sent time do. To-day, the poorest farmer's wife in the wilds of
Arkansas or Alaska can wear better fitting gowns than I wore then. But
my riding habits, of which I had several kinds, to suit warm and cold
countries, had been left in Jack's care at Ehrenberg, and as long as
these fitted well, it did not so much matter about the gowns.

Captain Chaffee, who commanded the company of the Sixth Cavalry
stationed there, was away on leave, but Mr. Kendall, his first
lieutenant, consented for me to exercise "Cochise," Captain Chaffee's
Indian pony, and I had a royal time.

Cavalry officers usually hate riding: that is, riding for pleasure;
for they are in the saddle so much, for dead earnest work; but a young
officer, a second lieutenant, not long out from the Academy, liked to
ride, and we had many pleasant riding parties. Mr. Dravo and I rode one
day to the Mormon settlement, seventeen miles away, on some business
with the bishop, and a Mormon woman gave us a lunch of fried salt pork,
potatoes, bread, and milk. How good it tasted, after our long ride! and
how we laughed about it all, and jollied, after the fashion of young
people, all the way back to the post! Mr Dravo had also lost all his
things on the "Montana," and we sympathized greatly with each other.
He, however, had sent an order home to Pennsylvania, duplicating all the
contents of his boxes. I told him I could not duplicate mine, if I sent
a thousand orders East.

When, after some months, his boxes came, he brought me in a package,
done up in tissue paper and tied with ribbon: "Mother sends you these;
she wrote that I was not to open them; I think she felt sorry for you,
when I wrote her you had lost all your clothing. I suppose," he added,
mustering his West Point French to the front, and handing me the
package, "it is what you ladies call 'lingerie.'"

I hope I blushed, and I think I did, for I was not so very old, and
I was touched by this sweet remembrance from the dear mother back in
Pittsburgh. And so many lovely things happened all the time; everybody
was so kind to me. Mrs. Kendall and her young sister, Kate Taylor, Mrs.
John Smith and I, were the only women that winter at Camp MacDowell.
Afterwards, Captain Corliss brought a bride to the post, and a new
doctor took Doctor Clark's place.

There were interminable scouts, which took both cavalry and infantry
out of the post. We heard a great deal about "chasing Injuns" in the
Superstition Mountains, and