Ruth stood at the base of the foothills and eyed the summit, feeling trepidation for beginning the ascent. She took out the scrap of paper with directions written on it in hastily scrawled letters and mentally ticked off the first couple steps she had completed to get to this point. The next portion of her journey was more vague, as she was to find “the river” and follow it to its headwaters. No river name and no clues to which tributaries to follow along the way.

Trying to not be discouraged, Ruth squared her shoulders and began walking over the low hills and gaining distance on the mountain, with its snow-capped peak and tall pine forests. The morning sun illuminated the eastern slope and the snowy wind blew in great sweeping clouds off the peak and down the mountainside. She continued her wandering toward the unnamed river, she hoped.

The sound of trickling water fell upon her ears as she crossed an old farm, wading through the thick grass. Ruth came to the shores of the trickling water and stopped to admire its cool, crystal clear depth. Minnows swam beneath the surface, keeping their place as the water flowed over them. She filled her canteen and turned to follow the course downstream to where it joined with the main current. Waterfowl took flight as she passed and startled them, and several deer bounded off toward the cover of the forest. The lush fields scattered pollen and seeds as she waded through the long grasses and watched the songbirds flit around, perching on little more than a blade of grass.

Ruth turned her eyes upward and tried to make out the signal fire on the mountaintop, but could not see it while it was yet unlit. Her perilous journey was solely to join the man currently stationed there and to be his companion. Too often in recent times had sentinels lost their sanity in the long, lonely intervals of their watch. Fully knowing what the thinly veiled promise of “companionship” meant, Ruth signed up for the assignment without hesitation. She had no other prospects, but she did possess a great love for adventure, so she set out on her journey to spend the next few years standing watch at the signal fire in the Rocky Mountains.

At last, she reached the main course of the river and found a weathered signpost which pointed to a trail leading into the mountains. One final push of resolve, and she began climbing the steep slopes toward the beacon and the soldier who would be her husband.