A Horse's Tale.....................................................................................................................................................1

Mark Twain ..............................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I SOLDIER BOY PRIVATELY TO HIMSELF...........................................................1

CHAPTER II LETTER FROM ROUEN TO GENERAL ALISON................................................3

CHAPTER III GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER....................................................................4

CHAPTER IV CATHY TO HER AUNT MERCEDES......................................................................5

CHAPTER V GENERAL ALISON TO MERCEDES........................................................................6

CHAPTER VI SOLDIER BOY AND THE MEXICAN PLUG ........................................................10

CHAPTER VII SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS ............................................................................15

CHAPTER IX SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS AGAIN...............................................................17

CHAPTER X GENERAL ALISON AND DORCAS ........................................................................18

CHAPTER XI SEVERAL MONTHS LATER. ANTONIO AND THORNDIKE ...........................22

CHAPTER XII MONGREL AND THE OTHER HORSE ................................................................25

CHAPTER XIII GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER...............................................................26

CHAPTER XIV SOLDIER BOY TO HIMSELF ...........................................................................27

CHAPTER XV GENERAL ALISON TO MRS. DRAKE, THE COLONEL'S WIFE.....................28

I am Buffalo Bill's horse. I have spent my life under his saddle with him in it, too, and he is good for two

hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the

warpath and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn't an ounce of waste flesh, is

straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face, and black hair dangling

down on his shoulders, and is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and nobody is stronger,

except myself. Yes, a person that doubts that he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buckskins, on my

back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile trail, with me going like the wind and his hair

streaming out behind from the shelter of his broad slouch. Yes, he is a sight to look at then and I'm part of it

I am his favorite horse, out of dozens. Big as he is, I have carried him eightyone miles between nightfall and

sunrise on the scout; and I am good for fifty, day in and day out, and all the time. I am not large, but I am

built on a business basis. I have carried him thousands and thousands of miles on scout duty for the army, and

there's not a gorge, nor a pass, nor a valley, nor a fort, nor a trading post, nor a buffalorange in the whole

sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains that we don't know as well as we know the buglecalls.

He is Chief of Scouts to the Army of the Frontier, and it makes us very important. In such a position as I hold

in the military service one needs to be of good family and possess an education much above the common to

be worthy of the place. I am the besteducated horse outside of the hippodrome, everybody says, and the

bestmannered. It may be so, it is not for me to say; modesty is the best policy, I think. Buffalo Bill taught

me the most of what I know, my mother taught me much, and I taught myself the rest. Lay a row of

moccasins before me Pawnee, Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and as many other tribes as you

please and I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by the make of it. Name it in horsetalk, and

I know some of the Indian signs the signs they make with their hands, and by signalfires at night and

columns of smoke by day. Buffalo Bill taught me how to drag wounded soldiers out of the line of fire with

my teeth; and I've done it, too; at least I've dragged HIM out of the battle when he was wounded. And not just

once, but twice. Yes, I know a lot of things. I remember forms, and gaits, and faces; and you can't disguise a

person that's done me a kindness so that I won't know him thereafter wherever I find him. I know the art of

searching for a trail, and I know the stale track from the fresh. I can keep a trail all by myself, with Buffalo

Bill asleep in the saddle; ask him he will tell you so. Many a time, when he has ridden all night, he has said

to me at dawn, "Take the watch, Boy; if the trail freshens, call me." Then he goes to sleep. He knows he can

trust me, because I have a reputation. A scout horse that has a reputation does not play with it.

My mother was all American no alkalispider about HER, I can tell you; she was of the best blood of

Kentucky, the bluest Bluegrass aristocracy, very proud and acrimonious or maybe it is ceremonious. I

don't know which it is. But it is no matter; size is the main thing about a word, and that one's up to standard.

She spent her military life as colonel of the Tenth Dragoons, and saw a deal of rough service distinguished

service it was, too. I mean, she CARRIED the Colonel; but it's all the same. Where would he be without his

horse? He wouldn't arrive. It takes two to make a colonel of dragoons. She was a fine dragoon horse, but

never got above that. She was strong enough for the scout service, and had the endurance, too, but she

couldn't quite come up to the speed required; a scout horse has to have steel in his muscle and lightning in his

My father was a bronco. Nothing as to lineage that is, nothing as to recent lineage but plenty good

enough when you go a good way back. When Professor Marsh was out here hunting bones for the chapel of

Yale University he found skeletons of horses no bigger than a fox, bedded in the rocks, and he said they were

ancestors of my father. My mother heard him say it; and he said those skeletons were two million years old,

which astonished her and made her Kentucky pretensions look small and pretty antiphonal, not to say

oblique. Let me see. . . . I used to know the meaning of those words, but . . . well, it was years ago, and 'tisn't

as vivid now as it was when they were fresh. That sort of words doesn't keep, in the kind of climate we have

out here. Professor Marsh said those skeletons were fossils. So that makes me part blue grass and part fossil;

if there is any older or better stock, you will have to look for it among the Four Hundred, I reckon. I am

And now we are back at Fort Paxton once more, after a fortyday scout, away up as far as the Big Horn.

Everything quiet. Crows and Blackfeet squabbling as usual but no outbreaks, and settlers feeling fairly

The Seventh Cavalry still in garrison, here; also the Ninth Dragoons, two artillery companies, and some

infantry. All glad to see me, including General Alison, commandant. The officers' ladies and children well,

and called upon me with sugar. Colonel Drake, Seventh Cavalry, said some pleasant things; Mrs. Drake

was very complimentary; also Captain and Mrs. Marsh, Company B, Seventh Cavalry; also the Chaplain,

who is always kind and pleasant to me, because I kicked the lungs out of a trader once. It was Tommy Drake

and Fanny Marsh that furnished the sugar nice children, the nicest at the post, I think.

That poor orphan child is on her way from France everybody is full of the subject. Her father was General

Alison's brother; married a beautiful young Spanish lady ten years ago, and has never been in America since.

They lived in Spain a year or two, then went to France. Both died some months ago. This little girl that is

coming is the only child. General Alison is glad to have her. He has never seen her. He is a very nice old

bachelor, but is an old bachelor just the same and isn't more than about a year this side of retirement by age

limit; and so what does he know about taking care of a little maid nine years old? If I could have her it would

be another matter, for I know all about children, and they adore me. Buffalo Bill will tell you so himself.

I have some of this news from overhearing the garrisongossip, the rest of it I got from Potter, the General's

dog. Potter is the great Dane. He is privileged, all over the post, like Shekels, the Seventh Cavalry's dog, and

visits everybody's quarters and picks up everything that is going, in the way of news. Potter has no

imagination, and no great deal of culture, perhaps, but he has a historical mind and a good memory, and so he

is the person I depend upon mainly to post me up when I get back from a scout. That is, if Shekels is out on

My dear BrotherinLaw, Please let me write again in Spanish, I cannot trust my English, and I am aware,

from what your brother used to say, that army officers educated at the Military Academy of the United States

are taught our tongue. It is as I told you in my other letter: both my poor sister and her husband, when they

found they could not recover, expressed the wish that you should have their little Catherine as knowing that

you would presently be retired from the army rather than that she should remain with me, who am broken

You do not know the child, therefore I must tell you something about her. You will not be ashamed of her

looks, for she is a copy in little of her beautiful mother and it is that Andalusian beauty which is not

surpassable, even in your country. She has her mother's charm and grace and good heart and sense of justice,

and she has her father's vivacity and cheerfulness and pluck and spirit of enterprise, with the affectionate

My sister pined for her Spanish home all these years of exile; she was always talking of Spain to the child,

and tending and nourishing the love of Spain in the little thing's heart as a precious flower; and she died

happy in the knowledge that the fruitage of her patriotic labors was as rich as even she could desire.

Cathy is a sufficiently good little scholar, for her nine years; her mother taught her Spanish herself, and kept

it always fresh upon her ear and her tongue by hardly ever speaking with her in any other tongue; her father

was her English teacher, and talked with her in that language almost exclusively; French has been her

everyday speech for more than seven years among her playmates here; she has a good working use of

governess German and Italian. It is true that there is always a faint foreign fragrance about her speech, no

matter what language she is talking, but it is only just noticeable, nothing more, and is rather a charm than a

mar, I think. In the ordinary childstudies Cathy is neither before nor behind the average child of nine, I

should say. But I can say this for her: in love for her friends and in highmindedness and good heartedness

she has not many equals, and in my opinion no superiors. And I beg of you, let her have her way with the

dumb animals they are her worship. It is an inheritance from her mother. She knows but little of cruelties

and oppressions keep them from her sight if you can. She would flare up at them and make trouble, in her

small but quite decided and resolute way; for she has a character of her own, and lacks neither promptness

nor initiative. Sometimes her judgment is at fault, but I think her intentions are always right. Once when she

was a little creature of three or four years she suddenly brought her tiny foot down upon the floor in an

apparent outbreak of indignation, then fetched it a backward wipe, and stooped down to examine the result.

"Yes, manure, because he had no friend, and I wouldn't let the big one kill him."

Cathy was distressed, and her lip trembled. She picked up the remains and laid them upon her palm, and said:

"Poor little anty, I'm so sorry; and I didn't mean to kill you, but there wasn't any other way to save you, it was

She is a dear and sweet little lady, and when she goes it will give me a sore heart. But she will be happy with

you, and if your heart is old and tired, give it into her keeping; she will make it young again, she will refresh

My exile will soon be over now. As soon as I am a little stronger I shall see my Spain again; and that will

. . . That grandchild of yours has been here well, I do not quite know how many days it is; nobody can keep

account of days or anything else where she is! Mother, she did what the Indians were never able to do. She

took the Fort took it the first day! Took me, too; took the colonels, the captains, the women, the children,

and the dumb brutes; took Buffalo Bill, and all his scouts; took the garrison to the last man; and in

fortyeight hours the Indian encampment was hers, illustrious old ThunderBird and all. Do I seem to have

lost my solemnity, my gravity, my poise, my dignity? You would lose your own, in my circumstances.

Mother, you never saw such a winning little devil. She is all energy, and spirit, and sunshine, and interest in

everybody and everything, and pours out her prodigal love upon every creature that will take it, high or low,

Christian or pagan, feathered or furred; and none has declined it to date, and none ever will, I think. But she

has a temper, and sometimes it catches fire and flames up, and is likely to burn whatever is near it; but it is

soon over, the passion goes as quickly as it comes. Of course she has an Indian name already; Indians always

rechristen a stranger early. ThunderBird attended to her case. He gave her the Indian equivalent for firebug,

Isn't it good? Can't you see the flare? She's beautiful, mother, beautiful as a picture; and there is a touch of

you in her face, and of her father poor George! and in her unresting activities, and her fearless ways, and

her sunbursts and cloudbursts, she is always bringing George back to me. These impulsive natures are

dramatic. George was dramatic, so is this LightningBug, so is Buffalo Bill. When Cathy first arrived it

was in the forenoon Buffalo Bill was away, carrying orders to Major Fuller, at Five Forks, up in the

Clayton Hills. At midafternoon I was at my desk, trying to work, and this sprite had been making it

"Oh, you bewitching little scamp, CAN'T you be quiet just a minute or two, and let your poor old uncle

"Well, then, that's a good child kiss me. Now, then, sit up in that chair, and set your eye on that clock.

There that's right. If you stir if you so much as wink for four whole minutes, I'll bite you!"

It was very sweet and humble and obedient she looked, sitting there, still as a mouse; I could hardly keep

from setting her free and telling her to make as much racket as she wanted to. During as much as two minutes

there was a most unnatural and heavenly quiet and repose, then Buffalo Bill came thundering up to the door

in all his scout finery, flung himself out of the saddle, said to his horse, "Wait for me, Boy," and stepped in,

and stopped dead in his tracks gazing at the child. She forgot orders, and was on the floor in a moment,

"No, I don't, I love you!" and he gathered her up with a hug, and then set her on his shoulder apparently

She was at home. She played with his long hair, and admired his big hands and his clothes and his carbine,

and asked question after question, as fast as he could answer, until I excused them both for half an hour, in

order to have a chance to finish my work. Then I heard Cathy exclaiming over Soldier Boy; and he was

worthy of her raptures, for he is a wonder of a horse, and has a reputation which is as shining as his own

Oh, it is wonderful here, aunty dear, just paradise! Oh, if you could only see it! everything so wild and lovely;

such grand plains, stretching such miles and miles and miles, all the most delicious velvety sand and

sagebrush, and rabbits as big as a dog, and such tall and noble jackassful ears that that is what they name

them by; and such vast mountains, and so rugged and craggy and lofty, with cloudshawls wrapped around

their shoulders, and looking so solemn and awful and satisfied; and the charming Indians, oh, how you would

dote on them, aunty dear, and they would on you, too, and they would let you hold their babies, the way they

do me, and they ARE the fattest, and brownest, and sweetest little things, and never cry, and wouldn't if they

had pins sticking in them, which they haven't, because they are poor and can't afford it; and the horses and

mules and cattle and dogs hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, and not an animal that you can't do what

you please with, except uncle Thomas, but I don't mind him, he's lovely; and oh, if you could hear the bugles:

TOO TOO TOOTOO TOO TOO, and so on perfectly beautiful! Do you recognize that one? It's

the first toots of the REVEILLE; it goes, dear me, SO early in the morning! then I and every other soldier

on the whole place are up and out in a minute, except uncle Thomas, who is most unaccountably lazy, I don't

know why, but I have talked to him about it, and I reckon it will be better, now. He hasn't any faults much,

and is charming and sweet, like Buffalo Bill, and ThunderBird, and Mammy Dorcas, and Soldier Boy, and

Shekels, and Potter, and SourMash, and well, they're ALL that, just angels, as you may say.

The very first day I came, I don't know how long ago it was, Buffalo Bill took me on Soldier Boy to

ThunderBird's camp, not the big one which is out on the plain, which is White Cloud's, he took me to THAT

one next day, but this one is four or five miles up in the hills and crags, where there is a great shutin

meadow, full of Indian lodges and dogs and squaws and everything that is interesting, and a brook of the

clearest water running through it, with white pebbles on the bottom and trees all along the banks cool and

shady and good to wade in, and as the sun goes down it is dimmish in there, but away up against the sky you

see the big peaks towering up and shining bright and vivid in the sun, and sometimes an eagle sailing by

them, not flapping a wing, the same as if he was asleep; and young Indians and girls romping and laughing

and carrying on, around the spring and the pool, and not much clothes on except the girls, and dogs fighting,

and the squaws busy at work, and the bucks busy resting, and the old men sitting in a bunch smoking, and

passing the pipe not to the left but to the right, which means there's been a row in the camp and they are

settling it if they can, and children playing JUST the same as any other children, and little boys shooting at a

mark with bows, and I cuffed one of them because he hit a dog with a club that wasn't doing anything, and he

resented it but before long he wished he hadn't: but this sentence is getting too long and I will start another.

ThunderBird put on his Sundaybest war outfit to let me see him, and he was splendid to look at, with his

face painted red and bright and intense like a firecoal and a valance of eagle feathers from the top of his

head all down his back, and he had his tomahawk, too, and his pipe, which has a stem which is longer than

my arm, and I never had such a good time in an Indian camp in my life, and I learned a lot of words of the

language, and next day BB took me to the camp out on the Plains, four miles, and I had another good time

and got acquainted with some more Indians and dogs; and the big chief, by the name of White Cloud, gave

me a pretty little bow and arrows and I gave him my red sashribbon, and in four days I could shoot very

well with it and beat any white boy of my size at the post; and I have been to those camps plenty of times

since; and I have learned to ride, too, BB taught me, and every day he practises me and praises me, and every

time I do better than ever he lets me have a scamper on Soldier Boy, and THAT'S the last agony of pleasure!

for he is the charmingest horse, and so beautiful and shiny and black, and hasn't another color on him

anywhere, except a white star in his forehead, not just an imitation star, but a real one, with four points,

shaped exactly like a star that's handmade, and if you should cover him all up but his star you would know

him anywhere, even in Jerusalem or Australia, by that. And I got acquainted with a good many of the Seventh

Cavalry, and the dragoons, and officers, and families, and horses, in the first few days, and some more in the

next few and the next few and the next few, and now I know more soldiers and horses than you can think, no

matter how hard you try. I am keeping up my studies every now and then, but there isn't much time for it. I

P.S. I belong to the Seventh Cavalry and Ninth Dragoons, I am an officer, too, and do not have to work on

She has been with us a good nice long time, now. You are troubled about your sprite because this is such a

wild frontier, hundreds of miles from civilization, and peopled only by wandering tribes of savages? You fear

for her safety? Give yourself no uneasiness about her. Dear me, she's in a nursery! and she's got more than

eighteen hundred nurses. It would distress the garrison to suspect that you think they can't take care of her.

They think they can. They would tell you so themselves. You see, the Seventh Cavalry has never had a child

of its very own before, and neither has the Ninth Dragoons; and so they are like all new mothers, they think

there is no other child like theirs, no other child so wonderful, none that is so worthy to be faithfully and

tenderly looked after and protected. These bronzed veterans of mine are very good mothers, I think, and wiser

than some other mothers; for they let her take lots of risks, and it is a good education for her; and the more

risks she takes and comes successfully out of, the prouder they are of her. They adopted her, with grave and

formal military ceremonies of their own invention solemnities is the truer word; solemnities that were so

profoundly solemn and earnest, that the spectacle would have been comical if it hadn't been so touching. It

was a good show, and as stately and complex as guardmount and the trooping of the colors; and it had its

own special music, composed for the occasion by the bandmaster of the Seventh; and the child was as serious

as the most serious warworn soldier of them all; and finally when they throned her upon the shoulder of the

oldest veteran, and pronounced her "well and truly adopted," and the bands struck up and all saluted and she

saluted in return, it was better and more moving than any kindred thing I have seen on the stage, because

stage things are makebelieve, but this was real and the players' hearts were in it.

It happened several weeks ago, and was followed by some additional solemnities. The men created a couple

of new ranks, thitherto unknown to the army regulations, and conferred them upon Cathy, with ceremonies

suitable to a duke. So now she is CorporalGeneral of the Seventh Cavalry, and FlagLieutenant of the Ninth

Dragoons, with the privilege (decreed by the men) of writing U.S.A. after her name! Also, they presented her

a pair of shoulderstraps both dark blue, the one with F. L. on it, the other with C. G. Also, a sword. She

wears them. Finally, they granted her the SALUTE. I am witness that that ceremony is faithfully observed by

both parties and most gravely and decorously, too. I have never seen a soldier smile yet, while delivering it,

Ostensibly I was not present at these proceedings, and am ignorant of them; but I was where I could see. I

was afraid of one thing the jealousy of the other children of the post; but there is nothing of that, I am glad

to say. On the contrary, they are proud of their comrade and her honors. It is a surprising thing, but it is true.

The children are devoted to Cathy, for she has turned their dull frontier life into a sort of continuous festival;

also they know her for a stanch and steady friend, a friend who can always be depended upon, and does not

She has become a rather extraordinary rider, under the tutorship of a more than extraordinary teacher BB,

which is her pet name for Buffalo Bill. She pronounces it BEEBY. He has not only taught her seventeen ways

of breaking her neck, but twentytwo ways of avoiding it. He has infused into her the best and surest

protection of a horseman CONFIDENCE. He did it gradually, systematically, little by little, a step at a

time, and each step made sure before the next was essayed. And so he inched her along up through terrors

that had been discounted by training before she reached them, and therefore were not recognizable as terrors

when she got to them. Well, she is a daring little rider, now, and is perfect in what she knows of

horsemanship. Byandby she will know the art like a West Point cadet, and will exercise it as fearlessly.

She doesn't know anything about sidesaddles. Does that distress you? And she is a fine performer, without

any saddle at all. Does that discomfort you? Do not let it; she is not in any danger, I give you my word.

You said that if my heart was old and tired she would refresh it, and you said truly. I do not know how I got

along without her, before. I was a forlorn old tree, but now that this blossoming vine has wound itself about

me and become the life of my life, it is very different. As a furnisher of business for me and for Mammy

Dorcas she is exhaustlessly competent, but I like my share of it and of course Dorcas likes hers, for Dorcas

"raised" George, and Cathy is George over again in so many ways that she brings back Dorcas's youth and

the joys of that longvanished time. My father tried to set Dorcas free twenty years ago, when we still lived

in Virginia, but without success; she considered herself a member of the family, and wouldn't go. And so, a

member of the family she remained, and has held that position unchallenged ever since, and holds it now; for

when my mother sent her here from San Bernardino when we learned that Cathy was coming, she only

changed from one division of the family to the other. She has the warm heart of her race, and its lavish

affections, and when Cathy arrived the pair were mother and child in five minutes, and that is what they are

to date and will continue. Dorcas really thinks she raised George, and that is one of her prides, but perhaps it

was a mutual raising, for their ages were the same thirteen years short of mine. But they were playmates, at

Cathy thinks Dorcas is the best Catholic in America except herself. She could not pay any one a higher

compliment than that, and Dorcas could not receive one that would please her better. Dorcas is satisfied that

there has never been a more wonderful child than Cathy. She has conceived the curious idea that Cathy is

TWINS, and that one of them is a boytwin and failed to get segregated got submerged, is the idea. To

argue with her that this is nonsense is a waste of breath her mind is made up, and arguments do not affect it.

"Look at her; she loves dolls, and girlplays, and everything a girl loves, and she's gentle and sweet, and ain't

cruel to dumb brutes now that's the girltwin, but she loves boyplays, and drums and fifes and soldiering,

and roughriding, and ain't afraid of anybody or anything and that's the boytwin; 'deed you needn't tell

ME she's only ONE child; no, sir, she's twins, and one of them got shet up out of sight. Out of sight, but that

don't make any difference, that boy is in there, and you can see him look out of her eyes when her temper is

"Look at that raven, Marse Tom. Would anybody befriend a raven but that child? Of course they wouldn't; it

ain't natural. Well, the Injun boy had the raven tied up, and was all the time plaguing it and starving it, and

she pitied the po' thing, and tried to buy it from the boy, and the tears was in her eyes. That was the girl

twin, you see. She offered him her thimble, and he flung it down; she offered him all the doughnuts she had,

which was two, and he flung them down; she offered him half a paper of pins, worth forty ravens, and he

made a mouth at her and jabbed one of them in the raven's back. That was the limit, you know. It called for

the other twin. Her eyes blazed up, and she jumped for him like a wildcat, and when she was done with him

she was rags and he wasn't anything but an allegory. That was most undoubtedly the other twin, you see,

coming to the front. No, sir; don't tell ME he ain't in there. I've seen him with my own eyes and plenty of

"I don't know, Marse Tom, it's one of her words; she loves the big ones, you know, and I pick them up from

"Why, she untied the raven and confiscated him by force and fetched him home, and left the doughnuts and

things on the ground. Petted him, of course, like she does with every creature. In two days she had him so

stuck after her that she well, YOU know how he follows her everywhere, and sets on her shoulder often

when she rides her breakneck rampages all of which is the girltwin to the front, you see and he does

what he pleases, and is up to all kinds of devilment, and is a perfect nuisance in the kitchen. Well, they all

"Well, you know, she's a nuisance herself, Miss Cathy is, she IS so busy, and into everything, like that bird.

It's all just as innocent, you know, and she don't mean any harm, and is so good and dear; and it ain't her fault,

it's her nature; her interest is always aworking and always redhot, and she can't keep quiet. Well, yesterday

it was 'Please, Miss Cathy, don't do that'; and, 'Please, Miss Cathy, let that alone'; and, 'Please, Miss Cathy,

don't make so much noise'; and so on and so on, till I reckon I had found fault fourteen times in fifteen

minutes; then she looked up at me with her big brown eyes that can plead so, and said in that odd little

"Marse Tom, I just grabbed her up to my breast and says, 'Oh, you po' dear little motherless thing, you ain't

got a fault in the world, and you can do anything you want to, and tear the house down, and yo' old black

"Spoil the child? spoil THAT child, Marse Tom? There can't ANYBODY spoil her. She's the king bee of this

post, and everybody pets her and is her slave, and yet, as you know, your own self, she ain't the least little bit

spoiled." Then she eased her mind with this retort: "Marse Tom, she makes you do anything she wants to, and

you can't deny it; so if she could be spoilt, she'd been spoilt long ago, because you are the very WORST!

Look at that pile of cats in your chair, and you sitting on a candlebox, just as patient; it's because they're her

If Dorcas were a soldier, I could punish her for such large frankness as that. I changed the subject, and made

her resume her illustrations. She had scored against me fairly, and I wasn't going to cheapen her victory by

disputing it. She proceeded to offer this incident in evidence on her twin theory:

"Two weeks ago when she got her finger mashed open, she turned pretty pale with the pain, but she never

said a word. I took her in my lap, and the surgeon sponged off the blood and took a needle and thread and

began to sew it up; it had to have a lot of stitches, and each one made her scrunch a little, but she never let go

a sound. At last the surgeon was so full of admiration that he said, 'Well, you ARE a brave little thing!' and

she said, just as ca'm and simple as if she was talking about the weather, 'There isn't anybody braver but the

"I don't know, sir at least only what she says. She's always talking about him, and says he was the bravest

hero Spain ever had, or any other country. They have it up and down, the children do, she standing up for the

"No; it's only disputing, and bragging, the way children do. They want her to be an American, but she can't be

anything but a Spaniard, she says. You see, her mother was always longing for home, po' thing! and thinking

about it, and so the child is just as much a Spaniard as if she'd always lived there. She thinks she remembers

how Spain looked, but I reckon she don't, because she was only a baby when they moved to France. She is

Does that please you, Mercedes? Very well, be content; your niece is loyal to her allegiance: her mother laid

deep the foundations of her love for Spain, and she will go back to you as good a Spaniard as you are

yourself. She has made me promise to take her to you for a long visit when the War Office retires me.

I attend to her studies myself; has she told you that? Yes, I am her schoolmaster, and she makes pretty good

progress, I think, everything considered. Everything considered being translated means holidays. But the

fact is, she was not born for study, and it comes hard. Hard for me, too; it hurts me like a physical pain to see

that free spirit of the air and the sunshine laboring and grieving over a book; and sometimes when I find her

gazing far away towards the plain and the blue mountains with the longing in her eyes, I have to throw open

the prison doors; I can't help it. A quaint little scholar she is, and makes plenty of blunders. Once I put the

She rested her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand and took that problem under deep consideration.

Presently she looked up and answered, with a rising inflection implying a shade of uncertainty,

Here are a couple of her expositions which were delivered with tranquil confidence:

She is not a genius, you see, but just a normal child; they all make mistakes of that sort. There is a glad light

in her eye which is pretty to see when she finds herself able to answer a question promptly and accurately,

She still drops a foreign word into her talk now and then, and there is still a subtle foreign flavor or fragrance

about even her exactest English and long may this abide! for it has for me a charm that is very pleasant.

Sometimes her English is daintily prim and bookish and captivating. She has a child's sweet tooth, but for her

health's sake I try to keep its inspirations under cheek. She is obedient as is proper for a titled and

recognized military personage, which she is but the chain presses sometimes. For instance, we were out for

a walk, and passed by some bushes that were freighted with wild gooseberries. Her face brightened and she

You ask about her languages. They take care of themselves; they will not get rusty here; our regiments are

not made up of natives alone far from it. And she is picking up Indian tongues diligently.

"I saw you when you came. I recognized your master. He is a bad sort. Traprobber, horsethief,

"He is another of the same stripe, is Blake Haskins." (ASIDE.) They are laying for Buffalo Bill again, I

"I get a new one every time I'm stolen. I used to have an honest name, but that was early; I've forgotten it.

"Alias. It's a fine large word, and is in my line; it has quite a learned and cerebrospinal incandescent sound.

"Well, no, I can't claim it. I can take down bars, I can distinguish oats from shoepegs, I can blaspheme a

saddleboil with the collegebred, and I know a few other things not many; I have had no chance, I have

always had to work; besides, I am of low birth and no family. You speak my dialect like a native, but you are

not a Mexican Plug, you are a gentleman, I can see that; and educated, of course."

"Yes, it is true. The bones of my ancestors are held in reverence and worship, even by men. They do not

leave them exposed to the weather when they find them, but carry them three thousand miles and enshrine

"It is wonderful! I knew you must be a person of distinction, by your fine presence and courtly address, and

by the fact that you are not subjected to the indignity of hobbles, like myself and the rest. Would you tell me

"It takes my breath! Little did I dream that ever I should stand face to face with the possessor of that great

name. Buffalo Bill's horse! Known from the Canadian border to the deserts of Arizona, and from the eastern

marches of the Great Plains to the foothills of the Sierra! Truly this is a memorable day. You still serve the

"I am still his property, but he has lent me, for a time, to the most noble, the most gracious, the most

excellent, her Excellency Catherine, CorporalGeneral Seventh Cavalry and FlagLieutenant Ninth

"The same. A Spanish lady, sweet blossom of a ducal house. And truly a wonder; knowing everything,

capable of everything; speaking all the languages, master of all sciences, a mind without horizons, a heart of

"Verily. I knew many things, she has taught me others. I am educated. I will tell you about her."

"I will tell a plain tale, calmly, without excitement, without eloquence. When she had been here four or five

weeks she was already erudite in military things, and they made her an officer a double officer. She rode

the drill every day, like any soldier; and she could take the bugle and direct the evolutions herself. Then, on a

day, there was a grand race, for prizes none to enter but the children. Seventeen children entered, and she

was the youngest. Three girls, fourteen boys good riders all. It was a steeplechase, with four hurdles, all

pretty high. The first prize was a most cunning halfgrown silver bugle, and mighty pretty, with red silk cord

and tassels. Buffalo Bill was very anxious; for he had taught her to ride, and he did most dearly want her to

win that race, for the glory of it. So he wanted her to ride me, but she wouldn't; and she reproached him, and

said it was unfair and unright, and taking advantage; for what horse in this post or any other could stand a

chance against me? and she was very severe with him, and said, 'You ought to be ashamed you are

proposing to me conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.' So he just tossed her up in the air about

thirty feet and caught her as she came down, and said he was ashamed; and put up his handkerchief and

pretended to cry, which nearly broke her heart, and she petted him, and begged him to forgive her, and said

she would do anything in the world he could ask but that; but he said he ought to go hang himself, and he

MUST, if he could get a rope; it was nothing but right he should, for he never, never could forgive himself;

and then SHE began to cry, and they both sobbed, the way you could hear him a mile, and she clinging

around his neck and pleading, till at last he was comforted a little, and gave his solemn promise he wouldn't

hang himself till after the race; and wouldn't do it at all if she won it, which made her happy, and she said she

would win it or die in the saddle; so then everything was pleasant again and both of them content. He can't

help playing jokes on her, he is so fond of her and she is so innocent and unsuspecting; and when she finds it

out she cuffs him and is in a fury, but presently forgives him because it's him; and maybe the very next day

she's caught with another joke; you see she can't learn any better, because she hasn't any deceit in her, and

"It was a grand race. The whole post was there, and there was such another whooping and shouting when the

seventeen kids came flying down the turf and sailing over the hurdles oh, beautiful to see! Halfway down,

it was kind of neck and neck, and anybody's race and nobody's. Then, what should happen but a cow steps

out and puts her head down to munch grass, with her broadside to the battalion, and they acoming like the

wind; they split apart to flank her, but SHE? why, she drove the spurs home and soared over that cow like a

bird! and on she went, and cleared the last hurdle solitary and alone, the army letting loose the grand yell, and

she skipped from the horse the same as if he had been standing still, and made her bow, and everybody

crowded around to congratulate, and they gave her the bugle, and she put it to her lips and blew 'boots and

saddles' to see how it would go, and BB was as proud as you can't think! And he said, 'Take Soldier Boy, and

don't pass him back till I ask for him!' and I can tell you he wouldn't have said that to any other person on this

planet. That was two months and more ago, and nobody has been on my back since but the CorporalGeneral

Seventh Cavalry and FlagLieutenant of the Ninth Dragoons, U.S.A., on whom be peace!"

"She set to work and organized the Sixteen, and called it the First Battalion Rocky Mountain Rangers,

U.S.A., and she wanted to be bugler, but they elected her LieutenantGeneral and Bugler. So she ranks her

uncle the commandant, who is only a Brigadier. And doesn't she train those little people! Ask the Indians, ask

the traders, ask the soldiers; they'll tell you. She has been at it from the first day. Every morning they go

clattering down into the plain, and there she sits on my back with her bugle at her mouth and sounds the

orders and puts them through the evolutions for an hour or more; and it is too beautiful for anything to see

those ponies dissolve from one formation into another, and waltz about, and break, and scatter, and form

again, always moving, always graceful, now trotting, now galloping, and so on, sometimes near by,

sometimes in the distance, all just like a state ball, you know, and sometimes she can't hold herself any

longer, but sounds the 'charge,' and turns me loose! and you can take my word for it, if the battalion hasn't too

"Yes, they are soldiers, those little people; and healthy, too, not ailing any more, the way they used to be

sometimes. It's because of her drill. She's got a fort, now Fort Fanny Marsh. Major General Tommy Drake

planned it out, and the Seventh and Dragoons built it. Tommy is the Colonel's son, and is fifteen and the

oldest in the Battalion; Fanny Marsh is BrigadierGeneral, and is next oldest over thirteen. She is daughter

of Captain Marsh, Company B, Seventh Cavalry. LieutenantGeneral Alison is the youngest by considerable;

I think she is about nine and a half or threequarters. Her military rig, as LieutenantGeneral, isn't for

business, it's for dress parade, because the ladies made it. They say they got it out of the Middle Ages out of

a book and it is all red and blue and white silks and satins and velvets; tights, trunks, sword, doublet with

slashed sleeves, short cape, cap with just one feather in it; I've heard them name these things; they got them

out of the book; she's dressed like a page, of old times, they say. It's the daintiest outfit that ever was you

will say so, when you see it. She's lovely in it oh, just a dream! In some ways she is just her age, but in

others she's as old as her uncle, I think. She is very learned. She teaches her uncle his book. I have seen her

sitting by with the book and reciting to him what is in it, so that he can learn to do it himself.

"Every Saturday she hires little Injuns to garrison her fort; then she lays siege to it, and makes military

approaches by makebelieve trenches in makebelieve night, and finally at makebelieve dawn she draws

her sword and sounds the assault and takes it by storm. It is for practice. And she has invented a buglecall

all by herself, out of her own head, and it's a stirring one, and the prettiest in the service. It's to call ME it's

never used for anything else. She taught it to me, and told me what it says: 'IT IS I, SOLDIER COME!' and

when those thrilling notes come floating down the distance I hear them without fail, even if I am two miles

"And she has taught me how to say goodmorning and goodnight to her, which is by lifting my right hoof

for her to shake; and also how to say goodbye; I do that with my left foot but only for practice, because

there hasn't been any but makebelieve good byeing yet, and I hope there won't ever be. It would make me

cry if I ever had to put up my left foot in earnest. She has taught me how to salute, and I can do it as well as a

soldier. I bow my head low, and lay my right hoof against my cheek. She taught me that because I got into

disgrace once, through ignorance. I am privileged, because I am known to be honorable and trustworthy, and

because I have a distinguished record in the service; so they don't hobble me nor tie me to stakes or shut me

tight in stables, but let me wander around to suit myself. Well, trooping the colors is a very solemn ceremony,

and everybody must stand uncovered when the flag goes by, the commandant and all; and once I was there,

and ignorantly walked across right in front of the band, which was an awful disgrace: Ah, the

LieutenantGeneral was so ashamed, and so distressed that I should have done such a thing before all the

world, that she couldn't keep the tears back; and then she taught me the salute, so that if I ever did any other

unmilitary act through ignorance I could do my salute and she believed everybody would think it was

apology enough and would not press the matter. It is very nice and distinguished; no other horse can do it;

often the men salute me, and I return it. I am privileged to be present when the Rocky Mountain Rangers

troop the colors and I stand solemn, like the children, and I salute when the flag goes by. Of course when she

goes to her fort her sentries sing out 'Turn out the guard!' and then . . . do you catch that refreshing early

morning whiff from the mountainpines and the wild flowers? The night is far spent; we'll hear the bugles

before long. Dorcas, the black woman, is very good and nice; she takes care of the LieutenantGeneral, and

is BrigadierGeneral Alison's mother, which makes her motherinlaw to the LieutenantGeneral. That is

what Shekels says. At least it is what I think he says, though I never can understand him quite clearly. He "

"The Seventh Cavalry dog. I mean, if he IS a dog. His father was a coyote and his mother was a wildcat. It

"Not a real dog, I should think. Only a kind of a general dog, at most, I reckon. Though this is a matter of

ichthyology, I suppose; and if it is, it is out of my depth, and so my opinion is not valuable, and I don't claim

"It isn't ichthyology; it is dogmatics, which is still more difficult and tangled up. Dogmatics always are."

"Dogmatics is quite beyond me, quite; so I am not competing. But on general principles it is my opinion that

a colt out of a coyote and a wildcat is no square dog, but doubtful. That is my hand, and I stand pat."

"Well, it is as far as I can go myself, and be fair and conscientious. I have always regarded him as a doubtful

dog, and so has Potter. Potter is the great Dane. Potter says he is no dog, and not even poultry though I do

"And I wouldn't, myself. Poultry is one of those things which no person can get to the bottom of, there is so

much of it and such variety. It is just wings, and wings, and wings, till you are weary: turkeys, and geese, and

bats, and butterflies, and angels, and grasshoppers, and flyingfish, and well, there is really no end to the

tribe; it gives me the heaves just to think of it. But this one hasn't any wings, has he?"

"Well, then, in my belief he is more likely to be dog than poultry. I have not heard of poultry that hadn't

wings. Wings is the SIGN of poultry; it is what you tell poultry by. Look at the mosquito."

"Years ago. I was with the Philadelphia Institute expedition in the Bad Lands under Professor Cope, hunting

mastodon bones, and I overheard him say, his own self, that any plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium

that hadn't wings and was uncertain was a reptile. Well, then, has this dog any wings? No. Is he a plantigrade

circumflex vertebrate bacterium? Maybe so, maybe not; but without ever having seen him, and judging only

by his illegal and spectacular parentage, I will bet the odds of a bale of hay to a bran mash that he looks it.

Finally, is he uncertain? That is the point is he uncertain? I will leave it to you if you have ever heard of a

"A good one, too. I was going to say, you are better educated than you have been pretending to be. I like

cultured society, and I shall cultivate your acquaintance. Now as to Shekels, whenever you want to know

about any private thing that is going on at this post or in White Cloud's camp or ThunderBird's, he can tell

you; and if you make friends with him he'll be glad to, for he is a born gossip, and picks up all the tittletattle.

Being the whole Seventh Cavalry's reptile, he doesn't belong to anybody in particular, and hasn't any military

duties; so he comes and goes as he pleases, and is popular with all the house cats and other authentic sources

of private information. He understands all the languages, and talks them all, too. With an accent like gritting

your teeth, it is true, and with a grammar that is no improvement on blasphemy still, with practice you get

at the meat of what he says, and it serves. . . Hark! That's the reveille. . . .

"Faint and far, but isn't it clear, isn't it sweet? There's no music like the bugle to stir the blood, in the still

solemnity of the morning twilight, with the dim plain stretching away to nothing and the spectral mountains

slumbering against the sky. You'll hear another note in a minute faint and far and clear, like the other one,

and sweeter still, you'll notice. Wait . . . listen. There it goes! It says, 'IT IS I, SOLDIER COME!' . . .

"Not at first. He took me for a reptile, and it troubled me, because I didn't know whether it was a compliment

or not. I couldn't ask him, because it would look ignorant. So I didn't say anything, and soon liked him very

"Yes, that is what it was. They are very rare, the reptiles; very few left, nowadays."

"It is a plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasn't any wings and is uncertain."

"I am. It seems wonderfully grand and elegant for a person that is so humble as I am; but I am thankful, I am

indeed, and will try to live up to it. It is hard to remember. Will you say it again, please, and say it slow?"

"Plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasn't any wings and is uncertain."

"It is beautiful, anybody must grant it; beautiful, and of a noble sound. I hope it will not make me proud and

stuckup I should not like to be that. It is much more distinguished and honorable to be a reptile than a dog,

"Why, there's no comparison. It is awfully aristocratic. Often a duke is called a reptile; it is set down so, in

"Isn't that grand! Potter wouldn't ever associate with me, but I reckon he'll be glad to when he finds out what I

"I will thank Mongrel for this. He is a very good sort, for a Mexican Plug. Don't you think he is?"

"It is my opinion of him; and as for his birth, he cannot help that. We cannot all be reptiles, we cannot all be

fossils; we have to take what comes and be thankful it is no worse. It is the true philosophy."

"Yes, perfectly right. Mongrel has heard them planning. They are after BB's life, for running them out of

"HE keep a sharp lookout! He never does; he despises them, and all their kind. His life is always being

"Oh yes, he knows it. He is always the earliest to know who comes and who goes. But he cares nothing for

them and their threats; he only laughs when people warn him. They'll shoot him from behind a tree the first

"Yes. They have found out that he starts for Fort Clayton day after tomorrow, with one of his scouts; so they

will leave to morrow, letting on to go south, but they will fetch around north all in good time."

BB (SALUTING). "Good! handsomely done! The Seventh couldn't beat it! You do certainly handle your

"Bless your HEART! I'd rather have it from you than from the CommanderinChief of the armies of the

United States, you incomparable little soldier! and I don't need to take any oath to that, for you to believe

"LIKE it? Well, I should say so! Now then all ready sound the advance, and away we go!"

"Well, this is the way it happened. We did the escort duty; then we came back and struck for the plain and put

the Rangers through a rousing drill oh, for hours! Then we sent them home under BrigadierGeneral Fanny

Marsh; then the LieutenantGeneral and I went off on a gallop over the plains for about three hours, and were

lazying along home in the middle of the afternoon, when we met Jimmy Slade, the drummerboy, and he

saluted and asked the LieutenantGeneral if she had heard the news, and she said no, and he said:

"'Buffalo Bill has been ambushed and badly shot this side of Clayton, and Thorndike the scout, too; Bill

couldn't travel, but Thorndike could, and he brought the news, and Sergeant Wilkes and six men of Company

"Don't ask foolish questions. It was an awful pace. For four hours nothing happened, and not a word said,

except that now and then she said, 'Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we'll save him!' I kept it up. Well,

when the dark shut down, in the rugged hills, that poor little chap had been tearing around in the saddle all

day, and I noticed by the slack kneepressure that she was tired and tottery, and I got dreadfully afraid; but

every time I tried to slow down and let her go to sleep, so I could stop, she hurried me up again; and so, sure

"Ah, that was a fix to be in I for she lay there and didn't stir, and what was I to do? I couldn't leave her to

fetch help, on account of the wolves. There was nothing to do but stand by. It was dreadful. I was afraid she

was killed, poor little thing! But she wasn't. She came to, byandby, and said, 'Kiss me, Soldier,' and those

were blessed words. I kissed her often; I am used to that, and we like it. But she didn't get up, and I was

worried. She fondled my nose with her hand, and talked to me, and called me endearing names which is her

way but she caressed with the same hand all the time. The other arm was broken, you see, but I didn't know

"Soon the big gray wolves came, and hung around, and you could hear them snarl, and snap at each other, but

you couldn't see anything of them except their eyes, which shone in the dark like sparks and stars. The

LieutenantGeneral said, 'If I had the Rocky Mountain Rangers here, we would make those creatures climb a

tree.' Then she made believe that the Rangers were in hearing, and put up her bugle and blew the 'assembly';

and then, 'boots and saddles'; then the 'trot'; 'gallop'; 'charge!' Then she blew the 'retreat,' and said, 'That's for

"The music frightened them away, but they were hungry, and kept coming back. And of course they got

bolder and bolder, which is their way. It went on for an hour, then the tired child went to sleep, and it was

pitiful to hear her moan and nestle, and I couldn't do anything for her. All the time I was laying for the

wolves. They are in my line; I have had experience. At last the boldest one ventured within my lines, and I

landed him among his friends with some of his skull still on him, and they did the rest. In the next hour I got

a couple more, and they went the way of the first one, down the throats of the detachment. That satisfied the

"We hadn't any more adventures, though I kept awake all night and was ready. From midnight on the child

got very restless, and out of her head, and moaned, and said, 'Water, water thirsty'; and now and then, 'Kiss

me, Soldier'; and sometimes she was in her fort and giving orders to her garrison; and once she was in Spain,

and thought her mother was with her. People say a horse can't cry; but they don't know, because we cry

"It was an hour after sunup that I heard the boys coming, and recognized the hoofbeats of Pomp and Caesar

Buffalo Bill was in a horselitter, with his leg broken by a bullet, and Mongrel and Blake Haskins's horse

were doing the work. Buffalo Bill and Thorndike had lolled both of those toughs.

"When they got to us, and Buffalo Bill saw the child lying there so white, he said, 'My God!' and the sound of

his voice brought her to herself, and she gave a little cry of pleasure and struggled to get up, but couldn't, and

the soldiers gathered her up like the tenderest women, and their eyes were wet and they were not ashamed,

when they saw her arm dangling; and so were Buffalo Bill's, and when they laid her in his arms he said, 'My

darling, how does this come?' and she said, 'We came to save you, but I was tired, and couldn't keep awake,

and fell off and hurt myself, and couldn't get on again.' 'You came to save me, you dear little rat? It was too

lovely of you!' 'Yes, and Soldier stood by me, which you know he would, and protected me from the wolves;

and if he got a chance he kicked the life out of some of them for you know he would, BB.' The sergeant

said, 'He laid out three of them, sir, and here's the bones to show for it.' 'He's a grand horse,' said BB; 'he's the

grandest horse that ever was! and has saved your life, Lieutenant General Alison, and shall protect it the rest

of his life he's yours for a kiss!' He got it, along with a passion of delight, and he said, 'You are feeling

better now, little Spaniard do you think you could blow the advance?' She put up the bugle to do it, but he

said wait a minute first. Then he and the sergeant set her arm and put it in splints, she wincing but not

whimpering; then we took up the march for home, and that's the end of the tale; and I'm her horse. Isn't she a

"Too much company for her, Marse Tom. Betwixt you, and Shekels, the Colonel's wife, and the Cid "

" and Mrs. Captain Marsh and Famine and Pestilence the baby COYOTES, and SourMash and her pups,

and Sardanapalus and her kittens hang these names she gives the creatures, they warp my jaw and Potter:

you all sitting around in the house, and Soldier Boy at the window the entire time, it's a wonder to me she

"Marse Tom, you know better. It's too much company. And then the idea of her receiving reports all the time

from her officers, and acting upon them, and giving orders, the same as if she was well! It ain't good for her,

and the surgeon don't like it, and tried to persuade her not to and couldn't; and when he ORDERED her, she

was that outraged and indignant, and was very severe on him, and accused him of insubordination, and said it

didn't become him to give orders to an officer of her rank. Well, he saw he had excited her more and done

more harm than all the rest put together, so he was vexed at himself and wished he had kept still. Doctors

DON'T know much, and that's a fact. She's too much interested in things she ought to rest more. She's all

the time sending messages to BB, and to soldiers and Injuns and whatnot, and to the animals."

"No, sir. Animals talk to one another. I know it perfectly well, Marse Tom, and I ain't saying it by guess."

"It ain't a superstition, Marse Tom. Look at that Shekels look at him, NOW. Is he listening, or ain't he?

NOW you see! he's turned his head away. It's because he was caught caught in the act. I'll ask you could a

Christian look any more ashamed than what he looks now? LAY DOWN! You see? he was going to sneak

out. Don't tell ME, Marse Tom! If animals don't talk, I miss MY guess. And Shekels is the worst. He goes

and tells the animals everything that happens in the officers' quarters; and if he's short of facts, he invents

them. He hasn't any more principle than a blue jay; and as for morals, he's empty. Look at him now; look at

him grovel. He knows what I am saying, and he knows it's the truth. You see, yourself, that he can feel

shame; it's the only virtue he's got. It's wonderful how they find out everything that's going on the animals.

"I don't only just believe it, Marse Tom, I know it. Day before yesterday they knew something was going to

happen. They were that excited, and whispering around together; why, anybody could see that they But my!

"Well, it's two or three things. One is, the doctor don't salute when he comes . . . Now, Marse Tom, it ain't

"You see, she don't want to hurt the doctor's feelings, so she don't say anything to him about it; but she is

"Marse Tom, if you would only be a little patient, and not fly off the handle at the least little thing. Why, she

"Speak to him! Well, upon my word! All this unseemly rage and row about such a a Dorcas, I never saw

you carry on like this before. You have alarmed the sentry; he thinks I am being assassinated; he thinks

"Marse Tom, you are just putting on; you know it perfectly well; I don't know what makes you act like that

but you always did, even when you was little, and you can't get over it, I reckon. Are you over it now, Marse

"Oh, well, yes; but it would try anybody to be doing the best he could, offering every kindness he could think

of, only to have it rejected with contumely and . . . Oh, well, let it go; it's no matter I'll talk to the doctor. Is

"Yes, sir, it is; and it's only right to talk to him, too, because it's just as she says; she's trying to keep up

discipline in the Rangers, and this insubordination of his is a bad example for them now ain't it so, Marse

"Well, there IS reason in it, I can't deny it; so I will speak to him, though at bottom I think hanging would be

"Of course her room is Ranger headquarters now, Marse Tom, while she's sick. Well, soldiers of the cavalry

and the dragoons that are off duty come and get her sentries to let them relieve them and serve in their place.

It's only out of affection, sir, and because they know military honors please her, and please the children too,

"I've noticed them there, but didn't twig the idea. They are standing guard, are they?"

"Yes, sir, and she is afraid you will reprove them and hurt their feelings, if you see them there; so she begs, if

"There sit up and behave, Marse Tom. You are not going to faint; you are only pretending you used to act

"Dorcas, the way the child is progressing, I shall be out of my job before long she'll have the whole post in

her hands. I must make a stand, I must not go down without a struggle. These encroachments. . . . Dorcas,

"Very well, then, for the present I am satisfied. What else have you come about?"

"I reckon I better tell you the whole thing first, Marse Tom, then tell you what she wants. There's been an

emeute, as she calls it. It was before she got back with BB. The officer of the day reported it to her this

morning. It happened at her fort. There was a fuss betwixt MajorGeneral Tommy Drake and

LieutenantColonel Agnes Frisbie, and he snatched her doll away, which is made of white kid stuffed with

sawdust, and tore every rag of its clothes off, right before them all, and is under arrest, and the charge is

"Yes, I know conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman a plain case, too, it seems to me. This is a

"Well, Marse Tom, she has summoned a courtmartial, but the doctor don't think she is well enough to

preside over it, and she says there ain't anybody competent but her, because there's a major general

concerned; and so she she well, she says, would you preside over it for her? . . . Marse Tom, SIT up! You

"Look here, Dorcas, go along back, and be tactful. Be persuasive; don't fret her; tell her it's all right, the

matter is in my hands, but it isn't good form to hurry so grave a matter as this. Explain to her that we have to

go by precedents, and that I believe this one to be new. In fact, you can say I know that nothing just like it has

happened in our army, therefore I must be guided by European precedents, and must go cautiously and

examine them carefully. Tell her not to be impatient, it will take me several days, but it will all come out

right, and I will come over and report progress as I go along. Do you get the idea, Dorcas?"

"Well, it's this. You see, it won't ever do for me, a brigadier in the regular army, to preside over that infant

courtmartial there isn't any precedent for it, don't you see. Very well. I will go on examining authorities

and reporting progress until she is well enough to get me out of this scrape by presiding herself. Do you get it

"Oh, yes, sir, I get it, and it's good, I'll go and fix it with her. LAY DOWN! and stay where you are."

"Can't you see, and him in such a sweat? He was starting out to spread it all over the post. NOW I reckon you

won't deny, any more, that they go and tell everything they hear, now that you've seen it with yo' own eyes."

"Well, I don't like to acknowledge it, Dorcas, but I don't see how I can consistently stick to my doubts in the

"There, now, you've got in yo' right mind at last! I wonder you can be so stubborn, Marse Tom. But you

"Look here; tell her that in view of the delay, it is my judgment that she ought to enlarge the accused on his

"She can't get to Soldier Boy, and he stands there all the time, down in the mouth and lonesome; and she says

"Thorndike, isn't that Plug you're riding an assert of the scrap you and Buffalo Bill had with the late Blake

"Andalusian AND Oregonian, Antonio! Put it that way, and you have my vote. Being a native up there, I

"Can speak with authority for that patch of paradise? Well, I can. Like the Don! like Sancho! This is the

GIT up, you old cow! stumbling like that when we've just been praising you! out on a scout and can't live

up to the honor any better than that? Antonio, how long have you been out here in the Plains and the

"It keeps me thinking about Spain. I know the region where the Seventh's child's aunt lives; I know all the

lovely country for miles around; I'll bet I've seen her aunt's villa many a time; I'll bet I've been in it in those

"No. I've avoided it. I should soon be as wild as she is. That would not be comfortable."

"I wish I was going, Antonio. There's two things I'd give a lot to see. One's a railroad."

"I don't know anything about it, except in a mixedup, foggy way, Antonio, but I know enough to know it's

"The grandest in the world! There's no other sport that begins with it. I'll tell you what I've seen, then you can

judge. It was my first, and it's as vivid to me now as it was when I saw it. It was a Sunday afternoon, and

beautiful weather, and my uncle, the priest, took me as a reward for being a good boy and because of my own

accord and without anybody asking me I had bankrupted my savingsbox and given the money to a mission

that was civilizing the Chinese and sweetening their lives and softening their hearts with the gentle teachings

of our religion, and I wish you could have seen what we saw that day, Thorndike.

"The amphitheatre was packed, from the bullring to the highest row twelve thousand people in one

circling mass, one slanting, solid mass royalties, nobles, clergy, ladies, gentlemen, state officials, generals,

admirals, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, thieves, merchants, brokers, cooks, housemaids, scullerymaids, doubtful

women, dudes, gamblers, beggars, loafers, tramps, American ladies, gentlemen, preachers, English ladies,

gentlemen, preachers, German ditto, French ditto, and so on and so on, all the world represented: Spaniards to

admire and praise, foreigners to enjoy and go home and find fault there they were, one solid, sloping,

circling sweep of rippling and flashing color under the downpour of the summer sun just a garden, a gaudy,

gorgeous flowergarden! Children munching oranges, six thousand fans fluttering and glimmering,

everybody happy, everybody chatting gayly with their intimates, lovely girlfaces smiling recognition and

salutation to other lovely girlfaces, gray old ladies and gentlemen dealing in the like exchanges with each

other ah, such a picture of cheery contentment and glad anticipation! not a mean spirit, nor a sordid soul,

"Suddenly, the martial note of a bugle cleaves the hum and murmur clear the ring!

"They clear it. The great gate is flung open, and the procession marches in, splendidly costumed and

glittering: the marshals of the day, then the picadores on horseback, then the matadores on foot, each

surrounded by his quadrille of CHULOS. They march to the box of the city fathers, and formally salute. The

key is thrown, the bullgate is unlocked. Another bugle blast the gate flies open, the bull plunges in,

furious, trembling, blinking in the blinding light, and stands there, a magnificent creature, centre of those

multitudinous and admiring eyes, brave, ready for battle, his attitude a challenge. He sees his enemy:

horsemen sitting motionless, with long spears in rest, upon blindfolded brokendown nags, lean and starved,

"The bull makes a rush, with murder in his eye, but a picador meets him with a spearthrust in the shoulder.

He flinches with the pain, and the picador skips out of danger. A burst of applause for the picador, hisses for

the bull. Some shout 'Cow!' at the bull, and call him offensive names. But he is not listening to them, he is

there for business; he is not minding the cloakbearers that come fluttering around to confuse him; he chases

this way, he chases that way, and hither and yon, scattering the nimble banderillos in every direction like a

spray, and receiving their maddening darts in his neck as they dodge and fly oh, but it's a lively spectacle,

and brings down the house! Ah, you should hear the thundering roar that goes up when the game is at its

"Oh, that first bull, that day, was great! From the moment the spirit of war rose to floodtide in him and he

got down to his work, he began to do wonders. He tore his way through his persecutors, flinging one of them

clear over the parapet; he bowled a horse and his rider down, and plunged straight for the next, got home with

his horns, wounding both horse and man; on again, here and there and this way and that; and one after

another he tore the bowels out of two horses so that they gushed to the ground, and ripped a third one so

badly that although they rushed him to cover and shoved his bowels back and stuffed the rents with tow and

rode him against the bull again, he couldn't make the trip; he tried to gallop, under the spur, but soon reeled

and tottered and fell, all in a heap. For a while, that bullring was the most thrilling and glorious and

inspiring sight that ever was seen. The bull absolutely cleared it, and stood there alone! monarch of the place.

The people went mad for pride in him, and joy and delight, and you couldn't hear yourself think, for the roar

"Antonio, it carries me clear out of myself just to hear you tell it; it must have been perfectly splendid. If I

"Oh yes; that is what the bull is for. They tired him out, and got him at last. He kept rushing the matador, who

always slipped smartly and gracefully aside in time, waiting for a sure chance; and at last it came; the bull

made a deadly plunge for him was avoided neatly, and as he sped by, the long sword glided silently into

him, between left shoulder and spine in and in, to the hilt. He crumpled down, dying."

"Ah, Antonio, it IS the noblest sport that ever was. I would give a year of my life to see it. Is the bull always

"Yes. Sometimes a bull is timid, finding himself in so strange a place, and he stands trembling, or tries to

retreat. Then everybody despises him for his cowardice and wants him punished and made ridiculous; so they

hough him from behind, and it is the funniest thing in the world to see him hobbling around on his severed

legs; the whole vast house goes into hurricanes of laughter over it; I have laughed till the tears ran down my

cheeks to see it. When he has furnished all the sport he can, he is not any longer useful, and is killed."

"Well, it is perfectly grand, Antonio, perfectly beautiful. Burning a nigger don't begin."

"I've seen a good many human beings in my time. They are created as they are; they cannot help it. They are

only brutal because that is their make; brutes would be brutal if it was THEIR make."

"To me, SageBrush, man is most strange and unaccountable. Why should he treat dumb animals that way

"Man is not always like that, Mongrel; he is kind enough when he is not excited by religion."

"My father thought not. He believed we do not have to go there unless we deserve it."

It was a prodigious trip, but delightful, of course, through the Rockies and the Black Hills and the mighty

sweep of the Great Plains to civilization and the Missouri border where the railroading began and the

delightfulness ended. But no one is the worse for the journey; certainly not Cathy, nor Dorcas, nor Soldier

Spain is all that Cathy had pictured it and more, she says. She is in a fury of delight, the maddest little

animal that ever was, and all for joy. She thinks she remembers Spain, but that is not very likely, I suppose.

The two Mercedes and Cathy devour each other. It is a rapture of love, and beautiful to see. It is Spanish;

No. It will be permanent. Cathy has elected to abide with Spain and her aunt. Dorcas says she (Dorcas)

foresaw that this would happen; and also says that she wanted it to happen, and says the child's own country

is the right place for her, and that she ought not to have been sent to me, I ought to have gone to her. I thought

it insane to take Soldier Boy to Spain, but it was well that I yielded to Cathy's pleadings; if he had been left

behind, half of her heart would have remained with him, and she would not have been contented. As it is,

everything has fallen out for the best, and we are all satisfied and comfortable. It may be that Dorcas and I

We left the post in the early morning. It was an affecting time. The women cried over Cathy, so did even

those stern warriors, the Rocky Mountain Rangers; Shekels was there, and the Cid, and Sardanapalus, and

Potter, and Mongrel, and SourMash, Famine, and Pestilence, and Cathy kissed them all and wept; details of

the several arms of the garrison were present to represent the rest, and say goodbye and God bless you for

all the soldiery; and there was a special squad from the Seventh, with the oldest veteran at its head, to speed

the Seventh's Child with grand honors and impressive ceremonies; and the veteran had a touching speech by

heart, and put up his hand in salute and tried to say it, but his lips trembled and his voice broke, but Cathy

bent down from the saddle and kissed him on the mouth and turned his defeat to victory, and a cheer went up.

The next act closed the ceremonies, and was a moving surprise. It may be that you have discovered, before

this, that the rigors of military law and custom melt insensibly away and disappear when a soldier or a

regiment or the garrison wants to do something that will please Cathy. The bands conceived the idea of

stirring her soldierly heart with a farewell which would remain in her memory always, beautiful and

unfading, and bring back the past and its love for her whenever she should think of it; so they got their project

placed before General Burnaby, my successor, who is Cathy's newest slave, and in spite of poverty of

precedents they got his permission. The bands knew the child's favorite military airs. By this hint you know

what is coming, but Cathy didn't. She was asked to sound the "reveille," which she did.

With the last note the bands burst out with a crash: and woke the mountains with the "StarSpangled Banner"

in a way to make a body's heart swell and thump and his hair rise! It was enough to break a person all up, to

see Cathy's radiant face shining out through her gladness and tears. By request she blew the "assembly," now.

. . . Then the bands thundered in, with "Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again!" Next, she blew another

. . . and the bands responded with "When we were marching through Georgia." Straightway she sounded

and the bands could hardly hold in for the final note; then they turned their whole strength loose on "Tramp,

tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," and everybody's excitement rose to bloodheat.

Now an impressive pause then the bugle sang "TAPS" translatable, this time, into "Goodbye, and God

keep us all!" for taps is the soldier's nightly release from duty, and farewell: plaintive, sweet, pathetic, for the

morning is never sure, for him; always it is possible that he is hearing it for the last time. . . .

. . . Then the bands turned their instruments towards Cathy and burst in with that rollicking frenzy of a tune,

"Oh, we'll all get blind drunk when Johnny comes marching home yes, we'll all get blind drunk when

Johnny comes marching home!" and followed it instantly with "Dixie," that antidote for melancholy, merriest

and gladdest of all military music on any side of the ocean and that was the end. And so farewell!

I wish you could have been there to see it all, hear it all, and feel it: and get yourself blown away with the

When we rode away, our main body had already been on the road an hour or two I speak of our camp

equipage; but we didn't move off alone: when Cathy blew the "advance" the Rangers cantered out in column

of fours, and gave us escort, and were joined by White Cloud and Thunder Bird in all their gaudy bravery,

and by Buffalo Bill and four subordinate scouts. Three miles away, in the Plains, the LieutenantGeneral

halted, sat her horse like a military statue, the bugle at her lips, and put the Rangers through the evolutions for

half an hour; and finally, when she blew the "charge," she led it herself. "Not for the last time," she said, and

POSTSCRIPT. A DAY LATER. Soldier Boy was stolen last night. Cathy is almost beside herself, and we

cannot comfort her. Mercedes and I are not much alarmed about the horse, although this part of Spain is in

something of a turmoil, politically, at present, and there is a good deal of lawlessness. In ordinary times the

thief and the horse would soon be captured. We shall have them before long, I think.

It is five months. Or is it six? My troubles have clouded my memory. I have been all over this land, from end

to end, and now I am back again since day before yesterday, to that city which we passed through, that last

day of our long journey, and which is near her country home. I am a tottering ruin and my eyes are dim, but I

recognized it. If she could see me she would know me and sound my call. I wish I could hear it once more; it

would revive me, it would bring back her face and the mountains and the free life, and I would come if I

were dying I would come! She would not know ME, looking as I do, but she would know me by my star. But

she will never see me, for they do not let me out of this shabby stable a foul and miserable place, with most

How many times have I changed hands? I think it is twelve times I cannot remember; and each time it was

down a step lower, and each time I got a harder master. They have been cruel, every one; they have worked

me night and day in degraded employments, and beaten me; they have fed me ill, and some days not at all.

And so I am but bones, now, with a rough and frowsy skin humped and cornered upon my shrunken body

that skin which was once so glossy, that skin which she loved to stroke with her hand. I was the pride of the

mountains and the Great Plains; now I am a scarecrow and despised. These piteous wrecks that are my

comrades here say we have reached the bottom of the scale, the final humiliation; they say that when a horse

is no longer worth the weeds and discarded rubbish they feed to him, they sell him to the bullring for a glass

To die that does not disturb me; we of the service never care for death. But if I could see her once more! if I

To return, now, to where I was, and tell you the rest. We shall never know how she came to be there; there is

no way to account for it. She was always watching for black and shiny and spirited horses watching,

hoping, despairing, hoping again; always giving chase and sounding her call, upon the meagrest chance of a

response, and breaking her heart over the disappointment; always inquiring, always interested in

salesstables and horse accumulations in general. How she got there must remain a mystery.

At the point which I had reached in a preceding paragraph of this account, the situation was as follows: two

horses lay dying; the bull had scattered his persecutors for the moment, and stood raging, panting, pawing the

dust in clouds over his back, when the man that had been wounded returned to the ring on a remount, a poor

blindfolded wreck that yet had something ironically military about his bearing and the next moment the

bull had ripped him open and his bowls were dragging upon the ground: and the bull was charging his swarm

of pests again. Then came pealing through the air a buglecall that froze my blood "IT IS I, SOLDIER

COME!" I turned; Cathy was flying down through the massed people; she cleared the parapet at a bound, and

sped towards that riderless horse, who staggered forward towards the remembered sound; but his strength

failed, and he fell at her feet, she lavishing kisses upon him and sobbing, the house rising with one impulse,

She was never conscious again in life. We bore her home, all mangled and drenched in blood, and knelt by

her and listened to her broken and wandering words, and prayed for her passing spirit, and there was no

comfort nor ever will be, I think. But she was happy, for she was far away under another sky, and

comrading again with her Rangers, and her animal friends, and the soldiers. Their names fell softly and

caressingly from her lips, one by one, with pauses between. She was not in pain, but lay with closed eyes,

vacantly murmuring, as one who dreams. Sometimes she smiled, saying nothing; sometimes she smiled when

she uttered a name such as Shekels, or BB, or Potter. Sometimes she was at her fort, issuing commands;

sometimes she was careering over the plain at the head of her men; sometimes she was training her horse;

once she said, reprovingly, "You are giving me the wrong foot; give me the left don't you know it is

After this, she lay silent some time; the end was near. Byandby she murmured, "Tired . . . sleepy . . . take

Cathy, mamma." Then, "Kiss me, Soldier." For a little time, she lay so still that we were doubtful if she

breathed. Then she put out her hand and began to feel gropingly about; then said, "I cannot find it; blow