Page:The woman in battle .djvu/639

Rh was animated by a strong desire to explore for myself a territory concerning which I had heard so much.

Having once resolved to cross the continent in search of a home, I did not stop to make many or very elaborate preparations, being too old a traveller to encumber myself with an excess of baggage. Purchasing a ticket for Omaha, I was soon on my way to that place by the Niagara, Fort Wayne, and Chicago route.

At Omaha I found snow on the ground, and the weather quite cold, too cold for one who had just come from a tropical climate to venture on a stage journey of many hundred miles, through the wilderness with no thicker or warmer clothing than that which I had with me. I was now in somewhat of a predicament, and began to regret that I had trusted quite so much to my travellers luck, and had not furnished myself with a more comfortable outfit.

I went to a dry goods store to purchase some woollen underclothing, but was unable to procure any. Fortunately, at the International Hotel, where I was stopping, there was a lady who intended to remain at Omaha for some time, and when she learned of my difficulties, offered to sell me hers. This offer I accepted without hesitation, and thus, by the merest chance, found myself equipped in proper style for my long and tedious journey and its necessary exposures to the weather. At the International I had the good fortune to meet an old friend whom I had not seen for a number of years, and with whom it was a pleasure of the most genuine kind to renew my acquaintance. This was the veteran soldier, General W. S. Harney. He was, apparently, as glad to see me as I was to see him, and insisted on escorting me in to dinner, rather, I think, to the astonishment of some of the guests.

The general had a special table for himself and friends, and as we took our seats the eyes of everybody in the room were fixed on us. The dinner was a good one in its way, the bill of fare being largely made up of buffalo and antelope meat, and various kinds of game, and, as I was desperately hungry, I enjoyed it greatly. While we were dining the general chatted very freely, and narrated many curious incidents of his career in the army, and expressed his views on the late