It was she who built the little chapel and decked and dressed it for
Easter and Christmas, despite the fact that she herself had been
baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. It was she who went at once to
every woman in the garrison whose husband was ordered out on scout or
campaign, proffering aid and comfort, despite the fact long whispered in
the garrisons of the Platte country, that in the old, old days she had
far more friends among the red men than the white. That could well be,
because in those days white men were few and far between. Every one had
heard the story that it was through her the news of the massacre at Fort
Phil Kearny was made known to the post commander, for she could speak
the dialects of both the Arapahoe and the Sioux, and had the sign
language of the Plains veritably at her fingers' ends. There were not
lacking those who declared that Indian blood ran in her veins--that her
mother was an Ogalalla squaw and her father a French Canadian fur
trapper, a story to which her raven black hair and brows, her deep, dark
eyes and somewhat swarthy complexion gave no little color. But, long
years before, Bill Hay had taken her East, where he had relatives, and
where she studied under excellent masters, returning to him summer after
summer with more and more of refinement in manner, and so much of style
and fashion in dress that her annual advent had come to be looked upon
as quite the event of the season, even by women of the social position
of Mrs.
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