"So!" I said; "my military husband does not know anything about
these things;" and I availed myself of the first trip of the
ambulance over to Cheyenne, bought a stock of tin-ware and had it
charged, and made no mention of it - because I feared that
tin-ware was to be our bone of contention, and I put off the evil
day.
The cooking went on better after that, but I did not have much
assistance from Adams.
I had great trouble at first with the titles and the rank: but I
soon learned that many of the officers were addressed by the
brevet title bestowed upon them for gallant service in the Civil
War, and I began to understand about the ways and customs of the
army of Uncle Sam. In contrast to the Germans, the American
lieutenants were not addressed by their title (except
officially); I learned to "Mr." all the lieutenants who had no
brevet.
One morning I suggested to Adams that he should wash the front
windows; after being gone a half hour, to borrow a step-ladder,
he entered the room, mounted the ladder and began. I sat writing.
Suddenly, he faced around, and addressing me, said, "Madam, do
you believe in spiritualism?"
"Good gracious! Adams, no; why do you ask me such a question ?"
This was enough; he proceeded to give a lecture on the subject
worthy of a man higher up on the ladder of this life. I bade him
come to an end as soon as I dared (for I was not accustomed to
soldiers), and suggested that he was forgetting his work.
It was early in April, and the snow drifted through the crevices
of the old dried-out house, in banks upon our bed; but that was
soon mended, and things began to go smoothly enough, when Jack
was ordered to join his company, which was up at the Spotted Tail
Agency. It was expected that the Sioux under this chief would
break out at any minute. They had become disaffected about some
treaty. I did not like to be left alone with the Spiritualist, so
Jack asked one of the laundresses, whose husband was out with the
company, to come and stay and take care of me. Mrs. Patten was an
old campaigner; she understood everything about officers and
their ways, and she made me absolutely comfortable for those two
lonely months. I always felt grateful to her; she was a dear old
Irish woman.
All the families and a few officers were left at the post, and,
with the daily drive to Cheyenne, some small dances and
theatricals, my time was pleasantly occupied.
