There was not much restriction placed upon their actions, and,
although they were not permitted to stray away from the line of march
during the daytime, they were allowed to visit any ranches or
farm-houses that might be in the neighborhood of their camping-grounds.
The people they met along the route were very liberal with the products
of their gardens and with their milk, butter and eggs, and the recruits
fared sumptuously every day; but it would have been much better for some
of them if they had remained in camp at night and left the settlers
entirely alone. Not a few of the men with whom they exchanged civilities
unconsciously sowed among them seeds of discontent that were destined
eventually to bear a fruitful crop of trouble. By endeavoring to live up
to the sentiments they heard expressed on every hand, more than one of
the recruits found themselves landed in the military prison at Fort
Leavenworth.

"I don't see why you chaps swear away your liberty, and work for
thirteen dollars a month, when you might just as well get forty and be
free men," said a rancheman one night, after he has given Bob and three
companions, one of whom was Bristow, all the milk he had to spare.
"You'll soon get enough of soldiering, _I_ tell you. I know, for I have
tried it. It is a heap easier to ride around on your horse and watch
your cattle while they are fattening themselves for market on the rich
grass."

"But we don't happen to have any cattle to watch," said Bob.

"Who would give us forty dollars a month?" demanded Bristow, who was one
of the loudest and most persistent grumblers among the recruits.

"You could get it almost anywhere in this country," replied the
rancheman. "I'd give it to you, for one, and I know of a dozen others
who stand ready to snap up the first man that comes along, no odds
whether he ever herded cattle or not. You have made precious fools of
yourselves, and you'll get a fool's reward. You'll have mean grub, hard
work and poor pay, and be niggers to every little snipe who wears a
shoulder-strap."

"We've found that out already--haven't we, boys?" said Bristow, as he
and his companions reluctantly took leave of the hospitable rancheman
and retraced their steps toward the camp. "We _are_ precious fools to
work for thirteen dollars, when we might just as well earn three times
that amount, and be our own masters besides. There is no need that
anybody should tell us that our officers will treat us like ni