to Mrs. Todd, the daughter to me--who were insulted because they
were expected to occupy servant's rooms, and could not "eat with the
family"--so Mrs. Todd and I gave them cordial invitations to depart.
Then came my Russian treasure--a splendid cook, but who could not be
taught that a breakfast or dinner an hour late mattered to a regimental
adjutant, and wondered why guard mounting could not be held back while
she prepared an early breakfast for Faye. After a struggle of two months
she was passed on. A tall, angular woman with dull red hair drawn up
tight and twisted in a knot as hard as her head, was my next trial. She
was the wife of a gambler of the lowest type, but that I did not know
while she was here.

One day I told her to do something that she objected to, and with her
hands clinched tight she came up close as if to strike me. I stood
still, of course, and quietly said, "You mustn't strike me." She looked
like a fury and screamed, "I will if I want to!" She was inches
taller than I, but I said, "If you do, I will have you locked in the
guardhouse." She became very white, and fairly hissed at me, "You can't
do that--I ain't a soldier." I told her, "No, if you were a soldier you
would soon be taught to behave yourself," and I continued, "you are in
an army post, however, and if you do me violence I will certainly call
the guard." Before I turned to go from the room I looked up at her
and said, "Now I expect you to do what I have told you to do." I fully
expected a strike on my head before I got very far, but she controlled
herself. I went out of the house hoping she would do the same and never
return, but she was there still, and we had to tell her to go, after
all. I must confess, though, that the work she had objected to doing she
did nicely while I was out. Miller told me that she had three pistols
and two large watches in her satchel when she went away.

Then came a real treasure--Scotch Ellen--who has been with us six
months, and has been very satisfactory every way. To be sure she has had
awful headaches, and often it has been necessary for some one to do her
work. She and the sergeant's wife prepared the supper for the german,
and everything was sent to the hall in a most satisfactory way--much to
my delight. Nothing wrong was noticed the next morning either, until she
carried chocolate to Mrs. Hughes, when I saw with mortification that she
looked untidy, but thinking of the confusion in her part of the h