American essays; Short stories, American; Western stories
Captain Manson alone greeted the major and his wife when the train drew
up at the commanding officer's quarters, the younger officers discreetly
awaiting the morrow to pay their respects. In accordance with true "army
spirit," Major Stanford's quarters had been furnished with the best Camp
Andrew Jackson could boast of, in the way of household goods and
furniture, when it had become known that he was to bring a young wife to
camp. Not the officers of the army alone possess this knightly spirit;
every soldier in the command is always ready and willing to part with
the best and dearest in his possession, to contribute to the comfort or
pleasure of "the lady in camp." Major Stanford had not been with his
company since the close of the war; still, when the captain courteously
inquired whether there was any particular individual in the company whom
he would prefer to take into his personal service, the major requested
that Holly--who had already been an old soldier, while the major was
cadet at West Point--might be sent him.
Holly demonstrated his joy at being thus distinguished by his "old
lieutenant;" and on returning to the men's quarters had so much to say
about the beauty, grace, and goodness of the major's wife, that the men
immediately grew enthusiastic, and before tattoo obtained the
sergeant-major's permission to serenade this first lady in Camp Andrew
Jackson, providing a sufficient number of instruments could be found.
And Mrs. Stanford was awakened from her early slumbers by "music," the
first night she spent in this camp.
There are always a number of tolerable musicians to be found among
almost any body of soldiers. The One Hundred and First had always been
celebrated for the musical talent in the rank and file of its members;
and though the Graces and the Muses had been somewhat neglected of late
years, they threatened now to take possession of every individual man,
with truly alarming fervor. Indeed, Mrs. Stanford's life was made very
pleasant at this dreaded outpost in Arizona--albeit in a little,
cheerless room, with mud walls and mud floor, carpeted half with soldier
blankets half with old tent-cloth. A washstand of painted pine-wood, and
a table of the same material in its native color; a bench to match; one
or two camp-chairs, and a camp-cot with red blanket--representing a
sofa--made up and completed the _ameublement_ of Mrs. Stanford's best
room. But there were red calico curtains at the little windows, and a
bright rug upon the table; and books, and the thousand little
_souvenirs_ and pretty trifles always to be found in a lady's
possession, were drawn out of trunks and boxes, and other hiding-places,
to give the room a civilized aspect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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