These Moves Are Of The Greatest Importance To Army Officers, And Many
Times The Change Of Station Is A Mere Nothing In Comparison To The
Refitting Of A House, Something That Is Never Taken Into Consideration
When The Pay Of The Army Is Under Discussion.
The regiment has been on
the frontier ten years, and everything that we had that was at all
nice had been sent up from St. Paul at great expense, or purchased in
Helena at an exorbitant price.
All those things have been disposed of
for almost nothing, and when the regiment reaches Fort Snelling, where
larger quarters have to be furnished for an almost city life, the
officers will be at great expense. Why I am bothering about Snelling I
fail to see, as we are not going there, and I certainly have enough
troubles of my Own to think about.
This very morning, Mrs. Ames, of Sun River Crossing, who now owns dear
Rollo, came up to ask me to show her how to drive him! Just think of
that! She talked as though she had been deceived - that it was my duty
to show her the trick by which I had managed to control the horse,
and, naturally, it would be a delightful pleasure to me to be allowed
to drive him once more, and so on. Mrs. Ames said that yesterday she
started out with him, intending to come to the post to let me see
him - fancy the delicate feeling expressed in that - but the horse went
so fast she became frightened, for it seemed as though the telegraph
poles were only a foot apart. She finally got the horse turned around
and drove back home, when her husband got in and undertook to drive
him, but with no better success; but he, too, started the horse toward
his old home.
Mr. Ames then told her to have Rollo put back in the stable until she
could get me to show her how to drive him. I almost cried out from
pure pity for the poor dumb beast that I knew was suffering so in his
longing for his old home and friends who understood him. But for the
horse's sake I tried not to break down. I told her that first of all
she must teach the horse to love her. That was an awfully hard thing
to say, I assure you, and I doubt if the woman understood my meaning
after all. When I told her not to pull on his mouth she looked amazed,
and said, "Why, he would run away with me if I didn't!" But I assured
her that he would not - that he had been taught differently - that he
was very nervous and spirited - that the harder she pulled the more
excited he would become - that I had simply held him steady, no more. I
saw that Mrs. Ames did not believe one word that I had said, but I
tried to convince her, for the sake of the unhappy animal that had
been placed at her mercy.
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