And As I Listened To The
Beautiful Strains Of The Music I Loved So Well, My Eyes Were Wet
With
Tears, and after all the goodbye's were said, to the
officers and their wives, my friends who had shared all
Our joys
and our sorrows in so many places and under so many conditions, I
ran out to the stable and pressed my cheek against the soft warm
noses of our two saddle horses. I felt that life was over for me,
and nothing but work and care remained. I say I felt all this. It
must have been premonition, for I had no idea that I was leaving
the line of the army forever.
The ambulance was at the door, to take us to Valentine, where I
bade Jack good bye, and took the train for the East. His last
promise was to visit us once a year, or whenever he could get a
leave of absence.
My husband had now worn the single bar on his shoulder-strap for
eleven years or more; before that, the straps of the second
lieutenant had adorned his broad shoulders for a period quite as
long. Twenty-two years a lieutenant in the regular army, after
fighting, in a volunteer regiment of his own state, through the
four years of the Civil War! The "gallant and meritorious
service" for which he had received brevets, seemed, indeed, to
have been forgotten. He had grown grey in Indian campaigns, and
it looked as if the frontier might always be the home of the
senior lieutenant of the old Eighth.
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