e dreaded, although it was so
undesired. It was entirely by rail across New Mexico and Kansas, to
St. Joseph, then up the Missouri River and then across the state to
the westward. Finally, after four or five days, we reached the small
frontier town of Valentine, in the very northwest corner of the bleak
and desolate state of Nebraska. The post of Niobrara was four miles
away, on the Niobrara (swift water) River.

Some officers of the Ninth Cavalry met us at the station with the post
ambulances. There were six companies of our regiment, with headquarters
and band.

It was November, and the drive across the rolling prairie-land gave us
a fair glimpse of the country around. We crossed the old bridge over the
Niobrara River, and entered the post. The snow lay already on the brown
and barren hills, and the place struck a chill to my heart.

The Ninth Cavalry took care of all the officers' families until we
could get established. Lieutenant Bingham, a handsome and
distinguished-looking young bachelor, took us with our two children
to his quarters, and made us delightfully at home. His quarters were
luxuriously furnished, and he was altogether adorable. This, to be sure,
helped to soften my first harsh impressions of the place.

Quarters were not very plentiful, and we were compelled to take a house
occupied by a young officer of the Ninth. What base ingratitude it
seemed, after the kindness we had accepted from his regiment! But
there was no help for it. We secured a colored cook, who proved a very
treasure, and on inquiring how she came to be in those wilds, I learned
that she had accompanied a young heiress who eloped with a cavalry
lieutenant, from her home in New York some years before.

What a contrast was here, and what a cruel contrast! With blood thinned
down by the enervating summer at Tucson, here we were, thrust into the
polar regions! Ice and snow and blizzards, blizzards and snow and ice!
The mercury disappeared at the bottom of the thermometer, and we had
nothing to mark any degrees lower than 40 below zero. Human calculations
had evidently stopped there. Enormous box stoves were in every room and
in the halls; the old-fashioned sort that we used to see in school-rooms
and meeting-houses in New England. Into these, the soldiers stuffed
great logs of mountain mahogany, and the fires were kept roaring day and
night.

A board walk ran in front of the officers' quarters, and, desperate for
fresh air and exerc