Soon after luncheon, Jack said to Major Wilhelm, "Well, now, I
must go and look for quarters: what's the prospect?"
"You will have to turn some one out," said the Major, as they
left the house together.
About an hour afterwards they returned, and Jack said, "Well, I
have turned out Lynch; but," he added, "as his wife and child are
away, I do not believe he'll care very much."
"Oh," said I, "I'm so sorry to have to turn anybody out!"
The Major and his wife smiled, and the former remarked, "You must
not have too much sympathy: it's the custom of the service - it's
always done - by virtue of rank. They'll hate you for doing it,
but if you don't do it they'll not respect you. After you've been
turned out once yourself, you will not mind turning others out."
The following morning I drove over to Cheyenne with Mrs. Wilhelm,
and as I passed Lieutenant Lynch's quarters and saw soldiers
removing Mrs. Lynch's lares and penates, in the shape of a sewing
machine, lamp-shades, and other home-like things, I turned away
in pity that such customs could exist in our service.
To me, who had lived my life in the house in which I was born,
moving was a thing to be dreaded.
But Mrs. Wilhelm comforted me, and assured me it was not such a
serious matter after all. Army women were accustomed to it, she
said.
CHAPTER III
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING
Not knowing before I left home just what was needed for
house-keeping in the army, and being able to gather only vague
ideas on the subject from Jack, who declared that his quarters
were furnished admirably, I had taken out with me but few
articles in addition to the silver and linen-chests.
I began to have serious doubts on the subject of my menage, after
inspecting the bachelor furnishings which had seemed so ample to
my husband. But there was so much to be seen in the way of guard
mount, cavalry drill, and various military functions, besides the
drives to town and the concerts of the string orchestra, that I
had little time to think of the practical side of life.
Added to this, we were enjoying the delightful hospitality of the
Wilhelms, and the Major insisted upon making me acquainted with
the "real old-fashioned army toddy" several times a day, - a new
beverage to me, brought up in a blue-ribbon community, where
wine-bibbing and whiskey drinking were rated as belonging to only
the lowest classes. To be sure, my father always drank two
fingers of fine cognac before dinner, but I had always considered
that a sort of medicine for a man advanced in years.
Taken all in all, it is not to be wondered at if I saw not much
in those few days besides bright buttons, blue uniforms, and
shining swords.
