very weak state. Mrs. Keseberg started with them, and left
Keseberg here, unable to go. Buried Pike's child this morning in the
snow; died two days ago."

Poor little Catherine Pike lingered until this time! It will be
remembered that this little nursing babe had nothing to eat except
a little coarse flour mixed in snow water. Its mother crossed the
mountains with the "Forlorn Hope," and from the sixteenth of December
to the twentieth of February it lived upon the miserable gruel made
from unbolted flour. How it makes the heart ache to think of this little
sufferer, wasting away, moaning with hunger, and sobbing for something
to eat. The teaspoonful of snow water would contain only a few particles
of the flour, yet how eagerly the dying child would reach for the
pitiful food. The tiny hands grew thinner, the sad, pleading eyes sank
deeper in their fleshless sockets, the face became hollow, and the
wee voice became fainter, yet, day after day, little Catherine Pike
continued to breathe, up to the very arrival of the relief party.

Patrick Breen says twenty-three started across the mountains. Their
names were: Mrs. Margaret W. Reed and her children--Virginia E. Reed,
Patty Reed, Thomas Reed, and James F. Reed, Jr.; Elitha C. Donner,
Leanna C. Donner, Wm. Hook, and George Donner, Jr.; Wm. G. Murphy, Mary
M. Murphy, and Naomi L. Pike; Wm. C. Graves, Eleanor Graves, and Lovina
Graves; Mrs. Phillipine Keseberg, and Ada Keseberg; Edward J. and Simon
P. Breen, Eliza Williams, John Denton, Noah James, and Mrs. Wolfinger.

In starting from the camps at Donner Lake, Mrs. Keseberg's child and
Naomi L. Pike were carried by the relief party. In a beautiful letter
received from Naomi L. Pike (now Mrs. Schenck, of the Dalles, Oregon),
she says: "I owe my life to the kind heart of John Rhodes, whose
sympathies were aroused for my mother. He felt that she was deserving
of some relic of all she had left behind when she started with the first
party in search of relief, and he carried me to her in a blanket." We
have before spoken of this noble man's bravery in bearing the news of
the condition of the "Forlorn Hope" and of the Donner Party to Sutter's
Fort. Here we find him again exhibiting the nobility of his nature by
saving this little girl from starvation by carrying her on his back over
forty miles of wintry snow.

Before the party had proceeded two miles, a most sad occurrence took
place. It became evident that Patty and Thomas Ree