wives and children to travelers

 

"We will wait here in this shady grove, and let the horses eat the luxuriant wild pea-vine until the wagons come up. This baggage is to an army what a wife and children are to a man — a soldier at least — a necessity and a comfort, whilst a trouble and an embarrassment." (September 1851, Scenes Beyond the Western Border)

"Also, you could plainly see that these easy-hearted men had no wives or children to give an anxious thought.  Almost all of them were travelers, too; for bachelors alone can travel freely, and without any twinges of their consciences touching desertion of the fireside."  The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids (April 1855)

Ha! note the offhand disclaimer in the 1851 example:  this is not necessarily the view of every man, but

"a soldier at least."

only smiled the more

She was now in a sweet secluded valley, three miles long, on which high stony hills, everywhere walling it in, frowned in vain. She only smiled the more!
(August 1852; and Scenes and Adventures)

"But I would only smile the more, while my wife indignantly chided."
The Apple-Tree Table

light in the saddle

Your "almost happiness!" — and "burden," of life did you mean? for I never saw one lighter mounted on a finer horse!
(April 1852, Scenes Beyond the Western Border;
and Scenes and Adventures in the Army)

The Hospital Steward -- even he
(Sacred in person as a priest),
And on his coat-sleeve broidered nice
Wore the caduceus, black and green.
No wonder he sat so light on his beast;
This cheery man in suit of price
Not even Mosby dared to slice. (The Scout Toward Aldie)

"Pathetic grow'st thou," Derwent said:
And lightly, as in leafy glade,
Lightly he in the saddle sat.   (Clarel 2.8)