But The Good Catholics Read
Their Prayer-Books At Home, And The Rest Of Us Almost Forgot That
Such Organizations As Churches Existed.
Another bright winter found us still gazing at the Four Peaks of
the MacDowell Mountains, the only landmark on the horizon.
I was
glad, in those days, that I had not staid back East, for the life
of an officer without his family, in those drear places, is
indeed a blank and empty one.
"Four years I have sat here and looked at the Four Peaks," said
Captain Corliss, one day, "and I'm getting almighty tired of
it."
CHAPTER XXVI
A SUDDEN ORDER
In June, 1878, Jack was ordered to report to the commanding
officer at Fort Lowell (near the ancient city of Tucson), to act
as Quartermaster and Commissary at that post. This was a sudden
and totally unexpected order. It was indeed hard, and it seemed
to me cruel. For our regiment had been four years in the
Territory, and we were reasonably sure of being ordered out
before long. Tucson lay far to the south of us, and was even
hotter than this place. But there was nothing to be done; we
packed up, I with a heavy heart, Jack with his customary
stoicism.
With the grief which comes only at that time in one's life, and
which sees no end and no limit, I parted from my friends at Camp
MacDowell. Two years together, in the most intimate
companionship, cut off from the outside world, and away from all
early ties, had united us with indissoluble bonds, - and now we
were to part, - forever as I thought.
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