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Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner

"The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate"


It was about this time, that Leanna confided to me that she was
homesick for Elitha, and she would go to her very soon. She said that I
must not object when the time came, for she loved her own sister just
as much as I did mine, and was as anxious to go to Elitha as I had been
to come to Georgia. She had been planning several weeks, and knew of a
family with which she could travel to Sutter's Fort. Later, when she
collected her things to go away, she left with us a pair of beautifully
knit black silk stockings, marked near the top in fine cross-stitch in
white, "D," and under that "5." The stockings had been our mother's.
She had knit them herself and worn them. Georgia gave one to me and
kept the other. We both felt that they were almost too sacred to
handle. They were our only keepsakes.
Later, Georgia found a small tin box in which mother had kept important
papers. Recently, when referring to that circumstance, Georgia said:
"Grandma for a long time had used it for a white-sugar box, and kept it
on a shelf so high that we could see it only when she lifted it down;
and I don't think we took our eyes from it until it was put back. We
felt that it was too valuable for us ever to own. One day, I found it
thrown away. One side had become unsoldered from the ends and the
bottom also was hanging loose. With a full heart, I grasped the
treasure and put it where we could often see it.


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