The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1907-08-09
CHAPTER NXlV.-continued.

not little by reason that immediate
ly over them was spiritual guide
who had been trained from infancy
to know that salvation lay in belief
never in doubt. For sign of the enc
they believed that on the night be
fore the day of it there would be nc
darkness. This would be as it haC
been before the birth of the Savior, as
told in the Book of Mormon: AT the
going down of the sun there was nc
darkness. and the people began to be
astonished because there was no dark
ness when the night came; and there
was no darkness in all that night, but
it was as light as if it were midday
They talked of little but this matter
In that small pocket of the intermoun'
tain commonwealth, in Sabbath meet
ings and around the hearths at night.
The Wild Ram of the Mountains
thought all PROSECUTING should cease
in view of the approaching end; that
the Elders on mission should with
draw from the vineyard, shake the
dust from their feet, and Seal up the
rebellious Gentiles to damnation. To
this Elder Bell Wardle had replied,
somewhat testify:
"Well, now, since these valleys of
! Ephraim have got little fattened a
whole lot of US have got the sweeny,
and our skins are growing too tight
on our flesh" He had been unable to
comprehend that the Gentiles were a
rejected lot, the lost sheep of the
house of Israel On this occasion it
had required all the tact of Elder Rae
to soothe the two good men into an
amiable discussion of the time when
Sidney RigdOn went to the third
heaven and talked face to face with
God. They had agreed in the end,
however, that they were both of the
royal seed of Abraham, and were on
the grand turnpike to eXaltation.
To these discussions and sermons
the child, Prudence, listened with in
tense interest, looking forward to the
last day as an occasion productive OF
excitement even superior to that of
her trips to Salt Lake City, where her
father went to attend the October con-
ference, and where she was taken to
the theater.
One day in this spring when she
was IA, the good Bishop Wright, on
his way down from Box canyon with
a load of wood, saw her striding up
the road ahead of him. Something
caught his eye, either in her step
which had child's careless freedom,
or in the lines of her swinging figure
that told of coming womanhood, or in
the flashing, laughing appeal of her
dark eyes where for the moment both
woman and child looked out. He set
the brake on his wagon and waited for
her to pass. She came by with a
smile and word of greeting, to which
his rapt attention prevented any reply
except a slight nod. When she had
passed, he turned and looked after
her until she had gone around the lit
tie hill on the road that entered the
canyon.
After the early evening meal that
day, along the many-roomed house of
this good man, from door to door there
ran the words, starting from her who
had last been sealed to him:
Hes making himself all proud"
They know what it meant, and Won
dered whom.
A little later the Bishop set out his
face clean shaven to the ruff1e of
white whiskers that ran under his
chin from ear to ear, his scant hair
smooth and shining with grease from
the largest bear ever trapped in the
Pine mountains, and his tall form ar
rayed in his best suit of homespun.
AS he went he trOlled an ancient lay
of love, and youth was in his step.
For there had come all day upon this
Prince of Israel those subtle essences
distilled by spring to provoke the
mating urge. At the Rae house he
found only Christina.
Where's Brother JOEL Sister Rae?"
Himself has gone out there" Chris
tina had answered with 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
trrigating 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 off a pink-sprayed bough. He
quickened his pace and was soon at
the fence
"Brother-Joel,-T-the-"
The good man had been full of his
message moment before, but now
he stammered and hesitated because
of something cold in the others eve
as 1t 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"
Il see; and you have come to get
me to seal your