A Lady Found in the Grass

I wonder if I shall encounter that young woman I found on the Prairie in 1859? She was lying on her back in the tall grass, staring at the sky, with her dead Pater beside her. As I bent over what I thought was another corpse, I was so startled when she blinked her great blue eyes that I jumped! I'd passed their handcart expedition earlier on, and never expected to find so sad a scene as I doubled back to look for the Shoshone party. It was a remarkable scene, like something from Arthur. When I picked her up from the grass, she was so fragile I thought she'd break as I laid her over my saddle. Eventually, she lived all the way to Fort Bridger, to my surprise. I suppose the female is tougher than she looks: certainly the Mormon female must be made of stern stuff to undertake such an insanely difficult walk. She was bound for Salt Lake City with an emigrant wagon train last I saw her. Her name was Harriet Ferguson, I believe. (Now, if she is recovered from her ordeal, she should be a beauty, I believe.) When White Dog's sister combed and braided her hair, I remember she blushed when I looked in on her, surprised to find a Lady where I'd remembered a poor, half-mad, starving girl). I admit, I had stared, as she reminded me so powerfully of Raphael's Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn in Rome; - the same grace, golden hair, high forehead and great, sad blue eyes. Odd to think that I may know someone in Salt Lake City, although we barely exchanged above a few score of words throughout that entire journey.