CHAPTER IV.

My husband’s first duty was to report to the commanding general, who gave him permission to remain there for two months, promising to place him on duty in order that he might receive full pay and allowances. That seemed a very great boon until we found the duty consisted in Mr. Boyd’s being ordered five hundred miles away to inspect some horses, which left me utterly lonely in a strange city.

The place to which he was sent could be reached only by water, and the steamers sailed weekly both going and returning, so I felt particularly forlorn, knowing he could not be back for at least ten days. When the first return steamer reached San Francisco without him I was in despair, and indeed with reason. I had already found the tender mercy of a boarding-house keeper to be all it is generally represented.

That night our little daughter was born, and a facetious friend telegraphed to my husband: “Mother and child are doing well,” thus leaving the sex to be conjectured, which caused bets to be made by such officers as were always glad of an excuse to bet on any chance.

But, indeed, “mother and child” were not doing well. A veritable Sairy Gamp had taken possession of both: my own sufferings were almost intolerable, while I felt sure the poor little baby was being continually dosed. The nurse weighed nearly three hundred pounds, and at night when she lay down beside me her enormous weight made such an inclined plane of the bed that I could not keep from rolling against her; and she snored so loudly that not only was it impossible for me to sleep, but for any one else on the same floor. The sounds were not at all sedative in their effects, and I spent the nights praying for morning.

My baby, too, was so restless that her position had to be frequently changed; and when the nurse was awakened she treated me exactly as if I were a naughty child, and so completely cowed me by her roughness that I dared offer no remonstrance, but simply endured.

Matters went on thus for several days until some of the kind ladies in the house interfered; but not before I had been left entirely alone the night our little one was a week old, and was found unconscious with baby screaming so loudly that every one in the house was aroused.

The good old days are not so much to be deplored when we consider that the nurse was a fair specimen of her class, and had no hesitancy in asking forty dollars a week for the services she rendered. Now that trained nurses are to be found everywhere, such creatures are unknown. Instances of her cruel conduct might be multiplied, but it is unnecessary.

As usual I was tormented by fears on the score of expense, as all supplies were most exorbitant in price. The increase in rank had added only one hundred dollars a year to my husband’s pay, and the land of fruitful abundance in which we then were was almost as costly, so far as living expenses were concerned, as the frontier, and under the circumstances far more so.

After two steamers had arrived without bringing Mr. Boyd, I grew so restless under the care of such a nurse that the determination to discharge her was formed; yet sufficient courage to do so was not summoned until after the arrival of my husband, five days before our baby was three weeks old.

We then essayed to minister to baby’s wants ourselves, and some of the attempts were ludicrous. Having seen the nurse give the child paregoric, once, when she cried desperately, I poured out a teaspoonful, and while my husband held baby, tried to make her swallow it. Had not the drug in its raw strength nearly strangled her, we would, undoubtedly, have murdered our dear little infant.

That was not the only experiment we tried, and looking back I pity the poor child with all my heart. Our anxiety to improve her appearance was so great that whatever we were advised to do was attempted. I cut off baby’s eyelashes one day to make them grow thicker; and when she was a little older, while we were in Arizona, I found her father pressing that dear little nose between the prongs of a clothespin to better its shape. She resented such treatment, and her cries filled me with indignation, for at least my experiments had all been painless.

The day after Mr. Boyd’s return, notwithstanding the commanding general’s promise that we should remain in San Francisco until May, orders were received to proceed immediately to Arizona. It never occurred to my husband that he should dispute the order, nor to me that I could remain for a time in California.

After a couple of days spent in purchasing needful supplies and hunting the city over for a servant, we took steamer for Wilmington in Southern California. The trip occupied two days, and as we kept very near the coast, choppy seas made me extremely seasick and miserable. I was so thin and pale as to excite the sympathies of all who saw me. The doctor had said that the change would benefit me, while, perhaps, I could not improve if left in California. His prediction might have proved true had not the journey been so fearfully hard. Baby was exactly three weeks old the day we reached Los Angeles, from which place we were to start on our long interior ride.

Nothing can be more beautiful than were the surroundings of that town. As we drove in from Wilmington the air was odorous with the perfume of orange blossoms; and trees, heavy with their loads of ripening fruits of different kinds, overshadowed our road. I have never cared for oranges since eating those brought me still clinging to their branches: no packed fruit can compare with such in flavor and lusciousness.

Having been housed so long I enjoyed to the full the flowers that bloomed on all sides, making a perfect paradise of the spot. My recollections of California, for I have never seen it since, are most delightful, and I deem any one fortunate who has a settled home there.

That part of Southern California is particularly favored, and my recollections of the five days consumed in traveling toward the East are among the pleasantest of my life. We stopped every night at some ranch, where the occupants not only received us kindly, but where our eyes could feast on glorious scenery, which combined with the liberal creature comforts that were enjoyed, left little to be wished for.

I longed to remain in Los Angeles; but we were obliged to hurry on in compliance with military orders, and also for another reason. An entire day spent in San Francisco hunting for a servant had only resulted in procuring a Chinese boy twelve years old. No woman could be induced to go to Arizona. First, because no church was there. Second, and mainly, because many Indians were.

Even the mercenary Chinese had never dreamed of passing into so dangerous a region; and when on reaching Los Angeles my little servant naturally exchanged confidences with those employed in the hotel, such a tale of horrors—principally in the shape of Indian cruelties—was told the boy, that he was terrified beyond belief, and fairly shook with anguish and fear when informed that he must accompany us. Evidently believing that his long queue would prove an additional inducement for the Indians to scalp him, he was determined to escape at all hazards. Our little servant could be kept from running away only by locking him up; he was not released until we were ready to step into the wagon, and a more woebegone face I have never seen.

It is to this day an historical fact, both in Arizona and New Mexico, that we took the first Chinaman into those States which now swarm with them, and where only recently they were boycotted.

For some reason unknown to us, we were refused proper transportation—an ambulance and four mules with driver. A small, two-seated vehicle and span of horses had instead been provided, which when loaded with our most needed articles presented a strange appearance. A mattress and blankets were strapped on the back, and over those a chair. The inside was simply crowded with an array of articles demanded by our long journey. We had not only all necessary clothing, but as much food in a condensed shape as could be taken; there was no room for luxuries. Our first care was to be well armed, as we were going among hostile Indians, a fact I could scarcely realize; therefore our vehicle held, in addition to all else, a gun, two pistols, and strapped overhead my husband’s two sabers, which he required when on duty.

Some premonition, which perhaps was the result of past experience, made me careful to select all we might need for future as well as present use in the way of clothing. It proved a wise precaution, for the remainder of our baggage, including all household goods, which we had left in the hands of freighters, was seized for their debts on the borders of California, and not permitted to cross into Arizona until means to liquidate the men’s obligations had been found. It took just six months to do that, during which time we waited for our property.

With my usual docility in accepting advice concerning baby, I had followed the suggestion of an army paymaster’s wife, who considered a champagne basket the proper receptacle for an infant when traveling. Never was advice given which proved more useful or beneficial. If with all the other hardships of that journey I had been compelled to hold baby day after day, not only would I have been far more fatigued, but she far less comfortable. Cradled in that basket, the motion of our carriage acted as a perpetual lullaby, and the little one slept soundly all the time, waking only when progress ceased. The basket was tightly strapped to the front seat beside my husband, who drove, while I sat on the back one with our little Chinaman.