They acted as though
they knew there was not a shotgun within a hundred miles of them. They
were perfectly safe, for everyone was too nearly frozen to trouble
them with a rifle.
Camping on the snow will not be pleasant, and we regret very much that
the storm came just at this time. Charlie is busy cooking all sorts of
things for the trip, so he will not have much to do on the little camp
stove. He is a treasure, but says that he wishes we could stay here;
that he does not want to return to Fort Shaw. This puzzles me very
much, as there are so many Chinamen at Shaw and not one here. The
doctor will not go back with us, as he has received orders to remain
at this post during the winter.
FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY,
November, 1880.
THE past few days have been busy ones. The house has received much
needed attention and camp things have been looked over and put away,
ready for the next move. The trip back was a disappointment to me and
not at all pleasant. The wagons were very lightly loaded, so the men
rode in them all the way, and we came about forty miles each day, the
mules keeping up a steady slow trot. Of course I could not ride those
distances at that gait, therefore I was compelled to come in the old,
jerky ambulance.
The snow was still deep when we left Maginnis, and at the first camp
snow had to be swept from the ground where our tent was pitched. But
after that the weather was warm and sunny. We saw the greatest number
of feathered game - enormous flocks of geese, brant, and ducks. Our
camp one night was near a small lake just the other side of Benton,
and at dusk hundreds of geese came and lit on the water, until it
looked like one big mass of live, restless things, and the noise was
deafening. Some of the men shot at them with rifles, but the geese did
not seem to mind much.
Charlie told me at Maginnis that he did not want to return to Shaw,
and I wondered at that so many times. I went in the kitchen two
miserable mornings back and found him sitting down looking unhappy and
disconsolate. I do not remember to have ever seen a Chinaman sitting
down that way before, and was afraid he might be sick, but he said at
once and without preamble, "Me go 'way!" He saw my look of surprise
and said again, "Me go 'way - Missee Bulk's Chinee-man tellee me go
'way." I said, "But, Charlie, Lee has no right to tell you to go; I
want you to stay." He hesitated one second, then said in the most
mournful of voices, "Yes, me know, me feel vellee blad, but Lee, he
tellee me go - he no likee mason-man." No amount of persuasion could
induce him to stay, and that evening after dinner he packed his
bedding on his back and went away - to the Crossing, I presume.
