The only thing I could
see, except sky and sand, was a ruined adobe enclosure ,with no
roof.
I sat in the ambulance until our tent was pitched, and then
Jack came to me, followed by a six-foot soldier, and said:
"Mattie, this is Bowen, our striker; now I want you to tell him
what he shall cook for our supper; and - don't you think it would
be nice if you could show him how to make some of those good New
England doughnuts? I think Major Worth might like them; and after
all the awful stuff we have had, you know," et caetera, et
caetera. I met the situation, after an inward struggle, and said,
weakly, "Where are the eggs?" "Oh," said he, "you don't need
eggs; you're on the frontier now; you must learn to do without
eggs."
Everything in me rebelled, but still I yielded. You see I had
been married only six months; the women at home, and in Germany
also, had always shown great deference to their husbands' wishes.
But at that moment I almost wished Major Worth and Jack and Bowen
and the mess-chest at the bottom of the Rio Colorado. However, I
nerved myself for the effort, and when Bowen had his camp-fire
made, he came and called me.
At the best, I never had much confidence in my ability as a cook,
but as a camp cook! Ah, me! Everything seemed to swim before my
eyes, and I fancied that the other women were looking at me from
their tents. Bowen was very civil, turned back the cover of the
mess-chest and propped it up. That was the table. Then he brought
me a tin basin, and some flour, some condensed milk, some sugar,
and a rolling-pin, and then he hung a camp-kettle with lard in it
over the fire. I stirred up a mixture in the basin, but the
humiliation of failure was spared me, for just then, without
warning, came one of those terrific sandstorms which prevail on
the deserts of Arizona, blowing us all before it in its fury, and
filling everything with sand.
We all scurried to the tents; some of them had blown down. There
was not much shelter, but the storm was soon over, and we stood
collecting our scattered senses. I saw Mrs. Wilkins at the door
of her tent. She beckoned to me; I went over there, and she said:
"Now, my dear, I am going to give you some advice. You must not
take it unkindly. I am an old army woman and I have made many
campaigns with the Colonel; you have but just joined the army.
You must never try to do any cooking at the camp-fire. The
soldiers are there for that work, and they know lots more about
it than any of us do."
"But, Jack," I began -
"Never mind Jack," said she; "he does not know as much as I do
about it; and when you reach your post," she added, "you can show
him what you can do in that line."
Bowen cleared away the sandy remains of the doubtful dough, and
prepared for us a very fair supper.
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