great deal of contradictory advice was offered, as is usually the case
when people are starting on a voyage or a long railway ride. One friend
wrote to recommend that they should provide themselves with a week's
provisions in advance, and enclosed a list of crackers, jam, potted meats,
tea, fruit, and hardware, which would have made a heavy load for a donkey
or mule to carry. How were poor Clover and Phil to transport such a weight
of things? Another advised against umbrellas and water-proof cloaks,--what
was the use of such things where it never rained?--while a second letter,
received the same day, assured them that thunder and hail storms were
things for which travellers in Colorado must live in a state of continual
preparation. "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" In the end Clover
concluded that it was best to follow the leadings of commonsense and
rational precaution, do about a quarter of what people advised, and leave
the rest undone; and she found that this worked very well.

As they knew so little of the resources of St. Helen's, and there was such
a strong impression prevailing in the family as to its being a rough sort
of newly-settled place, Clover and Katy judged it wise to pack a large
box of stores to go out by freight: oatmeal and arrowroot and beef-extract
and Albert biscuits,--things which Philly ought to have, and which in a
wild region might be hard to come by. Debby filled all the corners with
home-made dainties of various sorts; and Clover, besides a spirit-lamp and
a tea-pot, put into her trunks various small decorations,--Japanese fans
and pictures, photographs, a vase or two, books and a sofa-pillow,--things
which took little room, and which she thought would make their quarters
look more comfortable in case they were very bare and unfurnished. People
felt sorry for the probable hardships the brother and sister were to
undergo; and they had as many little gifts and notes of sympathy and
counsel as Katy herself when she was starting for Europe.