28 WHIP AND SPUR. 



although distastefully, she did my bidding with- 

 out flinching, when she found it must be done. 

 The camp-life at Springfield was full of excite- 

 ment and earnestness ; Price, with his army, was 

 near at hand (or we believed that he was, which 

 was essentially the same). Our work in the cav- 

 alry was very active, and Vix had hard service 

 on insufficient food, — she seemed to be sustained 

 by sheer nervous strength. 



At last the order to advance was given, and we 

 were to move out at daybreak; then came a 

 countermanding order; and then, late in the 

 evening, Fremont's farewell. He had been re- 

 lieved. There was genuine and universal grief. 

 Good or bad, competent or incompetent, — this 

 is not the place to argue that, — he was the life 

 and the soul of his army, and it was cruelly 

 wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full of 

 disappointment, we again turned back from our 

 aim ; — then would have been Price's opportunity. 



It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, 

 and the wonderful opal atmosphere of the Ozark 

 Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a 



