My pretty rugs and mats were also gone, and there was
only the old ingrain carpet from Fort Russell. The floors were
adobe, and some men from the company came and laid down old
canvas, then the carpet, and drove in great spikes around the
edge to hold it down. The floors of the bedroom and dining-room
were covered with canvas in the same manner. Our furnishings were
very scanty and I felt very mournful about the loss of the boxes.
We could not claim restitution as the steamship company had been
courteous enough to take the boxes down free of charge.
John Smith, the post trader (the name "sutler" fell into disuse
about now) kept a large store but, nothing that I could use to
beautify my quarters with - and our losses had been so heavy that
we really could not afford to send back East for more things. My
new white dresses came and were suitable enough for the winter
climate of MacDowell. But I missed the thousand and one
accessories of a woman's wardrobe, the accumulation of years, the
comfortable things which money could not buy especially at that
distance.
I had never learned how to make dresses or to fit garments and
although I knew how to sew, my accomplishments ran more in the
line of outdoor sports.
But Mrs. Kendall whose experience in frontier life had made her
self-reliant, lent me some patterns, and I bought some of John
Smith's calico and went to work to make gowns suited to the hot
weather. This was in 1877, and every one will remember that the
ready-made house-gowns were not to be had in those days in the
excellence and profusion in which they can to-day be found, in
all parts of the country.
Now Mrs. Kendall was a tall, fine woman, much larger than I, but
I used her patterns without alterations, and the result was
something like a bag. They were freshly laundried and cool,
however, and I did not place so much importance on the lines of
them, as the young women of the present time do. To-day, the
poorest farmer's wife in the wilds of Arkansas or Alaska can wear
better fitting gowns than I wore then. But my riding habits, of
which I had several kinds, to suit warm and cold countries, had
been left in Jack's care at Ehrenberg, and as long as these
fitted well, it did not so much matter about the gowns.
Captain Chaffee, who commanded the company of the Sixth Cavalry
stationed there, was away on leave, but Mr. Kendall, his first
lieutenant, consented for me to exercise "Cochise," Captain
Chaffee's Indian pony, and I had a royal time.
