work Tom,” I said hoping that such a thing might of been something to relish. For Tom was fond of Mrs. C. & she of him ever since he did warn her off setting her camp chair on a nest of rattlers on the march up from Ft. Caldwell. She oft asks specially for him as stryker & feeds him jam & bread & sugared tea by the gallon as he labours for her. It is a lovely fatigue that is much in difference to the usual bloody business of a soldier here in this Valley.
“She is a fine woman. Kindly & good,” says Tom then in a strange manner.
“She is,” says I.
Then says he, “When I was done with the work I stepped above my station.”
“You did what Tom?” A stab of worry pierced my drunkenness.
“I asked Mrs. Carrington would she take on my Sarah as a servant for she could not have rough soldier Bills making her beds & cooking her grub no more than a lady in any town or city. I had to say it more than once for her to understand it but she took my meaning in the end & told me she would meet her & would see about it. She told me then that no woman should live such a life as the poor girls in the Hog Ranch. When I gave her a look of surprise that she should even know of such a place she told me that it is no secret to anyone at all in this Valley who has ears or eyes & that she did speak of it to her husband more than once.”
Well I will tell you Sir I did not expect this & did not know what to say thinking that surely a woman such as Mrs. Carrington even such a fine Christian woman as herself would not abide a fallen woman in her home & around her child who is a boy of 12 or 13 yrs. old. A 1/2 breed Indian of a fallen woman as well I did think to myself but I did not say this. Instead I said, “Well can your girl just up & bolt the shebeen? Can she do that Tom?”
“She will need be bought out & I do aim to do it,” says my brother.
“Bought out,” I replied knowing already this would be the case for whoremasters did not let their wares leave the store for free not when there was money to be earned off the backs of them. “How much?”
“She does not know only that it will be a lot. More than a soldier has in pay in manys a month but I told her I would pay it whatever the cost.”
“Well Tom I will give you what I have saved away for our stake but it does be only 18$. It will be 21$ next wages but I do not reckon that will be enough. Is there no way Mrs. Carrington can get her man to order Kinney to do it? Is he the C.O. of this Ft. or is he not? I’m fair shocked Kinney & his bitch are allowed run the place at all.”
Says Tom, “I would not ask you for the money Michael though I would be happy for it. And I would not ask Mrs. Carrington to do such a thing for it would put her husband in a tight spot. Kinney is brother in law to a Big Wig in Washington & it would not go well for a lowly officer such as Carrington to cross the man or his whore madam wife. I would not ask it.”
“What will you do then Tom?” I was not sure I would want to hear his answer.
But when it came it was meek & mild though wholly foolish in its conception. Says he, “Sarah will be paid & given board by Mrs. Carrington if she is taken on. Perhaps the 2 of us can buy her freedom from Kinney in small doses from her wages & my own.”
Says I, “Do you think that hungry c___ of a Sutler & his wife will allow for that? Sure she is the fairest by far of their whores never mind her—” I did not know how to put it to him. “Never mind her misfortune. She would earn more than the others for the Kinneys.”
Tom looked at me now & I took a drink so I would not meet his eyes but I could feel