Bright
Lights Had Been Placed In The Store Windows, But Not One Had They
Seen.
These storms kill so many range cattle, but the most destructive
of all is a freeze after a chinook, that covers the ground with ice so
it is impossible for them to get to the grass.
At such times the poor
animals suffer cruelly. We often hear them lowing, sometimes for days,
and can easily imagine that we see the starving beasts wandering on
and on, ever in search of an uncovered bit of grass. The lowing of
hundreds of cattle on a cold winter night is the most horrible sound
one can imagine.
Cold as it is, I ride Bettie almost every day, but only on the high
ground where the snow has been blown off. We are a funny sight
sometimes when we come in - Bettie's head, neck, and chest white with
her frozen breath, icicles two or three inches long hanging from each
side of her chin, and my fur collar and cap white also. I wear a
sealskin cap with broad ear tabs, long sealskin gauntlets that keep my
hands and arms warm, and high leggings and moccasins of beaver, but
with the fur inside, which makes them much warmer. A tight chamois
skin waist underneath my cadet-cloth habit and a broad fur collar
completes a riding costume that keeps me warm without being bungling.
I found a sealskin coat too warm and heavy.
No one will ride now and they do not know what fine exercise they are
missing. And I am sure that Bettie is glad to get her blood warm once
during the twenty-four hours. Friends kindly tell me that some day I
will be found frozen out on the plains, and that the frisky Bettie
will kill me, and so on. I ride too fast to feel the cold, and Bettie
I enjoy - all but the airs she assumes inside the post. Our house is
near the center of the officers' line, and no matter which way I go or
what I do, that little beast can never be made to walk one step until
we get out on the road, but insists upon going sideways, tossing her
head, and giving little rears. It looks so affected and makes me feel
very foolish, particularly since Mrs. Conger said to me the other day:
"Why do you make your horse dance that way - he might throw you." I
then asked her if she would not kindly ride Bettie a few times and
teach her to keep her feet down. But she said it was too cold to go
out!
We have much more room in this house than we had in the hospital, and
are more comfortable every way. Almost every day or evening there is
some sort of an entertainment - german, dinner, luncheon, or card
party. I am so glad that we gave the first cotillon that had ever been
given in the regiment, for it was something new on the frontier;
therefore everyone enjoyed it.
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