May 3rd, 1850
Dear Diary,
I’ve already made a friend. She’s really nice and her name is Cassia. Her little sister Halie is always following her around so I introduced her to my sisters and now Cassia’s friend. The wagon train is keeping on the trail. This morning I helped Ma make butter with the butter churn. My arms got tired really quickly so Ma took over. She made it look so easy. We stopped to rest around noon. To make the time pass, me and Cassia went exploring. We found a field of daisies and picked beaquets (bouquets) to give to our mothers. well the Fires going out so I shan’t write any more. Sincerely, Cindy

May 6th, 1850
Dear Diary,
I’ve got good news and bad news. First the good news. we found a whole abandoned wagon train. It looks like their (there) was a fire so everyone left but the fire put itself out. So we got all kinds of new things. I got a pretty red summer dress and Cassia got a sun bonnet covered in sunflowers. Now the bad news. In the Morrison wagon there was a pair of two year old twins. Today they found the two dead under one of the wagons. Mr Hofterman noticed hemlock still in their mouths. So we buried them. Me and Cassia gathered flowers and put them on their grave. Their ma is heart broken. Sincerely, Cindy

May 10th, 1850
Dear Diary,
Me and Cassia have met a very nice family of boys. (AN: oh man, lol) There are three boys Richard, Mark and Jake. Mark is 11 just like us but Jake is 13. They too are on their way west to make a new life. Just like me. We’ve been on our way for ten days and are moving quite along. No one else has died or gotten sick but the side of the road is littered with graves. One of our oxen died. I’m worried that Austin will get a heatstroke he’s working so hard. All the women and me and Cassia are working on winter clothes. I know it’s a long way off but we want to be prepared. Me and Cassia went exploring yesterday and almost stepped on a rattlesnake. We didn’t see it because it was getting dark. Luckily, just then Mark and Jake came along to bring us back to camp. Jake pulled out his shot gun and shot the head of(f) with one bullet. He brought it back to camp and kept the skin. Last night we had snake for dinner. Today me and my sisters visited this old lady who’s making the trip alone. Well, not totally alone. She hired a young man to make the trip with her. Today I found a mound of dirt. I saw something sticking up so I smeared. Inside I found a bag of gems, arrowheads and neat rocks. That’s all for now. Have to knit more. Sincerely, Cindy

May 11th, 1850
Dear Diary,
I finished my first sweater. It’s blue with little clouds all over. I’m going to make a knit scarf to go with it. Last night the men went hunting and returned with a whole clutter of geese. So we (the women) made geese stew, geese jerky and all kinds of geese. It’s late night now and almost everyone’s sleeping but I lit a candle and went under the wagon. Earlier this evening, me, Cassia, Jake and Mark were talking. I showed them my collection of gems, arrowheads and rocks. They decided we should all collect something as to remember our trip by. So we went around collecting, All our collections are pretty big. Sincerely, Cindy

May 13, 1850
Dear Diary,
All we can see is grass, grass and more grass. There are a few trees here and there. Ma had me take some flowers to Ms. Silvermen. Cassia came with. Ms. Silvermen is really nice. We showed her our collections. Then she showed us her collection. She said that she’s been collecting gems and rocks since she was little too. I traded her a tiny arrowhead for an amethyst. Today a girl Janet came down with typhoid (AN:: lol, my Mom’s name is Janet; hm...) They say she will surely die and won’t let anyone see her for fear they’ll get sick too. Sincerely, Cindy

May 15th, 1850
Dear Diary,
Ma has said I should practice my cursive. (AN:: entries from now on were written in cursive). Did you know Mark and Cassia don’t know how to read or write. I feel awful so tomorrow (with Jake’s help) I will teach them to read and write. In return, they will both teach me to draw. About Janet. She died this morn. (AN:: lol, my poor Mom) We buried Janet between the graves of others who have died on this trecirouse (treacherous) trail. I fear that somebody in my family or one of my friends will be added to the list. But for now, all is well. Sincerely, Cindy

May 16th, 1850
Dear Diary,
You’ll be so proud of me when you hear what I’ve done. Mother is proud of me also. In just one day me and Jake taught Cassia and Mark how to read and write 15 different letters. They’re doing better than I thought. I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but my ma has been pregnant for about seven months now. (AN::Oh, by the way...lol) She says it’s a boy because girls get hiccups more. I had such a scare today. Austin doesn’t play with me a lot. But today Jake and Mark had to help with their wagon and Cassia with hers. So I decided to talk with Austin as he led our oxen. So he rode one and I rode the one next to him. Then for no reason at all his oxen started bucking like a bronco. Austin leaned forward to try and calm him. The oxen jerked his head back and knocked Austin, unconcious,, to the ground. Austin was right in the path of our wheel. So I jumped forward to move him out of the path. But my awful skirt tripped me up and I hit my head on the oxen’s horn. I still got Austin moved (AN:: Wow, impressive) but I hit my head again on the wheel. Now the horn had started to knock me out but the wheel defenately did. So we both just lay there unconciouse. The Barkley’s wagon was behind ours. They saw us, stopped and ran to our wagon/ When my ma saw us she almost passed out herself. Pa and Mr Berkley snatched us up and took us to Dr Clark. He layed us down and put wet clothes on our faces. Finally we woke up and told everyone our story. Then we went to sleep (AN:: with concussions?!?)) in our own wagon. Luckily we were okey. Sincerely, Cindy

May 20th, 1850
Dear Diary,
After me and Austin got everyone to leave us be we continued our lives. (AN:: lol, how dramatic) I taught Mark and Cassia how to write the rest of the alphabet. And read the letters. Now I’m teaching them spelling, grammar, and reading. The strangest thing happened. Cassia, Jake and Mark were busy. So I was walking to the left of the wagon train when I heard a moan. Oh, gotta go. I’ll tell you later. Sincerely, Cindy

May 21st, 1850
Dear Diary,
I’m back! Where was I? Oh yes. I heard a moan so I looked around and I saw something move in the grass. I cautiously walked and there was a girl! She was hurt because there was blood on her arms, legs and face. I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to do. So without thinking I picked her up and carried her to Dr Clark’s wagon (AN: strong little girl, eh?). I sat her down and asked him if there was anything he could do. He said yes. Quite a while later she was laying down in my wagon. Pa had said she could stay with us until we decided what to do with her. It turned out that her name was Rachel. She got where she was by running. (AN:: one of my favorite sentences I have ever written, rofl) Her pa had gone insane and killed her whole family. Then he tried to kill her but she ran away. I realized we were both crying. I gave her a hug and told her she was welcome to stay with us as long as she like. She said thanks. (AN:: Ooh, favorite sentence number two, lol( I think this is going to be a wonderful friendship. Just think when she meets Cassia, Mark, Jake. Sincerely, Cindy

May 25th, 1850
Dear Diary,
I haven’t written for a while because I’ve been busy. We were crossing rivers. Today was the day that Rachel could leave the wagon. So after breakfast I took her to meet Mark, Cassia and Jake. By the way, Cassia and Mark’s lessons are going great. I had told them all about Rachel and today they would finally meet. On instinct I introduced them. (AN: what? ) After we had talked for a while, Jake suggested we start Rachel a collection like ours. She was amazed when we showed her ours. Well, that’s all for now. Sincerely, Cindy

May 26th, 1850
Dear Diary,
Today was so scary. We had one river to cross. Nothing had gone wrong with the other rivers so we weren’t worried. But ofcourse one of the wagons tipped over. We tried to get them out of the water but we didn’t make it and both people drowned. Guess who is was? Ms. Silvermen and her friend. Isn’t that sad. I’ll see you later. (AN::lol! Well good-bye to you, too) Sincerely, Cindy

May 27th, 1850
Dear Diary,
The whole camp is sad. Everyone had gottenv ery close to her and her friend. Her friend John was sweet. John loved his fiddle. (AN:: okay...) Something ever sadder is that when I woke up this morning John’s fiddle and Ms. Silvermen’s collection washed ashore. I kept the collection to remember her by. (AN: how convenient) I gave the fiddle to Jake since he knows how to play. Well I must move on with my life. (AN: wow, feel the love) After all, things are changing. Also, clothes need washing. Sincerely, Cindy

May 28th, 1850
Dear Diary,
I fear I’ve gone and done it. I feel horrible. See, we were going across another plain. It was kind of dark, so we lit a lantern. I was driving the wagon. Pa told me to watch out for a big rock in the road. Ofcourse, being my tight headed self I didn’t pay attention. (AN: what’s a tight head?) We hit the bump, the lantern spilled, and caught four year old Mary on fire. (AN::Oh my gosh!! You should feel horrible!) Everyone started screaming. I grabbed Mary and started trying to rub out the fire. But I caught on fire too. (AN::Rofl!!) Austin saw and dumped a whole bucket of water on us. by then though me and Mary were both burned. Mary’s legs look horrible. My face is what looks bad. And the dress I was wearing is now nothing but ashes floating on the breeze. I’m just grateful Mary wasn’t hurt bad. (AN: she wasn’t?) At campfire tongiht everyone was saying now I really like a girl on the Oregon Trail. (AN: because your face is burned off?) Well my burns are hruting so I’m going to go wash them. Sincerely, Cindy

That’s all that ever got written. LoL. What an adventure. I was eight when I wrote this, so I guess that’s sort of impressive. I went through a HUGE Oregon Trail stage right then and wrote I think about four stories; the other three of which are floating around somewhere. I won’t ramble here since you had the benefit of my delightful notes in the story, but let me point out one thing. When I was eight, I was obsessed with this book series by K. A. Applegate called Animorphs. The characters in that series are Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and so on. Awfully similar to Jake, Mark, Rachel, and Cassia, eh? ;) Let me also say that I think Cindy and her siblings’ names are cute together: Austin, Cindy, Charlotte, Lucy, and Mary.

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