Mrs. Dodge, of the Twenty-third Infantry, who was about to leave
the post, heard of my predicament, and offered me some china
plates and cups, which she thought not worth the trouble of
packing (so she said), and I was glad to accept them, and thanked
her, almost with tears in my eyes.
Bowen nailed down our one carpet over the poor board floor
(after having first sprinkled down a thick layer of clean straw,
which he brought from the quartermaster stables). Two iron cots
from the hospital were brought over, and two bed-sacks filled
with fresh, sweet straw, were laid upon them; over these were
laid our mattresses. Woven-wire springs were then unheard of in
that country.
We untied our folding chairs, built a fire on the hearth,
captured an old broken-legged wash-stand and a round table from
somewhere, and that was our living-room. A pine table was found
for the small hall, which was to be our dinning-room, and some
chairs with raw-hide seats were brought from the barracks, some
shelves knocked up against one wall, to serve as sideboard. Now
for the kitchen!
A cooking-stove and various things were sent over from the Q. M.
store-house, and Bowen (the wonder of it!) drove in nails, and
hung up my Fort Russell tin-ware, and put up shelves and stood my
pans in rows, and polished the stove, and went out and stole a
table somewhere (Bowen was invaluable in that way), polished the
zinc under the stove, and lo!
