Mr. Dravo and I rode one day to the Mormon settlement,
seventeen miles away, on some business with the bishop, and a
Mormon woman gave us a lunch of fried salt pork, potatoes, bread,
and milk. How good it tasted, after our long ride! and how we
laughed about it all, and jollied, after the fashion of young
people, all the way back to the post! Mr Dravo had also lost all
his things on the "Montana," and we sympathized greatly with each
other. He, however, had sent an order home to Pennsylvania,
duplicating all the contents of his boxes. I told him I could not
duplicate mine, if I sent a thousand orders East.
When, after some months, his boxes came, he brought me in a
package, done up in tissue paper and tied with ribbon: "Mother
sends you these; she wrote that I was not to open them; I think
she felt sorry for you, when I wrote her you had lost all your
clothing. I suppose," he added, mustering his West Point French
to the front, and handing me the package, "it is what you ladies
call 'lingerie.' "
I hope I blushed, and I think I did, for I was not so very old,
and I was touched by this sweet remembrance from the dear mother
back in Pittsburgh. And so many lovely things happened all the
time; everybody was so kind to me. Mrs. Kendall and her young
sister, Kate Taylor, Mrs. John Smith and I, were the only women
that winter at Camp MacDowell. Afterwards, Captain Corliss
brought a bride to the post, and a new doctor took Doctor Clark's
place.
There were interminable scouts, which took both cavalry and
infantry out of the post. We heard a great deal about "chasing
Injuns" in the Superstition Mountains, and once a lieutenant of
infantry went out to chase an escaping Indian Agent.
Old Smith, my cook, was not very satisfactory; he drank a good
deal, and I got very tired of the trouble he caused me. It was
before the days of the canteen, and soldiers could get all the
whiskey they wanted at the trader's store; and, it being
generally the brand that was known in the army as "Forty rod,"
they got very drunk on it sometimes. I never had it in my heart
to blame them much, poor fellows, for every human beings wants
and needs some sort of recreation and jovial excitement.
Captain Corliss said to Jack one day, in my presence, "I had a
fine batch of recruits come in this morning."
"That's lovely," said I; "what kind of men are they? Any good
cooks amongst them?" (for I was getting very tired of Smith).
Captain Corliss smiled a grim smile.
