The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-02-19
copyright. 1896. by F. Tennyson NeeIy.l

r. Tennyson Neeiy.l
ana reared In the Rifers. Two years
of her life had been spent in the east at
school. but with that exception it had
known no companionship or association
outside the garrison that was the tenn.
porary home of her fathers company.
An open-air, joyous, healthful life 1t
was, admirable for nerves, arteries and
digestion, yet destructive to complex
ion, for at Is Floy Tremaine was as
brown as Navajo, when they took
her to st. Anne's to school, where she
was promptly dubbed "the squaw."
The first six months there, despite the
fact that her mother was near at
hand, took good deal of heart out Of
Florence and some Of the prairie tan
from her face. Her big, soft brown eyes
grew even more eloquent and pathetic,
and her pretty mouth gained some visit
full lines about its sensitive corners.
She did not take to city girls, nor did
they to her, until her father came in
on leave, and, noting the change in
his precious child, took counsel with
an old Manhattan friend, ordered
swell riding costume forthwith, and
babe her join the class at Dickel's acad-
emy-not that she needed teaching to
ride, but the exercise and open air to
be had in the daily demure canter in
the park. One or two Of the girls were
quite dashing horsewomen. and excited
the envy and admiration of their class
mates by the ease with which they took
the conventional leaps at the hurdles
and bars; and when one of them,
flushed with triumph, after receiving
the compliments of the master, refined
up beside our silent Florence, on
rainy afternoon when their ride had to
be had within doors, and rather patron
izingly quericd: "Ah, don't you do
something OF this sort out on the plains,
Miss Tremaine?" Florence REDEEMED a
bit and said, "The children do some-
times" which led to prompt inquiry as
to her meaning, and the explanation
that the cavalry horses and even the
Indian ponies would take such obstacles
in their stride and hardly rise to the
leap at all. Asked to illustrate, she
put her bay at the hurdles, clearing
them like a bird; then, turning to Miss
DE Ruyter, she said: "You noticed
even this horse hardly had to spring.
Now If Mr.. Dickel will let me have the
bar foot higher I can show you where
he has to exert himself bits" and she
did, and no other one of the girls dared
attempt it. Then she asked to have
her saddle removed and rode her horse
over the hurdles bareback, and when
he was going at an easy canter about
the ring amazed the class by leaping
lightly off and on again, her slim,
strong young hands grasping the name,
yet never dragging upon the rein. This
made her envied, but hardly enviable,
for the erstwhile champions of the
school gave it out that she had been
''child wonder" in some far-wcstern
circus. 1t wasn't until Flo's second
year at st. Anne's that she began to
find either friends or appreciation there.
When she left at the close of that sec
ond year, there was one set Mt least
among whose members she was WELL
nigh worshiped. She had not finished
the course. She needed at least one
more year, said the teachers, but 1t
couldn't be. Tremaine had listened to
the tempter, invested his scant savings
in. Colorado mine that for one year
gave dividends galore, and then-gave
out. There could be no separate es-
tablishment maintained on the pay Of
a captain Of infantry. who was keeping
up heavy life insurance. Florence and
her mother were recalled to the Riners,
md To cfil1 frr4b ,e}o ~,
omy demanded by their misfortune,
Capt. Tremaine begged to be allowed
to go to the cantonment on The Cata-
mount, relieving with his company a
like force that had been there in exile
over year. People at regimental head
quarters thought it absolutely heart
less in him to take Mrs. Tremainc and
dear Florence to such desert, so near
the Navajos to the north, and so ex-
posed to danger from predatory bands
OF Apaches from across the Arizona line.
But neither Mrs. Tremnine nor Florence
shared their views. Floy was to have
her books, her birds. her horse; her
mother could direct her reading, and,
as for companionship, there was Mrs.
Lee, the wife of their first lieutenant;
she was barely rs, and a charming young
,natron; and Jimmy Crofton, their
Junior sub, was engaged and would
soon bring his bride out to join. She
didn't doubt that they would have q
perfectly lovely time, haunting, fishing.
exploring in the mountains, and rid
ing races down the Catamount. Flor
ence's face would glow with enthusi-
nsm; 1t would become transigured,
radiant-yes. almost pretty, said some
of the ladies-so proud did she seem
to feel at sharing her fathers lot. So,
though few agreed that Florence was
a beauty, all decreed that she was a
trump, fond and dutiful daughter, a
sweet, snnny-natured child, who would
make lovely woman and wife one Of
these days. "Only," said Mrs. Hayne,
with world Of tenderness in her tone
-"only hope it may be the right man.
Girls with those big brown eyes love so
deeply"
The cantonment turned out to be
something of an Eden as an army post
-Four companies had once been sta
toned there, SO there was lots of room,
but after the last lot OF Apache ma
rnnders had been translated to the
shores OF the Atlantic, matters nborig-
inal quoted down in Arizona and west
crn New Mexico. The cavalry were
needed elsewhere, and could not easily
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