Although we had traveled one day in the rain, we had yet to learn what such travel could be. A day came when a heavy ran and a driving wind from the west made us bundle ourselves under the wagon tops with all the flaps fastened down. We were cozy and comfortable despite the patter and spash ad the blustering wind. As night came on, there was no friendly house to offer us shelter. We faced a dismal prospect and we children wondered how our beds could be made on the water-soaked ground and how our tent could be pitched in the wind.

"We won't have any trouble making a fire," I reminded the little boys, "For Father's wax matches will burn no matter how it rains or blows." Those wax matches were a real luxury, for never once on the journey did we have trouble building a fire. Often and often the little sulphur matches, of which every one had quantities, would go out in a wind, but never once did the wax matches fail. People were not wasteful with matches, I remember, but often carried firebrands from one campfire to light another.

"No tent for us tonight," Father called as he stopped the horses and climbed out to unhitch them.

What will we do? Where an we sleep?" Robert asked.

"Where hundreds of others have slept all the way across," Father answered. "Right in the wagons."

"Can we use the stove?" I asked. "How can we cook?"

"We can't cook," Mother answered as she prepared to open the food box. "We will have a lunch tonight." She must have been glad for the ham she had boiled the previous evening and the extra pan of biscuits baked that morning. I'm sure I was. Not often did Mother's plans prove unequal to a situation.

When Father and Win and Tom and Chris climbed into the wagon after feeding the horses, the place was well filled. It was fun to eat that way, huddled together, sheltered from the storm. Mother passes us food directly from the box and a real picnic we had. I was sorry for the horses, though. We had no shelter for them. Soon all the boys but the two little ones went off to make their beds in one of the other wagons, and we pulled the blankets and comforts about and curled up for the night. Our wagon was truly full. After that night I think we really appreciated our tent. Only once again did we sleep int eh wagons, and that time it was not a storm which caused the discomfort.

Morning dawned clear and bright. Our stove was set up in the sparkling steamy air, and never did a warm breakfast taste better.

After things were packed away and we had climbed into the wagons again, I received a surprise. All day long I was puzzled and even Father's explanations did not correct my wrong impressions. When we started, the whole train turned and, as I thought, headed back for Iowa. Huddled under the wagon top the evening before, I had not known that we had turned, the better to keep out the rain. All day I felt that we were going back. Even the sun seemed in the wrong direction. The next day, however, it semed to rise in the east and I felt that we were traveling to the west once more.