great delight, because she knew it would mean a long, long journey,
lasting months, and carrying them into a new country, where there
was never any cold weather and where great crops could be raised
without much hard work, and there would always be plenty to eat.
Besides, her family was not going alone, but many other families
whom they knew were going at the same time, so that she would have
some of her playmates with her all the way.

It was a wonderful sight when the great day came at last, and the
long wagon-train set out. In all there were more than forty wagons,
some drawn by four or six horses, and some by as many as eight big
oxen. And such strange wagons! They were more like little houses on
wheels, only instead of a roof there was a high frame overhead made
of hoops, and covered with canvas, so it made a sort of tent to
ride in by day, if you wished, and to sleep in at night. And from
these hoops hung all sorts of things--hams and pieces of bacon,
strips of dried pumpkin, pans to cook in, and clothes. Underneath
the big wagon, outside, swung the great kettles, in which the
larger things were cooked, and axes, and ropes and chains for
pulling the wagons out when they got stuck in the mud.

To little Mary it was all new and delightful. The big wagons
squeaked and groaned and swayed from side to side till the hams
hanging from the frame overhead would swing back and forth like the
pendulum of a clock. There were the shouts of the men to the horses
and oxen, the barking of the dogs that ran along the side of the
trail, the sharp cracking of the drivers' whips, and the
_ting-tang_ of the iron kettles swinging against each other.
And always they were passing through places that were new and
seeing things that were fresh and strange.