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! and behold, my army kitchen! 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