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Show AUTHOE HIS OWN WASHEEWOMAN. 46 lected three shirts, as many pairs of stockings, together with handkerchiefs and drawers; I made up a dozen pieces; and I assure you, that how or by whom they were to be washed, never entered into my mind. I offered some compensation to one of our muleteers if he would wash them, but he was perfectly independent of the necessity of earning money in that way. I soon discovered, that I would have to become my own washerwoman; and obtaining some soap from the quarter master, I gathered up my duds, and made my way down the banks of the creek, to a convenient place, and there I entered upon my novitiate. I rubbed the skin off my hands during the operation, but after considerable application, I succeeded in cleansing them, and hung them out to dry. I doubled them up, and laid them carefully under my buffalo robe couch, last night; and this morning they are as smooth as if they had been " mangled." To-day I employed myself making a pair of buckskin mitts and moccasins, as I shall require them before many weeks; most of the Indians and muleteers are out, looking for a large black mule, the finest animal in the collection, which was missing last night. Yesterday two beaver trappers came into the Delaware camp, and traded for sugar and coffee with the Delawares. I have my suspicions that our mule conveyed them away, as they are no longer on the creek where they set their traps yesterday. I must leave off my journal, as it is my usual hour for rifle practice; I have become quite an expert; at one hundred paces, I have hit the " bull's eye " twice in five times, which is not bad shooting, considering I have had no practice since I was a member of a rifle volunteer company in Charleston, some twenty years ago. |