ornia, our land of food and safety, our promised land of
happiness, where God would care for us. Oh, it was painfully quiet some
days in those great mountains, and lonesome upon the snow. The pines
had a whispering homesick murmur, and we children had lost all
inclination to play.

The last food which I remember seeing in our camp before the arrival of
the Second Relief was a thin mould of tallow, which mother had tried
out of the trimmings of the jerked beef brought us by the First Relief.
She had let it harden in a pan, and after all other rations had given
out, she cut daily from it three small white squares for each of us,
and we nibbled off the four corners very slowly, and then around and
around the edges of the precious pieces until they became too small for
us to hold between our fingers.

CHAPTER XII

ARRIVAL OF SECOND RELIEF, OR REED-GREENWOOD PARTY--FEW SURVIVORS STRONG
ENOUGH TO TRAVEL--WIFE'S CHOICE--PARTINGS AT DONNER CAMP--MY TWO
SISTERS AND I DESERTED--DEPARTURE OF SECOND RELIEF PARTY.

It was the first of March, about ten days after the arrival of the
First Relief, before James Reed and William McCutchen succeeded in
reaching the party they had left long months before. They, together
with Brit Greenwood, Hiram Miller, Joseph Jondro, Charles Stone, John
Turner, Matthew Dofar, Charles Cady, and Nicholas Clark constituted the
Second Relief.

They reported having met the First Relief with eighteen refugees at the
head of Bear Valley, three having died _en route_ from the cabins.
Among the survivors Mr. Reed found his wife, his daughter Virginia, and
his son James F. Reed, Jr. He learned there from his anxious wife that
their two younger children, Martha J. and Thomas K. Reed, had also left
the cabin with her, but had soon given out and been carried back and
left at the mountain camp by Messrs. Glover and Moutrey, who then
retraced their steps and rejoined the party.

Consequently this Reed-Greenwood party, realizing that this was no time
for tarrying, had hurried on to the lake cabins, where Mr. Reed had the
happiness of finding his children still alive. There he and five
companions encamped upon the snow and fed and soothed the unfortunates.
Two members continued on to Aunt Betsy's abode, and Messrs. Cady and
Clark came to ours.

This Relief had followed the example of its predecessor in leaving
supplies at marked caches along the trail for the return trip.
Therefore, it reached camp wit