Transcriber's Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader,and is placed in the public domain.
THE
PIONEER TRAIL
BY
ALFRED LAMBOURNE
THE DESERET NEWS
Salt Lake City
1913
Copyright, 1913,
By Alfred Lambourne
Dedicated to the Memory of
MY FATHER.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE.
“An Old Sketch-Book” and “The Old Journey,”the predecessors of “The Pioneer Trail,”are now out of print, and the volume here offeredto the public in their stead is to fill a demand forthe original works. In the present book thereis much additional matter to the letterpress ofthe first editions and, indeed, the character ofthe work is somewhat changed, the work beingmore an epitome of human emotion rather thanone descriptive of scenery. These statements,however, have rather too important a sound asapplied to such a short narrative as makes upthese pages. Since the issue of “The Old Journey,”the sketches from which it was illustratedhave been scattered here and there, and thevignettes from the original plates are given intheir place. An explanation seems necessary to[Pg 8]those who may purchase the book in its newform in anticipation of its being a duplicate of theformer works.
I lie at the side of a mountain road. The mountainis steep, the road is edged with trees. Thereare the wild-cherry, evergreens, and clumps ofancient shrub-oak. The road is now unused; fewpass over it, save it be the shepherds who taketheir flocks from the high pastures of one mountainrange to those of another. What once hadbeen ruts made by the wheels of wagons are nowchanged by rain and flood into deep-cut gullies.It is a place where, in the spring time, the air isfragrant from millions of snow-white blossoms,and where now on the branches of the cherry,hang clusters of crimson fruit. The piece ofroad is historic. At this, its steepest part, near“The Summit,” and where it is crossed by ledgesof stone and littered with boulders and shalethat once tore the iron from the cattle’s feet, Ifound an ox-shoe. The relic had lain here long.Down this road passed the Pioneers.
There is stillness around. Over “The Little[Pg 9]Mountain” arches a cloudless sky, the wide landscapeis bathed in sunlight. But this place, nowso quiet and deserted, may yet become the sceneof animation. The broken road is to be a highway,preserved as a piece of “The PioneerTrail.”
T