Page:Boots and Saddles.djvu/256

Rh people, who wanted to know impossible things about the country, and if it was a good soil for wheat. I only remember one party who taxed my patience to the uttermost. They cared nothing about Dakota as an agricultural territory, but had come on purpose to see the general. To satisfy them, I sent the servants and orderly to find him, but all returned with the same answer—he was nowhere to be seen. I walked about the garrison with them, explaining our post as best I could; the band came to play for them; and finally, as a last resort, I opened the general's room to show them his hunting mementos. It was all of no avail. One very decided woman said, "This is all very interesting, but we came to see General Custer, and we do not intend to leave until we do." Finally I said, in desperation, he is much interested in improvements for the post, and spends much time out-of-doors. "Very well," said the chief spokesman, "we will go all around the garrison and try to find him." As soon as I had bowed them away, I ran out to Mary to ask where the general really was. I had known from the first, by a twinkle in her eye, that she was helping him to escape. "Law, Miss Libbie, the giniral most got sunstroke hidin' in the chicken-coop." The coop was still unroofed, and my husband had been superintending the building of a double wall to keep out the cold in winter; and there I found him, really ill, having beaten his hasty retreat without a hat, and remained in the broiling sun rather than submit to the odious ordeal of being on exhibition.

Our house was so full of company, and we had so little time for each other, that in order to visit together