"Why on earth don't you
put some clothes on him?" laughed she, in her delightful way.
I explained to her that the Indian's fashion of wearing white
men's clothes was not pleasing to the eye, and told her that she
must cultivate her aesthetic sense, and in a short time she would
be able to admire these copper-colored creatures of Nature as
much as I did.
But I fear that a life spent mostly in a large city had cast
fetters around her imagination, and that the life at Fort Whipple
afterwards savored too much of civilization to loosen the bonds
of her soul. I saw her many times again, but she never recovered
from her amazement at Charley's lack of apparel, and she never
forgot the sulphur bath.
CHAPTER XX
MY DELIVERER
One day, in the early autumn, as the "Gila" touched at Ehrenberg,
on her way down river, Captain Mellon called Jack on to the boat,
and, pointing to a young woman, who was about to go ashore, said:
"Now, there's a girl I think will do for your wife. She imagines
she has bronchial troubles, and some doctor has ordered her to
Tucson. She comes from up North somewhere. Her money has given
out, and she thinks I am going to leave her here. Of course, you
know I would not do that; I can take her on down to Yuma, but I
thought your wife might like to have her, so I've told her she
could not travel on this boat any farther without she could pay
her fare. Speak to her: she looks to me like a nice sort of a
girl."
In the meantime, the young woman had gone ashore and was sitting
upon her trunk, gazing hopelessly about. Jack approached,
offered her a home and good wages, and brought her to me.
I could have hugged her for very joy, but I restrained myself and
advised her to stay with us for awhile, saying the Ehrenberg
climate was quite as good as that of Tucson.
She remarked quietly: "You do not look as if it agreed with you
very well, ma'am.''
Then I told her of my young child, and my hard journeys, and she
decided to stay until she could earn enough to reach Tucson.
And so Ellen became a member of our Ehrenberg family. She was a
fine, strong girl, and a very good cook, and seemed to be in
perfect health. She said, however, that she had had an obstinate
cough which nothing would reach, and that was why she came to
Arizona. >From that time, things went more smoothly. Some yeast
was procured from the Mexican bakeshop, and Ellen baked bread and
other things, which seemed like the greatest luxuries to us. We
sent the soldier back to his company at Fort Yuma, and began to
live with a degree of comfort.
I looked at Ellen as my deliverer, and regarded her coming as a
special providence, the kind I had heard about all my life in New
England, but had never much believed in.
After a few weeks, Ellen was one evening seized with a dreadful
toothache, which grew so severe that she declared she could not
endure it another hour: she must have the tooth out. "Was there a
dentist in the place?"
I looked at Jack: he looked at me: Ellen groaned with pain.
"Why, yes! of course there is," said this man for emergencies;
"Fisher takes out teeth, he told me so the other day."
Now I did not believe that Fisher knew any more about extracting
teeth than I did myself, but I breathed a prayer to the Recording
Angel, and said naught.
"I'll go get Fisher," said Jack.
Now Fisher was the steamboat agent. He stood six feet in his
stockings, had a powerful physique and a determined eye. Men in
those countries had to be determined; for if they once lost
their nerve, Heaven save them. Fisher had handsome black eyes.
When they came in, I said: "Can you attend to this business, Mr.
Fisher?"
"I think so," he replied, quietly. "The Quartermaster says he has
some forceps."
I gasped. Jack, who had left the room, now appeared, a box of
instruments in his hand, his eyes shining with joy and triumph.
Fisher took the box, and scanned it. "I guess they'll do," said
he.
So we placed Ellen in a chair, a stiff barrack chair, with a
raw-hide seat, and no arms.
It was evening.
"Mattie, you must hold the candle," said Jack. "I'll hold Ellen,
and, Fisher, you pull the tooth."
So I lighted the candle, and held it, while Ellen tried, by its
flickering light, to show Fisher the tooth that ached.
Fisher looked again at the box of instruments. "Why," said he,
"these are lower jaw rollers, the kind used a hundred years ago;
and her tooth is an upper jaw."
"Never mind," answered the Lieutenant, "the instruments are all
right. Fisher, you can get the tooth out, that's all you want,
isn't it?"
The Lieutenant was impatient; and besides he did not wish any
slur cast upon his precious instruments.
So Fisher took up the forceps, and clattered around amongst
Ellen's sound white teeth. His hand shook, great beads of
perspiration gathered on his face, and I perceived a very strong
odor of Cocomonga wine. He had evidently braced for the occasion.
It was, however, too late to protest. He fastened onto a molar,
and with the lion's strength which lay in his gigantic frame, he
wrenched it out.
