Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-04-28


last two days, father" with softening voice.
"Oh, it has been speaking to me in the
silence that drops from the stars, the
flowers round there in the yard have been
whispering it to me, and the birds have
oeen singing it up there in the pinesl Oh,
father, can't marry the bishop nowp'
The old man looked at her with dumb
amusement in his tear.wet eyes. He
seemed to be feeling feebly after her drift.
then suddenly he came toward her with
outstretched, trembling hands. "Don't ye,
darterl Don't ye sin agin the Holy Ghostp'
he gasped. "Ye know that air the unpar-
donable sin, an ken only be atoned for by
the sheddin' of yo'r own blood That air
revelation, darter. Don't ye bring it down
onto ye. The Bishop hes seen it in vision
that We was to be his seventh wife, an hes
prayed over it, an desires ye, an hes been
counseled to it by the twelve elders Of the
Stake It air the will Of Heaven, darter;
don't We turn agin it! Don't We turn away
from the truth es revealed through the
Lords anointed, er, es ye we'll know, no
sacrifice but the spillin' Of yo'r blood here
among these mountings Of Zion ken save We
from 0teral burnin'si Don't We turn agin
the will of the Lords chosen priesthood,
darter, er, es the Bishop said last Sunday,
yo'r lost! Yo' kent marry no man but one
OF the Lords Saints an be saved! 20, dar-
ter, be keerful! be keerfulr'
She stood almost within his trembling
arms looking dumbly up at the silver surges
OF stars, but not seeing them for utter mis-
cry. Then culver ran through all her
frame, and her eyes filed slowly.
us duty greater than love?" she said,
hoarsely.
eyes, it air, darterl Yes, 1t airl The
Prophet in the book Of Doctrines and Gov
enants say 1t air!'' and she turned awav
among the trees, and down at the foot Of
the orchard fell upon her knees and
stretched her arms up in the moonlight
toward Heaven. "Father! o, Father have
we women no souls2" she cried, brokenly.
"Have we not heartsa Are we but beasts
Of burden, Father, that Thou hast thus
loaded US with shame? Why didst Thou
put love within US if its voice must be dis
obeyed? Is not love Thy voice, Father2
What shall we follow, theni Clouds Of
misery3 Mans mean wishes7 Pain and
mockery, up to Thy throne2' and she fell
forward upon her face, and, sobbing and
imploring, had her dark hour there alone
under the stars, as many and many another
poor Norman wife and daughter before and
since.
At midnight she came into the house,
looking as one might who had been beaten
down and trampled under by the passage of
some strange ife-draining tempest Of in
visible influences. Elchard was asleep, his
face looking pale and spiritual in the little
halo the poor lamp made about it, and the
girl paused and turned her haggard visage
toward it an instant. Then the sleeper
stirred and muttered as from the fight
across him Of a prickly dream, and she
crept away and up the little stairw ay to her
room, feeling bent and weary and old.
In the same hour Orson Beam was riding
with foreboding heaviness through the
mountain aisles beyond the valley. Now
huge shadows were all about him with dark
crags thronging into the moon above, then
he was on the mountain side with CLINT
ing, jingling stream below, as If the chasm
were shaking q trough of melted silver;
then, after hours, he was riding back again
along the silent mountain side and down
through the dark aisles into the valley,
and when the sun arose was working in his
mothers garden.
All that day, like Greek slave, Trean
went about her work in silence. She
seemed to move heavily, and her strong
figure, as If it were freighted with some in
visible burden, seemed less erect than
usual The father seemed more aged, too
His large, hullzing frame seemed sagged a
little more, and sunken in pom 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 istlessly upon him awhile,
then began trying to think back along the
ife-path Of this being before him; of the
course and uneducated region he had been
reared in; of its lanlz- bodied, primitive peo-
pie, their superstitions, and the crude in
huences 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, it's ridiculous in
caption, the fraud of it; and after that the
deception, navery, theft, murder, lechery,
and shame practiced by and upon its igno-
rant followers. Then of the deadly and
mysterious hold such dark beliefs seem to
have upon such natures, clouding the whole
mentality, making the very scum Of thought
seem sweet, unnatural deeds seem natural,
and thick and muddy heart seem filed
with the light of truth. Could else than
sort Of insanity have brought the people Of
these lovely valleys out from all dark cor
ners Of the civilized world, to a 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 slave to
shamea 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 Elchard's
mind by some inserutable 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 afilming doubt of his doctrines
Jared into life by the thought of losing her
to such bitter fate. 'Its hard way, q
hard, miserable way we hev, amost on US,
Of gittin' to Heaven" he said, with a
weary sigh and shake of the head. ~
never tole ye Of our acrossin' of the plains
adraggin' hand-carts after US, with our per-
visions an the sick an dyin' in 'em, I sup
poseF"
Elchard shook his head and let his eyes
rest upon him inquiringly.
''Wer," he went on, lone may es well Ne
gin at the beginnin' es in the middle Of a
story an spile it. Anyhow when I look back
at that trip pine blank, rememberin' it all
es If it was yesterday, know 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.