Faye thinks
that he is entirely too nervous ever to take kindly to city sights and
sounds - that the fretting and the heat might kill him.
So it has been decided that once again we will sell everything - both
horses and all things pertaining to them, reserving our saddles only.
Every piece of furniture will be sold, also, as we do not purpose to
keep house at all while in Omaha. How I envy our friends who will go
to Fort Snelling! We have always been told that it is such a beautiful
post, and the people of St. Paul and Minneapolis are most charming. It
seems so funny that the regiment should be sent to Snelling just as
Colonel Munson was promoted to it. He will have to move six miles
only!
We know that when we leave Fort Shaw we will go from the old army life
of the West - that if we ever come back, it will be to unfamiliar
scenes and a new condition of things. We have seen the passing of the
buffalo and other game, and the Indian seems to be passing also. But I
must confess that I have no regret for the Indians - there are still
too many of them!
FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY,
May, 1888.
THERE can be only two more days at this dear old post, where we have
been so happy, and I want those to pass as quickly as possible, and
have some of the misery over. Our house is perfectly forlorn, with
just a few absolute necessaries in it for our use while here.
Everything has been sold or given away, and all that is left to us are
our trunks and army chests. Some fine china and a few pieces of cut
glass I kept, and even those are packed in small boxes and in the
chests.
The general selling-out business has been funny. No one in the
regiment possessed many things that they cared to move East with them,
and as we did not desire to turn our houses into second-hand shops,
where people could handle and make remarks about things we had
treasured, it was decided that everything to be sold should be moved
to the large hall, where enlisted men could attend to the shop
business. Our only purchasers were people from Sun River Crossing, and
a few ranches that are some distance from the post, and it was soon
discovered that anything at all nice was passed by them, so we became
sharp - bunching the worthless with the good - and that worked
beautifully and things sold fast.
