Bowen
was indeed a treasure; he said he would like to cook for us, for
ten dollars a month.
We readily accepted this offer. There were
no persons to be obtained, in these distant places, who could do
the cooking in the families of officers, so it was customary to
employ a soldier; and the soldier often displayed remarkable
ability in the way of cooking, in some cases, in fact, more than
in the way of soldiering. They liked the little addition to their
pay, if they were of frugal mind; they had also their own quiet
room to sleep in, and I often thought the family life, offering
as it did a contrast to the bareness and desolation of the noisy
barracks, appealed to the domestic instinct, so strong in some
men's natures. At all events, it was always easy in those days to
get a man from the company, and they sometimes remained for years
with an officer's family; in some cases attending drills and
roll-calls besides.
Now came the unpacking of the chests and trunks. In our one
diminutive room, and small hall, was no closet, there were no
hooks on the bare walls, no place to hang things or lay things,
and what to do I did not know. I was in despair; Jack came in, to
find me sitting on the edge of a chest, which was half unpacked,
the contents on the floor. I was very mournful, and he did not
see why.
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