The Trail of Dreams - Act II Lyrics

17. ENTR' ACTE/STATS

COMPANY
Number of pioneers-"men, women, and children:
70,000.
Number of pioneers who walked the entire trail:
Well more than half.
Number of pioneers who came by handcart:
3,000, or four percent.
Number of deaths per company:
One in eighteen.
Period of the exodus:
Twenty-two years.
Number of companies:
Two hundred.
Number of companies stretched out along the trail, all at once, in an average 
September:
Nine, averaging 350 souls in each.
Number of pioneers born as Americans:
One in every four.
Number of pioneers who began the trail after crossing the Atlantic Ocean:
Two of every three.
Number of ships chartered for that crossing:
Ninety-seven. Eighty-seven from Liverpool, six from Hamburg, four from
London.
Among them were the Argo, the Olympus, the Ellen Maria, the Forest Monarch, 
the Golconda, the Old England, the Germanicus, the Rockaway, the Emerald 
Isle, the Chimborazo, the Caravan, the Enoch Train, the Horizon, the 
Tuscarora, the William Tappscott, the Monarch of the Sea, the Antarctic, the 
Amazon, the Caroline, the Windermere, the Arkwright, the S. Curling.
Average number of saints per ship:
434.
Distance from Liverpool to New Orleans, where more than half landed:
5,000 miles.
New Orleans to St. Louis:
1,173 miles up the Mississippi River.
St. Louis to the trailhead at Kanesville or Florence, where Winter Quarters 
stood:
620 miles.
Winter Quarters to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake:
1,035 miles.
Length of the journey for most:
7,828 miles.
Minor interruptions in the flow of pioneers:
1846, war between the United States and Mexico.
1854, war between the United States and the Sioux Nation. 
1858, war between the United States and the Mormons.
1862, war between the United States and itself.
JOHN BENSON
One would naturally think that living as we are, amid plains, mountains, 
rivers, deserts . . . our world would be very large, but just the reverse is 
true. Our thoughts, our hopes, our fears are all centered about the train, 
the health and spirits of the company, grass and water for the oxen, and fuel 
to cook our meals. You can see that the world in which we actually live 
scarcely extends beyond the dust of the train by day and the smoke of the 
campfires at night.

JOHN
It began with a dream I believed in,
when my vision was clear
and my strength unspent.
It began with the joy of the journey,
trusting the trail wherever it went.

Then we came to the plains and the rivers,
and we fought through the mud
and the dusty lands.
Will it end in the peace I planned,
or will I end with blood on my hands?

Look at these companies, so inexperienced,
not one in ten on their own would survive.
Lost in the wild,
not the slightest idea that they've
nothing but me and their dreams
to keep them alive.

They long for a place
where their struggles can end.
I hear as they pray
with each step and each breath.
What they have faced I could never explain,
I just pray that their hopes and their dreams
will be stronger than death.

JEDEDIAH
Digging deep in the dirt for my Margaret"
digging deep in my heart like a rusty knife.

CAROLINE
Will I picture her tiny face in this lonely place
the rest of my life?

JENS
Standing here in the cold like a shepherd,
wond'ring how many lambs I will lose tonight?
Standing here in the wind and cold
and our only hope nowhere in sight.

PETER HOWARD MCBRIDE
Wind was blowing the snow and it was pretty hard to see. I followed my sister 
Jenetta. It was easy. She left bloody prints of her toes and heels in the 
snow behind her.

A PLAYER (soloist: Traci Brewster)
Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
oh the memory haunts us yet.
Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
those who crossed it can't forget
Rocky Ridge.

COMPANY
Late in cold October
mountain snow was sailing
'round our handcart company, our
rations and our strength were failing.
In the snow our footsteps
red with blood were trailing.
We could walk no further and the
winter wind around was wailing
cold.

Then the captain set out
riding night and day.
Swore he would not rest until the
rescuers were on their way and
in the snow he found them
by a fire warming,
roused them from their slumber and he
had them on their way by morning
light.

Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
oh the memory haunts us yet.
Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
those who crossed it can't forget
Rocky Ridge.

On they came like angels,
where they found us lying.
Gave us food but knew we needed
shelter soon to keep from dying.
Fifteen miles they marched us,
twenty-seven hours,
driving us like cattle with their
whips so we could not lie down and
die.

Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
oh the memory haunts us yet.
Rocky Ridge, Rocky Ridge,
those who crossed it can't forget
Rocky Ridge.

Rocky Ridge.

ALFRED LAMBOURNE
Countless in number almost were those silent witnesses of death by the way. 
The graves were dug by the banks of streams, or among piles of rocks. I 
recall sitting by one while I ate my evening meal, and of sleeping beside it at 
night.
MARGARET DALGLISH
That first death made a sad impression on our company. A network of stakes 
was placed across the grave to keep away the robber wolves, and a hymn was 
then sung, accompanied by the plaintive wailing of a clarinet.
ALFRED LAMBOURNE
But after a while the burials became so frequent that they lost much of their 
saddening power.
MARGARET DALGLISH
Or, rather, we refused to retain the sadness, throwing it off in self-defence.

JENS
Elsie, I'm not the man I used to be.
I'm not the man you once chose.

ELSIE
What makes you think I'm in love with your feet?
You don't love a man for his toes!

Will you stop loving me if my feet freeze?

JENS
No, I would love you
from your head to your . . . knees.

ELSIE
Oh, Jens.

JENS
And when you are much older
and your beauty starts to go.

ELSIE
By then you'll lose your eyesight,
so you'll never even know!

JENS
And if I lose my hair?

ELSIE
You're assuming it's still there.

We both could fall apart
and still it would be true;
I'll love whatever's left of you.

If Indians should scalp me,
would you love me after that?

JENS
Of course, my dear, I'd love you,
but I,d hope you'd wear a hat.

ELSIE
And if my hair turns gray?

JENS
Least yours is there to stay.

We both could fall apart
and still it would be true;
I'll love whatever's left of you.

JENS
Elsie, everything will be different now.

ELSIE
How will it be different?

JENS
I will just sit there, doing nothing, eating your food and being in the way
while you do all the work.

ELSIE
Ja? And how will it be different?

JENS
Elsie.

ELSIE
And now we are alone,
we are back to only two.

JENS
I don't know what the future holds.

ELSIE
But I'll be holding you!

We both could fall apart,

JENS
we might not make it through,

BOTH
We both could fall to pieces
and still, it will be true;
I'll love whatever's left of you!

ANGELA
You still don't understand. There will be no victory here for me. No sting
for you. If I am the lion, you are the lamb, Brother Brown. There shall be
peace between us.

CADDIE
Mama!

ANGELA
I'm needed.

JOHN
Angela, not Caroline!

JEDEDIAH
Caroline, we're almost there.

CAROLINE
Jeddy . . .

JEDEDIAH
Just hold on 'til we get to the valley. Then we'll be home, and you'll be
alright.

CAROLINE
In another place
and in another time
we'll have hours and days
when you only are mine . . .

JOHN
Angela, she's been with us from the beginning! From before Nauvoo! 
And we're a stone's throw from the end! Will you take all the joy?

I had a son,
and I heard his life end.
And I hear it again when each friend takes their
last dying breath.
And I've failed them. How can you pretend
that our faith and our hopes and our dreams
can be stronger than death?

ANGELA
Yes, you die. Is it such a surprise?
It's the one fact of life guaranteed;
first you come, then you leave.
And what counts is not living or dying,
but searching and trying
and finding the trail of your dreams.

JOHN
All I found is just a trail of mud,
then a trail of dust, a trail of blood.

ANGELA
What you've found is more than you can know,
you have planted seeds, now watch them grow!

JOHN
Just to see you kill them with the cold?

ANGELA
Just to see them turning into gold;
turning into dreams this world can't hold!
I am just another door . . .

JOHN
Why did I ever enter in?

ANGELA
. . . on a trail that never ends.

JOHN
It's a battle I can't win!

ANGELA
I was beaten long ago.

JOHN
What?

ANGELA
That's the reason you can call me your friend.
Now you've sailed across the years,

JOHN
Can I believe this tale you tell,

ANGELA
and you've rolled across the plains,

JOHN
that you're from heaven, not from hell?

ANGELA
now you've reached the farthest valley--
there's just one step that remains.

Come away, come away
down the trail of dreams tonight!
Feel the sun, face the wind,
ford the rivers, find the height
of your dream.

JOHN
Don't you have a . . . rescue to conduct?

JOHN
Angela, what about Jedediah?

ANGELA
It's not his time.

JOHN
Not that.

ANGELA
What, then?

JOHN
If you take her, you take his dream. If you take his dream, you take his life.

ANGELA
Dreams are stronger than death, John Brown.

JOHN
Will you show me?

ANGELA
Caroline.

CAROLINE
Jeddy, all is well! All is well! Please get me to the valley, Jeddy. Then
bring me my Margaret. Bring her to me! All together in the valley.

JEDEDIAH
Yes, yes, Caroline. I,ll do my best. I,ll do my best.

A box. I must have a box. For my wife.

MOTHER HALE
I,m sorry, there is no box.

JOHN
And we have no wood for one.

JEDEDIAH
My wagon is made of wood.

JOHN
I will help.

JENS
And I will help.

JEDEDIAH
And who would have thought
that a box just this size
could hold all the dreams in her eyes?

CADDIE
There is a land of peace called Zion
where we cast down our every care.

JEDEDIAH & CADDIE
My lord is the staff I shall rely on
'til at last I am safely there.

ANGELA
It's just over the next rise.

PLAYERS
Oh Zion, oh Zion ,
how long shall I wait
to find the end of all my journey
and find peace there within thy gates?

ANGELA
Well, Brother Brown, may I have this dance?

JOHN
Is it time?

ANGELA
It's time.

JOHN
Is my dream over?

ANGELA
Your dream is never over.

JOHN
Will it come true, now?

ANGELA
All our dreams come true.

JOHN
What, God simply asks, "What do you want?"

ANGELA
Something like that. And we simply answer with our lives.

JOHN
Wait. Did I answer well?

ANGELA
Dance, Brother Brown.

PLAYERS
There are dreams all around us
like clouds in the air.
We go walking right through them
unchanged, unaware.
But if once you are touched
by a dream that you love,
though the universe shakes you
nothing ever quite wakes you
from your dream!

Come away, come away,
come and dream!

THE END

If your group or theatrical company is interested in performing 
"The Trail of Dreams," please contact the publisher;
Encore Performance Publishing
P. O. Box 692
Orem, UT 84059
(801) 225-0605
or email at Encoreplay@aol.com

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