closer look at the wound. Ma cringes and looks away. The cuts are deep, and you can almost see your leg bone in one place.
“Let’s clean this and wrap it up,” Pa says.
As Pa pours alcohol over the wound, you faint from the stinging. When you wake up, your wound is wrapped in a clean cloth, but it feels like it’s burning. The pain is almost intolerable.
For the next few days, you ride in a sling hung between two oxen. The pain doesn’t get better, and the wound doesn’t heal. Instead, it swells, oozes, and turns black and purple.
Your wagon train doesn’t have any doctors. But everyone who sees your leg thinks the infection is bad.
“I think we have to amputate,” you overhear Caleb say to Ma.
“No!” Ma gasps. “I won’t let my child lose a leg.”
“But look at the leg. He may die if we don’t cut it off.” Caleb is whispering but you can still hear him.
“But we can’t perform surgery here, out on the Trail without a doctor,” Ma says. “It’s filthy!”
You feel faint and everything seems to be spinning. When you come to, Pa is looking at you.
“Your leg is in bad shape,” he says as he fights tears. “I think we should ask the vet to help us operate now, before the infection spreads, but Ma thinks we should try something else.”
“What else is there?” you ask, trying to be brave.
“She thinks we can go to the Otoe people, and ask for traditional medicine. But we don’t know if it will work. If the infection spreads, you could lose more than a leg.”
You pause.
Do you agree with Ma or Pa?
If you agree to surgery, turn to page 109
If you go to a Otoe healer, turn to page 138
Return to page 115
I should suck out the venom, if I can, you decide. You’re dizzy and your heart is racing, so it takes you a minute to pull out your pocketknife. You make a little X-shaped cut over the bite, but your vision is blurry so you have to concentrate. You don’t know which hurts worse, cutting your skin or the bite itself. You quickly put your mouth over the cut, and suck as hard as you can. Then you spit out whatever is in your mouth, but it just looks and tastes like blood.
Your arm is throbbing from the pain. You race back to camp, yelling, “I’ve been bitten by a snake!”
Ma’s face turns white and she rushes over to you. Blood is dripping down your arm.
“Show me the bite,” she says. “Why is there so much blood?”
“I tried to suck out the venom,” you say, as you start to feel dizzy.
Ma cleans the wound and then wraps it with a cloth. But what you both don’t know is you have made the problem worse. Whe
n you tried to suck out the venom, you raised your arm above your heart, which helped spread the venom through your body. Running to get back to camp was a bad idea, too.
You start to feel chills, and soon you have a fever. Then comes nausea, and your vision blurs. Finally, you have trouble breathing. You lie down, trying to focus on your mother’s face.
Your eyes are closing and you can’t stay awake. You have glimpses of Ma slapping your face to keep you awake. Finally, you can’t fight anymore. It’s all over.
THE END
Return to page 100
You tie a thick rope to the back of your wagon. If people pull on it from behind, it will slow the wagon as it goes down the hill. Pa checks the rope, making sure it’s tight.
Then he says, “Let’s lower her down!”
“Can I help?” you ask Pa.
“Okay,” Pa says, smiling. “But hold on in the back where it’s safe.”
It feels like a giant game of tug-of-war. Pa and two other strong men hold the rope tightly. And then you grab the end.
“On a count of three,” Pa says.
You tense your muscles. When Pa shouts “THREE,” you pull back with all your strength as Pa releases the brake on the wagon wheels. A sudden force yanks you forward, and makes you lose your footing on the sandy hill. The rope burns your hands so badly, you let go and fall to the ground.
