our own house now and almost settled. When one has only a few
pieces of furniture it does not take long to get them in place. It is
impossible to make the rooms look homelike, and I often find myself
wondering where in this world I have wandered to! The house is of logs,
of course, and has a pole and dirt roof, and was built originally for an
officers' mess. The dining room is large and very long, a part of which
we have partitioned off with a piece of canvas and converted into a
storeroom. We had almost to get down on our knees to the quartermaster
before he would give us the canvas. He is in the quartermaster's
department and is most arrogant; seems to think that every nail and tack
is his own personal property and for his exclusive use.

Our dining room has a sand floor, and almost every night little white
toadstools grow up all along the base of the log walls. All of the logs
are of cottonwood and have the bark on, and the army of bugs that hide
underneath the bark during the day and march upon us at night is to be
dreaded about as much as a whole tribe of Indians!

I wrote you how everyone laughed at me on the march down because I was
positive I saw heads of Indians on the sand hills so many times.
Well, all that has ceased, and the mention of "Mrs. Rae's Indians" is
carefully avoided! There has been sad proof that the Indians were there,
also that they were watching us closely and kept near us all the way
down from Fort Dodge, hoping for a favorable opportunity to steal the
animals. The battalion of the --th Infantry had made only two days'
march from here, and the herders had just turned the horses and mules
out to graze, when a band of Cheyenne Indians swooped down upon them and
stampeded every animal, leaving the companies without even one mule!
The poor things are still in camp on the prairie, waiting for something,
anything, to move them on. General Phillips is mightily pleased that the
Indians did not succeed in getting the animals from his command, and I
am pleased that they cannot tease me any more.

My ride with Lieutenant Golden, Faye's classmate, this morning was very
exciting for a time. We started directly after stable call, which is at
six o'clock. Lieutenant Golden rode Dandy, his beautiful thoroughbred,
that reminds me so much of Lieutenant Baldwin's Tom, and I rode a troop
horse that had never been ridden by a woman before. As soon as he was
led up I noticed that there was much white to be seen i