He Used Them, And After That There Was No
Trouble, And One Day In The Spring He Brought In To Show Me Some
Beautifully Beaten Eggs, And Said, "Velly Glood - Allee Same Flesh."
This fall when the time came to pack eggs, I said, "Hang, perhaps we
had better pack the eggs in oats this year." He said, "Naw, loats no
glood!" Then came my revenge.
I said, "Mrs. Pierce puts hers in oats,"
but he became angry and said, "Yes, me know - Missee Pleese no
know - slalt makee him allee same flesh." And in salt they are, and
Hang packed every one. I offered to show him how to do it, but he
said, "Me know - you see." It gave him such a fine opportunity to
dictate to Volmer! If the striker did not bring the eggs the very
moment he thought they should be in, Hang would look him up and say,
"You bling leggs!" Just where these boxes of eggs are I do not know.
The Chinaman has spirited them off to some place where they will not
freeze. He cannot understand all this ranking out of quarters,
particularly after he had put the house in perfect order. When I told
him to sweep the rooms after everything had been carried out, he said:
"What for? You cleanee house nuff for him; he no care," and off he
went. I am inclined to think that the little man was right, after all.
There have been many changes in the garrison during the past few
months, and a number of our friends have gone to other posts. Colonel
and Mrs. Palmer, Major and Mrs. Pierce, and Doctor and Mrs. Gordon are
no longer here. We have lost, consequently, both of our fine tenors
and excellent organist, and our little choir is not good now. Some of
us will miss in other ways Colonel Palmer's cultivated voice. During
the summer four of us found much pleasure in practicing together the
light operas, each one learning the one voice through the entire
opera.
When we get settled, if we ever do, we will be at our old end of the
garrison again, and our neighbors on either side will be charming
people. There is some consolation in that; nevertheless, I am thinking
all the time of the pretty walls and shiny floors we had to give up,
and to a very poor housekeeper, too. After we get our house, it will
take weeks to fix it up, and it will be impossible to take the same
interest in it that we found in the first. If Faye gets his first
lieutenancy in the spring, it is possible that we may have to go to
another post, which will mean another move. But I am tired and cross;
anyone would be under such uncomfortable conditions.
FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY,
March, 1883.
THE trip over was by far the most enjoyable of any we have taken
between Fort Shaw and this post, and we were thankful enough that we
could come before the snow began to melt on the mountains. Our
experience with the high water two years ago was so dreadful that we
do not wish to ever encounter anything of the kind again. The weather
was delightful - with clear, crisp atmosphere, such as can be found
only in this magnificent Territory. It was such a pleasure to have our
own turn-out, too, and to be able to see the mountains and canons as
we came along, without having our heads bruised by an old ambulance.
Faye had to wait almost twelve years for a first lieutenancy, and now,
when at last he has been promoted, it has been the cause of our
leaving dear friends and a charming garrison, and losing dear yellow
Hang, also. The poor little man wept when he said good-by to me in
Helena. We had just arrived and were still on the walk in front of the
hotel, and of course all the small boys in the street gathered around
us. I felt very much like weeping, too, and am afraid I will feel even
more so when I get in my own home. Hang is going right on to China, to
visit his mother one year, and I presume that his people will consider
him a very rich man, with the twelve hundred dollars he has saved. He
has never cut his hair, and has never worn American clothes. Even in
the winter, when it has been freezing cold, he would shuffle along on
the snow with his Chinese shoes.
I shall miss the pretty silk coats about the house, and his swift,
almost noiseless going around. That Chinamen are not more generally
employed I cannot understand, for they make such exceptional servants.
They are wonderfully economical, and can easily do the work of two
maids, and if once you win their confidence and their affection they
are your slaves. But they are very suspicious. Once, when Bishop
Tuttle was with us, he wanted a pair of boots blackened, and set them
in his room where Hang could see them, and on the toe of one he put a
twenty-five cent piece. Hang blackened the boots beautifully, and then
put the money back precisely where it was in the first place. Then he
came to me and expressed his opinion of the dear bishop. He said,
"China-man no stealee - you tellee him me no stealee - he see me no
takee him" - and then he insisted upon my going to see for myself that
the money was on the boot. I was awfully distressed. The bishop was to
remain with us several days, and no one could tell how that Chinaman
might treat him, for I saw that he was deeply hurt, but it was utterly
impossible to make him believe otherwise than that the quarter had
been put there to test his honesty. I finally concluded to tell the
bishop all about it, knowing that his experience with all kinds of
human nature had been great in his travels about to his various
missions, and his kindness and tact with miner, ranchman, and cowboy;
he is now called by them lovingly "The Cowboy Bishop." He laughed
heartily about Hang, and said, "I'll fix that," which he must have
done to Hang's entire satisfaction, for he fairly danced around the
bishop during the remainder of his stay with us.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 87 of 109
Words from 87670 to 88747
of 110651