Army women were accustomed to it, she
said.
CHAPTER III
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING
Not knowing before I left home just what was needed for
house-keeping in the army, and being able to gather only vague
ideas on the subject from Jack, who declared that his quarters
were furnished admirably, I had taken out with me but few
articles in addition to the silver and linen-chests.
I began to have serious doubts on the subject of my menage, after
inspecting the bachelor furnishings which had seemed so ample to
my husband. But there was so much to be seen in the way of guard
mount, cavalry drill, and various military functions, besides the
drives to town and the concerts of the string orchestra, that I
had little time to think of the practical side of life.
Added to this, we were enjoying the delightful hospitality of the
Wilhelms, and the Major insisted upon making me acquainted with
the "real old-fashioned army toddy" several times a day, - a new
beverage to me, brought up in a blue-ribbon community, where
wine-bibbing and whiskey drinking were rated as belonging to only
the lowest classes. To be sure, my father always drank two
fingers of fine cognac before dinner, but I had always considered
that a sort of medicine for a man advanced in years.
