Bravo, LeeJ!! Audi, well done and thank you!

This Diary belongs to
Flora E. Trevalyn

Day 166 on the Trail: hot, dusty, no water in sight and not a breath of air stirring

We made ten miles yesterday, walking with our dress hems dragging in the dry alkali of this wasteland. With most of the water going to keep the horses alive, we've allowed ourselves only two swallows per day, three for the children.

I am quite sure the Wagon Leader has gone mad. He has promised us, for weeks, that the next stop, the next hill, the next horizon will be our promised Oasis, but I am sure we'll not find any of the sort within hundreds of miles, not the kind he has in mind!

The nights are cold, with brilliant starlight and I have argued our taking the way of the owl; hunting out our way, looking for the Land of Lost Songs, in the chilling comfort of darkness, but I plead in vain. WL looks even madder when I mention it, as if he sees things out there, things of menace to which we are blind.

Day 176: hot, dusty...few far off clouds with no promise of rain.

If we do not find the LofLS, soon, I fear we shall all lose our voices. No one can remember. Last night around the fire, someone struck up a half-tune, two bars at the most, then trailed off into a sorrow of regret. The children don't even know what a lully is, poor things.

I had the first dream of many weeks, last night...do I dare write it down? I am afraid I will jinx it if I do...maybe it will come true if I keep it a secret? It brings me hope.

Day 186: the clouds are closer now, still hot, but I can smell rain!

This in uncannily like the beginning of my dream...I shall sleep well tonight and dream it up some more. Perhaps tomorrow we will finally find our way! I remembered a few more lines of a lully my dear mother used to sing...tumble in bed...something, something..the stars are in the sky...something...etc. Oh, my heart's love! May my dream be so!

Day 196: great merciful heavens! It rained six nights ago... cool, refreshing rain!

We caught it in buckets and pans and our hats and ran and jumped and played like the children. My skin soaked up the moisture, even as it ran in muddy runnels down my dust-streaked face!

It was the opening of my dream and now it has been fulfilled! We have found it...the Land of Lost Songs!! Now we have the real name of it...it's denizens met us with fine mint mead, they welcomed us and made merry. They tucked the children in and sang to them; they encircled our weak and ailing and sang them into youth and health; they took us into the Valley and walked o'er the sod with us, all the while singing all of the Lost Songs, all of the verses, all of the stories!!

Oh my dearhearts, I am so replete with music and tunes. The community, the caring, the games, the play...one journey's end begins a whole new life and I am fulfilled in new ways and I owe it all to the Land of Lost Songs, what I know now is called The Mudcat! May you join us, soon....

Yours ever,
Flora