Being turned out was bad enough
in itself, but the manner in which it was done was humiliating in the
extreme. We had been in the house only three weeks and had worked so
hard during that time to make it at all comfortable. Findlay wanted to
tear down the canvas partition in the dining room when we left the
house, and I was sorry later on that I had not consented to his doing
so.
One morning at ten o'clock I received a note from Faye, written at the
guard house, saying that his set of quarters had been selected by a
cavalry officer who had just arrived at the post, and that every
article of ours must be out of the house that day by one o'clock! Also
that, as he was officer of the guard, it would be impossible for him
to assist me in the least, except to send some enlisted men to move
the things. At first I was dazed and wholly incapable of comprehending
the situation--it seemed so preposterous to expect anyone to move
everything out of a house in three hours. But as soon as I recovered
my senses I saw at once that not one second of the precious time must
be wasted, and that the superintendence of the whole thing had fallen
upon me.
So I gathered my forces, and the four men started to work in a way
that showed they would do everything in their power to help me. All
that was possible for us to do, however, was almost to throw things
out in a side yard, for remember, please, we had only three short
hours in which to move everything--and this without, warning or
preparation of any kind.
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