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Show MRS. AUGUSTA TABOR. 223 • cattle up the hills. Going down hill was so much easier that it was often necessary to fasten a full grown pine tree to the back of the wagon for a hold-back or brake. Often night overtook us where it was impossible to find a level place to spread a blanket. Under such circumstances we drove stakes in the ground, rolled a log against them, and lay with our feet against the log. Sometimes the hill was so steep that we slept almost upright. We were nearly three weeks cutting our way through Russell's Gulch into Payne's Bar, now called Idaho Springs. "Ours was the first wagon through, and I was the first white woman there, if white I could be called, after camping out three months. The men cut logs and laid them up four feet high, then put the 7x9 tent on for a roof. Mr. Tabor went prospecting. I opened a 'bakery,' made bread and pies to sell, gave meals, and sold milk from the cows we had brought. " Here one of our party, Mr. Maxey, had an attack of mountain fever, and for four weeks he lay, very ill, at the door of our tent, in a wagon bed, I acting as physician and nurse. A miner with a gunshot wound through his hand was also brought to my door for attention. " With the first snow storm came an old miner to our camp who told us dreadful stories of snow-slides, and advised Mr. Tabor to take me out of the mountains immediately. Those who know anything of the surroundings of Idaho will smile at the idea of a snow-slide there. But we, in our ignorance of mountains, believed all the old miner said, and left for Denver. " I had been very successful with my bakery in that camp, making enough to pay for the farm in Kansas, and to keep us through the winter. |