"Is it possible that his position here demands social recognition ?" I added.
"Hush!" said the second lieutenant of K company.

"It's the Interior Department that appoints the Indian Agents, and besides," he added, "it's not good taste on your part, Martha, to abuse the Government which gives us our bread and butter." "Well, you can say what you like, and preach policy all you wish, no Government on earth can compel me to associate with such men as those!" With that assertion, I left the room, to prevent farther argument.
And I will here add that in my experience on the frontier, which extended over a long period, it was never my good fortune to meet with an Indian Agent who impressed me as being the right sort of a man to deal with those children of nature, for Indians are like children, and their intuitions are keen.

They know and appreciate honesty and fair dealing, and they know a gentleman when they meet one.
The winter came on apace, but the weather was mild and pleasant.

One day some officers came in and said we must go over to the "Ravine" that evening, where the Indians were going to have a rare sort of a dance.
There was no one to say to me: "Do not go," and, as we welcomed any little excitement which would relieve the monotony of our lives, we cast aside all doubts of the advisability of my going.

So, after dinner, we joined the others, and sallied forth into the darkness of an Arizona night.