By: McKenna McAdow

Our story begins in a small apartment in Chicago Illinois.  Our family has two girls, an eight year old and a four year old. I am eight and my name is Mary my four year old sisters name is Rose. Rose and I were in our tiny backyard garden and we wished that we had a bigger garden for flowers and food. One day our dad said we will move to Broken Bone  Nebraska and we can plant over one thousand crops.  We were excited but sad to leave our friends. So we said goodbye and began to prepare.  We got  a lot of food to eat and supplies to survive but not a lot of room for us in the wagon.   We got on the wagon trail  in our cramped  wagon and set off for Broken Bone.  

 On the way a wagon tire broke and ran away but luckily we were crazy prepared. We had an extra tire in the back of the wagon. One night it rained and I got soaking wet. Good thing we were ready. We had an umbrella. The rest of the way was good but when we were almost there one horse ran away. So daddy and I went to pull the wagon together the rest of the way to Broken Bone Nebraska. We got there in seventy minutes and we planted at least sixty crops right away on the prairie. One day American Indians came to our house. Rose and I  gave them donuts that we made in our house out of sugar and other ingredients.  We were not afraid of the Indians and we wanted to be their friends.    When the winter came we had seven apples, six potatoes, nineteen carrots, two cabbages from our garden left to eat.  One day in the winter a blizzard came and the snow came up to the top of our little sod house and we ran out of food.  Daddy went hunting and  got a deer to eat and mommy made a delicious deer dinner that we all loved to eat.

We made it through the  hard winter and we were very happy.  The snow melted little by little and we planted one thousand or two thousand crops for the year for our farm.    We also had great news, our best friends forever from Chicago are going to be our new neighbors so we will not be alone.  They will help us plant and farm.  Soon this land will turn into a great place to live and we will have food for everyone who needs it.  We love our big prairie farm and our adventurous new life.  

I love adventures and I wanted to go to California  1848 with my friend and my brother when we were going there I Pact some games and some  my stuffed animals Parker my brother Pact is stuffed animal and her blanket And Timmy my friend has some other games and some books and some plushies We walked the California There was a problem My brother got sick but luckily I packed medicine And also ahead of us when we were walking there was a fire that we Help the people in the house blow out put it out by caring buckets of water me   Parker And Timmy got to California safely and we had a fun adventure on the way. 

One beautiful day Frani, Ani, and Henry were playing outside. The parents were chatting  until one day a man came up to the door and told the dad he could get a new job in California. And the dad took the job! So they started packing and then they noticed that their wagon was too full for people so  the dad got a new wagon for the kids. So  the mom drove the second and the dad drove the first one. And there was a big storm and lightning almost struck the wagon. But they went on and traveled hundreds of miles. They got to California to start their lives and dad his new job a painter. And the lone journey came to an end and life went on and on and on 

                   The end

The year was 1849.  Lily was only 13 years old, but was going to head out west in search of gold and adventure.

She left her papa and mama in Illinois to head to California to start a new life.  On the journey, Lily got sick and hurt during the hard travels on the range.  She did find new friends that joined her on the trail west.  Her new best friend Elizabeth and new friend George will make the trek to Calafornia together with Lily.  Then they met a group of Native Americans called the Pawnee.  They did not speak the same language as Lily and her friends, but they were kind to each other and quickly became friends.  Lily also cooked the Pawnee a prime rib feast on the day they said their goodbyes and headed west yet again.  A few months more of traveling, they finally reached California!  

In California, they met up and stayed with Elizabeth’s brother Owen who had already made a homestead.  Owen also showed them a secret place where he had already found very large gold nuggets!  He called it Lucky Falls.  Together the friends found enough gold to make them all very rich! 

The friends went on many more adventures together in the next few years.  Lily and George fell in love during this time. They soon settled into a very nice homestead they built, had 5 children together, and lived happily ever after.