Major Pierce Undertook To See Mrs. Elmer Safely To Her Home At The
Sutler's Store, And In Order To Get There They Were Obliged To Cross A
Wide Space In Between The Officers' Line And The Store.
Nothing could
be seen ten feet from them when they left the last fence, but they
tried to get
Their bearings by the line of the fence, and closing
their eyes, dashed ahead into the cloud of blinding, stinging snow.
Major Pierce had expected to go straight to a side door of the store,
but the awful strength of the wind and snow pushed them over, and they
struck a corner of the fence farthest away - in fact, they would have
missed the fence also if Mrs. Elmer's fur cape had not caught on one
of the pickets, and gone out on the plains to certain death. Bright
lights had been placed in the store windows, but not one had they
seen. These storms kill so many range cattle, but the most destructive
of all is a freeze after a chinook, that covers the ground with ice so
it is impossible for them to get to the grass. At such times the poor
animals suffer cruelly. We often hear them lowing, sometimes for days,
and can easily imagine that we see the starving beasts wandering on
and on, ever in search of an uncovered bit of grass. The lowing of
hundreds of cattle on a cold winter night is the most horrible sound
one can imagine.
Cold as it is, I ride Bettie almost every day, but only on the high
ground where the snow has been blown off. We are a funny sight
sometimes when we come in - Bettie's head, neck, and chest white with
her frozen breath, icicles two or three inches long hanging from each
side of her chin, and my fur collar and cap white also. I wear a
sealskin cap with broad ear tabs, long sealskin gauntlets that keep my
hands and arms warm, and high leggings and moccasins of beaver, but
with the fur inside, which makes them much warmer. A tight chamois
skin waist underneath my cadet-cloth habit and a broad fur collar
completes a riding costume that keeps me warm without being bungling.
I found a sealskin coat too warm and heavy.
No one will ride now and they do not know what fine exercise they are
missing. And I am sure that Bettie is glad to get her blood warm once
during the twenty-four hours. Friends kindly tell me that some day I
will be found frozen out on the plains, and that the frisky Bettie
will kill me, and so on. I ride too fast to feel the cold, and Bettie
I enjoy - all but the airs she assumes inside the post. Our house is
near the center of the officers' line, and no matter which way I go or
what I do, that little beast can never be made to walk one step until
we get out on the road, but insists upon going sideways, tossing her
head, and giving little rears. It looks so affected and makes me feel
very foolish, particularly since Mrs. Conger said to me the other day:
"Why do you make your horse dance that way - he might throw you." I
then asked her if she would not kindly ride Bettie a few times and
teach her to keep her feet down. But she said it was too cold to go
out!
We have much more room in this house than we had in the hospital, and
are more comfortable every way. Almost every day or evening there is
some sort of an entertainment - german, dinner, luncheon, or card
party. I am so glad that we gave the first cotillon that had ever been
given in the regiment, for it was something new on the frontier;
therefore everyone enjoyed it. Just now the garrison seems to have
gone cotillon crazy, and not being satisfied with a number of private
ones, a german club has been organized that gives dances in the hall
every two weeks. So far Faye has been the leader of each one. With all
this pleasure, the soldiers are not being neglected. Every morning
there are drills and a funny kind of target practice inside the
quarters, and of course there are inspections and other things.
FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY,
January, 1879.
IT is still cold, stinging cold, and we are beginning to think that
there was much truth in what we were told on our way over last
fall - that Fort Ellis is the very coldest place in the whole
territory. For two days the temperature was fifty below, and I can
assure you that things hummed! The logs of our house made loud reports
like pistol shots, and there was frost on the walls of every room that
were not near roaring fires. No one ventures forth such weather unless
compelled to do so, and then, of course, every precaution is taken to
guard against freezing. In this altitude one will freeze before
feeling the cold, as I know from experience, having at the present
time two fiery red ears of enormous size. They are fiery in feeling,
too, as well as in color.
The atmosphere looks like frozen mist, and is wonderful, and almost at
any time between sunrise and sunset a "sun dog" can be seen with its
scintillating rainbow tints, that are brilliant yet exquisitely
delicate in coloring. Our houses are really very warm - the thick logs
are plastered inside and papered, every window has a storm sash and
every room a double floor, and our big stoves can burn immense logs.
But notwithstanding all this, our greatest trial is to keep things to
eat. Everything freezes solid, and so far we have not found one edible
that is improved by freezing. It must be awfully discouraging to a
cook to find on a biting cold morning, that there is not one thing in
the house that can be prepared for breakfast until it has passed
through the thawing process; that even the water in the barrels has
become solid, round pieces of ice!
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