The change of weather in Texas is sometimes very great.
In another letter, he tells his wife about a cold wind or norther. “I came here in a cold norther, and though I pitched my tent in the most sheltered place I could find, I found this morning, when getting up, my bucket of water, which was close by my bed, so hard frozen that I had to break the ice before I could pour the water into the basin.”
While Colonel Lee rode with his troopers from fort to fort, a dreadful disease broke out among them. Many died, but Colonel Lee did not catch the disease, though he lived among his men and ran great risks. In these sad times, his thoughts were ever with his dear ones at home.
In a letter dated Camp Cooper, June 9, 1857, he tells about the sickness of the troopers:
“The great heat has made much sickness among the men. The children, too, have suffered. A bright little boy died from it a few days since. He was the only child, and his parents were much grieved at his loss * * *. For the first time in my life, I read the service of our Church over the grave to a large number of soldiers.” A few days after, he again read the service over a little boy who had died with the disease.
In a long letter from Fort Brown, Texas, December, 1856, he says:
“I thought of you and wished to be with you.” He wrote again: “Though absent, my heart will be in the midst of you; I can do nothing but love and pray for you all. My daily walks are alone, up and down the banks of the river, and my chief pleasure comes from my own thoughts, and from the sight of the flowers and animals I meet with here.”
In the midst of this wild, lonely life he was ever true to his faith in Christ, which he had professed after the Mexican war.
There was at Arlington a large yellow cat, called Tom Tita. All the family were fond of him, and Colonel Lee among the rest. This led him to write home about the cats he saw in his travels. He told once of a cat called by his mistress Jim Nooks. He was a great pet, but at last died from eating too much. He had coffee and cream for breakfast, pound cake for lunch, turtle and oysters for dinner, buttered toast and Mexican rats, taken raw, for supper. He was very handsome, but his “beauty could not save him.” The kindness of his mistress was his ruin.
