than at the other.  It covered the whole eastern front.  The big, brown hospital building stood at the northern end.  Then came the quarters of the surgeon and his assistants, then the snug home of the post trader, then the “store” and its scattering appendages, then the entrance-gateway, then a broad vacant space, through which the wind swept like a hurricane, then the little shanty of the trader’s fur house and one or two hovel-like structures used by the tailors and cobbler of the adjacent infantry companies.  Then came the cottage itself:  south of it stood the quartermaster’s store-room, back of which lay an extension filled with ordnance stores, then other and similar sheds devoted to commissary supplies, the post butcher-shop, the saddler’s shop, then big coal-sheds, and then the brow of the bluff, down which at a steep grade plunged the road to the stables.  It was as unprepossessing a place for a home as ever was chosen by a man of education or position; and Mr. Hayne was possessed of both.

In garrison, despite the flat parade, there was a grand expanse of country to be seen stretching away towards the snow-covered Rockies.  There was life and the sense of neighborliness to one’s kind.  Out on Prairie Avenue all was wintry desolation, except when twice each day the cavalry officers went plodding by on their way to and from the stables, muffled up in their fur caps and coats, and hardly distinguishable from so many bears, much less from one another.

And yet Mr. Hayne smiled not unhappily as he glanced from his eastern window at this group of burly warriors the afternoon succeeding his dinner at the colonel’s.  He had been busy all day long unpacking books, book-shelves, some few pictures which he loved, and his simple, soldierly outfit of household goods, and getting them into shape.  His sole assistant was a Chinese servant, who worked rapidly and well, and who seemed in no wise dismayed by the bleakness of their surroundings.  If anything, he was disposed to grin and indulge in high-pitched commentaries in “pidgin English” upon the unaccustomed amount of room.  His master had been restricted to two rooms and a kitchen during the two years he had served him.  Now they had a house to themselves, and more rooms than they knew what to do with.  The quartermaster had sent a detail of men to put up the stoves and move out the rubbish left by the tailors; “Sam” had worked vigorously with soft soap, hot water, and a big mop in sprucing up the rooms; the adjutant had sent a little note during the morning, saying that the colonel would be glad to order him any men he needed to put the quarters in proper shape, and that Captain Rayner had expressed his readiness to send a detail from the company to unload and unpack his boxes, etc., to which Mr. Hayne replied in person that he thanked the commanding officer for his thoughtfulness, but that he had very little to unpack, and needed no assistance beyond that already afforded by the quartermaster’s men.  Mr. Billings could not help noting that he made no allusion to that part of the letter which spoke of Captain Rayner’s offer.  It increased his respect for Mr. Hayne’s perceptive powers.