I bade him
come to an end as soon as I dared (for I was not accustomed to
soldiers), and suggested that he was forgetting his work.
It was early in April, and the snow drifted through the crevices
of the old dried-out house, in banks upon our bed; but that was
soon mended, and things began to go smoothly enough, when Jack
was ordered to join his company, which was up at the Spotted Tail
Agency. It was expected that the Sioux under this chief would
break out at any minute. They had become disaffected about some
treaty. I did not like to be left alone with the Spiritualist, so
Jack asked one of the laundresses, whose husband was out with the
company, to come and stay and take care of me. Mrs. Patten was an
old campaigner; she understood everything about officers and
their ways, and she made me absolutely comfortable for those two
lonely months. I always felt grateful to her; she was a dear old
Irish woman.
All the families and a few officers were left at the post, and,
with the daily drive to Cheyenne, some small dances and
theatricals, my time was pleasantly occupied.
Cheyenne in those early days was an amusing but unattractive
frontier town; it presented a great contrast to the old
civilization I had so recently left.
