o deep and the cold
so penetrating, one could hardly have believed that these small people
could have been made so warm and happy. But Mrs. Pierce is a wonderful
mother! Major Pierce was opposed to bringing his family on this long
march, to be exposed to all kinds of weather, but Mrs. Pierce had no
idea of being left behind with two days of car and eight days of the
worst kind of stage travel between her husband and herself; so, like a
sensible woman, she took matters in her own hands, and when we reached
Chicago, where she had been visiting, there at the station was the
smiling Mrs. Pierce with babies, governess, nurses, and trunks, all
splendidly prepared to come with us--and come they all did. After the
major had scolded a little and eased his conscience, he smiled as much
as the other members of the family.

The children with us seem to be standing the exposure wonderfully well.
One or two were pale at first, but have become rosy and strong, although
there is much that must be very trying to them and the mothers also. The
tents are "struck" at six sharp in the morning, and that means that we
have to be up at four and breakfast at five. That the bedding must be
rolled, every little thing tucked away in trunks or bags, the mess chest
packed, and the cooking stove and cooking utensils not only made ready
to go safely in the wagon, but they must be carried out of the tents
before six o'clock. At that time the soldiers come, and, when the bugle
sounds, down go the tents, and if anything happens to be left inside, it
has to be fished out from underneath the canvas or left there until the
tent is folded. The days are so short now that all this has to be done
in the darkness, by candle or lantern light, and how mothers can get
their small people up and ready for the day by six o'clock, I cannot
understand, for it is just all I can manage to get myself and the tent
ready by that time.

We are on the banks of a small stream, and the tents are evidently
pitched directly upon the roosting ground of wild geese, for during the
snowstorm thousands of them came here long after dark, making the most
dreadful uproar one ever heard, with the whirring of their big wings and
constant "honk! honk!" of hundreds of voices. They circled around so
low and the calls were so loud that it seemed sometimes as if they
were inside the tents. They must have come home for shelter and become
confused and blinded by the lights in the tents, and the l