ached the saw-mill, and as soon as it
became known that I was with the "lieutenant" every man sprang up from
some place underneath the snow to look at me, and two or three ran over
to assist Bryant with our things. It was awfully nice to know that I was
a person of importance, even if it was out in a camp in the mountains
where probably a woman had never been before. The little log cabin built
for officers had only the one long room, with large, comfortable bunk,
two tables, chairs, a "settle" of pine boards, and near one end of the
room was a box stove large enough to heat two rooms of that size. By the
time my stiffened body could get inside, the stove had been filled to
the top with pine wood that roared and crackled in a most cheerful and
inviting manner.

But the snow out there! I do not consider it advisable to tell the exact
truth, so I will simply say that it was higher than the cabin, but that
for some reason it had left an open space of about three feet all around
the logs, and that gave us air and light through windows which had been
thoughtfully placed unusually high. The long stable, built against
a bank, where the horses and mules were kept, was entirely buried
underneath the snow, and you would never have dreamed that there was
anything whatever there unless you had seen the path that had been
shoveled down to the door. The cabin the men lived in, I did not see at
all. We were in a ravine where the pine forest was magnificent, but one
could see that the trees were shortened many feet by the great depth of
snow.

Our meals were brought to us by Bryant from the soldiers' mess, and as
the cook was only a pick-up, they were often a mess indeed, but every
effort was made to have them nice. The day after we got there the cook
evidently made up his mind that some recognition should be shown of
the honor of my presence in the woods, so he made a big fat pie for my
dinner. It was really fat, for the crust must have been mostly of lard,
and the poor man had taken much pains with the decorations of twisted
rings and little balls that were on the top. It really looked very nice
as Bryant set it down on the table in front of me, with an air that the
most dignified of butlers might have envied, and said, "Compliments
of the cook, ma'am!" Of course I was, and am still, delighted with the
attention from the cook, but for some reason I was suspicious of that
pie, it was so very high up, so I continued to talk about it ad