ke him think they had
killed a Sioux. This became very tiresome; besides, the soldiers were
being robbed of coffee, so Colonel Palmer shut himself in his tent and
refused to see them one day, and an orderly told them to go away and
make no noise. They finally left the post looking very mournful, the men
said. I told Colonel Palmer that he might better have gone out on the
hills as I did; that it was ever so much nicer than being shut up in a
tent.

Bettie is learning to rear higher and higher, and I ride Pete now. The
last time I rode her she went up so straight that I slipped back in my
saddle, and some of the enlisted men ran out to my assistance. I let her
have her own way and came back to the tent, and jumping down, declared
to Faye that I would never ride her again. She is very cute in her
badness, and having once discovered that I didn't like a rearing horse,
she has proceeded to rear whenever she wanted her own way. I have
enjoyed riding her because she is so graceful and dainty, but I have
been told so many times that the horse was dangerous and would throw me,
that perhaps I have become a little nervous about her.

A detail of soldiers goes up in the mountains twice every day for poles
with which to make the roofs of the log quarters. They go along a trail
on the other side of the creek, and on this side is a narrow deer path
that runs around the rocky side of a small mountain. Ever since I have
been here I have wanted to go back of the mountain by that path. So,
when I happened to be out on Pete yesterday afternoon at the time the
men started, I at once decided to take advantage of their protection and
ride around the little mountain.

About half a mile up, there were quantities of bushes eight and ten feet
high down in the creek bed, and the narrow trail that Pete was on was
about on a level with the tops of the bushes. At my left the hill was
very steep and covered with stones. I was having a delightful time,
feeling perfectly safe with so many soldiers within call. But suddenly
things changed. Down in those bushes there was a loud crashing and
snapping, and then straight up into the air jumped a splendid deer!
His head and most of his neck were above the bushes, and for just one
instant he looked at us with big inquisitive eyes before he went down
again.

When the deer went up Pete went up, too, on the steep hill, and as I
was on his back I had to go with him. The horse was badly frightened,
snorted, a