RRITORY, December, 1881.

YOU will be greatly surprised to hear that Faye has gone to Washington!
His father is very ill--so dangerously so that a thirty-days' leave
was telegraphed Faye from Department Headquarters, without his having
applied for it so as to enable him to get to Admiral Rae without delay.
Some one in Washington must have asked for the leave. It takes so long
for letters to reach us from the East that one never knows what may
be taking place there. Faye started on the next stage to Helena and at
Dillon will take the cars for Washington.

Faye went away the night before the entertainment, which made it
impossible for me to be in the pantomime "Villikens and Dinah,"
so little Miss Gordon took my place and acted remarkably well,
notwithstanding she had rehearsed only twice. The very stage that
carried Faye from the post, brought to us Mr. Hughes of Benton for a few
days. But this turned out very nicely, for Colonel and Mrs. Mills, who
know him well, were delighted to have him go to them, and there he is
now. The next day I invited Miss Mills and Mr. Hughes to dine with me
informally, and while I was in the dining room attending to the few
pieces of extra china and silver that would be required for dinner (a
Chinaman has no idea of the fitness of things), Volmer, our striker,
came in and said to me that he would like to take the horses and the
single buggy out for an hour or so, as he wanted to show them to a
friend.

I saw at once that he and I were to have our usual skirmish. There is
one, always, whenever Faye is away any length of time. The man has a
frightful temper, and a year ago shot and killed a deserter. He was
acquitted by military court, and later by civil court, both courts
deciding that the shooting was accidental. But the deserter was a
catholic and Volmer is a quaker, so the feeling in the company was so
hostile toward him that for several nights he was put in the guardhouse
for protection. Then Faye took him as striker, and has befriended him
in many ways. But those colts he could not drive. So I told him that the
horses could not go out during the lieutenant's absence, unless I went
with them. He became angry at once, and said that it was the first team
he had ever taken care of that he was not allowed to drive as often
as he pleased. A big story, of course, but I said to him quietly, "You
heard what I said, Volmer, and further discussion will be quite useless.
You were never permitted