History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

220
EXPULSION FROM NAUVOO.
few people more free from care, or more light-hearted
and happy.
In the present instance, though all were poor and
some destitute, and though man and beast were exposed
to driving rain and hail, and the chill blasts of a
western winter often sweepiug down upon them unchecked
from the limitless prairie, they made the best
of it, and instead of wasting time in useless repining,
set themselves at work to make the most of their
joys and the least of their sorrows. On the night of
March 1st, when the first camp was pitched beyond
Sugar Creek, after prayer they held a dance, and
as the men of Iowa looked on they wondered how
these homeless outcasts from Christian civilization
could thus praise and make merry in view of their
near abandoning of themselves to the mercies of savages
and wild beasts. 10 Food and raiment were provided
for all; for shelter they had their tents and
wagons, and after the weather had spent somewhat of
its ruggedness, no extreme hardships were suffered.
Without attempting long distances in a single day,
they made camp rather early, and after the usual
manner of emigrants, the wagons in a circle or semi-
circle round the camp-fire, placed so as best to shield
them from the wind and wild beasts and Indians,
with the animals at a convenient distance, some staked,
and some running loose, but all carefully guarded.
The country through which they passed was much of
it well wooded; the land was fertile and afforded abundant
pastures, the grass in summer being from one to
ten feet high. Provisions were cheap: corn twelve
cents and wheat twenty-five to thirty cents a bushel,
10 ' In the latter part of March we started for Council Bluffs, 400 miles distant,
and were three months on the way. Crossing a long prairie in a fearful
storm, the mud became so soft that we could not travel, and we were obliged
to encamp; the water was several inches deep all over our camping-ground;
we had no wood for a fire, and no means of drying our soaked clothing. In
the morning everything was frozen fast; and a squirrel was found frozen.
Frequently boughs were laid on the ground before the teams could pass .
.
We had to camp in mud until the roads were dry enough to travel.' Home's
Migrations, MS., 1S-19.
. .