232 GREAT KINDNESS OF MY ENTERTAINERS. 



he said, "Mr Berkeley, I shall be most happy to offer 

 you all attention in my power." Calling to the orderly, 

 he desired my horse to be taken to the stable, introduced 

 me to his lady and his household, and, weak as I felt, travel- 

 stained and tired, there was something so off-hand, kind, 

 and gentlemanlike in his reception of a stranger, that I 

 had to put a rough glove to my eyes for fear something 

 should trace a furrow on the alluvial dust of the prairies. 

 Nothing could be more kind than my reception that 

 night, nor more refreshing than the bath on going to 

 bed. The medical officer came to me and most kindly prof 

 fered advice, which I gladly accepted ; when, after ten days' 

 travel over the plains in a waggon, I consigned myself to 

 a comfortable bed, and, in spite of fever, slept like a "top." 

 The doctor came to see me next morning, and said that I 

 had much less fever than he expected ; rest and a little 

 attention, he assured me, were all that I required ; but to 

 my suggestion of being fit for a start on Thursday or Fri 

 day he expressed some doubt. Having had another bath 

 and the comfort of shaving off my beard, I descended a 

 little late for the early breakfast of Major and Mrs Wassells, 

 but immensely refreshed ; and really had my kind friends 

 known me all their lives I could not have been received 

 with more graceful hospitality nor attention. What if the 

 room assigned to me was " in a rough state," as they 

 called it, the bed was delightful after my ambulance cush 

 ions, and its pillow bliss ; while that frank, open-hearted 

 urbanity, so apt to the soldier and gentleman, and with 

 which I was at once greeted, made my room a palace, 

 and restored my health. The uniform of the army of the 

 United States, that which I saw, was dark with a little 

 braiding about it, and the hat of the officers, with a black 

 drooping plume, gave rather a Spanish appearance to the 



