on better after that, but I did not have much
assistance from Adams.

I had great trouble at first with the titles and the rank: but I soon
learned that many of the officers were addressed by the brevet title
bestowed upon them for gallant service in the Civil War, and I began
to understand about the ways and customs of the army of Uncle Sam. In
contrast to the Germans, the American lieutenants were not addressed by
their title (except officially); I learned to "Mr." all the lieutenants
who had no brevet.

One morning I suggested to Adams that he should wash the front windows;
after being gone a half hour, to borrow a step-ladder, he entered the
room, mounted the ladder and began. I sat writing. Suddenly, he
faced around, and addressing me, said, "Madam, do you believe in
spiritualism?"

"Good gracious! Adams, no; why do you ask me such a question?"

This was enough; he proceeded to give a lecture on the subject worthy of
a man higher up on the ladder of this life. I bade him come to an end
as soon as I dared (for I was not accustomed to soldiers), and suggested
that he was forgetting his work.

It was early in April, and the snow drifted through the crevices of the
old dried-out house, in banks upon our bed; but that was soon mended,
and things began to go smoothly enough, when Jack was ordered to join
his company, which was up at the Spotted Tail Agency. It was expected
that the Sioux under this chief would break out at any minute. They had
become disaffected about some treaty. I did not like to be left alone
with the Spiritualist, so Jack asked one of the laundresses, whose
husband was out with the company, to come and stay and take care of
me. Mrs. Patten was an old campaigner; she understood everything about
officers and their ways, and she made me absolutely comfortable for
those two lonely months. I always felt grateful to her; she was a dear
old Irish woman.

All the families and a few officers were left at the post, and, with the
daily drive to Cheyenne, some small dances and theatricals, my time was
pleasantly occupied.

Cheyenne in those early days was an amusing but unattractive frontier
town; it presented a great contrast to the old civilization I had
so recently left. We often saw women in cotton wrappers, high-heeled
slippers, and sun-bonnets, walking in the main streets. Cows, pigs, and
saloons seemed to be a feature of the place.

In about six weeks, the affairs of the Sioux were settled, and