The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1907-01-10

tina had answered with q wave of her
hand, and using the term Of respect
which she always applied to her hus-
band.
He went around the house, out past
the stable and corrals and across the
irrigating ditch to where he saw Joel
Rae leaning on the rail fence about
the peach orchard. Far down between
two rows of the blossoming trees he
could see the girl reaching up to
break of a ~pink-sprayed bough. He,
quickened his. pace and was oon at
the fence.
"Brother-Joel,-I-the-"
The good man had been full of his
message a moment before, but now
he stammered and hesitated because
Of something cold in the others eye
as it seemed to note the unwonted
elegance of his attire. He took a
quick breath and went on.
You see the Lord has moved me
to add another star to my crown"
II see; and you have come to get
me to seal your"
w Oll,a 1 udOu. y LuOuS1L vi
it SO soon, but if you want to do it
tonight
"As soon as you like, Bishop,-the
sooner the better if you r to save
the soul Of another woman against
the day of desolation. Where is she?"
and he turned to go back to the house.
But the Bishop still paused, looking
toward the orchard.
well the fact is, Brother Joel, you
see the Lord has made me feel to have
Prudence for another star in my
crown of glory-your daughter Pru-
dence," he repeated as the other gazed
at him with a sudden change of man
ner.
my daughter Prudence-little Prue
that child-that baby??"
"Baby-she's ID; she was telling
my daughter Matte so jest the other
day, and the Legislature has made the
marrying age IL for girls and Is for
boys, so she's two years overtime al
ready. OF course, l amt Is, but I'm
safer for her than some young cub"
But Bishop-you don't consider"
ooh, Of course, l ] know there's been
private talk about her; nobody knows
who her mother was, and they say
whoever she was you was never mar
ried to her, SO she couldn't have been
born right, but l amt bigoted like
some I could name, and I stand ready
to be her Savior on Mount Zion"
He waited with something of noble
concession in his mien.
The other seemed only nov to have
fully sensed the proposal, and, with
real terror in his face, he began to
urge the Bishop toward the house,
after looking %anxiously back to where
the child still fingered with the mist
of pink blossoms against the leafless
boughs above her.
"Come. Brother ~Seth--come, | beg
of you-we'll talk Of it-but it can't
be, indeed it can't!"
Lets ask her." suggested the
Bishop, disinclined to 10Y
Don't, don't ask her!" He seized
the other by the arm.
Come, I'll explain; don't ask her
now, at any rate-I beg of you as a
gentleman-as a gentleman, for you
are a gentleman"
The Bishop turned somewhat impa-
tiently, then remarked with a dignifed
severity:
"Oh, I a be a gentleman when
ever it's necessarily"
They went across the nelds toward
the house, and the Bishop spoke
further,
There Amt any need to get into
your high.heelet boots, Brother Rae,
Jest because I was aiming to save
her to a crown of glory.-a girl that's
thought to have been born on the
wrong side of the blanket"
They stopped by the first corral, and
joel Rae talked. He talked rapidly
and with power, saying many things
to make It plain that he was deter
mined not to look upon the Wild Ram
of the Mountains as an acceptable
son-in-law. His manner was excited
and %distraught, terrified and indignant,
"a manner hardly justified by the cir
cumstances, about which there was
nothing extraordinary, nothing not
pleasing to God and in conformity to
His revealed word. Bishop Wright
indeed was puzzled to account for the
heat of his manner, and in recounting
the interview to Elder Wardle, he
threw out an intimation about strong
drink. ITO tell you the truth" he
said, II suspicion he'd jest been put
ting q new faucet in the cider barrel
When Prudence came in from the
blossoming peach trees that night her
father called her to him to sit on his
lap in the dusk while the crickets
sang, and grow sleepy as had been
her baby habit.
What did Bishop Wright want?"
she asked, after her head was pillowed
on his arm. Relieved that 1t was over,
now v a little amused, he told her:
He wanted to take my little girl
away, to marry her"
She waa silent for q moment,