Drannan, as a slight token of
our appreciation of your services while with us, I now present to
you this pair of glasses," whereupon he handed me a fine pair of
field glasses which he took from his overcoat pocket, "and here
are two navy revolvers that Capt. Mills and Lieut. Harding wish to
present to you as a token of their friendship."
This took me wholly by surprise, as I had not expected anything of
the kind, and I was so dumbfounded that all I could say was to
thank them for the presents, the thought never having entered my
head that my services had been so highly appreciated by the
officers of those four companies.
Col. Elliott said that in case he should go out on the plains the
following summer, which in all probability he would, he wanted me
to go with him without fail. I promised him that I would, provided
I was in the country when he started out.
After Col. Elliott had closed his remarks and taken his seat, Jim
Beckwith arose and made quite a speech in his plain, rude
language, addressing his remarks principally to Col. Elliott, in
which he said: "Colonel, I would not have recommended this boy to
you so highly if I had not been with him long enough to know that
when he starts in to do a thing he goes at it for all there is in
him, and, as I told you, he has been with Kit Carson ever since he
was a boy, and I knowed that if he didn't have the everlasting
grit in him, Kit Carson wouldn't have kept him around so long.
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