So,
When The Company Got Here, Bills Were Presented By Several Of The Men,
Who Claimed To Have Bought Meat For The Dog, The Sum Total Of Which
Was Nine Dollars For The Two Days!
We were so pleased to know that Hal
had been so well cared for.
But the soldiers were welcome to the money
and more with it, for we were so glad to have the dog with us again,
safe and well.
We have quite a Rae family now - Faye and I - a darky, a greyhound, and
one small gray squirrel! It will be a hard trip for Billie, but I have
made for him a little ribbon collar and sewed securely to it a long
tape which makes a fine "picket rope" that can be tied to various
things in various places, and in this way he can be picketed and yet
receive exercise and air.
We are to go almost straight north from the railroad for a distance of
over four hundred miles, and of course this will take several weeks
under the most favorable conditions. But you must not mind our going
so far away - it will be no farther than the Indian Territory, and the
climate of Montana must be very much better than it was at Camp
Supply, and the houses must certainly be more comfortable, as the
winters are so long and severe. I shall be so glad to have a home of
my own again, and have a horse to ride also.
Faye has just come from the station and says that almost everything
has been loaded, and that we are really to start to-night at eight
o'clock. This is cheering news, for I think that everyone is anxious
to get to Montana, except the poor officers who cannot afford to take
their families with them.
CORINNE, UTAH TERRITORY,
September, 1877.
WE were almost one week coming out, but finally got here yesterday
morning. Our train was a special, and having no schedule, we were
often sidetracked for hours at a time, to make way for the regular
trains. As soon as possible after we arrived, the tents were unpacked
and put up, and it was amazing to see how soon there was order out of
chaos. This morning the camp looks like a little white city - streets
and all. There is great activity everywhere, as preparations have
already commenced for the march north. Our camp "mess" has been
started, and we will be very comfortable, I think, with a good soldier
cook and Cagey to take care of the tents. I am making covers for the
bed, trunk, and folding table, of dark-blue cretonne with white
figures, which carries out the color scheme of the folding chairs and
will give a little air of cheeriness to the tent, and of the same
material I am making pockets that can be pinned on the side walls of
the tent, in which various things can be tucked at night. These covers
and big pockets will be folded and put in the roll of bedding every
morning.
There are not enough ambulances to go around, so I had my choice
between being crowded in with other people, or going in a big army
wagon by myself, and having had one experience in crowding, I chose
the wagon without hesitation. Faye is having the rear half padded with
straw and canvas on the sides and bottom, and the high top will be of
canvas drawn over "bows," in true emigrant fashion. Our tent will be
folded to form a seat and placed in the back, upon which I can sit and
look out through the round opening and gossip with the mules that will
be attached to the wag-on back of me. In the front half will be packed
all of our camp furniture and things, the knockdown bed, mess-chest,
two little stoves (one for cooking), the bedding which will be tightly
rolled in canvas and strapped, and so on. Cagey will sit by the
driver. There is not one spring in the wagon, but even without, I will
be more comfortable than with Mrs. Hayden and three small children.
They can have the ambulance to themselves perhaps, and will have all
the room. I thought of Billie, too. He can be picketed all the time in
the wagon, but imagine the little fellow's misery in an ambulance with
three restless children for six or eight hours each day!
Hal is with us - in fact, I can hardly get away from the poor dog, he
is so afraid of being separated from me again. When we got to the
station at Pittsburg he was there with Cagey, and it took only one
quick glance to see that he was a heart-broken, spirit-broken dog. Not
one spark was left of the fire that made the old Hal try to pull me
through an immense plate-glass mirror, in a hotel at Jackson,
Mississippi, to fight his own reflection (the time the strange man
offered one hundred and fifty dollars for him), and certainly he was
not the hound that whipped the big bulldog at Monroe, Louisiana, two
years ago. He did not see me as I came up back of him, and as he had
not even heard my voice for over one year, I was almost childishly
afraid to speak to him. But I finally said, "Hal, you have not
forgotten your old friend?" He turned instantly, but as I put my hand
upon his head there was no joyous bound or lifting of the ears and
tail - just a look of recognition, then a raising up full length of the
slender body on his back legs, and putting a forefoot on each of my
shoulders as far over as he could reach, he gripped me tight, fairly
digging his toe nails into me, and with his head pressed close to my
neck he held on and on, giving little low whines that were more like
human sobs than the cry of a dog.
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