Faye Came Running, And
Finding A Tuft Of Grass And Solid Ground To Stand Upon, Pulled Pete By
The Bridle
And encouraged him until the poor beast finally struggled
out, his legs and stomach covered with the black slime up
To the flaps
of my saddle, so one can see what danger we were in. There was no way
of relieving the horse of my weight, as it was impossible for me to
jump and not get stuck in the mud myself. This is the only alkali hole
we have discovered here. It is screened by bunches of tall grass, and
I expect that many a time I have ridden within a few feet of it when
alone, and if my horse had happened to slip down on any one of these
times, we probably would have been sucked from the face of the earth,
and not one person to come to our assistance or to know what had
happened to us.
When Faye heard my call of distress, he threw the bridle back on
Bettie, and slipping the shotgun through the sling on the saddle,
hurried over to me, not giving Bettie much thought. The horse has
always shown the greatest disinclination to leaving Pete, but having
her own free will that time, she did the unexpected and trotted to a
herd of mules not far off, and as she went down a little hill the
precious shotgun slipped out of the sling to the ground, and the stock
broke! The gun is perfectly useless, and the loss of it is great to us
and our friends. To be in this splendid game country without a shotgun
is deplorable; still, to have been buried in a hole of black water and
muck would have been worse.
Later. Such an awful wind storm burst upon us while I was writing two
days ago, I was obliged to stop. The day was cold and our tents were
closed tight to keep the heat in, so we knew nothing of the storm
until it struck us, and with such fierceness it seemed as if the tents
must go down. Instantly there was commotion in camp - some of the men
tightening guy ropes, and others running after blankets and pieces of
clothing that had been out for an airing, but every man laughed and
made fun of whatever he was doing. Soldiers are always so cheerful
under such difficulties, and I dearly love to hear them laugh, and
yell, too, over in their tents.
The snow fell thick and fast, and the wind came through the canon back
of us with the velocity of a hurricane. As night came on it seemed to
increase and the tents began to show the strain and one or two had
gone down, so the officers' families were moved into the unfinished
log quarters for the night. Colonel Palmer sent for me to go over
also, and Major Bagley came twice for me, saying our tents would
certainly fall, and that it would be better to go then, than in the
middle of the night.
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