The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West

by Harry Leon Wilson

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  _The Sinner Chastens himself_

  How to offer the greatest sacrifice--how to do the greatestservice--these had become his problems. He concerned himself no longerwith his own exaltation either in this world or the world to come.

  He resolved to stay south, fearing vaguely that in the North he would bein conflict with the priesthood. He knew not how; he felt that he wasstill sound in his faith, but he felt, too, some undefined antagonismbetween himself and those who preached in the tabernacle. For his homehe chose the settlement of Amalon, set in a rich little valley betweenthe shoulders of the Pine Mountains.

  Late in October there was finished for him on the outer edge of thetown, near the bank of a little hill-born stream, a roomy log-house,mud-chinked, with a water-tight roof of spruce shakes and a floor ofwhipsawed plank,--a residence fit for one of the foremost teachers inthe Church, an Elder after the Order of Melchisedek, an eloquentpreacher and one true to the blessed Gods. At one end of the cabin, asmall room was partitioned off and a bunk built in it. A chair and awater-basin on a block comprised its furniture. This room he reservedfor himself.

  As to the rest of the house, his ideas were at first cloudy. He knewonly that he wished to serve. Gradually, however, as his mind workedover the problem, the answer came with considerable clearness. Hethought about it much on his way north, for he was obliged to make thetrip to Salt Lake City to secure supplies for the winter, some neededarticles of furniture for the house, and his wagons and stock.

  He was helped in his thinking on a day early in the journey. Near asqualid hut on the outskirts of Cedar City he noticed a woman staggeringunder an armful of wood. She was bareheaded, with hair disordered, hercheeks hollowed, and her skin yellow and bloodless. He remembered thetale he had heard when he came down. He thought she must be that wife ofBishop Snow who had been put away. He rode up to the cabin as the womanthrew her wood inside. She was weak and wretched-looking in the extreme.

  "I am Elder Rae. I want to know if you would care to go to Amalon withme when I come back. If you do, you can have a home there as long as youlike. It would be easier for you than here."

  She had looked up quickly at him in much embarrassment. She smiled alittle when he had finished.

  "I'm not much good to work, but I think I'd get stronger if I hadplenty to eat. I used to be right strong and well."

  "I shall be along with my wagons in two weeks or a little more. If youwill go with me then I would like to have you. Here, here is money tobuy you food until I come."

  "You've heard about me, have you--that I'm a divorced woman?"

  "Yes, I know."

  She looked down at the ground a moment, pondering, then up at him withsudden resolution.

  "I can't work hard and--I'm not--pretty any longer--why do you want tomarry me?"

  Her question made him the more embarrassed of the two, and she saw asmuch, but she could not tell why it was.

  "Why," he stammered, "why,--you see--but never mind. I must hurry onnow. In about two weeks--" And he put the spurs so viciously to hishorse that he was nearly unseated by the startled animal's leap.

  Off on the open road again he thought it out. Marriage had not been inhis mind when he spoke to the woman. He had meant only to give her ahome. But to her the idea had come naturally from his words, and hebegan to see that it was, indeed, not an unnatural thing to do. He dweltlong on this new idea, picturing at intervals the woman's lack of anycharm or beauty, her painful emaciation, her weakness.

  Passing through another village later in the day, he saw the youth whohad been so unfortunate as to love this girl in defiance of his Bishop.Unmolested for the time, the imbecile would go briskly a few steps andthen pause with an important air of the deepest concern, as if he wereengaged on an errand of grave moment. He was thinly clad and shiveringin the chill of the late October afternoon.

  Again, still later in the day, he overtook and passed the gaunt, graywoman who forever sought her husband. She was smiling as he passed her.Then his mind was made up.

  As he entered Brigham's office in Salt Lake City some days later, therepassed out by the same door a woman whom he seemed dimly to remember.The left half of her face was disfigured by a huge flaming scar, and hesaw that she had but one hand.

  "Who was that woman?" he asked Brigham, after they had chatted a littleof other matters.

  "That's poor Christina Lund. You ought to remember her. She was in yourhand-cart party. She's having a pretty hard time of it. You see, shefroze off one hand, so now she can't work much, and then she froze herface, so she ain't much for looks any longer--in fact, I wouldn't sayChristina was much to start with, judging from the half of her facethat's still good--and so, of course, she hasn't been able to marry. TheChurch helps her a little now and then, but what troubles her most isthat she'll lose her glory if she ain't married. You see, she ain't aworker and she ain't handsome, so who's going to have her sealed tohim?"

  "I remember her now. She pushed the cart with her father in it from thePlatte crossing, at Fort Laramie, clear over to Echo Canon, when all thefingers of one hand came off on the bar of the cart one afternoon; andthen her hand had to be amputated. Brother Brigham, she shouldn't becheated of her place in the Kingdom."

  "Well, she ain't capable, and she ain't a pretty person, so what can shedo?"

  "I believe if the Lord is willing I will have her sealed to me."

  "It will be your own doings, Brother Rae. I wouldn't take it on myselfto counsel that woman to anybody."

  "I feel I must do it, Brother Brigham."

  "Well, so be it if you say. She can be sealed to you and be a star inyour crown forever. But I hope, now that you've begun to build up yourkingdom, you'll do a little better, next time. There's a lot of prettygood-looking young women came in with a party yesterday--"

  "All in good time, Brother Brigham! If you're willing, I'll pick up mysecond on the way south."

  "Well, well, now that's good!" and the broad face of Brigham glowed withfriendly enthusiasm. "You know I'd suspicioned more than once that youwasn't overly strong on the doctrinal point of celestial marriage. Ihope your second, Brother Joel, is a little fancier than this one."

  "She'll be a better worker," he replied.

  "Well, they're the most satisfactory in the long run. I've found thatout myself. At any rate, it's best to lay the foundations of yourkingdom with workers, the plainer the better. After that, a man canafford something in the ornamental line now and then. Now, I'll send forChristina and tell her what luck she's in. She hasn't had her endowmentsyet, so you might as well go through those with her. Be at theendowment-house at five in the morning."

  And so it befell that Joel Rae, Elder after the Order of Melchisedek,and Christina Lund, spinster, native of Denmark, were on the followingday, after the endowment-rites had been administered, married for timeand eternity.

  At the door of the endowment-house they were separated and taken torooms, where each was bathed and anointed with oil poured from a horn. Apriest then ordained them to be king and queen in time and eternity.After this, they were conducted to a large apartment, and left insilence for some moments. Then voices were heard, the voice of Elohim inconverse with Jehovah. They were heard to declare their intention ofvisiting the earth, and this they did, pronouncing it good, but decidingthat one of a higher order was needed to govern the brutes. Michael, theArchangel, was then called and placed on earth under the name of Adam,receiving power over the beasts, and being made free to eat of the fruitof every tree but one. This tree was a small evergreen, with bunches ofraisins tied to its branches.

  Discovering that it was not good for man to be alone, Brigham, as God,then caused a sleep to fall upon Adam, and fashioned Eve from one of hisribs. Then the Devil entered, in black silk knee-breeches, approachingwith many blandishments the woman who was enacting the role of Eve. Thesin followed, and the expulsion from the garden.

  After this impressive spectacle, Joel and the rapturous Christina weretaught m
any signs, grips, and passwords, without which one may not passby the gatekeepers of heaven. They were sworn also to avenge the murderof Joseph Smith upon the Gentiles who had done it, and to teach theirchildren to do the same; to obey without questioning or murmur thecommands of the priesthood; and never to reveal these secret rites underpenalty of having their throats cut from ear to ear and their hearts andtongues cut out.

  When this oath had been taken, they passed into a room containing along, low altar covered with red velvet. At one end, in an armchair, satBrigham, no longer in the role of God, but in his proper person ofProphet, Seer, and Revelator. They knelt on either side of this altar,and, with hands clasped above it in the secret grip last given to them,they were sealed for time and eternity.

  From the altar they went to the wagons and began their journey south.Christina came out of the endowment-house, glowing, as to one side ofher face. She was, also, in a state of daze that left her able to saybut little. Proud and happy and silent, her sole remark, the first dayof the trip, was: "Brigham--now--he make such a lovely, _bee-yoo-tiful_God in heaven!"

  Nor, it soon appeared, was she ever talkative. The second day, too, shespoke but once, which was when a sudden heavy shower swept down from thehills and caught her some distance from the wagons, helping to drive thecattle. Then, although she was drenched, she only said: "It make downsomet'ing, I t'ink!"

  For this taciturnity her husband was devoutly thankful. He had marriedher to secure her place in the Kingdom and a temporal home, and nototherwise did he wish to be concerned about her. He was glad to note,however, that she seemed to be of a happy disposition; which he did atcertain times when her eyes beamed upon him from a face radiant withgratitude.

  But his work of service had only begun. As they went farther south hebegan to make inquiries for the wandering wife of Elder Tench. He cameupon her at length as she was starting north from Beaver at dusk. Heprevailed upon her to stop with his party.

  "I don't mind to-night, sir, but I must be off betimes in the morning."

  But in the morning he persuaded her to stay with them.

  "Your husband is out of the country now, but he's coming back soon, andhe will stop first at my house when he does come. So stay with me thereand wait for him."

  She was troubled by this at first, but at last agreed.

  "If you're sure he will come there first--"

  She refused to ride in the wagon, however, preferring to walk, andstrode briskly all day in the wake of the cattle.

  At Parowan he made inquiries for Tom Potwin, that other derelict, andwas told that he had gone south. Him, too, they overtook on the roadnext day, and persuaded to go with them to a home.

  When they reached Cedar City a halt was made while he went for the otherwoman--not without some misgiving, for he remembered that she was stillyoung. But his second view of her reassured him--the sallow, anemicface, the skin drawn tightly over the cheek-bones, the droopingshoulders, the thin, forlorn figure. Even the certainty that her life ofhardship was ended, that she was at least sure not to die of privation,had failed to call out any radiance upon her. They were married by alocal Bishop, Joel's first wife placing the hand of the second in hisown, as the ceremony required. Then with his wives, his charges, hiswagons, and his cattle he continued on to the home he had made at theedge of Amalon.

  Among the women there was no awkwardness or inharmony; they had allsuffered; and the two wives tactfully humoured the whims of the insanewoman. On the day they reached home, the husband took them to the doorof his own little room.

  "All that out there is yours," he said. "Make the best arrangements youcan. This is my place; neither of you must ever come in here."

  They busied themselves in unpacking the supplies that had been brought,and making the house home-like. The big gray woman had already gone downthe road toward the settlement to watch for her husband, promising,however, to return at nightfall. The other derelict helped the women intheir work, doing with a childish pleasure the things they told him todo. The second wife occasionally paused in her tasks to look at him fromeyes that were lighted to strange depths; but he had for her only theunconcerned, unknowing look that he had for the others.

  At night the master of the house, when they had assembled, instructedthem briefly in the threefold character of the Godhead. Then, when hehad made a short prayer, he bade them good night and went to his room.Here he permitted himself a long look at the fair young face set in thelittle gilt oval of the rubber case. Then, as if he had forgottenhimself, he fell contritely to his knees beside the bunk and prayed thatthis face might never remind him of aught but his sin; that he mighthave cross after cross added to his burden until the weight should crushhim; and that this might atone, not for his own sins, which must bepunished everlastingly, but in some measure for the sins of hismisguided people.

  In the outer room his wives, sitting together before the big fireplace,were agreeing that he was a good man.