The same newspaper that had imparted the pleasing intelligence, supplied me with information of another kind--which also produced a cheering effect upon my spirits. The emigrants proceeding overland to California, required protection from the Indians--many hostile tribes of whom lived along the route. Military stations, or "forts" as they were called, had to be established at different points upon the great prairie wilderness; and, just then, the United States' Government was enlisting men to be forwarded to these stations. Most of the men enrolled for this service, were for its cavalry arm; and after my last quarter of a dollar had been spent, I became one of their number. My former experience in a dragoon saddle--of which I could give the proofs--made it no very difficult matter for me to get mounted once more. Enlisting in the army, was rather a strange proceeding for a man who was anxious to make a fortune in the shortest possible time; but I saw that something must be done, to enable me to live; and I could neither hold a plough, nor wield an axe. At first, I was not altogether satisfied with what I had done, for I knew that my mother was not to be found in the wilds of America; and that, after remaining five years in the ranks of the American army, I would be as far as ever from Lenore. There was one thought, however, that did much to reconcile me to my new situation; and that was, that our line of march would be _towards California_! Three weeks after joining the cavalry corps, we started for a station lying beyond Fort Leavenworth. Our march was not an uninteresting one: for most of my comrades were young men of a cheerful disposition; and around our camp-fires at night, the statesman, philosopher, or divine, who could not have found either amusement or instruction, would have been a wonderful man. Our company was composed of men of several nations. All, or nearly all, of them were intelligent; and all unfortunate: as, of course, every man must be, who enters the ranks as a common soldier. Man is the creature of circumstances, over which he has no control. The circumstances that had brought together the regiment to which I belonged, would probably make a volume much more instructive and interesting than any "lady novel," and this, judging from the taste displayed by the majority of readers of the present day, is saying more than could be easily proved. Many European officers would have thought there was but slight discipline in the corps to which I was attached; but in this opinion, they would be greatly in error.