and coyotes howled the live-long night? Of course if
there were quarters in which a woman could live with even reasonable
comfort, that would be very different. Then their remaining at Scott
would be inexcusable. Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling were women who were
at variance on very many points of late, but openly in accord on this.
Indeed, almost every woman at Scott had all of a sudden been seized by
some strange lingual epidemic that manifested itself in the persistent
repetition of such expressions as "Of course no woman who could see her
way to any kind of a civilized house would be justified in not joining
her husband there instead of staying here." It was sure to attack them,
too, whenever Almira happened to be within ear-shot, for the news came
down one March morning that one officer at least was to have a very
comfortable little frame cottage,--the commander of the agency guard. It
would be finished in a week or two, and even the stoves, fuel, and much
of the furniture would be provided by the Indian bureau. Again did Mrs.
Cranston go and call on Mrs. Davies and warmly congratulate her, and say
that Captain Cranston's men who were packing up the troop property would
gladly box and pack her furniture too and send it out by their wagons,
and then she said there were six inside seats in the big Concord wagon
and it would afford so much pleasure if Mrs. Davies would go with them.
But Almira faltered unresponsively. Mr. Davies had not fully decided. It
was such a shock to her,--his being detained there. She had never
dreamed of his being away more than a week or ten days, if she had she
would have returned home to Urbana, but now it was nearly two months,
and really Mr. Davies would have to come down and look after the
household affairs and matters that she didn't fully understand.

Davies understood them well enough when he got the commissary and grocer
and butcher and baker and other bills that Mira had managed to run up,
both at Scott and at Braska. He went with grave face to Cranston. "I'm
afraid Mrs. Maloney and Katty have been taking advantage of my wife's
inexperience," said he, "and ordering all manner of things in all
possible quantities, and possibly, or probably, stocking the Maloney
larder at my expense. I simply cannot pay these and my home assessments
too."

Cranston was a man of few words. "Davies," said he, after looking over
the accounts, "Mrs. Davies has been cheated right and left by those
people,