FORT LYON, COLORADO TERRITORY,
June, 1873.
IT has been impossible for me to write before, for I have been more
than busy, both day and night, ever since we got here. The servant for
whom we waited at Dodge City, and who I had hoped would be a great
assistance to me in getting settled, came to us very ill--almost too
ill to be brought over from Granada. But we could not leave her there
with no one to take care of her, and of course I could not remain with
her, so there was nothing else to be done--we had to bring her along.
We had accepted Mrs. Wilder's invitation to stay with them a few days
until we could get settled a little, but all that was changed when we
got here, for we were obliged to come directly to our own house,
unpack camp bedding and the mess chest, and do the best we could for
ourselves and the sick girl.
The post surgeon told us as soon as he had examined the girl that she
had tuberculosis in almost its last stage, and that she was threatened
with double pneumonia! So you can imagine what I have been through in
the way of nursing, for there was no one in the garrison who would
come to assist me. The most unpleasant part of it all is, the girl is
most ungrateful for all that is being done for her, and finds fault
with many things. She has admitted to the doctor that she came to us
for her health; that as there are only two in the family, she thought
there would be so little for her to do she could ride horseback and be
out of doors most of the time! What a nice arrangement it would have
been--this fine lady sitting out on our lawn or riding one of our
horses, and I in the kitchen preparing the dinner, and then at the end
of the month humbly begging her to accept a little check for thirty
dollars!
We have an excellent soldier cook, but the care of that miserable girl
falls upon me, and the terrible experience we passed through at Dodge
City has wholly unfitted me for anything of the kind.
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