and that was all; I had not yet learned to appreciate that. There
was not a tree nor a shrub to give shade. The only thing I could
see, except sky and sand, was a ruined adobe enclosure ,with no
roof. I sat in the ambulance until our tent was pitched, and then
Jack came to me, followed by a six-foot soldier, and said:
"Mattie, this is Bowen, our striker; now I want you to tell him
what he shall cook for our supper; and--don't you think it would
be nice if you could show him how to make some of those good New
England doughnuts? I think Major Worth might like them; and after
all the awful stuff we have had, you know," et caetera, et
caetera. I met the situation, after an inward struggle, and said,
weakly, "Where are the eggs?" "Oh," said he, "you don't need
eggs; you're on the frontier now; you must learn to do without
eggs."

Everything in me rebelled, but still I yielded. You see I had
been married only six months; the women at home, and in Germany
also, had always shown great deference to their husbands' wishes.
But at that moment I almost wished Major Worth and Jack and Bowen
and the mess-chest at the bottom of the Rio Colorado. However, I
nerved myself for the effort, and when Bowen had his camp-fire
made, he came and called me.

At the best, I never had much confidence in my ability as a cook,
but as a camp cook! Ah, me! Everything seemed to swim before my
eyes, and I fancied that the other women were looking at me from
their tents. Bowen was very civil, turned back the cover of the
mess-chest and propped it up. That was the table. Then he brought
me a tin basin, and some flour, some condensed milk, some sugar,
and a rolling-pin, and then he hung a camp-kettle with lard in it