No reader can fully realize how much we had to say and do to keep up courage, and it is to this more than anything else that we did which kept up the lagging energies and inspired the best exertion.

I don't know but we painted some things a little brighter than they were, and tried to hide some of the most disheartening points of the prospects ahead, for we found the mind had most to do with it after all.

We have no doubt that if we had not done all we could to keep up good courage, the women would have pined away and died before reaching this far.

Whenever we stopped talking encouragingly, they seemed to get melancholy and blue.
There was some pretty good management to be exercised still.

The oxen were gradually growing weaker, and we had to kill the weakest one every time, for if the transportation of our food failed, we should yet be open to the danger of starvation.