day.

The cooking went on better after that, but I did not have much
assistance from Adams.

I had great trouble at first with the titles and the rank: but I
soon learned that many of the officers were addressed by the
brevet title bestowed upon them for gallant service in the Civil
War, and I began to understand about the ways and customs of the
army of Uncle Sam. In contrast to the Germans, the American
lieutenants were not addressed by their title (except
officially); I learned to "Mr." all the lieutenants who had no
brevet.

One morning I suggested to Adams that he should wash the front
windows; after being gone a half hour, to borrow a step-ladder,
he entered the room, mounted the ladder and began. I sat writing.
Suddenly, he faced around, and addressing me, said, "Madam, do
you believe in spiritualism?"

"Good gracious! Adams, no; why do you ask me such a question ?"

This was enough; he proceeded to give a lecture on the subject
worthy of a man higher up on the ladder of this life. I bade him
come to an end as soon as I dared (for I was not accustomed to
soldiers), and suggested that he was forgetting his work.

It was early in April, and the snow drifted through the crevices
of the old dried-out house, in banks upon our bed; but that was
soon mended, and things began to go smoothly enough, when Jack