much rehearsing to be done, and
Sergeant Graves has to transpose the hymns and write out the notes for
each instrument, and this requires much work. To show my appreciation of
their obedience to my slightest request, a large cake and dozens of eggs
have been sent to them after each service. It is funny how nice things
to eat often make it easy for a man to do things that otherwise would be
impossible!

FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY, July, 1886.

MY trip to Helena was made alone, after all! The evening before I
started Mrs. Todd told me that she could not go, frankly admitting that
she was afraid to go over the lonesome places on the road with only the
driver for a protector. It was important that I should see a dentist,
and Mrs. Averill was depending upon me to bring her friend down from
Helena who was expected from the East, so I decided to go alone. The
quartermaster gave me the privilege of choosing my driver, and I asked
for a civilian, a rather old man who is disliked by everyone because
of his surly, disagreeable manner. Just why I chose him I cannot tell,
except that he is a good driver and I felt that he could be trusted. The
morning we started Faye said to him, "Driver, you must take good care of
Mrs. Rae, for she asked for you to drive on this trip," which must have
had its effect--that, and the nice lunch I had prepared for him--for he
was kind and thoughtful at all times.

It takes two days to go to Helena from here, a ride of forty-five miles
one day and forty the second; and on each long drive there are stretches
of miles and miles over mountains and through canons where one is far
from a ranch or human being, and one naturally thinks of robbers and
other unpleasant things. At such places I rode on top with the driver,
where I could at least see what was going on around us.

Just before we crossed the Bird-Tail divide we came to a wonderful
sight, "a sight worth seeing," the driver said; and more to gratify him
than because I wanted to, we stopped. An enormous corral had been put up
temporarily, and in it were thousands of sheep, so closely packed that
those in the center were constantly jumping over the others, trying to
find a cooler place. In the winter, when the weather is very cold, sheep
will always jump from the outer circle of the band to the center, where
it is warm; they always huddle together in cold weather, and herders
are frequently compelled to remain right with them, nights at a time,
w