will be at our old end of the
garrison again, and our neighbors on either side will be charming
people. There is some consolation in that; nevertheless, I am thinking
all the time of the pretty walls and shiny floors we had to give up, and
to a very poor housekeeper, too. After we get our house, it will take
weeks to fix it up, and it will be impossible to take the same interest
in it that we found in the first. If Faye gets his first lieutenancy in
the spring, it is possible that we may have to go to another post, which
will mean another move. But I am tired and cross; anyone would be under
such uncomfortable conditions.

FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY, March, 1883.

THE trip over was by far the most enjoyable of any we have taken between
Fort Shaw and this post, and we were thankful enough that we could come
before the snow began to melt on the mountains. Our experience with the
high water two years ago was so dreadful that we do not wish to ever
encounter anything of the kind again. The weather was delightful--with
clear, crisp atmosphere, such as can be found only in this magnificent
Territory. It was such a pleasure to have our own turn-out, too, and to
be able to see the mountains and canons as we came along, without having
our heads bruised by an old ambulance.

Faye had to wait almost twelve years for a first lieutenancy, and now,
when at last he has been promoted, it has been the cause of our leaving
dear friends and a charming garrison, and losing dear yellow Hang, also.
The poor little man wept when he said good-by to me in Helena. We had
just arrived and were still on the walk in front of the hotel, and of
course all the small boys in the street gathered around us. I felt very
much like weeping, too, and am afraid I will feel even more so when I
get in my own home. Hang is going right on to China, to visit his mother
one year, and I presume that his people will consider him a very rich
man, with the twelve hundred dollars he has saved. He has never cut his
hair, and has never worn American clothes. Even in the winter, when
it has been freezing cold, he would shuffle along on the snow with his
Chinese shoes.

I shall miss the pretty silk coats about the house, and his swift,
almost noiseless going around. That Chinamen are not more generally
employed I cannot understand, for they make such exceptional servants.
They are wonderfully economical, and can easily do the work of two
maids, and if once you win t