And, as Charlotte was an orphan and her adoptive mother was long gone, there was no one really to notify. The loss was mine—and my children's—to bear alone.

† February 15, 1847

[The fiddler quite casually plays a single sustained note.]

Ten men had set out East in the first relief party, directly from Fort Sutter, ahead of James Frazier Reed. On the ides of February, three turned back. However, those seven achieved their purpose on the 19th. As one of the rescuers later recalled,

At sunset, we crossed Truckee Lake on the ice, and came to the spot where, we had been told, we should find the emigrants. We looked all around, but no living thing except ourselves was in sight. We raised a loud hello. And then we saw a woman emerge from a hole in the snow. As we approached her, several others made their appearance, in like manner coming out of the snow. They were gaunt with famine; and I never can forget the horrible, ghastly sight they presented. The first woman spoke in a hollow voice, very much agitated, and said, 'Are you men from California or do you come from heaven?'

Not everyone could safely be ferried out on that first relief mission; some were too sick, some were too young, and some had to stay behind to care for their own. Margaret Reed started out with all her children, but the youngest, all of five years old, could not keep up or even keep his head above the snow. No one was available to carry him: she and her two eldest were too weak.

[He starts tearing up again, probably more dramatically than before—]

Her eight-year-old daughter, Patty, picked up the slack. Although she was the second youngest, she determined neither to leave her own little brother behind nor to watch her mother fail to ferry the two oldest out to safety. Margaret Reed struggled mightily with her dilemma and threatened to hold up the entire rescue mission, but Patty turned to her and said, "Well, Ma, if you never see me again, do the best you can."

And, with that, she took her brother Tommy's hand, turned around, and found her way back to the Breen cabin, where they were reluctantly taken in—two new mouths to feed.