by the sea had more to be thankful for,
in my opinion, than the richest people in Arizona. I felt as if I must
cry it out from the house-tops. My heart was thankful every minute of
the day and night, for every breath of soft air that I breathed, for
every bit of fresh fish that I ate, for fresh vegetables, and for
butter--for gardens, for trees, for flowers, for the good firm earth
beneath my feet. I wrote the man on detached service that I should never
return to Ehrenberg.

After eight months, in which my health was wholly restored, I heard the
good news that Captain Corliss had applied for his first lieutenant, and
I decided to join him at once at Camp MacDowell.

Although I had not wholly forgotten that Camp MacDowell had been called
by very bad names during our stay at Fort Whipple, at the time that Jack
decided on the Ehrenberg detail, I determined to brave it, in all its
unattractiveness, isolation and heat, for I knew there was a garrison
and a Doctor there, and a few officers' families, I knew supplies were
to be obtained and the ordinary comforts of a far-off post. Then too,
in my summer in the East I had discovered that I was really a soldier's
wife and I must go back to it all. To the army with its glitter and
its misery, to the post with its discomforts, to the soldiers, to the
drills, to the bugle-calls, to the monotony, to the heat of Southern
Arizona, to the uniform and the stalwart Captains and gay Lieutenants
who wore it, I felt the call and I must go.

CHAPTER XXIII. BACK TO ARIZONA

The last nails were driven in the precious boxes, and I started overland
in November with my little son, now nearly two years old.

"Overland" in those days meant nine days from New York to San Francisco.
Arriving in Chicago, I found it impossible to secure a section on the
Pullman car so was obliged to content myself with a lower berth. I did
not allow myself to be disappointed.

On entering the section, I saw an enormous pair of queer cow hide shoes,
the very queerest shoes I had ever seen, lying on the floor, with a much
used travelling bag. I speculated a good deal on the shoes, but did not
see the owner of them until several hours later, when a short thick-set
German with sandy close-cut beard entered and saluted me politely. "You
are noticing my shoes perhaps Madame?"

"Yes" I said, involuntarily answering him in German.

His face shone with pleasure and he explained to me that they were made
in Russi