General Bourke for a few days. They are en route to Fort Union, New
Mexico. Mrs. Anderson was very handsome in an elegant gown of
London-smoke silk. I am to assist Mrs. Phillips in receiving New
Year's day, and shall wear my pearl-colored Irish poplin. We are going
out now for a little ride.

FORT LYON, COLORADO TERRITORY,
January, 1872.

WHEN we came over on the stage from Kit Carson last fall, I sat on top
with the driver, who told me of many terrible experiences he had
passed through during the years he had been driving a stage on the
plains, and some of the most thrilling were of sand storms, when he
had, with great difficulty, saved the stage and perhaps his own life.
There have been ever so many storms, since we have been here, that
covered everything in the houses with dust and sand, but nothing at
all like those the driver described. But yesterday one came--a
terrific storm--and it so happened that I was caught out in the
fiercest part of it.

As Faye was officer of the day, he could not leave the garrison, so I
rode with Lieutenant Baldwin and Lieutenant Alden. The day was
glorious--sunny, and quite warm--one of Colorado's very best, without
a cloud to be seen in any direction. We went up the river to the mouth
of a pretty little stream commonly called "The Picket Wire," but the
real name of which is La Purgatoire. It is about five miles from the
post and makes a nice objective point for a short ride, for the clear
water gurgling over the stones, and the trees and bushes along its
banks, are always attractive in this treeless country.