This entry is short and sweet, and it made me laugh. I suspect that eating fried pudding is the beginning of trouble. It sounds repulsive!
April [13], 1852
Started for California amidst the tears and sighs of our friends which is indeed a comforting depression upon our spirits. We find the roads very bad. Went fourteen miles and stopped at a little place called Pavilion [Illinois], rather a romantic name for a few miserable huts. I stayed at a public house and ate fried pudding. This I expect is the beginning of trouble.
Cummings, Mariett Foster, 1827-, Diary of Mariett Foster Cummings, April, 1852, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 4: 1952: The California Trail. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
red paper boat 