The Red Cloud chief., 1888-04-06

CHAPTER m.-CoNTINCED.
All that day, like a Greek slave, Trean
went about her work In silence. She
seemed to move heavily, and her strong
figure, rs if it were freighted with some in
visible burden, seemed less erect than
usual. The father seemed more aged. too.
His large. hulking frame seemed sagged a
little more, and sunken in upon itself like
some ancient habitatiOn that falls slowly
into ruin.
Elchard noticed this, though they did not
come often into the room where he lay. In
the afternoon the old man came in and sat
down as if to talk, but fell to gazing out the
door in moody silence. The injured man let
his eyes rest listlessly upon him awhile,
then began trying to think back along the
life-path of this being before him; of the
coarse and uneducated region he had been
reared in; of its lank-bodied, primitive peo-
pie, their superstitions, and the crude in
fluenccs that had made him capable of re-
ceiving this astounding system, this dis
torted imitation of the early Hebraic bar
barism masked under the forms of religion.
Then of the system itself, its ridiculous in
ception, the fraud Of it; and after that the
deception, knavery, theft, murder. lechery,
and shame practiced by and upon its igno-
ran followers. Then of the deadly and
mysterious hold such dark beliefs seem 10
have upon such natures, clouding the whole
mentality. making the very scum Of thought
seem sweet, unnatural deeds seem natural,
and a thick and muddy heart seem filled
with the light Of truth. Could else thar a
sort of insanity have brought the people of
these lovely valleys out from all lark cor
ners of the civilized world, to q journey Of
such length and cruelty as words can make
no pictures of, here to dwell in all discom-
fort and such servility to those who had de-
ceived them as would all but put q slave TO
shame! o. Religion! he thought, what
wrongs have been committed in thy sacred
name!
Suddenly the old man looked up, almost
as if the matter revolving in richards
mind by some inscrutable process had
touched and %quickened the slowly revolving
questions in his own. But perhaps it was
only some vague mistrust of the sanity of
his course, some throb Of pity for himself
and Trean, or affirming doubt of his doctrines
Jared into life by the thought of losing her
to such a bitter fate. Its a hard way, a
hard, miserable way we hev, a1nost on us,
of a gittin' to Heaven" he said. with a
"CdIS SISu anu Su0hc VI TIC ne1U. IL
never tole We Of our acrossin' of the plains
adraggin' hand-carts after us, with our per-
visions an the sick m dyin' in 'em. l sup
posel"
Elchard shook his head and let his eyes
rest upon him inquiringly.
"Well,'' he went on, ..One NAV es well he
gin at the beginnin' eS in the middle of a
story an Spite it. Anyhow when l look back
At that trim vinn hlan1y rnvpn,,l,n.,n. :. i,
es if it was yesterday, l know l Kent tell IT,
noways es it was. ner no other man alvin
ken either. ner mebby dead, fer it's beyont
the powers o. language.
"When the brethren was driv out of Nau-
VOC, some says fer thievin' and settin' up
themselves agin the law an the like
though es fer believin' sech I leave that to
other folks-they moved away. with what
pain and sufferin' mortal tongue kent never
tell. mOre'n a thousand miles over a burn
in, houseless waste, an through mount
ings, an Injuns. an snakes, an rivers, an
starvation. to this region of Gods prcparin'
fer EN-. But President Young was bound
to git 'em to aplace of safety, an he did,
(The thought was passing through FL
<hard's miad, with some bitterness. how
this false Moses had crossed the desert in a
carriage. had gotten immense wealth out
Of mis- misguided dupes afterward. played
the King, committed crimes to keep his
power. and had a harem full of women. but
he said nO,hing.) Then the servants of
God was sent out preachin' through all the
world, an band after band fol!ered through
the howlin' wastes, an the same mOuntings,
an the same sufferin'. to these valleys of
Zion. Thousands walk every step Of lie
way, from the Mississippi rver, over q
miles. an some what had no mon
ey an had worked their way over in vessels
from Europe, walked ~clean-from New York
to Salt Lake, nigh thrSe thousand miles;
some dyin' on the. way, an some dyn' soon
cs they got here, an some livin'to work fer
lie Lord in His vineyard.
We'll, they'd always tryto come IN bands
from the Missouri river anyway, calse The
In i,ra rSs had. Sometimes eS many eS