BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 <> 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SHIPAROBOOKIO 
 
 YEOIDBOOKE SHOPPE 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH J 
 
LOVE IN THE BACKWOODS 
 
 TWO MORMONS FROM MUDDLETY 
 ALFRED'S WIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 LANGDON ELWYN MITCHELL I 5? fe 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 BY GILBERT GAUL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 
 1897 
 
Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
6AMC 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 h 
 
 T 
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE RHYFEDD FOULKE 
 
 c 
 
 1 
 
 Q 
 
 3 
 
NOTE 
 
 The first story included in this volume, " Two 
 Mormons from Muddlety," was published in Har- 
 per's Magazine. The story following, "Alfred's 
 Wife," originally appeared in the Century, under 
 the title " Lucinda," and is now published through 
 the courtesy of the publishers of that periodical. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TWO MORMONS FROM MUDDLETY. . . 3 
 ALFRED'S WIFE 155 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "'I'M JUST AWFUL HAPPY'" Frontispiece 
 
 "'JUST RECKONED I'D RIDE ACROSS AND 
 
 SEE ' " Facing p. 8 
 
 "TO PREPARE NICHOLAS" " 12 
 
 "SHE MADE A HABIT OF STEALING HIS 
 
 FLASK" 4t 14 
 
 "ACCORDINGLY HE STARTED OFF EVERY 
 
 FORENOON IN THE TUB" " 34 
 
 "'YOU MUST BE AWFUL TOUGH!'" ... " 36 
 
 "OH YES, SHE HAD KNOWN IT! SHE WAS 
 
 UGLY NOW" " 82 
 
 SUSPICIOUS FOOTPRINTS " 86 
 
 "'WOMEN'S WOMEN AL WAYS,' SAID THE 
 
 GENERAL" " go 
 
 A SAINT'S DISCOMFITURE " 104 
 
 "THE MORMONS WERE COME UPON TOW- 
 ARDS EVENING" " 118 
 
 "THE DEER TROOPED THROUGH THE FOR- 
 EST" " 124 
 
 "IT SEEMED TO HIM HE HAD BEEN THERE 
 
 A YEAR" " 140 
 
TWO MORMONS FROM MUDDLETY 
 
FOR a fortnight the cold down the val- 
 ley of the Big Thunder, and, indeed, 
 throughout the forests of West Virginia, had 
 been severe. The Big Thunder froze even 
 at Barr's Crossing, where the current at its 
 lowest was rapid and powerful. 
 
 Barr's house it was a log -cabin of one 
 room stood facing down stream, just above 
 the point where the little Buffalo Branch 
 slipped into the larger river. Behind Barr's 
 cabin there lay a wide meadow. The moun- 
 tains hemmed river and meadow in, ris- 
 ing steeply on all sides, covered with forest 
 hemlock below and hard - wood above. 
 Through this mountain gorge, past the mea- 
 dow and cabin, the Big Thunder poured its 
 swift stream. During such time as the river 
 was open, Nicholas Barr was ferryman. But 
 
4 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 every morning for the past ten Nicholas had 
 measured the thickness of the ice at the 
 centre of his " crossing," and at length he 
 was satisfied that the ferryman would not 
 be needed for a month, and, if the cold en- 
 dured, for perhaps longer. 
 
 The following morning, having thrown 
 water on the fire and nailed his cabin door 
 fast from the outside, he and his mule 
 crossed on the ice to the right bank of the 
 stream, and made up the steep road towards 
 Carr's Mill, seven miles away. The week 
 before, he had driven his cows, a team of 
 horses, and a yoke of oxen up to his brother 
 Reuben's, and having made such other prep- 
 arations as were needful, he could now leave 
 the meadow and the little group of log-build- 
 ings to the wild-cats and foxes. 
 
 Nicholas Barr was in his thirties, a large 
 man, shaggy-headed and bushy-browed, with 
 a reddish -brown skin, a thick brown beard, 
 and a look of slow and serious good-will. 
 When he had first married he had gone 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 5 
 
 clean-shaven, and held himself erect, de- 
 spite his heavy shoulders. After eighteen 
 months of married life with a woman some 
 ten years his senior he began to stoop 
 slightly, and he acquired a new look a 
 look of dogged perseverance. The wife 
 had been of a fretful, uneasy disposition, 
 taking life hard, but an excellent cook 
 and worker ; and this was a main matter^ 
 for her husband was the clumsiest creature 
 in the world where victuals were concerned ; 
 he could scarcely bake his own bread when 
 forced to do so by some temporary absence 
 of his wife, and though a powerful man and 
 used to hardship, he was cursed with an in- 
 constant and feeble digestion. After three 
 years of childless married life the wife had 
 died. Barr straightway began to suffer 
 from grief a little, and mightily from the loss 
 of so excellent a cook. He cried once or 
 twice for the wife whom he had lost, and 
 forgetting that he had ever suffered from 
 anything like ill -temper on her part, was 
 
6 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 moved to a degree of sincere sorrow. But, 
 sitting upright in his bed in the night, he 
 was far more moved by the attacks of heart- 
 burn and indigestion, which, as his own cook, 
 he began now to bring upon himself. 
 
 It took him but a short while to have it 
 borne in upon him that he must get a cook. 
 He accordingly came to an understanding 
 with a boy, who was to help him in the 
 farm-work, as well as prepare both their 
 meals. Two years passed over this arrange- 
 ment. When on this day of the second 
 winter Barr saw that the river had frozen 
 solidly, he told the boy he might go home 
 and see his people ; he wouldn't need him 
 again. 
 
 As Nicholas arrived at Carr's Mill, Amri 
 Carr, the miller, came out on the stone steps. 
 Amri was large and ruddy, with a tw r inkle in 
 his eye. He looked well fed and fortunate. 
 The dust of the flour whitened him from 
 head to foot. Even his eyelashes were white. 
 He greeted Nicholas heartily, blowing the 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 7 
 
 flour from his beard, and speaking as if Nich- 
 olas were some thirty feet farther away than 
 he was. 
 
 "Aren't had no Mormons down the Big 
 Thunder?" 
 
 Nicholas said he had seen none such. 
 
 " Well/' said Amri, dusting his sleeve, " you 
 will ; there's two of 'em perusin' these parts 
 prowlin' round to pervert women folk to 
 be Saints. Tell ye, Nic, these two Mormon 
 elders youngest elders ye ever saw they've 
 been a-carryin' on up at Muddlety like time 
 and a jack-knife. Yes, sir ! Where are ye 
 p'intin' to ?" Amri took a sack of flour by 
 the neck and threw it over his shoulder. 
 
 "P'intin' to Rich Valley," replied Nich- 
 olas, looking down at his stirrup with some 
 appearance of embarrassment. Amri let 
 the bag of flour drop with a thump, and ap- 
 peared to prepare himself for a shock. "Just 
 reckoned I'd ride across and see if she 
 looks as she did that day. If she looks 
 about the same why " 
 
8 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " You won't ?" said the miller. 
 
 " Reckoned I just would," replied Nich- 
 olas. 
 
 Amri drew a long breath, stuck his hands 
 in his pockets, and squared himself. 
 
 " Why, she was a little green stick of a 
 gal when you saw her ! Little winch, little 
 rod of a thing. Hell-to-find, Nic, time 
 flies ; sun's been a-shinin' since then. Come 
 summer, come fruit; she'll be all well, 
 so to say, all bust out into a woman by 
 this!" 
 
 " Ride over with me," said Nicholas, irrel- 
 evantly to the effect of the sun's shining on 
 the little rod of a thing. Amri replied that 
 nothing would suit him better. Nicholas 
 should stay with him overnight, and the two 
 of them would set out in the morning. 
 
 When Amri's family of eleven were pack- 
 ed off to sleep, and while he was preparing 
 his traps for the early start, Nicholas gave 
 him a fuller account of his feelings than he 
 had as yet done. 
 
"'JUST RECKONED I'D RIDE ACROSS AND SEE* 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 9 
 
 No, he had not seen or heard of "her" 
 since the evening four years before when 
 she and her father, old Sammy, had come 
 to the Crossing with Amri. But he had 
 always remembered the little girl's face. At 
 first he had wished he had a daughter like 
 that ; but, as Amri said, she was a grown-up 
 girl now, and as far as asking her to be- 
 come his wife was concerned, no doubt when 
 he saw her again he would feel differently; 
 but at all events he was going to see 
 her. 
 
 Amri had seen her the winter before, and 
 he affirmed now that his cousin D'liss was 
 just as pink and white and pretty as a plum- 
 tree blossom, and that her father old Sammy, 
 he'd taught her to fish and swim, and she 
 could do most anything that was no use to 
 do. " Yes, sir, and she's about as useful 
 round the house as a tame coon or a cata- 
 mount, providin' his will was good." 
 
 To this Nicholas made no answer. He 
 remembered a face in the twilight on the 
 
io Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 raft crossing the Big Thunder. He was going 
 to see that face again. 
 
 Three days of hard riding through a snow- 
 storm brought the two men to Rich Valley. 
 The valley was thickly settled, and was 
 tapped at the southern end by a railroad. 
 " Old Sammy," a little man with a red face 
 and yellow hair streaked with gray, greeted 
 his cousin Amri with warmth, and said, ab- 
 ruptly, that he liked his friend's look. His 
 four daughters with a wave of his hand 
 towards the farm-house would be glad to 
 make them welcome. But when he heard 
 the quest upon which Cousin Amri's friend 
 had come, he said frankly that he didn't 
 think his chances amounted to those of a 
 gone coon ; but, dang him, he might try ! 
 If D'liss chose to live in a log-cabin, why, 
 dang her, let her do it ! Did he know 
 D'liss? Well, D'liss looked frail, but whip- 
 cord wasn't in it ! D'liss was quiet, but 
 she was better company, begol, than a dog 
 or a gun ! And D'liss was a gal o' spirit ; 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety n 
 
 and if D'liss couldn't bow her fiddle, well, 
 then, he, old Sammy, hadn't ever been thirsty 
 in his danged life ; and D'liss, though she had 
 a pinky color, and though she was slim as 
 a young hickory well, never mind, it didn't 
 make any difference to old Sammy, but if 
 she didn't have an arm and a will like a rib 
 o' steel oh, geepheu !" 
 
 After this statement they had drinks all 
 round, as if to prepare Nicholas for the will, 
 the strength of which was connoted by the 
 power and oddity of the oath employed. 
 
 Jn the evening they sat about the stove 
 in the parlor. As Nicholas looked about 
 the room and saw the rich crimson and pink 
 wall - paper, the six chromos, the luxurious 
 carpet, the chairs, and above all the red-hot 
 stove, he began to have visions of his own 
 log-cabin. He could hear the Big Thunder 
 roaring coldly; faint, exasperated tones of 
 his first wife's voice became audible to his 
 inner ear. How cheerless the gorge and 
 the gray woods must look ! Nicholas's eye 
 
12 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 dwelt meditatively on the red sofa. There 
 was no sofa at Barr's Crossing. 
 
 Suddenly he gave up all hope. His heart 
 sank; he concluded he was on a fool's er- 
 rand, and at the same moment the door 
 opened, and Sammy's youngest daughter 
 entered. 
 
 She was slim and frail-looking, with soft 
 yellow hair, long, narrow eyes, and a bright 
 color. There was a dreamy expression upon 
 her face that might have gone with a droop- 
 ing figure ; but she held herself erect, and 
 apparently suffered from no hesitations or 
 embarrassment. Nicholas knew her at once. 
 That was how she had looked years ago 
 even to the wisp of hair which strayed down 
 one cheek. He determined he would try 
 his luck. 
 
 Delia Delissa May, as her mother, Mrs. 
 Sammy Cartright, had called her, after the 
 heroines of three novels, read opportunely 
 before the birth of this her last baby, was, 
 above all else in the world, her father's 
 
"TO PREPARE NICHOLAS' 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 13 
 
 friend. This filial amity had been at first 
 based on the fact that she never talked 
 when he was fishing. In time she learned 
 to fish herself, and became therewith his 
 chosen and constant companion. She was 
 tireless, and enjoyed the open air. More- 
 over, when her father had drunk as much 
 as Delissa from long and necessary obser- 
 vation thought was wise, she made a habit 
 of stealing his flask out of the coat which 
 generally lay on the bank and of hiding it. 
 Old Sammy, on discovery of the theft, al- 
 ways acted as if it had never happened be- 
 fore. He swore roundly; accused Delissa; 
 called her a thief; to which she responded 
 on each new occasion with a set form of 
 words: That she had not seen the bottle, 
 and she hated the sight of it, and she wish- 
 ed it was dead. Old Sammy made a point 
 of accepting this statement without demur; 
 and the fishing, with no drinks between fish, 
 went on as before. 
 .The girl's mother had died while she was 
 
14 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 still a child. Her elder sisters had thus 
 grown into the habit of taking care of the 
 house, marketing, sewing, and the like ; and 
 Delissa accordingly had time to fish, to read 
 novels and adventures, to play her violin, to 
 comb her yellow hair before a little looking- 
 glass in her own room, and occasionally to 
 be rather more flattering in her manner to 
 some young farmer of the neighborhood 
 than her lack of special interest in him war- 
 ranted. 
 
 It happened that her grandmother, who 
 survived the mother, had made the trip 
 across the Alleghanies in a wagon while yet 
 she was a girl. She often related to her 
 grandchild the many pleasures and hard- 
 ships of the journey. The child's picture 
 of the old woman's story, with the lives of 
 Dave Crockett and Daniel Boone, and yet 
 other accounts of more obscure heroes of 
 the woods, had entered into her mind deep- 
 ly. Her father's manner of bringing her up 
 contributed to foster this influence, as did 
 
d 
 w 
 
 w 
 H 
 O 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 15 
 
 certain traditions of the family ; for her 
 father's grandfather had fought a pitched 
 battle with the Indian chief Shaweengo in 
 the old days in Kentucky. And even now 
 there was an uncle who had sold his wretch- 
 ed house and farm in "old" Virginia, and was 
 prospering, deep in the woods and moun- 
 tains behind the Alleghany Ridge, and who 
 every fall wrote to her father to come out 
 and kill deer, and go bee-hunting with him. 
 It was to this uncle's log-cabin she had been 
 taken four years before. She remember it 
 as the most wonderful place in the world. 
 There was a tame bear cub there, and the 
 men were very gentle and respectful to little 
 girls. Since her earliest childhood she had 
 always cast her eyes longingly, therefore, 
 towards the sun as it set over the unbroken 
 forest, and felt in her little heart that there, 
 where the sun seemed to hasten in his go- 
 ing down, there lay a world of wonder, 
 of romance, danger, hardship, and pleasure 
 all very different from the life of Rich 
 
16 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Valley, with its railroads, hotel, and corner 
 grocery. 
 
 She was therefore not a little pleased 
 when she heard that Nicholas had ridden 
 across the mountains and through the winter 
 snows to " see her face/' She remembered 
 him only as a bearded giant, who had poled 
 her across a dusky, great river in the winter- 
 time ; but when she understood that he had 
 buried his first wife she drew back, and told 
 her father that the sooner his friend went 
 home the better for all concerned. 
 
 Nicholas was sorely put to it how to win 
 the girl, and this saved him ; for he ended by 
 making no effort whatsoever. But his aston- 
 ishing skill with an axe and his very con- 
 siderable strength made an effect, as did his 
 easy good -humor. The girl was piqued 
 also that he was not more jealous of her. 
 For he appeared to be rather kindly disposed 
 towards her other admirers ; and after a 
 month or more she began to hate him. 
 This hate caused her many sleepless night* ; 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 17 
 
 and it was not long before she looked pale, 
 and presently the day came when she seem- 
 ed to herself to have lost her pleasure 
 in fishing. They were married a week 
 after this. Nicholas had intended to have 
 stayed yet another week with old Sammy ; 
 but the spring thaw had set in, and he be- 
 gan to hear the Big Thunder in his dreams, 
 and men hallooing vainly on the opposite 
 bank. 
 
 They started therefore the third morning 
 after the wedding. The two mules stood 
 saddled in front of the house in the early 
 twilight. Her sisters wished Delissa every 
 sort of happiness, and gave her keepsakes 
 without number. Her father told Nicholas 
 to be good to his little girl ; he kissed her, 
 and told her to be a good woman, and to 
 think o' him ; and God dang him if he'd ever 
 go fishin' again as long as he lived. Delissa 
 gave a happy sob or two as she rode off into 
 the morning twilight with her husband. 
 Old Sammy retired to the wood-shed, sat 
 
i8 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 down on the chopping-block, and cried like 
 a child for five minutes. 
 
 On the evening of the fourth day Delis- 
 sa found herself on the sandy shore of Big 
 Thunder, and presently she was sitting be- 
 fore a sparkling fire in her husband's cabin. 
 She was cold, tired, and hungry; but she was 
 moving in a strange dream of happiness. 
 The rough-hewn logs of the cabin, the pegs 
 with Nicholas's fishing-rod and powder-horn 
 and rifle, the strings of onions and beans 
 which appeared through the cross-slabs of 
 the loft, the buck-horns and bear-hides, the 
 immense chimney-place, and the unceasing 
 roar of the waters outside all this was just 
 as she had foreseen it. When Nicholas bore 
 a heavy log in for the fire, she remembered 
 the picture at page no in her Life of Dan- 
 iel Boone. She wondered if the hero was as 
 large as her husband. 
 
 Nicholas thought that they had best cook 
 them some supper. The two went out to 
 the " kitchen," which was merely a second 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 19 
 
 log-cabin of the same size and shape, stand- 
 ing about a rod from the " house," as Nicho- 
 las called the first one. Here Delissa again 
 watched her husband light the fire, and lost 
 herself in her new happiness. 
 
 " Now, then,'* said Nicholas. 
 
 " Now, then," repeated Delissa, softly. 
 
 " I'll get the stuff out o' the saddle-bags," 
 said he, " and then you might cook us sup- 
 per." 
 
 "Who? I?" cried the girl. "Why, of 
 course I will, Nic ; only I'm afraid I can't !" 
 
 "Can't cook, D'liss?" said her husband. 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Why, yes, I can if you'll teach me," she 
 returned. 
 
 Nicholas cooked their supper, and at the 
 same time showed his wife how it was done. 
 She listened to him, and said " Yes, yes," 
 very intelligently, while all the time she kept 
 wondering if Daniel Boone could have been 
 as powerful a man as Nicholas. 
 
 Her husband, for his part, thought he had 
 
20 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 never heard anything as sweet as her laugh 
 of happiness as she hung her fiddle on a 
 peg beside his long rifle, and placed the 
 small looking-glass she had brought beside 
 that. When she turned he was looking at 
 her with an odd expression. 
 
 "Why, Nic, what's wrong?" 
 
 " I b'lieve I never did know just how 
 lonesome I was all those years !" 
 
 Delissa was about to throw her arms 
 round his neck when the door, which had 
 been on the crack, was pushed open, and a 
 gaunt, lean, bedraggled yellow cat entered 
 with such a yowl as might have meant 
 either joy or despair. Delissa gave rather a 
 start, and Nicholas looked concerned. 
 
 " That's that cat !" said he. " He's had to 
 forage for himself since I went courtin' you ; 
 'pears like he hadn't done himself no great 
 credit." 
 
 His ribs could be counted with certainty. 
 Delissa stooped down and stroked the puss. 
 Puss purred. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 21 
 
 " What's his name, Nic ?" 
 
 "Well," said her husband, twining his fin- 
 gers in his beard and looking somewhat em- 
 barrassed, " I called him Old Rusty, but she 
 called him " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Delissa, realizing that this 
 was the wreck of the first Mrs. Barr's cat. 
 " Poor, poor puss!" 
 
 Stroking the cat, she wondered vaguely 
 if the first Mrs. Barr had perhaps had a yel- 
 low complexion and green eyes. And what 
 in the world should they call him now? 
 
 " He's a perfect Misery," said Nicholas. 
 
 Delissa laughed. " We'll call him Mis- 
 ery," she said ; and Misery, who was ready 
 to respond to any title so it called him 
 to food, had then and there his first honest 
 meal for many a week. 
 
 The next morning Delissa ran joyfully 
 down to the sandy beach, and looking back 
 saw her new surroundings by daylight : the 
 two log -cabins; some distance apart from 
 these, and up the river-bank, the log-stable ; 
 
22 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 and beyond, a dozen bee-gums, a long, low 
 shed, and a scattering orchard of apple, pear, 
 and plum trees. The meadow, which was 
 all of the farm, widened from the point of 
 sand where she stood as a triangle from its 
 apex ; the remote, irregular base of which 
 was a line of hills covered with a growth of 
 sapling and laurel, and at no great distance 
 rising into a mountain ridge. 
 
 It was gray and cold, for the sun had not 
 yet risen, but the girl's heart was beating 
 with excitement and pleasure. It was so 
 unlike Rich Valley ! it was the real back- 
 woods. And what a tremendous, swift, hur- 
 rying river ! And there was the great raft 
 upon which they had come over. The long 
 boat was a dug-out ; the little fat one must 
 be the boat Nic had always called the 
 "tub." 
 
 And now the girl discovered the little 
 rocky island which her husband had once 
 described to her. It lay more than a hun- 
 dred paces from the slip of sand where she 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 23 
 
 stood, and in swift mid-current of the Big 
 Thunder. It was covered with a thickety 
 growth, except for a broad face of rock at 
 the near end. Delissa watched how the 
 lumbering ice-blocks, of which the river was 
 now full, bore heavily down against this 
 rocky surface, and then, divided by it, swept 
 round upon either side, and, beginning to 
 receive the undulatory motion of the rapid, 
 danced heavily, and finally disappeared in 
 the whiteness and roughness of the foaming 
 water below. She thought she would like 
 to sit upon this island. From it she would 
 be able to see the two cabins, the wide mea- 
 dow, and Nicholas at work. No doubt they 
 would both sit there and fish. 
 
 The sun must have risen, for the hemlocks 
 high above her on the mountain-side were 
 a brilliant, clear green in the early light. 
 Delissa stretched her long arms upward, and 
 stood a moment, smiling at the blue sky. 
 
 " Oh, oh," she cried, softly, " I'm so 
 happy ! I'm just crazy to go fishing !" 
 
24 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Breakfast, Liss," cried Nicholas from the 
 cabin-door. 
 
 " I certainly ought to have cooked it !" 
 thought the girl. 
 
 The days passed rapidly and smoothly. 
 
 The life, it is true, was rough ; there was 
 not a convenience of any sort ; but it was 
 free, it was new, it was in the open air, and 
 it was what she had dreamed. 
 
 Nicholas taught her all the art of cooking 
 he knew. After a week's tuition he thought 
 she must have learned a good deal, and per- 
 haps she had better commence to cook for 
 the two. Pretty soon he would have a job 
 of timbering on the Oak Ridge, across the 
 river. It would take him a fortnight, and 
 after that he would have the timber to haul to 
 the mill. Delissa therefore took the cooking 
 into her own hands. She worked early and 
 late at it, and hoped for improvement. She 
 was not sensible of any. She lost, however, 
 several pounds of weight, for it was impossi- 
 ble to escape from the heat of the open fire. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 25 
 
 But she persevered. Nicholas devoured 
 whatever was placed before him. It cost 
 him sometimes an effort. But he felt that 
 he owed as much to his wife. If she tried 
 her best to cook for him, he must certainly 
 try his best to eat what she prepared. With- 
 out, however, becoming aware of it, he grad- 
 ually ate less and less ; and this left him 
 hungry, at the same time that several severe 
 attacks of indigestion unnerved him, and 
 brought him finally to the pass of being 
 physically afraid of his food. This hunger, 
 which began to grow upon him, was mild at 
 first, but presently it became gnawing. 
 
 He wished to God his hens would lay ! 
 
 About the end of their third week, and of 
 the second week of Delissa's cooking, Nich- 
 olas took of necessity to surreptitious mid- 
 night repasts. He would slip out of bed, 
 and spend an hour in the other cabin cook- 
 ing, or endeavoring to cook, for himself. On 
 one of these occasions Delissa, happening to 
 awake, and finding herself alone, slipped out 
 
26 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 after him ; but as she came round the cor- 
 ner she saw Nicholas, through the window, 
 cooking and eating. She skurried back to 
 bed, with cold feet, and something of an 
 ache at her heart an ache that soon changed 
 itself into a determination to cook a more 
 palatable meal for him the next day. 
 
 But the next day at breakfast she had no 
 luck at all. And when in the evening Nich- 
 olas came home from his work on the moun- 
 tain, hungry and tired, the supper was as 
 bad as possible. He said nothing, and he 
 ate all that he could it was not much. His 
 appetite now, burning, or rather, as it seemed 
 to him, prowling about restlessly within him, 
 kept him wide awake all night. Yet he was 
 afraid to rise and cook himself another mid- 
 night meal, for he judged by his wife's 
 breathing that she was either awake or 
 sleeping lightly, and he had no mind that 
 she should guess how empty he was or to 
 what a pass his sufferings had brought him. 
 
 Indeed, it had gone beyond mere emptiness 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 27 
 
 with him now. He appeared to himself to 
 feel hunger not only in his centre, but in all 
 his extremities. His hands and feet tossed 
 about hungrily ; his neck was hungry, that 
 he knew ; and he had a sensation of ravin 
 at the back of his head. 
 
 All night long Delissa lay by his side, 
 wakeful and feeling exhausted from lack of 
 nourishment, for her cooking found no more 
 favor in her own eyes than it did in her 
 husband's. 
 
 The next morning Nicholas felt cross, and 
 could scarcely help showing that he was so. 
 The breakfast was more eatable than usual ; 
 but unfortunately Delissa had forgotten the 
 night before to feed the former Mrs. Barr's 
 cat, who accordingly strolled in as soon as he 
 smelled the fumes of meat upon the fire. 
 Rubbing up against Nicholas's chair, he 
 purred loudly, and, with a kind of chirrup 
 midway in the purr, rose lightly and seated 
 himself in the man's lap. Nicholas was out 
 of humor, and seizing Misery by his scruff, 
 
28 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 shied him somewhat loosely. The animal 
 laid manfully about him in all directions as 
 he whirled sideways, and catching the table- 
 cloth with half a claw, fetched it after him, 
 the meat and batter falling with the cloth. 
 
 Both lay in the ashes. Nicholas for a 
 moment thought he would slay the cat. 
 Instead of doing so, he jumped up, and 
 hurriedly left the cabin. With half an ex- 
 planation to his wife outside, he rowed him- 
 self across the river. 
 
 When the girl, running in, saw her own 
 breakfast as well as her husband's in the 
 ashes, and Misery thievishly slinking round 
 the corner, it was almost more than she 
 could bear. She determined that the next 
 morning her husband should take her up to 
 his " law-sister's," Mrs. Reuben Barr. Mrs. 
 Reuben lived with her husband and five 
 young ones just off the road to Carr's Mill. 
 She had promised to come down and help 
 get Delissa settled when first the latter had 
 come to the Crossing. But her husband, 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 29 
 
 Reuben, was still away, at work in the 
 lumber camps, and till he returned she 
 couldn't leave the children. For, as she said 
 to Nicholas, " to leave the chaps with their 
 eldest brother " this was General Floyd 
 Barr " was the same as to give them into 
 the charge of a wild-cat, and a mighty keer- 
 less wild-cat at that !" 
 
 But Delissa, in view of the mistakes she 
 made, thought that if she could merely see 
 Mrs. Reuben it might be a help to her. She 
 could at least learn from one such visit to 
 bake bread. 
 
 As for Nicholas, he felt as he crossed the 
 Big Thunder breakfastless that his hunger 
 had ceased to be a joke. Come what might, 
 he must be fed. He made therefore for his 
 brother's house, and, arriving there, said casu- 
 ally that he'd come to stay the day out. He 
 would not give the true reason for his com- 
 ing ; that would be to prove disloyal to his 
 wife. 
 
 As towards noon they sat down at the 
 
30 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 table, Mrs. Reuben asked him if he had 
 heard of the two Mormon preachers who 
 were up in Muddlety? And had he heard 
 that Dolly Stout was down with a fever? 
 "Yes, sir, and that man" " that man" 
 was Mrs. Reuben's phrase for one not a 
 husband "that man was away, and the 
 woman there, sick to death, with her two 
 weaklin' brats/* 
 
 Nicholas said he had heard that Thomp- 
 son was away, but not that Miss Stout was 
 down with fever. 
 
 " Not a God's soul o' goodness in the 
 place !" cried Mrs. Reuben. " She'll die for 
 want o' wood or food, or both ; and surely I 
 wouldn't want the worst minx alive to 
 starve like that P 
 
 Mrs. Reuben, a rosy, fat little body, spoke 
 roughly, but from a heart which was large 
 and maternal ; and when she had concluded 
 her statements, looked with round, wide-open 
 eyes steadily at her brother-in-law, as much 
 as to say, " Now, then, do your part." 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 31 
 
 Nicholas said he would go down and see 
 to her wants. He did so later in the day. 
 Although the worst was over, the woman 
 was miserably ill ; but she could scrape along 
 if Mrs. Reuben would come for an hour every 
 morning, and if she could get her next 
 month's firewood sawed and hauled. Nich- 
 olas felt sorry for her, and at the same time 
 it occurred to him that the performance of 
 this duty to the sick woman would enable 
 him to get his dinner every day for a week 
 or more at his brother's, and afford at the 
 same time an excellent excuse to Mrs. 
 Reuben for his so doing. He told Miss 
 Stout to count on him for the wood. 
 
 For several mornings after this Nicholas 
 spent an hour or two splitting and sawing 
 firewood for Dolly Stout, and doing other 
 small, needful chores about her rickety, foul 
 cabin. And each day he got his dinner at 
 his brother's. As Dolly and the dinner were 
 all one thing in his mind, he said nothing 
 about her to his wife, pretending always to 
 
32 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 take a cold snack or lunch with him to his 
 work. 
 
 But in a few days Dolly was up and about 
 and needed no more help, and Nicholas, 
 when he arrived as usual one morning, saw 
 to his surprise a black, fat little figure of a 
 man sitting on the wood-pile reading a dirty 
 newspaper. He liked Dolly little enough as 
 it was, and taking a good look at the new- 
 comer, and noticing especially a pair of 
 white hands, he took the blaze to his broth- 
 er's without more ado. 
 
 Nicholas's timbering on the mountain was 
 now finished, but the road was not yet in 
 condition to haul over. This left him all 
 day at home, and if he was still to get his 
 noonday meal at his brother's he would have 
 to invent and give to Delissa a new reason 
 for being away from her a large part of each 
 day. He told her that he thought he would 
 fish some. He explained with some diffi- 
 culty that the best fishing lay down the 
 river, and that by noon he would be too far 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 33 
 
 away to return to the cabin for dinner. Ac- 
 cordingly he started off every forenoon in 
 the tub. He did, in fact, fish for an hour or 
 more, after which he would stride off through 
 the forest to Mrs. Reuben's, where a hot din- 
 ner awaited him, thinking as he went that 
 perhaps now in a few days his wife would 
 have learned how to cook, and thereafter he 
 could abide at home. 
 
 Delissa begged him more than once to 
 take her to Mrs. Reuben's, and Nicholas 
 said yes, she ought to go there some day ; 
 but he put the day off, and generally with 
 the same phrase : " He would take her 
 there to-morrow, after breakfast, if it was 
 clear." His wife had never known any one 
 so procrastinative. She was puzzled. Per- 
 haps he had some reason for not taking her 
 to Mrs. Reuben's. In the meantime Mrs. 
 Reuben had come to wonder at the regular- 
 ity of her " law-brother's " visits. General 
 Floyd had his suspicions, too. And Nich- 
 olas found it more and more difficult with 
 
34 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 each ensuing day to satisfy Delissa on the 
 one hand and his sister-in-law on the 
 other. Being naturally a speaker of the 
 plain truth, he became feebly evasive to his 
 wife, and the more so when she inquired of 
 him : Why was he obliged to fish every 
 day ? and why not take her ? and why did 
 he never catch anything worth mentioning ? 
 and why did he spend such a long time 
 catching the little he did ? What happy 
 days she had spent fishing with her dear old 
 Sammy ! Delissa would have given the 
 world to have gone fishing with him. She 
 was hurt that he didn't seem to want her. 
 It was now not at all the life she had ex- 
 pected to lead. She even began to wonder 
 if he did possibly get his mid-day meal some- 
 where else. How else account for his loss 
 of appetite ? Perhaps if she gave him a 
 better supper at all events, she would try. 
 
 About noon of a warmish day, General 
 Floyd Barr appeared on the far bank of the 
 Big Thunder. Delissa had no trouble in 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 35 
 
 playing ferryman when her husband was 
 away. She had learned how to pole from 
 old Sammy. She brought the raft over to 
 the bank with a swing. As she looked 
 up she saw a shock-headed, sandy-haired, 
 freckle-faced boy, with a pair of keen gray 
 eyes, warts on his hands, and square knee- 
 patches on his breeches. 
 
 " How d'ye ?" said the General. " Thought 
 you were goin' to drown yourself! My 
 name's Barr. You must be awful tough !" 
 
 The General eyed Delissa all over approv- 
 ingly. 
 
 " I guess you could wrastle me," he said. 
 Then, after a moment or two of serious 
 meditation, and while the girl, now on the 
 return trip, was still struggling with the 
 force of the mid-current : 
 
 " If I ever have to marry, I'll pick out a 
 woman like you !" 
 
 As they landed, General Floyd said he'd 
 come to go fishing with Nic. 
 
 " Heard 'the news ?" 
 
36 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Delissa said she hadn't. 
 
 " The Mormonizers is come ! Hoo !" 
 
 The advent of the Mormons appeared to 
 fill General Floyd with some savage longing, 
 for he seized a stool and brandished it at 
 Misery, who, having kept his eye on the 
 General from the moment he had entered 
 the cabin, now scrabbled out the door and 
 sought safety on the roof. 
 
 " Yes, sir/' said the General, " they say 
 they just eat young gals! They're puttin' 
 up with Dolly Stout now." 
 
 " Who's she ?" said Delissa. 
 
 "Why, she's Red Dolly Thompson's 
 wife, or somethin' like it." 
 
 " Who's Thompson ?" asked Delissa. 
 
 "Why, Thompson's just Thompson." 
 replied the boy, cracking his knuckles 
 with an expression of martyrdom endured 
 in a good cause. " He lives beyond us. 
 Nic, he's been there every day for a week. 
 Guess he told ye 'bout Thompson's Red 
 Dolly?" 
 
o 
 
 c| 
 
 O 
 C3 
 
 O 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 37 
 
 " So Dolly is Thompson's wife/' said De- 
 lissa, busying herself with the fire. 
 
 "I don't know; she's young, and she's 
 good-lookin', and she cooks for him, and 
 they fight ought to be his wife, if she 
 isn't." 
 
 "And where's Thompson these times?" 
 said Delissa. 
 
 "Oh, he's away somewhere," replied the 
 General, the subject not holding him ; " and 
 these two Mormonizers, they're a-Mormon- 
 izin' along with her !" 
 
 When Nicholas found that he had the 
 General for a companion on his morning's 
 fishing, he told Delissa that he would be 
 back by noon for dinner. 
 
 Delissa, as later on in the morning she 
 set about preparing the meal, felt that a 
 great unhappiness had fallen upon her. Of 
 course, there was nothing between Nic and 
 this Red Dolly. But if he had been there 
 every day, he had surely gotten his dinner 
 
38 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 there cooked, and no doubt well cooked, 
 by Red Dolly. It was for Red Dolly, then, 
 or for her cooking, that Nicholas had left 
 Delissa alone for whole days. No, there 
 was nothing between them. But why hadn't 
 he spoken out ? why hadn't he said, " I 
 can't eat your victuals !" . . . " Dolly! Red 
 Dolly!" and " Thompson's wife, or some- 
 thing like it." Delissa began to sob, trem- 
 bling as she walked across the room, carry- 
 ing the kettle with both hands. " Oh, it 
 was bitter ! it was not nice of Nic ; it was 
 just devilish of Nic ! oh !" 
 
 At the same moment Misery slipped si- 
 lently in at the door. The girl, moving rap- 
 idly across the room, was beginning to cry, 
 and, the tears filling her eyes, she saw hazily, 
 and before she could set the kettle on the 
 fire, trod heavily on Misery's soft stomach, 
 who at the moment was rolling about on 
 his back on the floor in a kind of agony 
 or delirium of pleasure. Misery responded 
 with a yell and a struggle for freedom. The 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 39 
 
 girl staggered, upset, and fell almost in the 
 fire ; and the kettle, flying from her, struck 
 the stone hearth and spilled its contents in 
 the ashes. As Nicholas, coming home to din- 
 ner, entered the cabin from without, the cat 
 disappeared between his legs. Nicholas was 
 none too early; the girl's skirt had flirted 
 into the ashes and was aflame. Dragging 
 her to her feet, he tore the dress from her 
 body, and swung her into the middle of the 
 cabin, and clear of the fire. The burning 
 dress he kicked into the fireplace. 
 
 Delissa, her face crimson, her eyes full of 
 tears, her yellow hair tumbled down, stood 
 before him in her short red petticoat, much 
 less startled and in fear than still sorrowful 
 and angry. 
 
 One hand having been slightly scalded 
 and then plunged into the hot ashes, she 
 held it out, not because it was covered with 
 ashes, but because it hurt her. 
 
 " In the good Lord's name !" cried Nich- 
 olas, looking at her, " How'd ye do it, D'liss ?" 
 
40 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Delissa made at first no reply. She look- 
 ed at the fire, and at the contents of the 
 kettle now mingling with the ashes ; and 
 then at Nicholas himself. Finally she said, 
 in a trembling voice : 
 
 " Misery !" 
 
 " I'll slay that cat," said Nicholas, express- 
 ing that determination for the hundredth 
 time. 
 
 Delissa looked again at the fireplace, in 
 which the dress was flaming brightly, again 
 at Nicholas, who was looking at her, and last 
 surveyed herself: her short red petticoat 
 and gray stockings, and her wounded hand 
 held out to one side. Her face began to 
 twitch with sympathy for the poor girl whom 
 she saw in this horrible plight. She sudden- 
 ly burst into tears. 
 
 " I knew it would come to this," she 
 sobbed. 
 
 Nicholas for the life of him couldn't tell 
 why, but he began to feel guilty. 
 
 " I don't know what you brought me here 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 41 
 
 for ! I could do well enough if it wasn't for 
 her cat. Nothing I can do suits you, or him. 
 He he's a wicked devil, and he knows it ! 
 I'm heartsick of it all. And where you spend 
 your time nobody knows, nor I don't know 
 if you know yourself ; when you fish even 
 you catch nothing !" 
 
 The child spoke the words in a gentle, 
 low voice and brokenly, for she was sobbing. 
 The tears streamed down her cheeks, al- 
 though her face was uncontracted ; only her 
 lips quivering and her breath coming irreg- 
 ularly. 
 
 " Maybe you're tired of me ; or you think 
 I might learn quicker how to c-cook. I 
 should ha' thought if a man loved a girl he 
 would put up with with 'most anything," 
 through Delissa's mind passed visions of all 
 the unmistakably palatable dishes she had 
 prepared; Nicholas thought of the hungers 
 he had endured ; " rather than to go phi- 
 landering off up there with a Red Dolly 
 woman. I've had lovers too ; I'm not so 
 
42 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 poor but I can have 'em yet, if I've a mind 
 to." 
 
 Delissa's eyes lightened through her tears, 
 and she gave her head a little toss. But the 
 threat was made in a voice and tone which 
 would have perfectly carried the words, " I 
 love you still, and you might say you're 
 sorry." 
 
 Nicholas hesitated, feeling dumb and con- 
 fused. The girl wanted him to come to her, 
 so she moved a step back, her heel as she 
 did so striking the tall wooden cupboard. 
 The china ranged along the shelves rattled 
 ominously; and the big tin dish-pan, rilled 
 with boiling water to be ready for the clean- 
 ing up after dinner, shook and splashed. 
 " Don't don't," said Nicholas, seeing her 
 elbow approaching the dish-pan. 
 
 But Delissa had derived a certain confi- 
 dence from the thought of her former ad- 
 mirers. Her voice took a clearer tone, and 
 she pushed the dish-pan farther back on the 
 shelf on the cupboard with her elbow, with- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 43 
 
 out looking round. This brought the pan 
 too near the corner. Nicholas motioned to 
 her to take care. 
 
 " I don't care for anything, now," said she, 
 with as much defiance in her manner as her 
 natural gentleness and the sweetness of her 
 voice would admit of. " No, sir ; I don't !" 
 with a flirt of her body and another light 
 toss of her yellow head; and, her burned 
 hand hurting her suddenly, she held it out 
 in the must pitiable manner, as she contin- 
 ued : " Things must change. If you want 
 to go and live with Red Dollies " 
 
 "Live with Dollies!" exclaimed Nicholas. 
 
 " I hope she cooks all right." 
 
 " Cooks all right," said Nicholas, repeat- 
 ing her words in astonishment. 
 
 " So you did get your dinner from her ?" 
 cried the girl. 
 
 Nicholas was about to say where he had 
 got his meals when his wife broke in upon 
 his preparations for speech, which at the best 
 of times were slow. 
 
44 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " You can cook for yourself after this. I 
 can catch fish, if I can't cook. And I hate 
 it, and I've just a mind to give up, and leave 
 off, and quit, and do nothing, never, any 
 more!" 
 
 Delissa's eyes began to sparkle, and though 
 she still held the burned hand to one side, 
 she threw the other bravely forward as if to 
 loosen it from the thraldom of her sleeve, a 
 gesture indicative of her new determination 
 to give up, leave off, quit, and do nothing 
 never for evermore ! 
 
 " It's too much for for a girl," she con- 
 tinued, looking reproachfully at her husband. 
 " You might ha* tried to eat you might ha* 
 pretended ; it wouldn't ha' hurt me to have 
 encouraged me a little teeny bit. And you 
 never drowned the cat when you said you 
 would, and you know he thrusts himself be- 
 tween us. Maybe you like him better than 
 you do me " 
 
 Delissa had bedome softer again, and, 
 having exhausted all her real pleas, was en- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 45 
 
 gaged in manufacturing others against Nich- 
 olas, as this of his not drowning the cat, she 
 having made him solemnly and with a kiss 
 swear to her only the day before that he 
 would harm Misery under no circumstances. 
 She now ended up with saying, as she looked 
 tearfully down and away from Nicholas : 
 "Why don't you say something?'* 
 Nicholas held out his hands deprecatingly. 
 He had things to say, but he had first to 
 marshal and compose them into a proper 
 order, and he was tortured with fear of the 
 china's unsetting above Delissa's head in one 
 of her erratic movements of despair. So 
 that finally partly from real affection and 
 partly out of a desire to avoid the impending 
 smash he said, as the girl stood looking 
 away from him and drying her tears : 
 " Come over to me, D'liss come here!" 
 The girl caught something in the tone 
 of his voice that was not altogether what 
 she wished or expected ; it was not loving. 
 She turned half round from him and burst 
 
46 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 into a storm of sobs, repeating again and 
 again : 
 
 " You don't love me now you don't love 
 me any more, not any more, never any more, 
 never ! I half believe you d-do care for that 
 r-red thing ! She can c-cook." 
 
 Nicholas was distracted. He had never 
 seen her really cry before. The first Mrs. 
 Barr's tempests had all been dry, and in the 
 nature of anger. As he saw the tears wet- 
 ting Delissa's cheeks and chin, even, and her 
 blue eyes looking at him reproachfully, he 
 felt that he could better endure slow death 
 by fire, and that he loved her Heaven knows 
 how much. But he was still frightfully anx- 
 ious about the china, and indeed, before he 
 was able to do more than say the girl's name 
 in a pacifying manner, her burned hand, as 
 she turned to lean against the cupboard, 
 came between the wood-work and her petti- 
 coat, and, paining her smartly, she withdrew 
 it upward. The dish-pan of hot water was 
 in the way and tilted with the force of the 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 47 
 
 blow her elbow gave it. Nicholas rushed 
 forward, with both hands stretched out, to 
 save it from falling. 
 
 Delissa, supposing he meant the out- 
 stretched hands for her, drew as suddenly 
 away, and over went the tin pan, deluging 
 the floor of the cabin, and, in its course 
 downward, washing Nicholas's two hands 
 with water hot enough to burn a little and 
 to make him suppose that he was burned 
 badly. 
 
 He uttered a growl and wrung his hands. 
 Delissa, seeing what had happened, stopped 
 crying in a flash and looked at him aghast 
 with the fear that he was really burned. 
 
 " Burned 'em," said Nicholas, savagely, 
 and as if to himself. 
 
 "No, no," cried the girl, and ran to a shelf 
 to get a bottle of oil. She brought it to 
 Nicholas, her face changed suddenly from 
 self-pity to the tenderest fear and compas- 
 sion. Nicholas looked at the bottle. It 
 was really too much for him. He regarded 
 
48 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Delissa with some seventy, and then said 
 dryly : 
 
 " Vinegar !" 
 
 The girl looked innocently at the bottle, 
 which she had uncorked. There was no label ; 
 she smelled it ; it was vinegar. As she turned 
 hastily to the shelf, Nicholas took up his 
 hat, and with a call to the boy outside to 
 accompany him, strode down to the beach 
 and rowed angrily across the river in the tub . 
 
 When Delissa saw that her husband had 
 indeed gone, that she was left alone, it seem- 
 ed to her as if the very heart of the world 
 had ceased beating. She watched him and 
 the General pull the boat up the beach. 
 They disappeared in the twilight and brush- 
 wood. 
 
 She shut the door and sat down on a 
 stool. An hour passed, and then another. 
 It was all over now, and no doubt she had 
 been wrong from the beginning. But why 
 in the name of sense had they not taught her 
 to cook? Was there a thing more mysteri- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 49 
 
 ous than that there was nothing whatever 
 about cooking in the novels? They eat 
 the most abundant and the most savory 
 " viands/* but who in Heaven's name cooked 
 the viands? 
 
 Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone cooked 
 for themselves Nicholas couldn't. She had 
 done her best, all to no purpose. And now 
 Red Dolly ! and doubtless Nicholas would 
 go tell her all about his " wife " ! As for 
 Misery, he was the devil in cat form ; he was 
 possessed ; or else the first Mrs. Barr was in 
 the cat ; at least, the cat sided with the first 
 Mrs. Barr in every hair of his body, else why 
 did he always trip her up ? It made no dif- 
 ference ; it was all over cooking, all her 
 efforts, her self-restraint, and and love 
 and Nicholas didn't care for her now and 
 indeed why talk about it ? It was all over ! 
 If she could upset herself in the river, if 
 the bottom would unexpectedly fall out of 
 the boat, then she would drown. Nicholas 
 would see her lying at the bottom, all white ; 
 
50 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 or if some brutal man would happen in and 
 kill her, then Nicholas would find her body 
 lying right across the threshold. The tears 
 began to rise. 
 
 Three light knocks were given upon the 
 cabin door. After a moment or two they 
 were repeated. Delissa had started to her 
 feet with the first knock, but before she 
 could make up her mind to bolt the door 
 the latch clicked. The door opened ; a long, 
 white, hairy hand appeared, clasping the end 
 of the door, followed by an arm in seedy 
 black as the door pushed open wider. 
 
 Delissa fell back several paces, the blood 
 rushing to and fro, from her heart and to 
 her head, and back again, as she fixed her 
 eyes on the door, now at a standstill. 
 
 " May godly strangers receive welcome 
 here ?" said a voice, hollow enough to have 
 been followed by a racking cough. 
 
 " Visitors from the Lord,'* rapped out 
 another voice, quickly, lightly, and in a tone 
 that evinced an eager desire to see inside. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 51 
 
 Delissa would have spoken if she could. As 
 she gave no reply, the door farther opened, 
 and Delissa saw slowly enter a tall, pale man, 
 followed by a short, fat one. Her breath 
 came quick. 
 
 " We are peace-lovers,'* said the tall man, 
 unctuously. 
 
 " Peace-bringers," followed up the little 
 one, at once echoing and outdoing his 
 brother, who blocked both his vision and 
 entrance by standing full in the door-way. 
 
 The tall man, whom Delissa now saw to 
 be of a doughy white complexion and bald- 
 headed, cast a pair of large brown eyes upon 
 her inquiringly. As she merely gasped in 
 reply, he came farther in, allowing his young- 
 er fellow to enter, which the younger fellow 
 did briskly. 
 
 He also looked inquiringly at the girl, 
 but, receiving no answer, both men, having 
 learned the custom of the country through 
 which they had travelled for some months, 
 directed their eyes towards the floor, and sat 
 
52 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 down in the chairs nearest them. Delissa 
 recovered herself suddenly on seeing them 
 seated, and said, 
 
 " You can come in.'* 
 
 Not knowing what to do next, she sat 
 down and folded her hands in her lap. But 
 a side glance of the younger man suddenly 
 apprised her of the fact, of which she had 
 been forgetful, that she was in her red petti- 
 coat, and that as this petticoat was short, 
 more was visible than should be. She stood 
 up as if shot out of her seat, and reddened. 
 
 What to do ? She was afraid to leave the 
 two men for a moment, and her other dress 
 was locked up in a box in the house. She 
 turned abruptly away from the men, whose 
 eyes were still fastened to the floor, and 
 began angrily washing the ashes from her 
 burned hand. A hot sensation all over her 
 body told her that both men were using their 
 opportunity to examine her from top to toe. 
 She became aware also that the kettle could 
 still be seen lying on the stone hearth, and 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 53 
 
 that the water-pan was upside down on the 
 floor. There was a moment when she could 
 have sat down on the floor herself, in the 
 thus lengthened and decent midst of her red 
 petticoat, and told these two wretched Mor- 
 mon creatures (for she guessed them to be 
 such) to go about their business. But her 
 hand began to smart her, and at the same 
 time the tall, elder man spoke. 
 
 "We are came to ask a night's lodging, 
 and we are came to spread the great news 
 the gospel 'cording to Smith and " 
 
 The Mormon lengthened out his "ands," 
 dwelling on them with a long, twanging 
 drawl. This gave him good time to beat up 
 his next idea, and to bring it out in rounded 
 form. 
 
 Delissa still kept her back to the two men, 
 mainly out of a sense that if her ankles 
 could be seen that way, as well as any other, 
 at least she couldn't see that they were being 
 seen. The younger man now interrupted 
 rapidly : 
 
54 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Blessed are they 't hold to the prophet ; 
 blessed are the Latter-Day Saints," he said, 
 skurrying over the words in a sharp, high, 
 singsongy voice, and in such a way that 
 the words seemed pitched out headlong. 
 " Blessed are the You've hurt your hand, 
 Mrs. ? Let me What? Yes, cer- 
 tainly." 
 
 Delissa flushed a bright pink. But before 
 she had half an idea of what was happening, 
 the little man, with skilful, quick, white, fat 
 fingers, had lapped her hand about with oiled 
 rag oil and rag both produced from his 
 own pocket and had carefully tied a piece 
 of dirty ribbon around the whole. 
 
 "There, Mrs. ?" 
 
 " Barr," she replied. " My husband, he'll 
 be in shortly. You can stay ; he'll see you. 
 I thank you for " She held out her hand 
 shyly. " I guess he'll be here soon." 
 
 Silence ensued, during which Delissa was 
 enabled to observe her guests more narrow- 
 ly. The tall man had sunk together on his 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 55 
 
 chair, and was rubbing the knuckles of one 
 hand gently in the palm of the other. De- 
 lissa disliked him. He wore a flowing brown 
 beard. This growth, hanging from his sal- 
 low face and lank neck, swept abundantly 
 over a time-yellowed shirt-front. But his 
 head was as sterile of hair as his jaw was 
 profuse. What there was grew almost on 
 his neck, hiding his absence of collar with a 
 thin, glossy brown fringe. The absence of 
 hair above seemed to have indecently ex- 
 posed a pair of enormous ears. 
 
 Still continuing to play softly with his 
 hands, the tall man opened and shut his 
 mouth once or twice with a licking sound, 
 and then, in his deep voice, " Ball !" He 
 inclined his head slightly to one side, as if 
 in sorrow for what he was about to say, and 
 looking towards where his younger compan- 
 ion was seated, he repeated, with a caress- 
 ing inflection, " Ball Ball 's name. Li Ball." 
 
 Delissa wondered if she would have to 
 sew up the holes in the little man's elbows. 
 
56 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 She guessed not, as his black waistcoat was 
 held together by two safety pins, in place 
 of seven long -departed buttons. He had 
 not shaved for a week or more. She hoped 
 Nicholas wouldn't lend him his razor. 
 
 Since the elder man's delivery of the word 
 " Ball," in mournful tone and with depreca- 
 tive glance, the girl had no doubt that Li 
 Ball was his own name. She thought it 
 might relieve the strain if she ventured 
 further in the same line. 
 
 "And your friend, his name?" she said, 
 looking to the tall man for the information. 
 
 "Ball's friend's name," put in the little 
 man suddenly and lightly ; " I'm his friend," 
 he added, more slowly, and pointed with 
 his thumb to his own bosom. " My name's 
 Ball Li Ball. His name," he continued, 
 nodding toward the tall man " his name is 
 Sidon Dank Sidon." 
 
 Delissa realized that they made a point 
 of naming each other, as perhaps being more 
 modest. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 57 
 
 " Well/* she said, having now recovered 
 herself so far as to have determined to ac- 
 cept the shortness of her petticoat, and to 
 make the best of the Mormons "well, I 
 expect you're both hungry." 
 
 Mr. Ball said with vivacity that he was. 
 
 Mr. Sidon made the licking noise that he 
 had before, which signified that he had said, 
 or would like to be considered to have said, 
 precisely what his little friend had. 
 
 For a moment Delissa looked helplessly 
 about her. She made up her mind promptly. 
 
 " Mr. Sidon, Mr. Ball, I a'n't no account 
 of a cook ; and the fact is I spoiled one din- 
 ner to-day already; and I'm afeard you'll 
 have to look elsewhere for victuals, or else 
 wait till my man comes home ; and if you 
 get it then I don't know, or any other time 
 in this house unless you cook it yourself," 
 she added, after a pause, and smiling at an 
 idea in itself so absurd. 
 
 "Li," said Mr. Sidon, deliberately " Li, 
 cook." 
 
58 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Li sprang at once to the fire and began 
 to rake among the coals. As Delissa watched 
 him in some surprise, he said : " Saw y' had 
 course y' did we all have trouble. Burned 
 hand, dress course, too bad! Lost y'r 
 dinner too bad! What? Yes, certain- 
 ly!" 
 
 Mr. Li Ball hurried over the beginnings 
 of his words, spurted out what remained, and 
 chewed off the ends, speaking all the while 
 with a sharp, clicking voice, and glancing 
 furtively about the cabin from under heavy 
 black eyebrows. If unanswered by Delissa, 
 he answered himself by "What? Yes, 
 certainly." 
 
 She wondered how a man could be at 
 once so fat and so quick in his motions. 
 
 "You can cook if you can/* said Delissa. 
 
 " Can't you?" said Mr. Ball, turning upon 
 her. 
 
 Delissa flushed and felt angry. Mr. Ball 
 became aware that something was wrong. 
 
 " Can't cook ? Too bad ! What's husband 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 59 
 
 say? Nothin' ? Thinks a heap, guess! 
 What? Yes, certainly ! I'll learn y' cookin'. 
 
 D , get a log for th' fire. Certainly 
 
 will ! Spiled his dinner, eh ? Burnt dress, 
 eh ? hand, too terrible pain ! Nothin' 
 easier ! Take lessons me ! Y' know she 
 brought him butter in lordly dish there 
 was feastin' in Bible : eat and drank and was 
 merry for to-morrow they died ! Why not ? 
 Certainly ! Too bad ! Of course they did ! 
 -I'll teach you !" 
 
 Delissa showed Mr. Ball where the various 
 needful stores were kept, and while he was 
 bending over the fire slipped out of the 
 kitchen cabin. 
 
 When she came back she had on a blue 
 dress. As she entered the door she ob- 
 served, with a sudden increase of heat, that 
 Mr. Ball's eye slipped down quickly to where 
 her ankles had been previously visible, and 
 as quickly slipped away again in search of 
 some plate or saucer necessary to his opera- 
 tions as cook. 
 
60 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Dinner's ready/' he now said. '" D , 
 
 dinner." 
 
 D , thus addressed, elongated himself, 
 
 and sat down willingly enough at the table. 
 He blessed the food with unction, his eyes 
 fixed steadily upon it. 
 
 The meal was tolerably silent. Once dur- 
 ing the eating Sidon, without premonitory 
 symptoms of any kind, and as if moved by 
 an inward humor, broke into a hoarse, loud 
 guffaw, a kind of cackle. 
 
 But immediately, and as if anxious to re- 
 move any bad impression this outburst 
 might have caused, he turned to Delissa, and 
 remarked with distinguished irrelevance : 
 
 " 'R appetites, Mrs. Barr, are given us to 
 cons'crate." 
 
 He helped himself to more molasses, while 
 Ball glanced about in all directions, and 
 busied himself partly with eating and partly 
 with the making of hot cakes. 
 
 " What we can't cons'crate we must pluck 
 out. Pluck it out," continued the Saint, in 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 61 
 
 a hollow singsong, at the same time extract- 
 ing a chicken bone from his mouth, with 
 apparent danger to his hand "pluck it out 
 and cast it from you." He cast the chicken 
 bone into the fire. " A degraded appetite is a 
 degraded man. A degraded man is another 
 biscuit, Brother Li is a fiend in human 
 form ; and a fiend is a disgrace and a shame 
 to the place he lives in and the neighborhood 
 that suffers him ; yes, a fiend is a burrnin' 
 shame !" Sidon burred his " r's " furiously. 
 
 Mr. Ball, who thus far had kept the 
 corners of his red lips turned piously down, 
 now, with a suddenness that was astonish- 
 ing, twitched them into a grin that caused 
 the fat of his face to rise up in lumps in odd 
 places, and was near to abolishing his eyes 
 out of his head. 
 
 " That's it," he said, evidently restraining 
 his sense of humor with difficulty "that's 
 what a fiend is ! Certainly ! Have more 
 molasses? He's the wisest man, Mrs. Barr ? 
 Yes, sir ! He's a 'possle ! More coffee ? 
 
62 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Too bad about husband! Dare say per- 
 fect man ! I thought so ! Lived long in 
 wedlock ? No ! Happy state ! Oh, yes ! 
 course! Oh, perfect !" 
 
 Ball rose to make cakes. 
 
 Sidon, munching heavily, continued, fol- 
 lowing the food about with his eyes : 
 
 " Brother Li is right. Wedlock is the 
 gate through which the saints enter into 
 bliss unspeakable. Oh, can't have too much 
 of a good thing ! Butter, Li." 
 
 Mr. Sidon's voice seemed to drip with fat- 
 ness as he spoke. Delissa was not certain 
 whether he had said that wedlock or butter 
 was a bliss unspeakable. 
 
 He continued in more and more of a sing- 
 song : " Ah, the grace o' God ! That's what 
 we all need here below ! We're ugly : we 
 want grace; we're in disgrace: we want 
 grace; we're disgustin', mis'rable, dirrty 
 sinners liars, and horse-thieves, and beastly 
 bishops of false churches, and forgers of 
 false checks. Do we repent? Nay! We 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 63 
 
 return to our pleasurable vices as the dog to 
 his vomit : see, now, that's where we're not 
 graceful ! not full of the grace o' God. 
 Oh, oh, we're at best but human hogs. Hogs 
 we are born, hogs do we remain, and as hogs, 
 hoggishly, do we become extinct. Pray for 
 grace not to be a human hog ! A-n-d " 
 Sidon lengthened this " and " out beyond all 
 the others to signify an oncoming climax 
 " a-n-d finally, brethern and sistern, we kin 
 gyrate and circumlocute, but we're nothin' 
 but dirrt dirrt " he seemed to take a de- 
 light in the word " and damned dirrt at 
 that, unless the grace of the Church is spread 
 upon our souls. Molasses, Li." 
 
 Mr. Sidon, who by this time had eaten 
 enormously, sat back in his chair. 
 
 " Husband home soon ?" inquired Mr. 
 Ball, wiping his red lips. 
 
 Mrs. Barr thought he would be home soon. 
 
 " Eat now? or wait?" continued Ball; 
 " wait, I guess ; good ; too bad 'bout burnt 
 hand !" 
 
64 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Better than a burrnt soul," said Sidon, 
 with his burr. " Better to marry than burrn !" 
 he added, out of a clear sky. 
 
 Ball looked furtively at Sidon, as if he 
 wished he would stop. Sidon continued, 
 
 " You're a lonely woman, a-livin' here, 
 Mrs. Barr." 
 
 " Oh, my husband, he" 
 
 " Ha'n't you never thought what it might 
 be to see the crystal pavement, the golden 
 towers, the silver houses, of the Great City? 
 Ha'n't you? No; you ha'n't! You're 
 buried ; oncet in these woods, twicet in 
 sin ! O h, come out !" 
 
 Sidon's voice almost roared. 
 
 Ball left the table and took a chair against 
 the wall. His eyes slipped restlessly about. 
 He seemed ill at ease. 
 
 "We," continued Sidon "we are Latter- 
 Day Saints. There were saints in olden 
 times, daughter." 
 
 Delissa recoiled within herself from this 
 address, but she showed no sign save to 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 65 
 
 move to the opposite corner of the cabin 
 and sit down on a bench. 
 
 " But we are the Latter Saints : like the 
 latter rain, we visit the earth gently." Si- 
 don's voice seemed once more to drop with 
 fat. " Let no man deceive you, daughter ; 
 we're no friends to sin ; oh, no ! We're the 
 salt of the earth ; our savor is not lost ; 
 we're the sweet burnt sacrifice, smelling in 
 the nosterils; our mouths drop waters of 
 wisdom ; oh, daughter, the tongues of those 
 whom Smith hath come strongly upon are 
 steeped in honey." 
 
 Delissa began, she knew not why, to feel 
 hot all over. Mr. Ball was playing a sort 
 of devil's tattoo with his feet, resting on his 
 heels, and quivering the toe ends of his 
 boots at a tremendous rate. 
 
 "The playsures of the soul are pu-er," 
 shouted Sidon, with uncalled-for vehemence. 
 "Come out to us!" 
 
 Delissa was about to say something to 
 the effect of her husband's having a voice 
 
66 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 in the matter, when the younger Saint 
 spoke. 
 
 " Bring husband out/' said he, abruptly, 
 and kept up the silent tattoo his toes were 
 playing on the air. 
 
 " Bring him," said Sidon, rising and 
 straightening out the several joints and com- 
 partments of his frame, until the entire lank- 
 ness of him was erected to its full height. 
 Delissa rose too. She was growing angry, 
 and at the same time afraid. 
 
 Ball's eyes twitched about more rapidly 
 than ever in his head. 
 
 "Oh," continued Sidon, "be gen'rous; 
 give your husband ; give yourself ! Be not 
 mean like them at Muddlety, that give only 
 bruises and blows to the Saints. Oh, there's 
 a hell that longs to feed on sinners ! There's 
 a House, and its rafters are fire, and it's 
 shingled over with slabs o' hot fire, and all 
 thine enemies shall fry therein, in the fat of 
 their own mean thoughts o h! " 
 
 Sidon's recollection of what he had re- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 67 
 
 ceived from the hands of the Gentiles at 
 Muddlety was lashing him into a frenzy. 
 Ball's tattoo became faster each moment ; 
 his fingers, too, were beating on the side of 
 his chair ; and his eyes slipped from Sidon 
 to Delissa and back again every instant. 
 Sidon rushed on, extending one hairy hand, 
 and pointing a long finger with a black nail 
 at the end, as if at an object visible to his 
 corporeal eye : 
 
 " There, there, over the door o' that House 
 it is written, ' Mene, mene, Tekel !' Daugh- 
 ter, what does that signify? It's an allusion. 
 Where ? In the Book. To whom ? To 
 Tekel ! Nowhere else in the great Book is 
 Tekel mentioned ; only there ; there he 
 stands, singled out, with that one word 
 pinned to him forever, for all generations to 
 look at. There he stands Tekel ! Mene, 
 mene, Tekel. Not once ' mene,' but twice 
 6 mene/ Tekel, the meanest man in the 
 whole world. How mean do you think that 
 man Tekel must ha' been ? No meaner than 
 the Gentiles up a-yonder !" 
 
68 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 The Saint was rolling voluminously on, 
 borne chiefly upon the sound of his own 
 voice, when the little man twitched his coat- 
 tails from behind, and Sidon sat down quick- 
 ly, hard, and unexpected to himself. He 
 looked reproachfully at his companion. De- 
 lissa, happening to have her back to the two 
 men, was unable to guess the cause of the 
 sudden cessation of Sidon's oratory, but she 
 was thankful that it had stopped. She 
 wished that Nicholas would come back 
 perhaps now he never would ! if he only 
 would, and throw both the men out of the 
 cabin. As she looked at the hand which the 
 little fat man had so cleverly wrapped about, 
 she could have taken a shovelful of hot 
 wood-ashes and flung it in both their faces; 
 and the picture of herself in this action 
 passed fleetingly before her mental vision. 
 She turned towards the two visitors again, 
 thinking angrily how Sidon's beard would 
 sizzle and smoke with the coals in it ; and 
 how, as for the little man, with his heavy 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 69 
 
 black eyebrows and red lips but before she 
 could imagine the proper torture to be meted 
 out to him, she caught his eye. She colored 
 faintly, feeling that her detestation must be 
 painted upon her face. 
 
 But Ball, as for the first time he squarely 
 met the girl's glance, thought simply that 
 she looked very soft and female, and that 
 without doubt they could induce a person 
 of that gentleness and facility of disposition 
 to fall in with their plans and join the 
 "Church." 
 
 Delissa, not liking to be inspected so close- 
 ly, looked again at the younger Saint as if 
 she expected him to say something. 
 
 He broke out suddenly : " Since y'r man 
 doesn't come, better go h'm, too bad 
 yes; 's late; must go, Tostle ! Just cook 
 you another batch o' hot cakes 'fore I go. 
 H'm! eh?" 
 
 Sidon continued in his unwilling silence, 
 while Ball spent a few minutes in cooking. 
 He covered the hot food carefully with plates 
 
70 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 and saucers. When all was done he turned 
 to Delissa : 
 
 "Don't seem to understand cook'ry? 
 No ; s'pose I come again ; give another les- 
 son ; come same hour ? Oh, certainly. 
 No ; no trouble ; you'll learn same hour to- 
 morrow. Good-night. Blessed be house !" 
 
 The girl had scarcely time to decide 
 whether or no she would have them come 
 again, for Ball, seizing Sidon by the arm, 
 directed him to and pushed him through the 
 door. 
 
 " Oh, the blessing of" 
 
 But Ball had hurtled him out across the 
 step, and, shutting the door behind them 
 both, snapped the blessing off short. Sidon's 
 voice could still be heard outside, rolling 
 into the darkness. 
 
 Delissa felt her heart beat freely again. 
 
 As Ball rowed Sidon across the river he 
 told him he was no small fool not to see the 
 girl was scared. Now here was their chance. 
 " That gal was not happy. Her husband 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 71 
 
 must be cross to her. PYaps he threw her 
 in the fire. Certainly; why not? By gol! 
 if he's like that, we'll have her : she'll come. 
 But tact !" 
 
 " Dad burrn it, Ball !" said Sidon, " when 
 religion gets a grip on me " 
 
 " Religion's all well enough in its place ; 
 I'm religious at right time." 
 
 " It don't grip you," said Sidon. 
 
 " Tact, for ev'r'-day use, anyway," replied 
 Ball, tugging at the oars. 
 
 " It don't throw you down. Tears like it 
 got 'mongst my very bow'ls. Tears like I 
 can't holler loud enough. Tears like I 
 don't know what Fin a-goin' to say next ; 
 but all I've got to do is to open my mouth, 
 and the Lord fills me full o' wor-r-rds ! 
 Tears like it wasn't my voice I heerd a- 
 speakin' " 
 
 " Voice of a durned fool 's what ye heerd !" 
 said Ball, as he stranded the boat, and with 
 difficulty pulled it up to the spot where he 
 had found it. " I tell ye, tact ! There's 
 
72 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 verses for it. Hasn't the Lord foresight? 
 Well, foresight's where tact commences; 
 tact is oil on the waters. Certainly ! The 
 Lord didn't go and play the fool with Moses ; 
 He didn't command Moses to take up that 
 serpent by his head, did He ? Nay, but by 
 the tail. Certainly. Well, wasn't that tact ? 
 Dank, ye're lackin' tact! Just 's tactless as 
 a sheep." 
 
 Sidon, silenced by the example from the 
 Book, walked wearily up the mountain road. 
 Ball spent the hour in pointing out to him 
 that by a little skilful cookery at the right 
 moment, and a great deal of soft persuasion, 
 they might win the girl. They passed the 
 night at Red Dolly's cabin. 
 
 When Nicholas returned, he made no 
 mention of what had occurred. But he was 
 humble, Delissa thought, almost penitent in 
 demeanor. When he sat down to his meal 
 she could have cried. It was a lie, this 
 meal! She would tell him all about the 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 73 
 
 Mormons. But instantly the thought of 
 Red Dolly crossed her mind. It was her 
 husband's part to speak first. The supper 
 was at all events a well-cooked lie. Nicholas 
 ate heartily. Delissa looked at him shyly 
 now and again, wondering greatly that there 
 was not some trace of Dolly on his coun- 
 tenance ; as if " Dolly " must be written 
 there in invisible ink, and perhaps a word 
 would bring it out. Nicholas thought to 
 himself, things are upset, but I won't speak 
 to her to-night ; I'll tell her to-morrow after 
 breakfast that I got my dinners that week at 
 my brother's house, and I'll explain about 
 Red Dolly. 
 
 The next morning, however, it was rainy, 
 and it seemed to Nicholas far too cold and 
 cloudy to broach such a ticklish subject. 
 After all, D'liss was aware that there were no 
 grounds for jealousy of Red Dolly or of any 
 one else : she knew, of course, that he had 
 been hungry, and had gone elsewhere to be 
 properly fed. 
 
74 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Delissa was therefore left hanging in the 
 air about Red Dolly, and was by no means 
 pleased with the position. But she had not 
 yet learned to break in upon her husband's 
 silence. She determined she would put Red 
 Dolly out of her mind. After all, she had 
 said a great deal too much about it, and no 
 doubt the General had maligned her. 
 
 It continued cold and rainy for several 
 days. Nicholas was obliged to set out each 
 day before noon for Carr's Mill. He was 
 hauling the lumber he had cut. The farm- 
 work over, he hauled two loads before even- 
 ing. He, of course, had breakfast and supper 
 at his cabin, but instead of stopping at Mrs. 
 Reuben's for dinner, he took a piece of 
 something with him in the wagon, and ate 
 it on the road. He was determined that, 
 come what might, he would give his wife no 
 cause of offence, and would stick to her food 
 if it cost him his life. 
 
 The two Mormons, seeing him pass Mrs. 
 Reuben's cabin, and inquiring his name, 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 75 
 
 learned who he was, and his hours of ab- 
 sence from home while teaming it. They 
 took advantage of their knowledge to visit 
 Mrs. Barr at just those hours when her hus- 
 band was absent. 
 
 Their visits were short Ball cooked sup- 
 per for himself and Sidon, and, when this was 
 despatched, a second for Delissa and her 
 husband. Delissa asked them nothing for 
 the dinner eaten ; that Ball cooked the sec- 
 ond dinner earned, in her opinion, the first. 
 
 The Mormons, in order to excite no dis- 
 trust in Barr's bosom, always avoided the road 
 on which they would have met him with his 
 team, and instead took a " blaze " through 
 the woods to and from the crossing. 
 
 The third day of their coming Ball under- 
 took to sound Delissa. This was experi- 
 mental. He wished to find a weak spot. 
 That there was something wrong in the 
 household he felt sure ; for the very fact 
 that the girl allowed him and Sidon to come 
 each day and cook two meals, and, further, 
 
76 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 had very clearly not mentioned the matter 
 to her husband, was proof enough of this. 
 
 First of all, he set about asking her whom 
 she knew in the neighborhood. She replied 
 that she was acquainted with Amri Carr 
 only, but seeing here a possible opportunity 
 for gaining knowledge, she asked him if he 
 happened to know Miss Stout. 
 
 Ball heard something perhaps in the tone 
 of voice which set him on the track. He 
 answered by a question : Did she know her ? 
 No ? and what sort of a woman was she ? 
 Well- 
 Suddenly it flashed across his mind that he 
 had seen Nicholas at Red Dolly's cabin one 
 morning as he himself had been reading a 
 paper on the wood-pile. He conceived it 
 likely enough that the girl's husband, al- 
 though he knew Dolly well, had never told 
 his wife that he knew her ; and if Mrs. Barr 
 hadn't already learned that her husband fre- 
 quented Dolly's cabin, she certainly would 
 in the future, and it might be as well to pre- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 77 
 
 pare for the time when she did. He pro- 
 ceeded forthwith to paint soot black by 
 speaking all the evil that he could invent of 
 Red Dolly. He concluded by saying that 
 no self-respecting person would be seen near 
 her cabin ; that even so pure and uncontam- 
 inatable a soul as Dank Sidon's had felt 
 her abode to be defilement. 
 
 Delissa sat spellbound now that she heard 
 all this from an adult source. 
 
 As she thought it over, after the departure 
 of the Saints, she grew more and more un- 
 happy. The rain was falling in torrents. 
 Everything had gone wrong that day: she 
 had broken her comb in the morning, her 
 looking-glass in the afternoon ; four chickens 
 had died just before dusk; and now as night 
 fell she heard such news as this. 
 
 During the next few days the relation 
 between herself and her husband, strained 
 from the moment when she had mentioned 
 the unfortunate Dolly Stout, grew more and 
 more distressing and unnatural. He was 
 
78 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 silent ; he was always silent. Delissa was 
 afraid to speak. She would have given any- 
 thing on earth to have asked him point- 
 blank about Red Dolly and even to have 
 begged forgiveness for what she had former- 
 ly said, and then to have had him clear 
 the whole matter up with a few plain 
 words. 
 
 But a silence grew up between them. 
 They seemed to drift steadily further apart. 
 
 Nicholas had now enjoyed several days of 
 wonderfully fine cooking. It had surprised 
 him. He was not prepared for the rapidity 
 of the change. Moreover, it was regularly 
 good. The only matter that remained in 
 obscurity was that the cooking at breakfast 
 was invariably poor. However, he did not 
 wish to refer to the matter at all ; his wife 
 was progressing, evidently doing her best ; 
 and in his slow way he loved her for it per- 
 haps she was sleepy at breakfast-time. It 
 was odd that she appeared to be so moody, 
 however. Well, in a few days as soon 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 79 
 
 as it got warmer he would speak to her 
 about it. 
 
 Delissa, in the meantime, became more 
 sensitive each day to the deceit which this 
 Mormon-cooked meal involved. " I don't 
 tell him a lie/' she would say, " but I feed 
 him lies ; and I'm a liar !" At another time 
 this would have been too much for her moral 
 digestion, which was properly weak. Now, 
 and as things were, the thought that her 
 husband might leave her forever if she didn't 
 cook well, and the necessity of keeping him 
 away from that horrid, red creature, made 
 the lie seem unavoidable. But her sense of 
 guilty falsehood, of stealthy concealment and 
 subterfuge, combined with the bitter war 
 which her jealousy made upon her faith in 
 Nicholas, deprived her of every shred of 
 happiness and peace. 
 
 Her work was a task heavily undertaken 
 and wearily done. And the sleep that fol- 
 lowed it was restless and unrefreshing. Dur- 
 ing this period the girl, herwork being over, 
 
8o Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 would pole herself across to the little rocky 
 island, and sit there, feeling dreary and small, 
 amidst the noise of the water. 
 
 One such morning, while she sat there, the 
 water of the rapids seemed to make a noise 
 that she had never before heard. The sky, 
 with that one cloud sailing through it, ap- 
 peared different to her from any sky she had 
 ever known ; and the motion of a hemlock 
 bough to and fro as the current caught and 
 released it, caught and released it again, 
 seemed to her strange and sad. And those 
 two dirty little cabins over there where 
 had they come from ? How unhappy it all 
 looked ! How comfortless, and cold, and 
 gray! 
 
 She was cold, too. She saw the warm, 
 yellow light of the declining sun far above 
 the deep, noisy, lonely gorge in which she 
 was. 
 
 Oh, if she could live in some place like 
 that, where it was always warm, and golden, 
 and far away ! Yes, she was miserable now. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 81 
 
 She must be ugly, too. You were always 
 ugly when you were miserable. But she 
 couldn't see herself any more, since she had 
 broken the looking-glass. She knew her 
 face must look horribly. 
 
 There was a small cove in the island, a tiny 
 harbor for leaves and sailing scales of buds, 
 and the like, and almost landlocked by a 
 narrow rib of rock. Delissa went across to 
 it, and, kneeling down, leaned over this pool, 
 supporting herself on her two hands, which 
 she thrust up to the wrists in the shallow 
 water, the pebbles giving way about her 
 fingers. 
 
 She looked down into this clear mirror with 
 a deep sigh. The image looked sadly, stead- 
 fastly into her eyes a young girl in a blue 
 dress, pale, and with soft, yellow hair falling 
 forward and about her face. Delissa looked 
 long. Oh yes, she had known it ! She was 
 ugly now ; it was pitiable. Her right hand 
 moving in the water caused ripples to arise, 
 which obscured the image. 
 
82 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 As face and figure slowly and waveringly 
 reappeared, Delissa sighed again : 
 
 " I'm just as miserable as if I'd killed 
 somebody; just as ugly, too. I hate my- 
 self. You're a liar," she continued, looking 
 at her own reflection, and nodding her head 
 slightly towards it. " You've very pretty hair 
 or you had once but you're just a mean 
 sneak now; and you're jealous and bad, 
 and you're just like every wife I ever read 
 of, now just ! and your husband's left you, 
 and he's gone off to some other woman 
 and you're alone and it don't make any 
 odds whether you cry or don't! I've lost 
 my beauty that's what you have! and 
 all my color ; and you're just as ugly and 
 lonely " 
 
 A tear dropped heavily upon the water, 
 and again the image passed fleetly away in 
 ripples, and a shimmering confusion of bright 
 colors took its place. Delissa began to cry, 
 but still held herself in check till when the 
 image should grow together once more ; but 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 83 
 
 no sooner had the light and trembling com- 
 motion of the waters subsided, and the fair 
 girlish picture appeared again, than two more 
 tears, hanging from their lids, dropped to- 
 gether, and shook the living mirror and its 
 colored shadow into momentary confusion. 
 
 Delissa gave a sudden sob, and cried out : 
 " I haven't even got a glass, not even ! and 
 I've broken my comb, and he's there now, 
 somewhere with her. Oh, I'm so ugly! 
 I'm so lonely!" 
 
 The tears welled up; she cried bitterly 
 for relief ; even after she had forgotten why 
 she had begun to cry, she continued, feeling 
 instinctive need of tears, and of a great many 
 tears and these came, accompanied by sobs 
 which shook her entire body, and to bear 
 the sudden shocks of which she had to sup- 
 port and brace herself with both hands. 
 
 Presently she heard the noise of the water 
 through her sobs, and through her own mur- 
 murs of pain, which before she had not 
 seemed to be aware of, and which still 
 
84 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 seemed to call for more sobs to relieve them. 
 But the sobs now came at greater intervals. 
 The water had a comforting, gentle sound. 
 After a while it was over. She felt as if 
 something had happened something had 
 been broken ; a spirit, yearning to be free, 
 was released. 
 
 As she sat up it seemed to her that the 
 little brown brambles about her were touch- 
 ing her tenderly. A spray of green brier 
 moved by the breeze swayed against her 
 cheek, and then away again. 
 
 The girl lay back, feeling exhausted, 
 against a rock. The rock held her so firmly ! 
 The little, rough mosses were damp and 
 cool, as she laid her burning face against 
 them. How kind it all seemed ! The air 
 was cool against her eyelids. She surren- 
 dered herself to a sense of lassitude, almost 
 of peace. Presently she walked slowly down 
 to the boat, and, bending a moment over the 
 flowing water, bathed her hot forehead with 
 the palm of her hand. It was the most 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 85 
 
 grateful, cold touch. She looked up and 
 saw the fleeting, gray expanse of water. 
 She could almost have thanked the river for 
 its goodness to her. 
 
 As she rowed the boat across to the cabin, 
 she thought that perhaps to-morrow might 
 be clear ; if it was she would walk by herself 
 to Mrs. Reuben's. The same evening, as 
 Nicholas ferried his yoke of oxen and team 
 of horses across the Big Thunder in a light 
 rain, he saw tracks of men in the mud on his 
 side of the river. This surprised him. He 
 put the team and yoke in the stable, and, re- 
 turning, examined these traces by the light 
 of his lantern. Two men, clearly. Well, he 
 wouldn't ask Delissa ; if she didn't choose 
 to tell him, he supposed it was none of his 
 business. Queer thing, all the same ! 
 
 The dinner was unusually good that even- 
 ing. Nicholas remarked it, intending to be 
 pleasant. Delissa flushed. Her husband, 
 looking at her more attentively, thought it 
 odd that, now that everything was at last 
 
86 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 going smoothly, good dinners and all that, 
 she should be still moody and flush. 
 
 To-morrow he would certainly tell her 
 all about where he had got those dinners 
 to-morrow as soon as he had hauled his 
 last load, or at least he would if it didn't 
 rain. 
 
 "You're a-growin' to be a master-cook, 
 D'liss," he said. " How much flour did ye 
 mix to the corn meal in that bread ?" 
 
 Delissa replied promptly that she didn't 
 know. She appeared suddenly to have 
 found something that needed her undivided 
 attention at the far corner of the cabin. 
 Nicholas thought he would find out who 
 those men were. 
 
 The day following his discovery of the 
 foot-marks, Nicholas took General Floyd into 
 his confidence. He thought that as the 
 General was a boy only going on twelve, he 
 couldn't have any sense of a family quarrel ; 
 the strained relations of husband and wife 
 
o 
 
 a 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 87 
 
 were all smoke to him ; nor would he be 
 able to build a bridge from the effect to the 
 cause ; he lacked the knowledge of age and 
 years, and therefore he was safe. Besides, 
 Nicholas, who was the most naturally un- 
 deceitful man in the world, knew that the 
 General possessed a devilish wit and inven- 
 tive genius in the way of all things indirect 
 and underhand. 
 
 He called the boy out of his cabin, where 
 Mrs. Reuben was as busy as usual. The Gen- 
 eral knew by his uncle's manner that some- 
 thing important was in the wind. He there- 
 fore assumed an air of superior listlessness, 
 and came slowly out on the road, snapping 
 his knee-joints as he walked. His jack- 
 knife, with the blade opened, was in his 
 hand. As he advanced towards Nicholas he 
 tossed the knife lightly in the air, and dex- 
 terously caught it again, all the while look- 
 ing at it with an expression which seemed to. 
 say : You see, you silly thing, I can always 
 catch you. When he had reached the spot 
 
88 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 where his uncle stood, he looked at him as 
 if he had just made the discovery that he 
 was standing there. 
 
 "Hello, Nic! that you ?" 
 
 Nicholas said, bluntly and fearlessly, to 
 the boy, who now stood with his hands 
 rammed into his breeches pockets and his 
 eye cocked at his uncle : 
 
 " There's men comes about my house 
 comes in my absence." He looked inquir- 
 ingly at the General. 
 
 "Wife home, Nic?" 
 
 " Certainly," replied his uncle. 
 
 " D'ye trust her alone?" 
 
 " Why, concern it " 
 
 " Do ye, or don't ye, though?" 
 
 " Trust her ? What's that" 
 
 " Got this to do with it ! If she's sound, 
 means honest, don't ye know, why, what's 
 the odds if a hundred men tramps about 
 her? If she's not sound 'ain't got sense, 
 don't ye know, why " 
 
 " Why what?" said Nicholas, gruffly. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 89 
 
 " What's your opinion, anyway ?" said the 
 General, imperturbably. 
 
 " Don't know," said Nicholas, glumly, and 
 looking suspiciously at the General. 
 
 " Women's women al ways," said the 
 General, throwing his jack-knife in the air 
 again and catching it. " Say that, don't 
 they ? the old grandmas ; they had ought 
 to know ; they been women once : women's 
 women 's what I've heerd 'em say ; guess 
 it means like sayin' a cat's a cat ; can't 
 trust 'em, not near the cream-pot, sure !" 
 
 Nicholas could have cowhided his nephew 
 on the spot. A thousand thoughts, and all 
 of them argus-eyed with suspicions, began 
 to shoot like comets in every direction 
 through his mind. 
 
 " What 'n the whole world did I ever ask 
 you to help me for?" said he, at length, 
 angrily helpless of any better answer to the 
 boy's insinuations. 
 
 " Ask me to help ye !" exclaimed the 
 General, in his shrillest voice, and elevating 
 
go , Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 his eyebrows so that his scalp moved back 
 on his skull an inch or more, as if his very 
 skin were astounded at such a thing ; " ask 
 me ! ye didn't ! If ye will, I'll help ye, 
 quick enough." 
 
 " Well ?" said Nicholas, savagely. 
 
 " ' Well ' ain't askin'," said the boy ; " not 
 fair askin', anyway. I don't give no hungry 
 man his supper for sayin' * Well !' " 
 
 It was not in vain that Mrs. Reuben had 
 drilled her young savage with elementary 
 politeness. 
 
 " Help me, then," said Nicholas. 
 
 " Why, I guess it's those two Mormon- 
 izers, NIC," said the boy, sweetly and con- 
 fidentially. 
 
 Nicholas didn't know whether it was or 
 was not. But in any case they must do 
 something. The General, therefore, having 
 Nicholas now entirely in his grasp, laid a 
 plan of operations. The next day they 
 were to go fishing together. They would 
 take their rifles, too. He, the General, 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 91 
 
 would do all the lying that was necessary. 
 Then they'd turn up at an unexpected mo- 
 ment. As for the Mormonizers, he knew it 
 was they, because they hadn't eaten a dinner 
 of Mrs. Reuben's for seven days now ; they 
 went off every day, and ate, they said, at the 
 mill ; but they lied in their throats. He'd 
 seen 'em going in another direction. 
 
 The General could scarcely sleep that 
 night with desire for the coming day. Ever 
 since his mother had taken up with the two 
 Mormons, the General had suffered more 
 than he deemed necessary. He'd be darned 
 if he could get enough to eat while Old Lick- 
 chops sat at table ! If there was no more 
 coffee but one cup, Dank Sidon had it ; 
 if there was one last biscuit, Dank grabbed 
 it ; if there was a little apple-butter only on 
 the plate, Dank gobbled it. Dank even paid 
 visits to the apple-barrel in the corn-crib ; 
 he guzzled night and day! And, besides, 
 his hands were wet, and he had two front 
 teeth wanting. The General could have 
 
92 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 roasted him alive on the latter indictment 
 only. 
 
 As for Fatty, he wasn't so bad ; he could 
 play jack-straws (he cheated, though) ; he 
 was good enough. But he, the General, 
 wouldn't trust anybody who moved his hands 
 about like that. And look at his eyes ; he 
 was always looking sideways one way before 
 he looked sideways the other, just as ifihe'd 
 had his hand in your pocket and wondered 
 whether you guessed it. Both of 'em was 
 dogs, anyway. 
 
 The General accordingly passed a night 
 made restless by dreams of torture and re- 
 venge. 
 
 Early the next afternoon Nicholas and 
 the boy set off with their fishing-rods. They 
 floated past the island, but as soon as the 
 turn of the river hid them from sight, they 
 beached the boat and began to fish. In half 
 an hour Nicholas was on tenter-hooks to go 
 back. But General Floyd would suffer no 
 such folly. The Mormonizers must be well 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 93 
 
 hooked before they drew them in. Nicholas 
 continued, therefore, to fish savagely, think- 
 ing of all things under heaven rather than of 
 the fish he had caught or was catching, and, 
 whether or no as a consequence of this ab- 
 sent state of mind, was more plenteously 
 rewarded with luck than ever in his life be- 
 fore. He drew out dozens of fish. 
 
 The two elders came down the mountain 
 at their accustomed hour. The dug-out was 
 gone, but the General had taken care that 
 the "tub" should be on the bank. Ball 
 rowed his brother clumsily across. 
 
 Delissa had suffered from bad dreams the 
 night previous. These were vague, but 
 troublous and unhappy. She awoke with a 
 picture fading rapidly from her sleep-memory 
 of Mr. Ball very ill disguised in Nicholas's 
 great-coat, stealing on her from behind, and 
 whispering that all he wanted was to see if 
 he could make a nice dish out of her red 
 petticoat. But no sooner had he begun to 
 cook it than Misery had upset the frying- 
 
94 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 pan, in which the red petticoat was already 
 no bigger than a little red bean or pea ; and 
 in the dense smoke that followed the over- 
 turning of the pan suddenly appeared Delis- 
 sa's wedding-dress all torn, rumpled, be- 
 smirched, and in rags. Delissa awoke crying, 
 and still hearing, " Too bad !" and yet fur- 
 ther back in her sleep, a remote cackle from 
 Sidon, as if from regions of the air. 
 
 When, the same afternoon, she saw the 
 Latter-Day Saints coming across in the 
 " tub," she made up her mind that it would 
 be the last day they entered the house. 
 
 Ball made unusual despatch in both the 
 preparing and the eating of his dinner on 
 this occasion. His eyes shot about from 
 one object to another, Delissa thought, with 
 even more than their usual celerity and sus- 
 picion. Brother Sidon was silent, save when, 
 according to habit, he made noises with 
 his mouth. Once, in a momentary absence 
 from the cabin, the girl thought she heard 
 Sidon burst into the first note of his cackle. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 95 
 
 She started, for the sound brought the con- 
 fusion and fear of her dream back to her ; 
 but either a fat hand was laid quickly over 
 the mouth of the elder, and the cackle un- 
 timely cut off, or else Delissa was nervous 
 and dreaming, this time with her eyes open. 
 When she re-entered, Sidon was drooping 
 on his chair, with the fingers of one hand 
 up the sleeve of the other arm, and on his 
 face a look of settled spirituality. 
 
 Delissa wondered how she had ever al- 
 lowed two such men to enter the house at all. 
 
 As Ball finished cooking the second din- 
 ner, and the girl had set the table and pushed 
 out of sight those plates which bore the 
 mark of use, Misery was heard miaouing dis- 
 mally at the door. 
 
 Delissa opened the door on a crack and 
 Misery slid through, accompanied by a blast 
 of cold air and the sound of rain. 
 
 The girl heard the tall Saint say, in a low 
 voice, to the stout one, " Rain again, Li ; 
 better put it off." 
 
96 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 There was no audible answer. 
 
 The fire had sunk down to a huge mass of 
 glowing wood-coals, which diffused a warm, 
 colored light through the little cabin. 
 
 The rafters were red in this glow. The 
 white, knitted socks and dish-rags, hanging 
 on the walls opposite the fireplace, were col- 
 ored by the same light. 
 
 The steel cheek of the axe -head on its 
 pegs and the copper kettle below it cast a 
 red sparkle back to the coals. Misery, who 
 sat as close as in his wisdom he deemed pol- 
 itic to even a dying fire, was, save for the 
 green lustre of his orbs, as red as rust. Even 
 Dank Sidon's long brown beard received a 
 golden polish or gloss from the flame front- 
 ing which he sat with his chair tilted against 
 the wall ; and Delissa, moving about erect, 
 restlessly, and with her eyes cast down, took 
 from the unseen rays of the fire a warm, 
 golden light over all her person. It lay on 
 her blue dress, on her neck and hands, and 
 made her face, that was pale of late with pain 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 97 
 
 and anxiety, seem as radiant as it had been 
 in reality only a few weeks before. 
 
 It was the twilight of fire, melting slowly 
 into darkness as the ashes settled and sank. 
 Moved by a side glance from Ball, who was 
 busy wiping the dishes, forks, and knives 
 which Delissa handed to him after washing, 
 the tall elder arose. 
 
 " The speerit has fallen/' he said, adding 
 suddenly, as he saw Misery rise, hunch his 
 back, and yawn, " on me ! Daughter, will 
 you join me in prayer?" 
 
 Delissa replied that she felt no call to pray 
 at the moment, but she hoped he would fol- 
 low his inclination. She refilled the dish- 
 pan with boiling water, and rattled the knives 
 and forks about inside so as to make con- 
 siderable noise. The noise relieved her. 
 
 " I will pray/* said Sidon, seemingly in a 
 repentant or depressed condition of mind, 
 for he began in a very low voice, not to say 
 melancholy " I will pray for thee, little 
 daughter, that thou mayst be like cinna- 
 
gS Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 mon, and aloes, and incense, and nard oh, 
 nard that lend themselves willingly to the 
 oh ! Lord's use ! That thou mayst be as 
 sweet, new milk upon the tongue of a 
 Saint " 
 
 "In Par'dise," snapped out Ball. 
 
 Sidon repeated the phrase in his own time 
 and with his own unction, and began again, 
 or rather continued, for the volume and flow 
 of sound which rushed from him were never 
 wholly silenced, even if the words had ceased 
 or hung fire : 
 
 " May may be sensible of the pleasur- 
 able touch of the Holy One " 
 
 " As it were !" ejaculated Ball, fiercely, with 
 a glance at his co-mate. Sidon, perhaps in 
 irritation, did not repeat the correction, but, 
 stroking his beard gently, with his eyes a 
 trifle closed, and slightly swaying to and fro, 
 he continued ; 
 
 " And be, and feel, and submit softly to 
 the fire of the love of the One Body of the 
 True Church, and that thou, in fine and final- 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 99 
 
 ly, may be moved, and thrilled, and warmed, 
 and overcome with and by the everlastingly 
 sweet kiss " 
 
 Ball dropped a dish in the pan of water 
 with a splash, and, without turning his head, 
 snapped out, sharply : 
 
 " O' th' Lord ! Church's embrace! hm !" 
 
 " Of the Lord !" roared Sidon, slowly and 
 deliberately. 
 
 "Tact! Tact! Pray for tact, 'postle! 
 Hm ! we need tact, sister." 
 
 Ball had now gone so far as to call Delissa 
 by this title. Sidon had come to a grieved 
 and gloomy pause. He now added, in near- 
 ly his natural voice, though with his eyes 
 tight shut, that he would pray alone. 
 
 " Labor and prayer are not in 'cord," he 
 sighed, with a glance at Ball, who was wip- 
 ing knives and forks with the rapidity of a 
 machine invented for the purpose. He 
 shuffled softly across the uneven floor, and 
 disappeared in the shed, closing the door 
 after him. 
 
ioo Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Delissa instantly took fright. The door 
 was shut, and here she was alone with this 
 nasty little weasel with his fat fingers. 
 
 She was afraid now to meet Mr. Ball's eye, 
 and afraid when he glanced sideways at her, 
 as she felt he was at the moment doing, that 
 he would read her fear in her face. 
 
 But not even a more acute observer than 
 Ball could have divined the girl's medita- 
 tions. Her fingers were moving about their 
 work dexterously, rapidly ; and she herself, 
 erect and busy, had, if anything, a rather 
 dreamy and inattentive look in her blue 
 eyes. 
 
 " W're leavin' t'-morrer mornin','' said he, 
 as he wiped the plate she put down beside 
 him, without lifting his eyes from it. 
 
 Delissa made no reply. 
 
 " Glad to get shet o' such nuisances, eh ?" 
 
 Delissa said " Oh no," rather more pleas- 
 antly than she would have liked. 
 
 " Ain't bent any t'ward our " 
 
 " No," said Delissa, firmly. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 101 
 
 " Too bad ! Guessed 's much ! You're 
 too good hm ! don't need it ! yes ; no ; 
 fact!" 
 
 Delissa said that she didn't pretend to be 
 so very good. 
 
 " Don't ye ?" returned Ball, sharply. Then, 
 sweetening his voice, " Y' have beauty, any- 
 way; beauty's better'n goodness in a wom- 
 an ain't 't so?" 
 
 The girl's heart began beating rapidly. 
 But she made no response, and this en- 
 couraged the Saint. 
 
 " Yes, you've beauty; mustn't blush; 
 beauty's beauty gift o' God, eh ? Certain- 
 ly, can't be denied. No, but it's danger 
 it's danger." 
 
 Delissa, fearing to be silent, replied, shaki- 
 ly and at random, that she didn't know 
 much about such things. 
 
 The Saint began to tremble down his fat 
 legs. He knew the time had come. 
 
 "Yes y' do," he exclaimed, "know all 
 about such things." 
 
102 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Facing her suddenly, he laid one hand on 
 her sleeve. Delissa withdrew the arm. 
 
 " Beauty's 'traction ; 'traction's pleasure ; 
 pleasure's life. Who gives life ? blessed be 
 's name ! Ah, you're beautiful ; nobody sees 
 it ; ah, nobody has eyes for it ; ah, nobody 
 praises it no, they don't. Y' just waste y'r 
 beauty cookin'; burn it over th' fire ; kill it 
 with carryin'; cry it off y'r cheeks all night. 
 Ain't 't so ? Know it is ! But some sees 
 y'r beauty, some has eyes for it." 
 
 Delissa breathed heavily ; the blood filled 
 her face ; her bosom heaved visibly ; her lips 
 parted ; she felt a momentary giddiness, and 
 dropped the dish-rag in the hot water, at 
 the same time catching hold of the ears of 
 the dish-pan to support herself. The young 
 Saint's eyes travelled rapidly from the girl's 
 face over her entire length, and back to her 
 face again. He saw her agitation, and inter- 
 preted it according to his lights. His hand 
 hesitated in the air, close to her shoulder, 
 without touching it. " There's some sees it," 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 103 
 
 he continued, hoarsely. " Some has eyes for 
 nothin' else in the world ; some as 'd perish 
 ruther n'r see y'r beauty fade out, wash out, 
 flicker out like a candle, leave y' white, wax 
 burnt y'rself out cookin' ! Ah ! that's it ! 
 Cookin'!" 
 
 Inspiration had come upon Sidon in the 
 outer shed. His voice was now rolling about 
 to his heart's content, and the floor could be 
 heard creaking under his pious knees. De- 
 lissa had turned her head, and during Ball's 
 speech was looking out of her soft blue eyes 
 at the little man, her hands still firmly clasp- 
 ing the dish-pan. Ball rushed on, with bare- 
 ly a pause : 
 
 " Y'r beauty; y' know it why d' y' hide 
 it under bushel ? The Lord I love y' y' 
 know it ; certainly you feel it, I see you 
 do." The Saint wet his red lips, and sweet- 
 ened his voice again, which he felt had grown 
 too hoarse. " Course I love y' ; look at your 
 eyes, look at your face ; you're a damn fine 
 wo good, religious woman ; certainly ! and 
 
104 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 y 're a beauty ! I can see oh, I can see it. 
 I love y', and y'r heart says don't it say? 
 Certainly does. Amen! Oh, sister " 
 
 Ball was about to throw his arms about 
 the girl, but something in her face changed 
 his purpose; he fell on one knee, and, look- 
 ing up with an impudent smile on his 
 hot, fat face, encircled her waist with one 
 arm and laid the hand of the other on her 
 hip Sidon bawling meanwhile in the shed 
 like a calf deprived of its mother's milk. 
 Delissa, as she felt the Saint touch her, 
 straightened her slight, wiry frame suddenly, 
 and with a single lift and swing of the dish- 
 pan, grasped in both hands, fetched the side 
 of it against the side of Ball's head, and, tip- 
 ping it, spilled the contents hot water, un- 
 washed plates, knives, and forks over his 
 head, face, and shoulders. As the plates 
 crashed on the floor the little Saint shot back 
 with a yell, bearing the dish-pan with him 
 on his head a gigantic tin hat which he 
 instantly and furiously dashed to the floor, 
 
A SAINT'S DISCOMFITURE 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 105 
 
 and stood wringing his hands, the dirty wa- 
 ter dripping and trickling down from his 
 black hair, chin, ears, and nose, his entire 
 person, clothed and naked portions alike, 
 steaming, and his mouth sputtering furi- 
 ously. The prayers in the shed ceased. De- 
 lissa darted to the front door in anger and 
 fright. There she remained, facing Ball, her 
 hand on the latch, fearing both to leave the 
 cabin and to stay in it. Ball began to curse 
 between his howls of rage and pain. 
 
 I'll I'll baw ! I'll b-r-r-r '11 ! baw ! 
 I'm burnt! b-r-r-r '11 you'll see I'll 
 take you with me to-night ; see if don't ! 
 I'll take y' b-r-r Hell ! '11 by God this 
 very night! Come here! b-r damn you 
 here!" 
 
 Delissawas out of the one door as Sidon's 
 bald head appeared inquiringly at the other ; 
 but the girl tripped upon the stepping-stone, 
 and, stumbling, fell against a man's bosom. 
 She gave a horrified shriek, supposing the 
 bosom Sidon's, but heard in an instant her 
 
io6 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 husband's voice, and stopped short, as if 
 turned to stone. 
 
 Nicholas, with a long string of bass, trout, 
 and catfish on a hickory withe in the one 
 hand, and his rifle in the other, sprang 
 across the threshold, shadowed by General 
 Floyd. 
 
 " What does this mean ?" cried Nicholas, 
 as he caught fair sight of Sidon majestically 
 entering from the shed, and Ball, drenched 
 and dripping, with the broken china and 
 dish-pan which he knew so well on the 
 floor. 
 
 Ball's eyes dashed hither and thither, an- 
 grily and fearfully, but he made no answer. 
 
 " D'liss, what 's this mean ?" shouted Nich- 
 olas, roughly. 
 
 " Oh, kill him kill him !" cried the girl 
 from outside, with tears of rage in her 
 voice. This was all the evidence and all 
 the answer required by Nicholas 
 
 He cocked his gun. General Floyd heard 
 the snap, and, without a word, fell across the 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 107 
 
 long barrel of the rifle with both arms, hang- 
 ing with his entire weight upon it and hug- 
 ging it to him. Nicholas swayed with the 
 boy's weight ; at the same instant Ball turn- 
 ed to the door leading into the shed. 
 
 " Let go !" shouted Nicholas, wrestling 
 with the boy. General Floyd gritted his 
 teeth and hung on. " Let go ! let go, ye lit- 
 tle rat !" yelled Nicholas. 
 
 Ball's hand was on the latch ; but Sidon, 
 seeing the struggle that was taking place, 
 and judging how it must soon end, had 
 thrown his long body with all the haste pos- 
 sible in the same direction. The two col- 
 lided ; their hands fumbled for the latch ; 
 and the next instant Nicholas, with no time 
 to pick and choose, and laying about him 
 for a weapon of any sort, was upon them, in 
 his right hand the yard's length of bass and 
 catfish on the hickory withe. He set one 
 foot against the opening door, and fetched 
 the entire string of fish down, with a sousing 
 smack, upon Sidon's bald head. 
 
io8 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 It was a dangerous weapon, however for- 
 tuitous the choice of it, for the bass were, 
 large and the catfish had spikes, sharp as 
 needles and stiff as steel. Nicholas kept his 
 foot against the door, and repeated the blow. 
 Sidon yelled in response. Nicholas hit again ; 
 while Ball, safe enough on the other side of 
 his tall brother, was engaged in levering with 
 a broom-handle, which he had jammed into 
 the crack of the door. Nicholas gave an- 
 other souse to the bald head vainly dodging 
 about, back towards him, and this one was 
 heavier, as the weapon came more to hand. 
 Sidon sank with a loud cackle of pain ; and 
 his movement uncovered Ball, who, before 
 he could extract his broomstick, was taken, 
 full swing across the face by twenty pounds 
 of fish. He staggered, blinded and stung, 
 but dragged his broomstick out notwith- 
 standing, and began, with as much celerity 
 as any monkey, to dance and dodge about 
 the room, using the handle as a weapon of 
 offence, poking and stabbing Nicholas in all 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 109 
 
 quarters, and when possible in the centre of 
 the stomach. 
 
 This lasted but for a few seconds, when, 
 after an unusually happy poke, responded 
 to by a hard grunt from Nicholas, Ball made 
 a dash at the door. Unfortunately, Misery, 
 who had hitherto been cowering in a corner, 
 was at that moment himself bent on instant 
 escape from the danger of all these flying 
 feet and swinging fish, not to say from the 
 General, who, nearer to him, had extracted a 
 still burning brand from the fire, and was pre- 
 paring to sell his life dearly. Ball, dashing 
 at the open door, outside of which stood 
 Delissa spellbound, trod full on the cat, and 
 of course fell, cursing deeply. The General, 
 who was still between him and the door, 
 shut, bolted, and placed his back against it. 
 He then flourished his firebrand in a flaming 
 circle. 
 
 Sidon was risen by this time, his bald 
 head bleeding profusely, and was about to 
 open the back door again, when Nicholas, 
 
no Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 seeing Ball slip and go down, caught the tall 
 Saint by his long coat-tails, and swept him 
 across the entire cabin ; he reeled over Ball's 
 prostrate form, kicking him in passing, and 
 brought up heavily upon both the General 
 and Misery. Misery was by this infuriated 
 beyond respect of persons or power of mercy ; 
 he accordingly sank both claws and teeth in 
 Sidon's hands, at the same time that the Gen- 
 eral, in no small fear for his personal safety, 
 rammed the glowing brand against the pit of 
 the Saint's stomach. Sidon arose to the oc- 
 casion ; he dashed cat and brand at once to 
 the floor, and at the same instant that his 
 mate succeeded in rising under the swashing 
 blows he was still getting, the elder, either 
 in blindness or desperation, bolted straight 
 against Nicholas. 
 
 The hickory withe of fish was no weapon 
 for close quarters, and for a moment Nicho- 
 las was involved in a one-handed struggle 
 with his antagonist, who was crazed with 
 both fear and pain. Delissa was looking in 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety in 
 
 at the window in a state of real horror, and 
 Ball, now up, and no longer having to ward 
 the fish from his head and face, seized a 
 three-legged stool, and, carelessly disregard- 
 ing the boy in his rear, prepared to smash 
 Nicholas's skull as soon as it was still enough 
 to aim at, for Sidon and Nicholas were now 
 rolling on the wet floor, while Misery sprang 
 first to one side and then to the other, spit- 
 ting and growling, his eyes jet-black and his 
 red hair on end. 
 
 Sidon gave suddenly out, and fell back 
 prostrate ; but just as Ball raised his stool 
 for the blow, the boy in his rear took 
 him across the inside of his knees with the 
 iron barrel of Nicholas's rifle, which he had 
 seized from off the floor ; the blow was 
 swinging and heavy ; the stool flew into the 
 fireplace ; Ball himself came down with a 
 smack and smash upon the unavoidable 
 Misery ; there was a stifled waul, and the 
 deafening roar of the rifle, which went off as 
 Ball sat down on it. And in the smoke, 
 
ii2 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 confusion, and general entanglement of Ball, 
 stool, gun, dish-pan, Misery, Nicholas, the 
 General, and the firebrand, there was nothing 
 whatever to be seen and nothing to be heard, 
 or no more than a series of groans from 
 Sidon, prostrate; short, quick half -curses 
 from Ball ; screams of a fearful delight from 
 the General ; and the smacking sound of fish, 
 which now had broken loose from their 
 wooden hook and were flying, three or four 
 at a stroke, across the cabin, as Nicholas, 
 enraged beyond any knowledge of what he 
 was about, pounded at the heads he saw 
 dimly before him in the dense smoke and 
 increasing darkness of the room. 
 
 It had long ceased to be humorous for any 
 of those engaged. Another minute would 
 assuredly have brought a death with it, for 
 had Nicholas had a poker or a ploughshare 
 in his hand, now that the striking humor was 
 on him, he would have hammered away with 
 as much heart in his industry, as he now had 
 with nothing but loose fish for a weapon. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 113 
 
 Sidon was flat on the floor, and very bloody. 
 Ball was becoming fagged. But Delissa, 
 more and more frightened, ran round the 
 cabin, and, slipping through the shed, 
 opened the back door into the room and 
 called out to her husband, at the same time 
 seizing him firmly by one arm. In an in- 
 stant Sidon, who must have been waiting 
 for some such opportunity of exit, was up 
 and out in a most lively manner, followed 
 staggeringly by Ball, at whose back Nicholas 
 aimed heavy blows, dragging his wife across 
 the room with him. He now shook himself 
 loose as he saw the two Saints escaping, 
 seized his rifle from the floor, and, unbolting 
 the front door, pitched out into the darkness. 
 General Floyd, who had become apprehensive 
 of his uncle's mistaking him for the shorter 
 Saint in the faint and smoky light, was be- 
 side himself at the thought of a chase through 
 the night. He followed Nicholas with a yell, 
 and Delissa was left suddenly alone in com- 
 plete silence, the smoke drifting lazily out 
 
ii4 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 of the darkening cabin into the cool night, 
 and only Misery's claws to be heard scrab- 
 bling along the rafters of the roof. 
 
 The floor was catching fire. Delissa threw 
 water on it, and, lighting a candle, began to 
 look about to see what damage was done. 
 
 The Mormons, fleeing into the night, had 
 instinctively sought the boats. They were 
 both in the tub before either knew of the 
 other's being there, and before reason had 
 returned to them found themselves several 
 yards from the bank with but one oar. It 
 was too late to go back. The General was 
 dancing savage dances of glee on the bank. 
 Nicholas was running up to where Ball knew 
 the other boat must be moored. The Saints 
 had fronted necessity of a kindred kind be- 
 fore ; they took their chance without even a 
 prayer. By the time their two pursuers had 
 pushed off and were rowing hard, Ball and 
 Sidon had caught the current, and were rid- 
 ing the swift undulations of the Big Thunder 
 at a reckless pace. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 115 
 
 They scarcely knew their own danger, and 
 this made the chase a longer one. But its 
 end came: about a mile below the bend of 
 the river, at the foot of the second rapid, 
 they were overhauled in calm water, capt- 
 ured, and taken on shore. 
 
 In the colloquy they held on the bank, the 
 two Mormons standing wretchedly before 
 them scalded, burnt, clawed, bitten, beaten, 
 wet, and wounded with catfish and Ball 
 now having his hands tied rudely together 
 the General was imperative in his demands. 
 He'd burn 'em about half dead and let 'em 
 go ! He'd burn their feet off 'em ; or he'd 
 burn their thievin' hands, if nothing else ; 
 they ought to have their eyes knocked out ; 
 come a-foolin' about a man's wife ; what 
 did they think a wife was for? He'd teach 
 'em ; if they ever played such tricks to his 
 wife he'd feed 'em on red-hot horseshoe 
 nails ! 
 
 " Let's bleed 'em," said he at last to Nich- 
 olas, with his jack-knife in his hand. But 
 
n6 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Nicholas was really concerned only that they 
 should be properly run out of the country. 
 He set about devising some method, there- 
 fore, which would render it impossible for 
 them to make a forced march that night 
 and escape the wrath of the neighborhood. 
 Take them back to his house he would not ! 
 He ended by taking their boots, coats, trou- 
 sers, and pocket-knives from them. They 
 were then left to do what they pleased, and 
 go where they wished. 
 
 "Kind o' tethered 'em, hain't ye?" said 
 the General. " Barefoot tether !" and the ex- 
 hilaration which this act of tether and free- 
 booty caused the General was only tempered 
 by his disappointment in that they were not 
 at least a little roasted or bled. 
 
 The man and boy returned home. Nich- 
 olas said to his wife that he hadn't supposed 
 she'd been in the habit of having so many 
 strange men around in his absence, and he 
 reckoned it wasn't an idea he could get 
 used to. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 117 
 
 Delissa spoke up courageously and made 
 a clean breast of the whole matter the cook- 
 ing, her misery over it, the help Ball had 
 been, her fears and her unhappiness, and 
 finally, after every explanation possible, 
 asked him for his forgiveness. 
 
 Nicholas was touched ; but he was angry 
 too. He gave it to her, he said, but after 
 such a piece of false-appearing, such deceit 
 and lies and all well, he didn't know as he 
 could feel forgiving. 
 
 He sat down, however, and ate of the fish 
 which his wife had prepared against his re- 
 turn. 
 
 The next morning the General took the 
 garments of the Mormons, and, cutting cross- 
 sticks, made them into most direful scare- 
 crows entirely for his own amusement. He 
 planted them firmly in the meadow, at some 
 distance behind the house, placing them in 
 such proximity and position with regard to 
 one another that they appeared to be hold- 
 ing hands and thus they waved in the 
 
n8 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 wind, looking black, degraded, and melan- 
 choly. 
 
 Later on in the day, a rainy and cold one, 
 Nicholas and the boy rode over to Carr's 
 Mill and told their tale. Nothing had been 
 heard or seen of the Saints. Amri Carr 
 thought they ought to be more lessoned than 
 they had been ; lathered with fish seemed to 
 him light enough for such seducing hypo- 
 crites. A couple of dozen men, chiefly young, 
 but headed by Nicholas and Amri in person, 
 were presently gathered together and scour- 
 ing the woods. The Mormons were come 
 upon towards evening. They were in a 
 wretched and pitiable state. The feet of 
 both men were badly wounded, and the 
 night and morning of almost freezing rain 
 had absorbed much of their vitality. 
 
 Amri told the two of them that they must 
 prepare at once to depart out of this sinful 
 world. A coil of rope was laid at their feet. 
 With this before their eyes they both con- 
 fessed that they had fallen into sin. They 
 
pa 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 D 
 
 C/2 
 
 w 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 119 
 
 begged hard for life, and Sidon chattered so 
 lugubriously in making his appeal, that Amri 
 suddenly took human pity on him, and hav- 
 ing had a fire lighted, warmed him up with 
 whiskey out of his own flask. 
 
 " Spry ye up some for your own under- 
 taking!'* was his cheering remark. 
 
 But their deaths were not intended. As 
 soon as the whiskey had restored their cir- 
 culation, a bag full of old clothing was pro- 
 duced. Shoes in the shape of moccasins 
 which General Floyd had himself cut out 
 of skunk-skins old, tattered coats, and a 
 couple of pairs of meal -bag trousers were 
 found for them, so that, as Amri said, " If 
 they weren't shod with humility, they were 
 with a skunk-skin moc'sin, which he jedged 
 to be pretty nigh to t'other; and if they 
 weren't clothed in sackcloth and ashes, they 
 were in burlap ought to do for a Latter-Day 
 Saint !" ' 
 
 They were separated finally, and ridden 
 forty miles away, facing the tail of a mule, 
 
120 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 and deposited at the side of the road to go 
 whithersoever their desires might point. 
 
 During the day following " Barr's squall," 
 as Amri christened the proceedings of that 
 evening, Delissa was an unhappy woman ; 
 and when her husband, returning at night- 
 fall, preserved the same countenance and 
 demeanor of disapproval and moody sus- 
 picion, Delissa fell into a state of despair. 
 Twice, and a third time, she attempted, 
 going to him, to take all the blame in the 
 world on herself, asking him again to forgive 
 her and begging him to remember that, de- 
 ceit as it had been, she had not lied to him 
 directly. 
 
 This effort to mollify him and bring him 
 to some reason was not successful. Do what 
 she would, even when he saw her getting 
 paler and losing the happiness out of her 
 face, and at night heard her sobbing in the 
 shed outside while he ate his dinner in si- 
 lence and alone with all this and more, 
 Nicholas was unable to change the current 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 121 
 
 and motion of his thoughts, and this current 
 set all to jealousy and to suspicion, and 
 a miserable sense of things being broken 
 that could never be mended. 
 
 The girl suffered poignantly. It is true 
 she had no longer any fear of Red Dolly ; for 
 that matter, as well as where her husband 
 had obtained so many dinners, had been ex- 
 plained to her by the General. But, on the 
 other hand, she felt that Nicholas no longer 
 loved her. 
 
 What had come upon him she could not 
 understand. She tried to lead him to ex- 
 plain his state of feeling. But his state of 
 feeling was just what her husband could least 
 in the world explain. All that he knew was 
 that he was justifiably indignant. 
 
 It was ridiculous that his wife couldn't 
 cook had he not taught her? Besides, she 
 was a woman ; she must know how ! And 
 because she couldn't, she must invite a pair 
 of Mormons into the house, and see them 
 every day. Not a word to him ! And he 
 
122 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 ate the meat that this preacher cooked ! It 
 wasn't possible to live, after that, as if it had 
 never happened. He would forgive her; he 
 had forgiven her; he did forgive her; but 
 she would have to suffer, all the same, for 
 what she had done. 
 
 These thoughts passed through his mind. 
 He felt surly and dissatisfied. The affair had 
 left a bad taste in his mouth. 
 
 After some days of this life, Delissa, who 
 saw no sign of a break ahead, began to order 
 her mind somewhat differently. Nicholas 
 was carrying things too far. She was not 
 the only person to blame. It had all risen 
 out of smoke kitchen smoke at that ! Why 
 had he not taught her, or had his sister down 
 to teach her, to cook? If she had slipped 
 into doing wrong, she was sorry; you couldn't 
 be more than that. It was outrageous that 
 he didn't forget the whole affair. To be sul- 
 len about what? Hadn't she scalded the 
 Saint ? What more could any man's wife 
 do? 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 123 
 
 Delissa argued thus with herself, going 
 about all the while with a dead weight in her 
 bosom and her feet like lead. Yet she cried 
 no more, and ceased asking Nicholas to for- 
 give her. She cooked during this week in a 
 way that would have choked an ostrich. But 
 her husband swallowed doggedly whatever 
 was placed before him. This gave him a re- 
 turn of heart-burn, and heart-burn increased 
 his ill temper considerably ; but he said next 
 to nothing. 
 
 The days passed heavily over them both. 
 
 It was the early May. The snows had 
 long melted ; the ice was gone ; the rivers 
 flowed smoothly down to the sea. The flow- 
 ers were white and blue along the sunny 
 banks. The sap began to stir in the roots 
 of the forest, the buds to swell, and the 
 leaves to unfold once more. The air was 
 warm, like breath ; the breezes blew lightly 
 over the earth, and the cries of birds passing 
 again to the north dropped down through 
 the sunny air. The fish leaped from the 
 
124 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 river, glittering, into the sun. The deer 
 trooped through the forest, the fawns and 
 the does together. The sun sprang up after 
 each night out of clear dawn ; the first beams 
 that he touched the earth with were warm. 
 And the mists that lay heavy and white, fol- 
 lowing the river-beds, arose at his bidding 
 and left the earth, and lightly ascended into 
 the heaven, and, caught by the upper winds, 
 were swept to the east as clouds, or dissolved 
 and passed away in the hot embrace of the 
 sun. The world was awake and alive again. 
 
 And on one of these May mornings Delis- 
 sa went down to the river to draw water. It 
 was shortly after sunrise. As she stood on 
 the shingly beach, and felt the warmth of 
 the sun on her face and arms, and heard 
 overhead the conking of the wild geese, she 
 felt, with a start, how utterly all pleasant, 
 natural things had passed out of her life. 
 
 When in former days spring had come, 
 Old Sammy had always put a full bottle in 
 his breeches pocket, and taking his little 
 
H 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 125 
 
 daughter by the hand, had gone out with 
 her into the fields and woods. They had 
 fished together from sunrise to sundown ; 
 eaten their lunch on a log ; and Delissa had 
 enjoyed herself watching Old Sammy's bob, 
 gazing up into the sky and looking down on 
 the green earth, and they had talked ; and 
 each of those days had been as long as seven 
 now. The new green was on the trees, the 
 new life in the air, but there was no new 
 happiness. 
 
 Three wild ducks curved swiftly down the 
 Big Thunder, and dropped in the water near 
 the island. Delissa followed them with her 
 eyes, and as they splashed into the water she 
 took a determination, sudden, but of no small 
 moment. 
 
 Nicholas was returning late the same af- 
 ternoon from a trip up the Greenleaf Road. 
 When he reached the river, he dismounted 
 from his mule, and hallooed for Delissa to 
 pole the flat-boat across. 
 
 The girl came quickly down to the beach. 
 
126 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 She first of all tied the tub to the great raft, 
 laying a knife, with the blade open, on the 
 boat seat ; then bared her arms and swung 
 the raft into the stream. Nicholas won- 
 dered why she tied the tub to the raft. 
 
 As her husband watched her poling, and 
 saw the sun on her yellow head and slim, 
 long arms, and observed the easy way in 
 which she made the unwieldy craft obey her, 
 he felt a pang of compunction ; he was sorry 
 he had been so severe ; to-morrow he would 
 say as much after breakfast. 
 
 He was about to take the pole from his 
 wife, but she said she liked the fun of it. 
 Nicholas went to the stern end and stood 
 beside the mule. He thought it odd his wife 
 should make such a wide circle. And what 
 in the world was she cutting as close to the 
 island as that for? He called to her; but 
 the girl, although she was facing him, made 
 no reply ; she was throwing all her weight 
 on the pole. They were nearly broadside to 
 the current, and Delissa was holding straight 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 127 
 
 for the island. If they continued on that 
 course they'd be shipwrecked, mule and all. 
 Nicholas made a step forward ; as he did so, 
 the girl dropped the pole again into the 
 water and threw her weight upon it, giving 
 the heavy raft a last vigorous shove towards 
 the small rocky cove which she had once 
 used as a mirror. It was about ten feet away. 
 Nicholas, fearing the shock would upset the 
 mule, ran forward, and would have wrested 
 the pole from his wife, but he was too late. 
 As he made the dash towards her she threw 
 the pole in the river, and slipping lightly into 
 the tub, cut the rope that tied it to the raft 
 with the knife she had left on the prow seat, 
 and pulled away up current with all her 
 might. The raft struck with a crunch on 
 the low edge of rock ; the mule staggered, 
 staggered again, and finally half fell, half 
 plunged, into the water. Nicholas leaped as 
 the raft struck, and finding himself in water 
 up to his waist, pushed the raft off the rock, 
 and as it swung round in the powerful cur- 
 
128 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 rent and brought up broadside against the 
 lower bank, where it hung safely in an eddy, 
 he looked up to find Delissa. 
 
 She was some yards away, and rowing fur- 
 ther away. The pole was bobbing up and 
 down, already twenty or thirty paces below 
 the island, in the swifter beginnings of the 
 rapid. Nicholas shouted to his wife. Seem- 
 ingly she did not hear him, for though she 
 was sitting with her face to him and rowing 
 vigorously, her glance was directed a little 
 off from the island and to one side. 
 
 He shouted again and threw up his arms. 
 He could see her plainly enough. Her face 
 was warmed with the exercise, for she was 
 bracing herself against a powerful current. 
 But otherwise, except for this suffusion of 
 color, her expression appeared to be happy 
 and about as usual. Nicholas shouted a third 
 time, bellowing with all his might. Delissa 
 gave no sign that she heard him, or that she 
 knew that the pole was floating down stream, 
 or that the mule was still plunging about in 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 129 
 
 efforts to mount the steep and slippery side 
 of rock, or that her husband was shouting to 
 her and waving his arms, or that she had 
 stranded him there and left him no means 
 of getting away. If anything, her husband 
 thought, she looked a shade more uncon- 
 scious than usual. As he stood there, after 
 calling the last time, a dream-like sensation 
 came over him : he felt that he could not 
 possibly see what he saw ; and this was fol- 
 lowed, as he continued to look after his wife 
 in the boat and as she grew more distant 
 each moment, by a sense that an unexpect- 
 ed force had jostled the order of the uni- 
 verse, and it was changing had changed, all 
 in seven or eight seconds or so. He felt, 
 with a shock and a giddiness although in 
 the dullest, dumbest way possible that the 
 laws of nature were suspending themselves, 
 and he was being left high and dry in the 
 suspension. There was his wife; there the 
 mule ; here, he ! 
 
 He saw Delissa beach the boat, lay aside 
 
130 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 the oars, put the knife in her pocket, walk 
 slowly up the path, and disappear in the 
 cabin to the left. 
 
 Nicholas, could he have thrown his emo- 
 tion into reasonable form, would have de- 
 clared that it was no miracle or exception, 
 but a general and incomprehensible aberra- 
 tion and going astray of nature in her en- 
 tirety. 
 
 The mule had scrambled up the rock. To 
 rescue himself from this lost sensation, Nich- 
 olas turned and looked about him. There 
 was not a stick above the thickness of a 
 switch on the island. The pole gone ! He 
 had made the raft with his own hands ; not 
 a timber in it would budge for anything less 
 than a sledge-hammer and a nail -driver. 
 Even his jack-knife was not in his pocket. 
 The fancy passed fleetly through his mind 
 that his wife was mad. He must get to 
 shore somehow ; but the river ran too swift- 
 ly either side of the island to swim it. He 
 Could try a straight line to the cabin from 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 131 
 
 the end of the island; but, on second 
 thoughts, no ! 
 
 Even in a boat it required the hardest pull- 
 ing for the first thirty yards. That he could 
 make head against that first current, swim- 
 ming, naked or not, he more than doubted. 
 Surely Delissa he guessed she must have 
 gone off her head ! All the more reason to 
 get across. He sat down to think about it. 
 An hour passed. 
 
 Nicholas dragged the raft upon the beach 
 as far as he could ; it was too heavy for one 
 man to handle on dry land. He looked it 
 over ; not a timber but was fixed firmly in 
 its socket ; he concluded to burn one, so that 
 it would fall away from the rest. By still 
 further burning this one, he would narrow it 
 down to a pole, or near the dimensions of a 
 pole. But he discovered that he had only 
 three matches in his trousers pocket, and 
 these were wet. He laid them carefully on 
 a rock to dry and sat down to think it over. 
 An hour passed. The smoke began to as- 
 
132 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 cend from the " kitchen " cabin. The smoke 
 meant dinner. Twilight fell. His wife was 
 mad, of course. The Mormons had wrought 
 that! 
 
 About nightfall, as he was still sitting on 
 his rock, and looking at his own two cabins 
 and at the two Mormon scarecrows up the 
 meadow, and wondering, with a vague sense 
 of surprise at his own absence of feeling in 
 the matter, how mad his wife was, and if the 
 remoter cause was not Old Sammy's bottle, 
 he saw Delissa come quickly down the bank 
 and get into the tub. She was rowing tow- 
 ards him ! The mule had pricked her ears ; 
 she now broke into a bray of loud satisfac- 
 tion. Nicholas arose. Delissa changed her 
 course suddenly; she rowed across to the 
 Greenleaf side, and disappeared up the bank. 
 Mad! mad undoubtedly! She appeared, how- 
 ever, again, and some one with her : it was 
 Amri. Delissa was speaking to him. They 
 sat down, Amri in the stern. His jolly red 
 face was plain, dark as it was becoming. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 133 
 
 Nicholas saw that this was his last hope. 
 He shouted, throwing his voice through the 
 steady roar of Big Thunder. Apparently 
 Amri could not hear him. He raised his 
 voice again, and, drawing in a deep breath, 
 gave out a volume of sound upon " Oh h, 
 Amri!" which, despite the drowning noise 
 of the rapids below and above, must have 
 carried three times the distance. " He must 
 ha' heard !" said Nicholas, aloud. 
 
 Amri's back, as the girl rowed him over, 
 was slowly turning towards him. He was 
 about to shout once more, when the thought 
 occurred to him : Amri couldn't be deaf, for 
 he saw Delissa talking to him ; but was he, 
 Nicholas himself, in just his right mind ? He 
 was sure he was. But not as sure as he 
 would have liked to be. 
 
 Amri disappeared in the cabin. He must 
 be taking supper with Delissa. When he 
 crossed to the other side to go home it would 
 be dark too dark for Amri to see him. 
 
 The darkness fell and it became night. 
 
134 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 There was a warm, red, flickering glow out 
 of the kitchen window. The stars had come 
 out. Nicholas felt chilly. He was wet from 
 his waist down. 
 
 It had not occurred to him before that he 
 might have to pass the night on the island. 
 He now set about making the best of it. He 
 took off his trousers and socks and wrung 
 them out. Pulling them on again, he began 
 a search for a comfortable bed. In the twen- 
 ty yards of its length and ten to fifteen of 
 its breadth, the only spot not dislocated and 
 roughened by rocks was the sandy beach. 
 This was wet. Nicholas walked up and 
 down this beach for some time, staring vain- 
 ly across at the light in the cabin window. 
 
 She was mad ! and Amri hadn't seen it on 
 her; but why hadn't he heard? The idea 
 that there might be something the matter 
 with him, Nicholas, began now to assert it- 
 self, at first unobtrusively, shyly ; but pres- 
 ently it seemed to gather confidence and an 
 air of reason. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 135 
 
 " I hain't daft, I hain't!" said Nicholas, 
 still walking up and down the beach, and 
 speaking aloud, " say what ye've a mind to ! 
 hain't ! I did hear Amri tell of a man that 
 went cracked thought he was always in 
 some other place from where he was ; reck- 
 oned he was somebody else, too and was 
 that reasonable about it you couldn't prove a 
 gol thing to him ! My name's Barr ; more'n 
 that, I am Barr." 
 
 This at first seemed conclusive. But pres- 
 ently he felt that it was very odd indeed that 
 he, Barr, should have such things befall him 
 that he was where he was, or where he 
 thought he was ; and, too, his mind began to 
 revert to the past. All the last three weeks 
 had been of a nature that that well, they 
 hadn't certainly seemed like any other weeks ; 
 and he himself he, Barr he hadn't seemed 
 to himself, to Barr, as much like Barr, as 
 much like the Barr that Barr was accustomed 
 to know and deal with, as he, Barr himself, 
 would like to have done. That former Barr 
 
136 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 the Barr of better days had never been 
 unkind to a woman ; not even to the first 
 Mrs. Barr, who, Heaven and the former Barr 
 to witness, had been a trial. He'd never 
 been sulky or unhappy in those times. All 
 the Mormons in the world couldn't exactly, 
 somehow, account for that ! He wasn't a 
 changed man ; he was another man ; and 
 here he, this other man, this later, unhappier 
 Barr, sat or at least he thought he sat here; 
 if he didn't, somebody did ! And he knew 
 it wasn't the first Barr, for the first Barr was 
 happy. 
 
 He might be who he would he was a man 
 sitting there, cold and wet. It wasn't very 
 sound to say so whichever Barr he was, he 
 certainly was one, and a man but assured- 
 ly it began to appear to him that he was two 
 people inside of himself: One was cold and 
 was having the hell of a time, and the Other 
 didn't care a damn whether he was or not. 
 And this Other One sat somewhere else, 
 outside of all the trouble, and was nasty if 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 137 
 
 he pleased to be, and said things who the 
 devil was that Barr ? 
 
 Nicholas felt, as he shivered from cold, 
 that he must stop these thoughts. He went 
 over to the mule and patted her. He felt 
 more himself after that. About an hour 
 later, finding the mule lying down among 
 the briers, the idea occurred to him that he 
 might just as well share her animal warmth ; 
 he accordingly lay down, first tenderly strok- 
 ing the object of his apprehension, in the 
 only position possible, namely, between the 
 beast's legs. He reposed here in a cramped 
 position about an hour in safety. But either 
 he made a careless motion or else the mule 
 objected to sharing her animal warmth ; at 
 all events, she struck out in the dark, and 
 Nicholas found himself at some distance, in 
 a patch of greenbrier, and with a sense of 
 having had two tons of coal fall on his 
 back. 
 
 He said nothing whatever. But he lay 
 alone for the rest of the night. 
 
138 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Day dawned, chilly and gray. The sky 
 was cloudy. Before sunrise it began to 
 rain. 
 
 Nicholas was hungry, and sore from the 
 mule's treatment. It seemed to him also, as 
 the mule whinnied hungrily at him, a peculiar 
 aggravation of his already sufficient misery 
 that this chattel and beast of his first wife's 
 should have acted as she had during the 
 night. 
 
 The day moved slowly, and Nicholas be- 
 gan to experience, as his hunger increased in 
 sharpness, a reaction from the listlessness 
 and mental confusion of the night before. 
 He felt alert in mind, and able to endure any- 
 thing. He warmed himself by jumping up 
 and down, and throwing his arms about, 
 under and over his shoulders. 
 
 For two hours before noon and for two 
 hours after the rain fell in torrents. It slack- 
 ened then, and presently the clouds were lift- 
 ing. As this happened, it grew colder, and 
 the man was obliged to clamber up and down 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 139 
 
 the rock in order to keep warm. It soon be- 
 came out of the question to do so. His 
 clothing was too wet ; he grew colder every 
 moment, and began to suffer from his 
 thoughts. When he tried now to face the 
 situation, and to realize that he, Nicholas, 
 was here on a rock, drenched, hungry, cold, 
 deserted by his wife ; that this wife was mad, 
 or he was ; or, if not that, then one of him 
 was at all events, that he, a man, Barr, 
 might have to die there, or risk the forlorn 
 hope of swimming the rapids : when he faced 
 these facts his mind balked at them ; he felt 
 himself grow giddy; the world of reality, 
 so stern and steadfast upon all other occa- 
 sions, seemed to him to tremble, quiver, and 
 melt into a mist of absurdity and inconse- 
 quence. 
 
 A little later on his mind gave up the 
 struggle. It no longer made the slightest 
 effort to realize anything; it acquiesced in 
 the facts of the case. He found himself 
 thinking it as natural as possible to be where 
 
140 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 he was and as he was ; it seemed to him he 
 had been there a year. He was beginning 
 to feel numb with the cold, when he thought 
 he saw a man in the dense brushwood at the 
 far end of the meadow. There were two of 
 them. Nicholas started up and was at once 
 in high hopes of relief. But an hour passed 
 without any further appearance. At the 
 end of the hour, and as Nicholas was still 
 staring in expectancy, his jaw dropped, his 
 eyes widened, he caught himself by both 
 legs, and, breathing fast, gave himself a slap 
 on the forehead. 
 
 " 'Tain't so ! 'Tain't them two again ? 
 I'm a goner : I see nothin' as it is." 
 
 He winked as he continued to gaze. The 
 two Latter-day Saints came out from behind 
 the cabins, holding stools in their hands. 
 Delissa was between them. Nicholas no- 
 ticed that the Generals scarecrows had dis- 
 appeared; but they were not merely gone 
 the two Saints were draped in them, as be- 
 fore. He had no recollection of whether 
 

 
 'IT SEEMED TO HIM HE HAD BEEN THERE A YEAR" 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 141 
 
 the scarecrows had been wanting for an hour 
 or for all the morning. 
 
 Nicholas staggered as he looked. He shut 
 his eyes a moment, and then, opening them 
 wide, stared across the river. He heaved a 
 deep groan. 
 
 '"Tain't so! but 'tis! I'm cracked- 
 sprung ! Oh, I'm loose ! God-a-mighty, 
 what a thing to see !" 
 
 He made his way slowly up the island. 
 When he had reached the bushy crown of 
 the rock, he turned about with a sad look on 
 his heavy, large face. 
 
 The sun had just come out from behind 
 an enormous white cloud, and shot a broad 
 shaft of light down, illuming the green 
 meadow, and presently the two cabins and 
 the bank of the river. 
 
 Delissa was now seated on a stool, on the 
 grassy bank which glittered in the sun ; on 
 her left, close to her, sat Mr. Li Ball ; a little 
 farther off, on her right, Dank Sidon, his 
 long legs crossed one over another. Delissa 
 
142 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 had her violin and bow in her hand. Both 
 the men had their backs turned towards 
 Nicholas, and were facing Delissa. 
 
 Nicholas propped himself against a wet 
 rock ; he swallowed two or three times, and 
 seemed to gather himself together, keeping 
 his eyes upon the ground at his feet. 
 
 " Now be yourself, Nic ! Seein' is seein' !" 
 
 He lifted his eyelids and looked once 
 again. He could see the three people more 
 distinctly than at first, because of the sun- 
 light. Delissa had on her blue dress. It 
 was tucked up for work ; her yellow hair, 
 looser than usual, fell over her shoulders ; 
 her arms were bared to the elbows, as if for 
 washing ; and she was now playing the vio- 
 lin, of which, on account of the noise of the 
 waters, no sound could reach Nicholas. 
 
 He could see nothing of the men's faces. 
 But he made out that Ball was restless on 
 his stool, and that his hands were flying 
 about in a crazy sort of fashion. 
 
 Sidon sat without a motion. Nicholas 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 143 
 
 had forgotten that he had such breadth of 
 back; but then he had never fairly seen 
 either of them when they were clothed. 
 
 He at length threw his hands in the air, 
 with a gesture of giving up everything, once 
 for all. v 
 
 "Same durned ident'cal palaverin' Mor- 
 mon spew-trash. Look at 'em ! Is that 
 ghosts? Is that nothin'? Is them two 
 smoke? Air? Things that ain't so? That's 
 the little chunk, and that's the baldheaded 
 worm : them's them, and yon's her. I'm my- 
 self : I see." 
 
 At this point in the realization of his own 
 sanity of vision and brain, Nicholas, gazing 
 steadily, saw Delissa lay her violin aside, 
 and at the same moment Ball leap from his 
 stool and embrace the girl, somewhat sud- 
 denly and roughly, but in a fashion nothing 
 less than impassioned. 
 
 Nicholas's heart pumped a bucket of 
 blood into his head in about five seconds ; 
 and in another moment he found himself in 
 
144 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 the Big Thunder, striking out and kicking 
 with might and main, the current bearing 
 heavily against him. He swam with all the 
 force he had ; but the tide of the river was 
 too strong to stem. After a very few min- 
 utes, Nicholas, under the influence of violent 
 exercise and an achingly cold bath, recov- 
 ered his reason, and allowed himself to 
 swing back to the island. 
 
 Without once looking round, he walked, 
 dripping, to the farthest point of the rock, 
 facing from his cabin and towards the turn 
 of the river, and there sat down, with his 
 back to the performance on the bank. 
 
 He knew now that he was himself well 
 enough. After half an hour he spoke, de- 
 liberately, aloud : 
 
 " Matter with me is, I'm a fool. I've just 
 done this thing to myself just plum cut 
 my own throat. Might ha' known Delissa 
 couldn't cook ; might ha' had Reuben's wife 
 come and lessoned her some, first thing ; 
 might ha' done anything sensible ! Matter 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 145 
 
 is, I've treated her like a dog ! Why didn't 
 I forgive her when she asked ? Why didn't 
 I kiss her, and say, * Sho ! forget it ?' Why 
 didn't I?" 
 
 Nicholas, at the end of an hour, was in 
 the condition of mind where he seemed to 
 himself to have done everything wrong and 
 nothing right since the day he allowed his 
 mother to bear him ; especially, however, 
 he blamed himself for his sullenness and 
 suspicion in the last few days, for of 
 course that was the cause of his wife's 
 action. He now supposed her to be quite 
 mad, or in the nature of mad, and he was 
 the cause ! 
 
 If he could take only a couple of steps 
 back into the past, and turn and make a 
 fresh start in time from thence. But the past 
 was like a wall that built itself level behind 
 your last heel-track, and be darned to ye if 
 you could even edge back a hair's-breadth ! 
 Nicholas shook his head. Had it not been 
 for his devouring hunger and the numbness 
 
146 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 of cold, he would have felt the most violent 
 grief. As it was, he felt that he would feel 
 it later on. 
 
 Had he looked around, as now the sun be- 
 gan to sink, he would have seen Delissa lay- 
 ing the oars in the tub, while Ball danced 
 wildly on the bank above. 
 
 Delissa's face was grave and drawn. The 
 corners of her mouth turned down, and she 
 had a look as if she doubted not but that 
 the next moments would bring forth some 
 ill thing. 
 
 " Come along now, General ; quit your 
 flummaxin' about !" 
 
 It was the voice of Amri Carr proceeding 
 from under the hat and from above the coat- 
 collar of Sidon. 
 
 General Floyd, who was dancing with 
 hideous violence on the bank, to keep his 
 youthful body warm in the wet clothes of 
 Li Ball, dashed down to the boat. He sat 
 down, the little Saint's seedy black hanging 
 loosely about his limbs, the sleeves too long, 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 147 
 
 and the hat falling down over his nose and 
 ears. 
 
 Amri pushed the boat off, and in another 
 moment they would touch the island. 
 
 " Oogh ! Bet Nic's cold !" whispered the 
 boy, with his teeth in a chatter. 
 
 Delissa seemed to grow pale. 
 
 " He's learned a mighty smart lesson," 
 said Amri, as he ran the boat up on the 
 sand. 
 
 Delissa nodded to Amri to go across to 
 where they could see Nicholas was sitting 
 with his back still turned. 
 
 Amri and the General went across. The 
 girl stayed in the boat, her back turned to 
 the island and to her husband, resting her 
 face on her hands, shivering and trembling 
 all over as if with cold. 
 
 " I wish I hadn't done it, now I wish I 
 hadn't, wish I hadn't !" 
 
 Her teeth chattered and broke the words. 
 Reaching the far end of the little island, 
 Amri laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. 
 
148 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Rise up, NIC ; come over to your wom- 
 an.'* 
 
 Nicholas, looking up, took the situation in 
 at a glance. 
 
 " You 'ain't been playin' the fool up and 
 down here, hev ye ?" said Amri, with a kind 
 of blustering sternness. " G' over to her ; 
 say you're naught but a man ; and man's a 
 fool, as God made him, so help ye ! Go ; 
 make your 'mends." 
 
 Nicholas got up stiffly, with the same 
 look of penitence and sorrow. The discovery 
 that he had been hoaxed appeared to have 
 no effect upon his change of heart. Amri, 
 taking a look at him, relaxed suddenly into 
 something of his accustomed joviality. 
 
 " Darned if your Creator ain't playin' a 
 mighty square game with you, Nic Barr ! 
 Mark my words, He don't always undertake 
 to play so square." 
 
 Nicholas went across to the boat. 
 
 Amri and the boy engaged themselves 
 with the mule and the raft. 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 149 
 
 As her husband approached from behind, 
 Delissa heard his footsteps. She caught her 
 breath once or twice and closed her eyes. 
 Nicholas stepped into the shallow water be- 
 side the boat. 
 
 " Forgive me, D'liss." 
 
 Delissa made no answer. Her eyes were 
 tightly shut. Her husband groaned. 
 
 " I've done wrong a heap ; I was mighty 
 crabbed and cross I know I made you 
 mis'able. But if you have any love left in 
 your heart for me, D'liss why, just say it." 
 
 Delissa sat rigid as an axe-handle ; but she 
 gave a sob, and then suddenly, without mov- 
 ing her head, stretched her arms out to the 
 man bending over her, much as if she had 
 been a little child ; and rising from her seat 
 at the same moment, she leaned towards 
 him. Nicholas caught her as with the shift- 
 ing of her weight the boat tipped and spilled 
 her out. He lifted her up and kissed her face, 
 which was wet with tears. Delissa sobbed 
 again and again. 
 
150 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 " Oh, Nic, I want to be forgiven my own 
 self please, please do !" 
 
 The tub had begun to float away, and as 
 the girl had stepped deliberately into the 
 river, they both found themselves standing 
 up to their ankles in water. 
 
 The General made a dash at the boat, 
 which was floating round the island. 
 
 " Y'ever see a man get with a woman," 
 said he to Amri, as he captured it, " without 
 he made a fool of himself? Burn me if I 
 want to be a man, if every time I meet my 
 wife I lose my senses. Can't he kiss her and 
 grab the boat with the other hand ? What's 
 the pleasure of their standin' up to their 
 knees in ice-water fur ?" 
 
 " It's awful cold," said Delissa, shivering, 
 through her tears, and drawing one foot out 
 of the water. " Let's get out." 
 
 Nicholas set her on the little sand beach. 
 
 " May I never see light again," said Amri, 
 "if I didn't tell that man," pointing at 
 Nicholas, "that you couldn't cook not 
 
Two Mormons from Muddlety 151 
 
 enough for a for to make rations for a 
 grasshopper ! And what's his answer ? Why 
 he said you had a face ! Just as if a woman 
 cooked flapjacks with her face !" 
 
 Amri laughed in his huge way. 
 
 At supper Delissa would say nothing. 
 Nicholas learned from Amri of his wife's 
 scheme to bring him to reason, and of the 
 General's plan of wearing the scarecrows 
 but Nicholas cared to hear no more. He 
 was content with things as they were. He 
 promised his wife that he would drive her to 
 Mrs. Reuben's the next day. They would 
 bring Mrs. Reuben back with them to stay 
 for a fortnight. 
 
 " Well," said Amri, as he pulled off his 
 boots and prepared to retire to his couch of 
 a bear-hide stretched on the kitchen floor 
 "well, I say let a man be a man. Let him be 
 just as dangerous as a wild pig. If he wants 
 a woman, let him take her root, hog, or die ! 
 But what's that got to do with bawlin' about 
 Solomon and all his hundreds of cucumbers ! 
 
152 Two Mormons from Muddlety 
 
 Begosh ! as sure as a hog's a hog, a Mor- 
 mon's one!" 
 
 The next morning, after breakfast, De- 
 lissa came up to Nicholas. She looked fresh 
 and pink. 
 
 " NIC, don't you think we might take a 
 holiday just to be happy in ?" 
 
 Nicholas thought they might. 
 
 "If we couldn't we well, it would be 
 nice if we do you think we might ?" 
 
 Nicholas, after a moment or two of puzzle- 
 ment, laughed suddenly, and said he thought 
 it would be just the thing. He went back 
 to the cabin to fetch the fishing-tackle. 
 
 They started before the sun struck the 
 water. 
 
 "Nic," said Delissa, as the boat glided 
 down the swift current, " I'm just awful 
 happy!" 
 
ALFRED'S WIFE 
 
CARR'S MILL stood opposite that 
 point where the Squeeter and Som- 
 erdale roads met and crossed. Whichever 
 of those roads you took, making for Carr's 
 Mill, you had ten or fifteen miles of unbroken 
 forest to go through, until, as you began to 
 descend towards the mill, you saw it lying 
 beneath you, in the midst of green meadows. 
 Through these green meadows the Big Swift 
 flowed placidly. 
 
 Next to the mill stood Brown's store. The 
 mill was old and ramshackle, and leaned 
 perilously ; moss grew on its roof ; and the 
 dust of the flour, whitening it everywhere, 
 gave a look of soft and withered age which 
 brought it into fine contrast with Brown's 
 store. The latter was of new pine boards, 
 and looked spick and span, and even jaunty. 
 
156 Alfred's Wife 
 
 You expected to see Brown step prosper- 
 ously out, with his hands in his pockets, 
 whistling a waltz ; but when Brown stepped 
 out it was otherwise, for he was thin and 
 pale and dejected ; he seemed to have under- 
 gone premature dry-rot, and there exhaled 
 from him a faint odor of staleness, much as 
 if he had been born and reared under the 
 glass-case with his own candies. When he 
 walked he fell forward, first upon one spindle 
 leg and then upon the other ; when he sat 
 down it was a kind of general collapse ; and 
 except when he added up figures, which he 
 did easily, seeming almost to take a kind of 
 pleasure in stating " results," he had an in- 
 effectual, heartless way of producing his voice 
 and his ideas. Mr. Brown came originally 
 from " old " Virginia, and would have liked to 
 return there ; but somehow or other he had 
 got stranded in this remote quarter of the 
 West Virginia forests, and here he complain- 
 ingly remained. Amri Carr, who worked the 
 aged and groaning structure called by his 
 
Alfred's Wife 157 
 
 name, was a weighty, rubicund, jovial body, 
 with a roll in his gait and in his voice, and a 
 way of puffing his cheeks out and blowing 
 after each separate sentence, as if his ideas 
 were a fleet of ships which he sent out tow- 
 ards you, and which he then followed up 
 and sped on with a hearty breeze from his 
 own lips. Carr had a wife and eleven chil- 
 dren. His " house/' a log cabin like all the 
 other domiciles of the locality except 
 Brown's board store, stood a half-mile below 
 the. mill. 
 
 Mr. Brown reclined on his store steps. 
 Below him sat Captain Dan Crossby. The 
 rumble of the mill and the warm sunshine 
 predisposed to silence, and silence was strict- 
 ly observed till a man on a black mule rode 
 up to the store, and, without dismounting, 
 handed down to the storekeeper a bag of 
 meal. It was payment in kind, for no one 
 had money in that district. 
 
 The man on the mule was a thick-set, pow- 
 erful, red - faced fellow of about forty ; his 
 
158 Alfred's Wife 
 
 jaw and cheeks were covered with short, 
 black stubble, and his eyes were bloodshot 
 and restless. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Stott," said the store- 
 keeper. " Thank you. Come again ; do. 
 How's your folks? Well or " 
 
 Mr. Brown's voice died feebly away. 
 
 Mr. Stott said his sister Sarah was ailing, 
 but the chaps meaning his three little girls 
 they were well enough. He jogged off up 
 the road. 
 
 After the lapse of about five minutes, Cap- 
 tain Crossby spoke to the storekeeper. 
 
 " I do everlastingly have no belief in that 
 Hiram Stott." 
 
 "No?" said Mr. Brown. 
 
 " And he knows it," continued Captain 
 Crossby. 
 
 "Yes?" said Mr. Brown. 
 
 "And I'm not feelin' hurt any that he 
 does," continued the captain. 
 
 " Ain't you ?" said the storekeeper. 
 
 Silence settled down again. 
 
Alfred's Wife 159 
 
 " What in the world Alfred Bannerman 
 ever undertook to marry with that Carr girl 
 for, that's what worries me to see into. Can 
 you see into that ?" inquired Captain Cross- 
 by, as if this question and his former state- 
 ments of his feelings were in some way rel- 
 evant and connected. 
 
 Mr. Brown avouched that he could see into 
 nothing very far ; but with some feeling that 
 this was rather weak of him, he said, with a 
 spasmodic effort at sympathy : 
 
 " Don't it add up to you ?" 
 
 Captain Crossby was not much concerned 
 with sums in addition, and made no reply, 
 but continued, with his eyes on the lessening 
 figure of Mr. Stott : 
 
 " You'd better not fool about Alfred. If 
 you fool about Alfred, the first thing you 
 know he'll be in attendance at your funeral." 
 
 Captain Crossby looked slowly around at 
 Mr. Brown, and the latter shrank perceptibly 
 from any idea of fooling with Alfred, in the 
 light of such probabilities. 
 
160 Alfred's Wife 
 
 " Now, women's women/' continued Cap- 
 tain Crossby; "and a woman's a mis'able 
 thing at best ; they're always makin' trou- 
 ble, and fussin' or cookin' up a fuss; 
 and to marry a woman hit's no little mat- 
 ter. But to marry a woman that calls her- 
 self Carr!" 
 
 Captain Crossby shook his small gray head 
 at this desperate idea. 
 
 " They're a wild lot, you think, eh ?" said 
 Mr. Brown, tentatively, and as if he were 
 treading on dangerous ground. 
 
 " Wild ?" said Captain Crossby. " Wicked, 
 I reckon ; as wild and wicked as hawks ; and 
 I guess Alfred he wishes his wishes I guess 
 he does," said Captain Crossby, clearly medi- 
 tating the sort of wishes he himself would be 
 apt to wish under such circumstances. 
 
 " There's Amri," he continued. " He said 
 to Alfred, ' Alfred, tame her, or she'll tame 
 you !' I heard him say it the day Alfred 
 wedded his daughter. And Alfred he just 
 won't undertake the job." 
 
Alfred's Wife 161 
 
 The little old man rose and proceeded 
 home, pondering upon Alfred as he went. 
 
 " If Alfred's mother had fed him on snake- 
 pizen, he'd have turned it into milk and 
 honey fust thing she knew ! As for Hiram, 
 he wants " Captain Crossby closed his eyes 
 entirely, and nodded his head slowly, as if 
 possessed of the most intimate knowledge of 
 Hiram's " wants " ; and from the general ex- 
 pression of his face as he shuffled dustily 
 along the road one would have judged that 
 he would have been by nothing more pleased 
 than freely to give Hiram whatever thing it 
 was that Hiram always, however, in his 
 (Captain Crossby's) estimation wanted. 
 
 II 
 
 The next morning the captain saddled his 
 
 horse and rode up to see Alfred Bannerman. 
 
 Alfred lived twenty miles away. His farm 
 
162 Alfred's Wife 
 
 was a new clearing his own work lying on 
 the south side of the Highland Ridge. The 
 log-cabin was high up, almost on the sum- 
 mit of the great hill. Except the stable, a 
 heavily built shed something ruder than the 
 cabin, and a pigpen, there was nothing else 
 in the way of building. As further sign of 
 life there was the corn, growing meanly now, 
 withered in its broad blades, and turning 
 over; the plot where potatoes had not 
 flourished by reason of drought ; a brown, 
 dull-looking field that had borne hay ; and a 
 small, neat garden of vegetables, chiefly cab- 
 bages. All around this open space, filled 
 with stumps and, in the higher portions, 
 with vast, silvery - white, dead trees from 
 which the bark had been stripped by wind 
 and weather, and the limbs of which stood 
 out strongly against the blue sky all around 
 this space of mountain farm lay the inter- 
 minable woods maple and hickory and 
 oak and poplar, turning now softly into yel- 
 low a wilderness of forest on all sides. 
 
Alfred's Wife 163 
 
 Through these woods Captain Crossby came, 
 for the Squeeter road turned east five miles 
 from the mill, and the rest of the way was 
 only a path, so called, visible to no mortal 
 eye but a woodman's, and not infrequently 
 baffling to him. 
 
 Captain Crossby tied his horse to a sapling. 
 As he came round the corner a tall, slim 
 girl, with blue eyes and a good deal of 
 brown hair tied loosely, her small head car- 
 ried well back, as if she never cared about 
 looking down, came out of the cabin with a 
 pail in each hand. She had color, an easy 
 erectness of carriage, bright eyes that were 
 wide open and saw everything in a twin- 
 kling, and a light motion that seemed to carry 
 her without her own will, or at least without 
 the faintest conscious exercise of her will. 
 And as she moved one would have said that 
 every motion gave her pleasure, and that to 
 put her hand to her head, as she was obliged 
 quickly and continually to do, her hair fall- 
 ing, or rather bursting, out of its confine- 
 
164 Alfred's Wife 
 
 ment of blue ribbon upon the slightest prov- 
 ocation that this, or any other slightest 
 movement, whether of walking or bending 
 down, or whatever it might be, was to her 
 a positive and easy delight. And as she was 
 a moving person, as well by necessity of 
 work to be done as by nature, she appeared 
 to be always in some state of special pleas- 
 ure and exuberance of spirit. Captain Cross- 
 by greeted her. How was Mrs. Banner- 
 man, and how was Alfred ? 
 
 " I'm glad to see you," said the girl "oh, 
 terrible glad ! Alfred's only so to middling, 
 and I'm just wretched, Uncle Dan." 
 
 Uncle Dan, thus addressed, melted with 
 astonishing suddenness, considering his low 
 estimate of female character, and, shaking 
 her hand warmly for him, inquired what was 
 her trouble. 
 
 "I guess I'm my own best enemy," she 
 said ; " but it is lonely up here oh, it is ! 
 It's just dead water all the time, and nothin' 
 seems to prosper except the baby ; and no- 
 
Alfred's Wife 165 
 
 body ever comes here it might be the 
 world's end for all we see. Now, you do need 
 to see a few mortals, Uncle Dan ; you do !" 
 The girl's eyes flashed earnestly as she 
 smiled at the little, silent, gray old man who 
 stood looking at her with his head thrown 
 back in a way peculiar to himself, as if he 
 found that position easier to retain than it 
 would be to lift his eyelids, and to keep 
 them lifted. For generally these hung down 
 over his eyes so far that it appeared he must 
 be unable to see anything beyond his own 
 boots ; and though, as a fact, he saw more 
 in a moment, without lifting his eyes, than 
 do most men in an hour, however wide open 
 their gaze may be, he still preferred, when 
 he had a person to look at or into, to toss 
 his head back, with his pointed gray beard 
 thrown out at an angle in front, and his gray 
 hair worked up by his hat into a kind of pyr- 
 amid behind, and to look out keenly as now ; 
 and not seldom to shade his eyes with one 
 hand while he gazed an action which, with 
 
166 Alfred's Wife 
 
 the exceeding clearness of his glance, gave 
 to his scrutiny a penetration and purpose 
 that most people winced under a little, and 
 were apt to avoid. 
 
 But Dellah Lucinda was a Carr, and 
 avoided nothing. She looked at him now, 
 and laughed a quick, merry, catching laugh 
 that began and stopped suddenly, to go on 
 again as suddenly and more unexpectedly 
 than before. 
 
 " Uncle Dan, you look at me as if I was 
 dangerous/' said she, laughing again. 
 
 " PYaps you are," said Uncle Dan, show- 
 ing an entire row of even, white teeth behind 
 his grizzled beard. 
 
 " Maybe I am," said the girl ; " I hope so. 
 I hate these tame cats ! Kitty, kitty, kitty, 
 kitty !" 
 
 The girl leaned down and called an imag- 
 inary kitten. The imaginary kitten (as was 
 clear from the girl's actions and face) came 
 running to the call, and was received, taken 
 up, and stroked in the approved way. 
 
Alfred's Wife 167 
 
 "And kitty comes like that," continued 
 Mrs. Bannerman, with sudden emphasis, 
 " and is given her milk, and she purs !" 
 Mrs. Bannerman purred in a way that was 
 astounding. "And she's a good kitty." 
 Her voice caressed the virtues of the " good 
 kitty." " And I hate that sort of tame cat, 
 and so do you, Uncle Dan. You do you 
 know you do !" 
 
 Uncle Dan scarcely smiled at this sudden 
 burst, which Mrs. Bannerman accompanied 
 by an action of both hands, tucking in recal- 
 citrant locks, or rather masses, of hair, one 
 strand of which had fallen out at each move- 
 ment made towards or over the too tame 
 kitten. 
 
 " And you know you'd hate to be a wom- 
 an," continued she ; " and I do. And I'd a 
 great deal liefer be a-chasin' old he-bears up 
 in the Big Pines, and to suffer and want up 
 there, than to live " she looked around in 
 every direction, nodding her head at each 
 object she saw "like this." 
 
i68 Alfred's Wife 
 
 Captain Crossby retained the same posi- 
 tion of head and body, and looked from 
 under his eyes at the girl before him with a 
 kind of distant scrutiny. As she spoke she 
 had grown more earnest, and her color came 
 and went with surprising suddenness, so that 
 there seemed to be never a moment when 
 the light of her entire face was not either 
 growing less bright and fading partly away, 
 or increasing in brightness until, at times, 
 there was a sudden overflow in all directions, 
 and a wave of rosy fire passed over her neck. 
 At such moments she seemed to tremble 
 with the excitement of her own nature ; but 
 it passed away then, and left her radiant 
 and alive, but less astonishing; and after 
 each such climax and rush of emotion the 
 girl generally laughed. Her laugh seemed to 
 say that she had felt, as perhaps you had 
 seen, that she was being carried off her feet, 
 but that was over now she had regained 
 her footing. 
 
 " The fact is, Uncle Dan," said she, more 
 
Alfred's Wife 169 
 
 composedly, " it's duller than death up here, 
 and twice as unnatural. We might be dead 
 for who we see. You have it better at the 
 mill ; there's life there." 
 
 Captain Crossby kept his gray eyes fixed 
 upon Mrs. Bannerman. 
 
 " How's Hiram ?" said he. 
 
 " Hiram !" cried the girl. " What have I 
 to do with Hiram ?" She frowned slightly 
 and suddenly at Captain Crossby. " I ex- 
 pect he's well enough," she continued rather 
 defiantly ; " and if he ain't, let him mend it." 
 
 " Comes over pretty often," said Captain 
 Crossby, stating the fact in his wisdom 
 rather than asking the question. 
 
 "Oftener than he's wanted," said Mrs. 
 Bannerman ; and she opened her eyes wide 
 at the old man. " Alfred's yonder ; I must 
 fill my pails." 
 
 Captain Crossby watched her go down the 
 hill. She was not singing, but she seemed 
 to be swinging the two pails to a kind of 
 tune. 
 
170 Alfred's Wife 
 
 Alfred was sitting under an apple-tree in 
 the orchard, putting a new lock on his rifle. 
 It was an old-fashioned gun, a flint-lock, and 
 stood as high as the man who used it. The 
 greeting that passed was warm ; for, despite 
 their difference of age, the two men knew 
 each other well ; it was a quiet, unnamed 
 friendship. 
 
 " You look sick/' said Captain Crossby, 
 after an examination of his friend's face. 
 
 " Out o' heart, Uncle Dan," said Alfred, 
 looking up from his gun. 
 
 Alfred Bannerman stood six feet and odd 
 in his stockings, and was broad and lean. 
 He was not a very remarkable-looking per- 
 son at first sight, or, indeed, at any after 
 sight or not, at least, until you had 
 become aware of a serious, innocent pair 
 of eyes in which the man as he was ap- 
 peared to find some outward expression. 
 In his long arms, his big hands and feet, his 
 small head, with no great quantity of straight 
 brown hair, his rather large nose, his stoop- 
 
Alfred's Wife 171 
 
 ing carriage and broad shoulders, there was 
 nothing to note different from many other 
 men. Neither were his eyes noticeable, save 
 perhaps in this, that they remained serious 
 while the rest of his face smiled. He was 
 clean-shaven that is to say, his jaw had felt 
 the touch of razor about ten days before, 
 and glistened now with a kind of straw- 
 colored stubble of coming beard. It was a 
 good face, but it puzzled you in the very 
 moment of discerning its goodness and com- 
 posure ; for if you saw Alfred smile, as he 
 did now in looking up at Captain Crossby, 
 and thought how gentle he would be with 
 children, judging from the sweetness of his 
 expression, you at the same time felt a little 
 disturbed by this seriousness of his eyes. It 
 was not easy, you felt, to prognosticate the 
 actions of the man who had that innocence 
 of outlook upon the world ; not easy to fore- 
 judge how far, through what entanglements, 
 unbiassed by what complexities, that appar- 
 ently profound sincerity would carry him. 
 
172 Alfred's Wife 
 
 " Out o' heart," he said, and smiled at Cap- 
 tain Crossby, who was standing up in front 
 of him. 
 
 "What for?" said the latter, leaning on 
 his rifle. 
 
 " It's just this way, Uncle Dan," con- 
 tinued Alfred, pushing his tools to one side. 
 "When I married Lucinda, two years now 
 agone, I told her what she had to expect : 
 lonesomeness, and poor living compared to 
 what her fawther gave her, and hard times, 
 and whatever a woman has to endure ; and 
 she said she knew what she had to expect, 
 and I guess she made a mistake." 
 
 Alfred looked inquiringly at Uncle Dan, 
 but the latter had taken refuge, in advance, 
 from all such looks by shutting up his left 
 eye and gazing with his right down his rifle- 
 barrel, in the circular darkness of which he 
 appeared not infrequently to find immense 
 reserves of mystery as if at the bottom of 
 that long tube lay the final knot and en- 
 tanglement of poor humanity. 
 
Alfred's Wife 173 
 
 " I guess she made a mistake," said Alfred. 
 "At her fawther's there was brothers and 
 sisters and mother, and friends that came in, 
 and they as wished to keep company with 
 her ; it was a road which brought travellers, 
 and altogether it was a lively place where a 
 young girl might enjoy her life which she 
 leaves for this and me." 
 
 Alfred looked helplessly at Uncle Dan ; 
 but as the old man continued to ponder 
 down his gun-barrel, and gave no sign of 
 sympathy for Lucinda's loss and exchange 
 of all the goods and gayeties of a life sit- 
 uated on a road " for this" Alfred had 
 looked about him as he spoke " and me" 
 he continued : 
 
 "And this season's drought has pretty 
 nigh to ruinated me. Corn, hay, onions, po- 
 tatoes you know how it is everything, to 
 the bees even, is less or nothing, and it is 
 the pinchiest time that I do ever remem- 
 ber." 
 
 Uncle Dan nodded his head slowly at this 
 
174 Alfred's Wife 
 
 point, and Alfred continued in his slow, bal- 
 anced way of speaking, as if the unhurried 
 consideration of any subject in discussion, 
 and of every side of such subject, and hence 
 of every word that expressed or threw light 
 upon it, was the natural and inevitable proc- 
 ess of his mind. Be the subject what it 
 might, Alfred approached it, and looked at 
 it, handled and weighed it, with the same 
 deliberate impartiality. When he spoke of 
 the season being the pinchiest he had 
 ever known, it was perfectly clear by the 
 intonation of his voice, that he was be- 
 ing fair to the demands of all the other 
 seasons to be considered more pinchy than 
 this one. 
 
 " And it's just this way, Uncle Dan," said 
 Alfred: " she's fallen to lonesomeness ; and 
 I wake up at night, and hear her crying and 
 crying all in the dark; and then I try to 
 comfort her I try all I can. I tell her it 
 won't last, and I tell her this and that ; but 
 you must have comfort for to comfort with. 
 
Alfred's Wife 175 
 
 And it's lonesome and poor and hard, and 
 I'm not enough for her, that's the truth, 
 Uncle Dan." 
 
 Alfred looked out over the hills and into 
 the distance, as he was apt to do when trou- 
 ble came upon him heavily. As he con- 
 tinued, there was a sincerity in the quiet of 
 his manner, in his few simple gestures, and 
 in every intonation of his voice, that would 
 have prejudiced the minds of the dullest jury 
 in his favor, even had the evidence against 
 his truth been of the most final and conclu- 
 sive kind. 
 
 " You may know it's pinchy with us," said 
 he, " when I say we killed Lucy, two weeks 
 back, on a Thursday." 
 
 Lucy was Alfred's pet hog, which Captain 
 Crossby well knew, and accordingly com- 
 pressed his lips, still gazing down the barrel 
 of his gun, as much as to say, Has it come to 
 this? Lucy had come into this world of 
 men and pigs the same day and hour that 
 Lucinda had plighted her troth to Alfred, 
 
176 Alfred's Wife 
 
 and hence at least, in part the regard en- 
 tertained for her. 
 
 "Yes; we just had to eat her," said Al- 
 fred. " Lucinda loved that pig, and certain- 
 ly she did Lucinda. Well, I said last July, 
 ' We must kill her ;' but Lucinda she said, 
 'No;' and when I mentioned it last month 
 she burst right into tears, and cried that 
 hard it 'most broke my heart. But last week 
 I just said to her at morning bite, ' Lucinda, 
 I must do it to-day ; it isn't right to feel too 
 much about a pig.' So I took this old gun 
 o' mine, and I went down to the pen yonder, 
 and stepped into it, and Lucy-hog she came 
 to me just like a child and as trustful as a 
 pig could be ! Uncle Dan, it just cut me 
 like a knife. I could not pat her, and I do 
 assure you I was afraid to look her in the 
 face. Well, I was doubtful if I could kill her 
 the first shot, because, you see, this old gun 
 o' mine it had a bad lock, and it might miss 
 fire." 
 
 Uncle Dan assented, and Alfred went on 
 
Alfred's Wife 177 
 
 with the same deliberation and choice of 
 words, and in the same spirit of innocent 
 and composed seriousness. 
 
 " But I couldn't kill that pig with an axe 
 I just p'intedly couldn't ha' done that ! So 
 I said nothin' to her, Uncle Dan, but I just 
 up and pulled trigger, and it missed. I 
 pulled again, and it missed again ; and it 
 kept on snapping and missing, and perhaps 
 that shook me, or what not, for when it did 
 go off rightly, it bored that pig right through 
 the left ear. You never did hear such a 
 squalling and yelling, and such a hoggish 
 row and she seemed to look at me sort of 
 half suspicious ! And at last she came run- 
 ning to me me, with the old gun smoking 
 in my hands ! And I tell you, it went right 
 to my heart. I threw my gun down, and I 
 got that axe from outside, and I took it into 
 that pen, and raised it and it was done." 
 
 Alfred heaved a heavy sigh at the remem- 
 brance. 
 
 " When I came to my senses she was dead, 
 
178 Alfred's Wife 
 
 and I saw this gun lying there. I took it 
 up, and I thought, ' I'll break you, so you'll 
 never play that trick again.' I got two 
 stones one big, one little on the hill out- 
 side, and I laid the gun on the big one, and 
 then I thought to myself: ' No ; the gun is 
 as good as any other gun. It's innocent. It 
 was the lock that missed fire, not the gun.' 
 So I took the lock off, and I laid it on that 
 stone, and I pounded and pounded that lock 
 until I do not believe a man could have 
 known it was, or ever had been, a lock. I 
 was rightly mad ; I was as much angered as 
 I ever do remember to have been." 
 
 Captain Crossby threw his head back at 
 the close of this recital, and smiled, showing 
 his teeth, at the thought of Alfred " rightly 
 mad." The latter smiled, too, recognizing 
 that there was to Uncle Dan a certain humor 
 in the situation, which, however, was over- 
 borne for him by the tragedy and pathos of 
 his affection for Lucy and the disaster of his 
 relations to her at the last. 
 
Alfred's Wife 179 
 
 " So," said he, meditatively, " we're living 
 on Lucy ever since." 
 
 The two men talked together for an hour 
 or more, at the end of which time they had 
 agreed to leave the next week for a two- 
 months' hunt in the Big Pines. They hoped 
 to kill two or three bear there, and twice as 
 many deer. They could safely bring these 
 back in the cold weather, and Alfred, with 
 whatever else he might kill in the way of 
 game nearer home, would be able to tide 
 over the hard winter. 
 
 Captain Crossby was to have his half share. 
 He would have gone with his young friend 
 for less than that ; for Alfred was a born 
 hunter, and tilled the soil only because of 
 the uncertainty in the returns of the chase; 
 and this predilection of Alfred's for hunt- 
 ing drew Uncle Dan towards him mightily. 
 Moreover, for some mysterious reason he 
 considered Alfred Bannerman a " man," and 
 seemed to find this a further and peculiar 
 attraction in him. He himself had passed a 
 
i8o Alfred's Wife 
 
 quarter of his life's days in the deep woods, 
 and was a bear-hunter or nothing. He knew 
 their ways and methods, and he loved a bear, 
 alive or dead, perhaps better than any- 
 thing else on earth. He certainly respected 
 them as he did few men and no woman. 
 And this respect, intimacy, and knowledge 
 of his accounted, no doubt, in the mystery 
 of things, for a certain shuffling gait he him- 
 self had, a short, decisive grunt he some- 
 times gave out, and a general savageness, or 
 at least surliness, of disposition, evinced par- 
 ticularly to those females most nearly re- 
 lated to him. 
 
 As the two men rose to go, Lucinda at 
 the door calling them to supper, Hiram Stott 
 came down the hill and through the orchard. 
 He had walked over from his own place, a 
 few miles distant. 
 
 " How d'ye, Mr. Bannerman ? Stranger 
 here, Captain Crossby. Hot? Yes, it is. 
 Yes, it is hot." 
 
 Hiram wiped his sweaty red brow with 
 
Alfred's Wife 181 
 
 his sleeve. Alfred spoke to him ; but from 
 Captain Crossby he got no answer other 
 than his looks fixed upon him. 
 
 Hiram's little eyes shot about in their red 
 lids from one to the other, and he tried very 
 evidently to make himself agreeable. He 
 informed Alfred he had come to borrow 
 some medicine for his sister. She was ill, 
 and Alfred's wife had the medicine; her 
 mother, Mrs. Carr, had brewed it. Might 
 he borrow the same ? 
 
 Alfred said he'd better get it. Hiram 
 moved off uneasily. Captain Crossby 's si- 
 lence when he was about, and the fixed, 
 quiet, rather dangerous attention he ap- 
 peared to be giving him, embarrassed him, 
 and heated his face. The thermometer 
 seemed to Hiram to jump ten degrees when- 
 ever he was in Captain Crossby's presence. 
 
 As he turned his back on the two men 
 now, his large, thick-skinned face was flushed 
 with the heat of his walk, with this embar- 
 rassment, and with anger at it. He ran his 
 
i8 2 Alfred's Wife 
 
 hand through his black hair, and gave out a 
 kind of low, discontented chuckle, as he 
 thought to himself that it was a small mat- 
 ter, anyhow, what old Dan Crossby thought 
 or didn't think of Hiram Stott. 
 
 " Alfred," said Uncle Dan, "I'm just a- 
 thinkin' that I don't care greatly about that 
 man." 
 
 " He's pretty poor of a man," said Al- 
 fred, " but he knows better than to let his 
 poorness loose round here. I told him to 
 his face he obleeged me to do it, for he 
 asked me my opinion I told him that he 
 ought to ha' been shot for killing Joe Ray- 
 ner; and if not then, and for that, why, I 
 told him he ought to ha* been shot for kill- 
 ing of John Allen. He fired up, and said he 
 hadn't killed no such man. I said he had 
 put an ounce of lead into his spine : if that 
 was killing, why then he killed him." 
 
 "They might have knowed he'd marry 
 the Allen woman," said Captain Crossby. 
 " He wanted John Allen's wife, and he got 
 
Alfred's Wife 183 
 
 her ; and though I don't wish to take away 
 any man's character, it's just my notion ed- 
 zackly that Hiram Stott ain't a safe man." 
 Uncle Dan looked towards Alfred for cor- 
 roboration, and then proceeded dryly and 
 conclusively: " And it's my opinion, too, 
 that he's a perfect hell-sop." 
 
 This was a favorite expression of Captain 
 Crossby's, and signified his intense moral 
 disapproval of the person concerned, not un- 
 mixed with a strong natural antipathy; and 
 it might be supposed to imply that at least, 
 in Captain Crossby's opinion the said party 
 had soaked up all possible depravity from 
 the region noted in the first syllable. 
 
 The sun had sunk, and the pleasant, cool 
 shadow of the evening had fallen on and 
 over everything. Supper was done. Hiram 
 was still there. Alfred had asked him in 
 " for a bite," and he had stayed on, despite 
 his sense of Captain Crossby's disapproval, 
 and indeed partly in consequence of it. He 
 felt it was necessary for him to show Dan 
 
184 Alfred's Wife 
 
 Crossby that he wasn't to be put down. 
 When he rose to go, he asked Alfred to 
 bring his wife over to see his sister Sarah ; 
 he thought Mrs. Bannerman would cheer 
 her up. Mrs. Bannerman said at once that 
 unless his sister Sarah was sick to death she 
 couldn't go ; she had her husband and child, 
 and couldn't leave them. 
 
 Hiram made no response, but, shouldering 
 his rifle, gave them good-night, and rolled 
 out of the house. Presently, the door being 
 open, they all heard Hiram call back, " If 
 you're any way afraid of anything, Mrs. Ban- 
 nerman, don't come." Lucinda flushed, and 
 cried out, " Afraid o' what?" As Hiram 
 moved up the hill, Captain Crossby went out 
 of the cabin, and heard him gruffly chuckling 
 to himself in the dark. 
 
 When Captain Crossby had turned into 
 one of the two beds in the single room 
 which composed the entire " house," Alfred 
 and Lucinda went outside to talk. He told 
 her of the plan for the hunt in the Big Pines, 
 
Alfred's Wife 185 
 
 and further explained that Uncle Dan's 
 brother would come up once a week and 
 look after her during his absence, and that 
 he meant to ask Luanda's father to let her 
 younger brother Bob stay awhile. 
 
 As he spoke, Lucinda walked away, and 
 stood with her back towards him. 
 
 "Where are you going?" said Alfred. 
 
 " I'm just sick and crazy with bein' alone," 
 replied his wife. " And I just hate my life, 
 anyway." 
 
 Alfred sat down on a stump, and took the 
 girl on his lap, gently, and kissed hen 
 
 " It will all go better when I get back, 
 Lucy," said he ; "I promise you, it certainly 
 will." 
 
 " Never !" said Lucinda, with a wild rising 
 inflection and a sob, and then burst into 
 tears. 
 
 "Alfred," she said, when the first heavi- 
 ness of the storm was over, " I just ain't fit 
 to live, and you're that good to me it makes 
 it worse." 
 
i86 Alfred's Wife 
 
 III 
 
 Next week Alfred and Captain Crossby 
 made their start for the Big Pines. As they 
 went down the hill in Indian file two mules 
 and half a dozen dogs, followed by the men 
 with their long rifles Lucinda stood at the 
 door to watch, the tears of parting in her 
 eyes. She mounted a stump to see them 
 ford the Little Swift below, her dress flutter- 
 ing in the breeze, her hair loose, her eyes 
 bright, and her color coming and going, as 
 she blew kiss after kiss to her husband. 
 When they were gone she sat down on the 
 stump and cried bitterly. 
 
 Perhaps no one knew how lonely Lucinda 
 was even before Alfred's departure. She 
 was not only that, but discontented and un- 
 happy and sore, and wanted she knew not 
 what. If Alfred was more than usually ten- 
 der to her it made matters worse. " If he'd 
 only beat me and beat me !" she would say 
 to her baby, who replied by a gurgle, and a 
 
Alfred's Wife 187 
 
 fat fist waved in the air. But Lucinda had 
 at heart it had not come there suddenly, it 
 had grown a sense of some deficiency in 
 Alfred's nature. She expressed it to herself 
 by desiring that he would " beat her." It 
 seemed as if he was too gentle, as if he 
 lacked a certain positive quality, a harsh- 
 ness, or roughness, or what not, that would 
 make life easier. She wondered at times if 
 he would avenge an insult ; if he had had a 
 sister betrayed, would he, like Lick Hern- 
 shaw, " take into " the woods after the be- 
 trayer, and shoot him dead three weeks later 
 as he was watering his horses in the Red 
 Deer Fork? She was not certain that he 
 would. And now that Alfred was gone 
 these thoughts and doubts, with a sense of 
 the hardness of life, all came upon her with 
 redoubled force and frequency. Her only 
 means of driving them away was to sing, 
 and sing she did. If any one had passed 
 between the hours of dawn and dark they 
 might have heard her clear, high voice sing- 
 
i88 Alfred's Wife 
 
 ing on the hill-top, in the solitude of the 
 woods. 
 
 Captain Crossby's brother came up twice, 
 and then was taken with a fever, and came 
 no more. Bob was needed at home. 
 
 Hiram came down one day after the men 
 left, and once again ; then not for a week. 
 On his third appearance he stated that sis- 
 ter Sarah was dead and u coffined up" and 
 " buried under," and that that was the com- 
 pletion of her sufferings. He came every 
 day for the next week, until Lucinda told 
 him to stay away. 
 
 It was the day after that, that the baby 
 was taken ill. Lucinda was alone, without 
 help. She saw the child grow worse and 
 yet worse, and could do nothing for it. It 
 was a severe ordeal, but of short duration. 
 In less than four days her child died. 
 
 In the quiet that suddenly fell upon her 
 with the cessation of the child's struggle for 
 life, Lucinda preserved a kind of composure. 
 She was silent ; she set the cabin to rights ; 
 
Alfred's Wife 189 
 
 she attended to whatever necessary work 
 she had neglected during the child's ill- 
 ness. 
 
 As she sat, at the close of the day, on the 
 stump outside the cabin, her hands in her 
 lap, she felt scarcely alive ; a deadness had 
 fallen upon her, a profound apathy of life. 
 Her entire being lay, like her hands, passive, 
 grasping nothing, without even the desire of 
 grasping. 
 
 Hiram came late in the evening. She al- 
 lowed him to enter the cabin, but she cov- 
 ered the face of the baby from him. 
 
 The next day he offered to dig the grave 
 for her. Lucinda refused the offer at once. 
 She would dig it herself, and went out to 
 fetch pick and spade. 
 
 "Why," said he, as she returned, "you 
 can't dig it, the ground's frozen. Come 
 along, now ; I'll pick the hole out. Grave's 
 a grave. What's the difference to it who 
 digs the dirt ?" 
 
 " There's some things I'd a heap sooner 
 
igo Alfred's Wife 
 
 be dead than see you to do," replied the girl 
 in a low voice. 
 
 Hiram felt that he was nearing dangerous 
 ground, but some spark of natural sympathy 
 and desire to be helpful in such an exigen- 
 cy, combined in whatever degree with a de- 
 termination which he had lately formed to 
 make himself useful to the woman before 
 him, impelled him further. 
 
 " Well, when you've got the hole dug, I'll 
 bring it up to you, if you say so ; and I can 
 chuck the earth back for you." 
 
 " Don't you lay a finger on my baby to 
 bring it up to me !" 
 
 Lucinda spoke with a gravity of manner 
 and with an absence of quick emotion which, 
 as Hiram was unused to it in her, startled 
 him more than the most violent exclama- 
 tion would have done. He looked sullen 
 and confused, but made no answer. 
 
 " There's some things you have nothin' 
 to do with," continued Lucinda, looking at 
 Hiram as if she despised him " nothin' to 
 
Alfred's Wife 191 
 
 do with, Alfred absent or not ; and there's 
 things in this world that ain't fittin' to be 
 done. You'll let me to do as I say. It's not 
 your loss; and those that have lost let them 
 bury their loss, not another." 
 
 Lucinda went up the hill. She chose a spot 
 under a tall pine where she herself had fre- 
 quently sat with the baby. The ground was 
 hard, and the digging cost her labor. The 
 afternoon was still and cold ; but cold as it 
 was the girl was soon warmed with her 
 work. As the hard surface was broken up 
 and thrown out, the digging became easier, 
 the grave grew deeper rapidly, and Lucinda 
 was soon obliged to work inside of it. At 
 a little before sunset it was completed. A 
 heap of brown earth was thrown out on all 
 sides; and Lucinda, standing up in the grave, 
 could barely see the horizon, where the sun 
 was setting coldly in a bank of dull -red 
 clouds. She looked up only to measure the 
 depth to her satisfaction. Then she bent 
 down again and began to smooth with her 
 
i 9 2 Alfred's Wife 
 
 hands the roughness of the clay bottom. 
 She smoothed it as if it had been the clean 
 sheet of some small bed which had become 
 creased and rumpled; and as her hands 
 moved lightly over it, the sweat from her 
 forehead dropped on the loose earth. 
 
 The sun had gone down and left the ex- 
 tent of winter forest, seen from the hill, 
 lightless and cold -looking, when Lucinda 
 began to go up the path with the child in 
 her arms. 
 
 She laid it at the foot of the pine, where 
 she had frequently rocked it to sleep. The 
 same pillow she had used was under its head. 
 It was after dark before she laid it in the 
 grave she had prepared. 
 
 Hiram stood at the door of the cabin and 
 listened at intervals. He could hear no sound 
 until, about an hour or two before midnight, 
 as he judged, he caught the click of pick 
 and spade again, and concluded that Lu- 
 cinda was completing her work in the dark- 
 ness. She came down to the cabin short- 
 
Alfred's Wife 193 
 
 ly after that and threw herself upon the 
 bed. 
 
 He knew that she had not slept at all the 
 previous night, and guessed she could scarce- 
 ly have got much sleep during the baby's 
 illness. But now he saw her lying in her 
 clothes on the bed opposite, sleeping pro- 
 foundly. He reckoned she'd come to her- 
 self if she slept enough. 
 
 Hiram was obliged to spend the next day 
 at his own place, and did not see Lucinda 
 again until the following morning. When 
 he came down into the cabin he was no less 
 than astounded. For just so quiet and self- 
 contained as she had been before the child's 
 death and burial, just so wild and extrava- 
 gant in her lack of self-control did she appear 
 after these. She seemed to have buried with 
 the child any care that she had for herself. 
 She spoke little, and when she did, suddenly 
 and with anger. But her gestures, her mo- 
 tions, the expression of her face, and every- 
 thing she did, or the manner in which she 
 
194 Alfred's Wife 
 
 left anything undone, expressed just such a 
 spirit in her as would have induced her to 
 seek rather than to avoid a blow or a cut, 
 had these impended almost such a spirit as 
 would have made it a relief for her to be 
 thrown into danger and violence, and to 
 suffer from them. 
 
 While she was in this state, Hiram stayed 
 at the cabin. He cooked and did all the 
 work there was to do, his eyes growing more 
 bloodshot and his face redder with bending 
 over the open fire. 
 
 Three weeks passed thus. The coldest days 
 of winter were come and the snow lay a foot 
 deep along the ridge. It was a week past 
 the date fixed for Alfred's return. Hiram 
 had been obliged to spend two days at his 
 home. On the evening of the third day he 
 appeared with a sledge and a mule. The 
 next morning, as Lucinda was splitting wood 
 outside the cabin, he brought the mule and 
 sledge to the door, took her heavy cloak 
 from the peg inside, and coming out with it, 
 
Alfred's Wife 195 
 
 threw it over her shoulders. The girl looked 
 at him defiantly. 
 
 "I know what you want/* she cried out, 
 " but you're not going to have me !" 
 
 " Come on !" said Hiram, in as gentle and 
 wheedling a tone as was possible to him. 
 Lucinda laughed insultingly. 
 
 " Come on !" she repeated, imitating him. 
 He drew his eyebrows together, but, laying a 
 hand on hers, was about to say something 
 flattering and sweet. 
 
 " Take it away !" said Lucinda, looking at 
 the heavy hand covering her own. 
 
 " What's the use of makin' believe ?" soft- 
 ening his voice as much as was possible for 
 him, and, as a consequence, speaking in a 
 kind of raspy whisper. " Don't you know 
 that?" 
 
 " Take it away !" cried Lucinda, raising the 
 axe she held in the other hand. 
 
 Hiram only clasped her hand more strong- 
 ly. The girl swung her forearm back, and 
 the axe, making a loose, wide circle, began to 
 
ig6 Alfred's Wife 
 
 descend in such an arc as, fully described, 
 would have slashed Hiram's wrist or hand, 
 and not impossibly both his and the woman's, 
 beneath it. But in an instant the helve was 
 caught close to the head and swung out of 
 the girl's grip. 
 
 " Cut and bite, eh?" said Hiram, in a voice 
 quite natural to him. At the same moment 
 he took her about the waist and under 
 the knees and set her down, all in one 
 motion, on the sledge. Lucinda attempted 
 to rise. 
 
 " You're a-comin' home to me," said he, 
 letting both his hands fall heavily from 
 behind on her shoulders. Lucinda gave a 
 cry of pain. 
 
 " Sit there, then !" he said, warningly. 
 
 Luanda's face was flushed, her eyes were 
 blazing, and she looked dangerous enough ; 
 but she remained seated. 
 
 "You know what'll come o' this?" cried 
 she, in an excited voice. 
 
 Hiram laughed rudely. " Know ? Know ? 
 
Alfred's Wife 197 
 
 Why, yes," with a sneer, "nothin' '11 come 
 of it." 
 
 " You can take me, for all I care/* said the 
 girl, bitterly. "Take me; it's nothing to 
 me, nor anything else on this earth." 
 
 Hiram started the mule, walking beside 
 the sledge with the reins in one hand and 
 his rifle in the other. 
 
 " But killin' '11 come of it," added Lucinda. 
 " You better forego your bargain, Hiram 
 Stott. I may be pretty enough, but I ain't 
 worth your life to you." 
 
 The sledge was descending the hill and 
 the cabin was nearly out of sight. 
 
 "You'll do," said Hiram, with a look at 
 her. " I'll be about when there's killin'. 
 What I want, I gen'rally get," he added, with 
 a laugh. 
 
 There was something too triumphant in 
 the words, as in the short laugh that follow- 
 ed, and Lucinda half rose suddenly, and 
 began to get off the sledge still in motion. 
 Hiram let the reins fall on the snow, and 
 
ig8 Alfred's Wife 
 
 trail ; the mule walked on, while he leaned 
 over and dropped the barrel of his rifle on 
 Luanda's hand, which had caught the up- 
 right of the sledge, and with which she was 
 supporting her half -raised body in the act 
 of stepping from the sledge into the snow. 
 The iron barrel fell heavily, the hand relaxed 
 of itself from the shock, and the girl sank 
 back. She then lay down, covering her face 
 with her hands, but making no sound. 
 
 The distance from Alfred's cabin on the 
 ridge to Hiram's, low down in a swampy 
 ground and surrounded by a host of dead- 
 ened trees, alder bushes, and laurel, was seven 
 miles. As they arrived at the door Hiram 
 said, contemptuously: 
 
 " Alfred's nothin'. He's a sheep." 
 Lucinda, who had been for some time sit- 
 ting upright and silent, went off suddenly 
 into a passion of dry, agonized sobs. Hiram, 
 fearing she might do herself some injury in 
 the violence of the moment, knelt in the 
 snow beside her and laid his hand on her 
 
Alfred's Wife 199 
 
 head to stroke her hair. She replied, with 
 no intermission of convulsive sobbing, with 
 a blow in the face too quick to be evaded. 
 
 " You may do what you will with me," 
 she said, " but you can't do that. It's not 
 your business if I cry." 
 
 She got up from the sledge, and, stum- 
 bling in the soft snow as she walked, went 
 into the cabin, still sobbing. The children 
 had come to the door. 
 
 " That's your new mother, chaps," said 
 Hiram. 
 
 IV 
 
 In another week Alfred and Captain Cross- 
 by came back, successful, from their hunt. 
 The mules were loaded with bear's-meat 
 and venison. There was enough for months. 
 
 As Alfred caught sight of his cabin on the 
 hill he felt as much pleasure in his return, 
 
200 Alfred's Wife 
 
 as much buoyancy of spirit and hope for the 
 future, as he had ever known in his life. 
 
 Captain Crossby stopped at the stable. 
 Alfred walked quickly into the cabin, the 
 door of which stood wide open. No one 
 was there. He called his wife's name. As 
 he did so, he saw that the fire was dead, and, 
 looking about him, perceived that the room 
 was in disorder. He went to the door. 
 There were no fresh footsteps to and from 
 the cabin. He noted the sledge-track, now 
 a week old. It occurred to him that Lu- 
 cinda had for some good reason left for the 
 mill, and he went inside again to find any 
 letter there might be there for him. On 
 the bed-quilt was pinned a piece of yellow 
 paper. Alfred read : 
 
 Your woman's come to live with me. Why'd 
 you leeve her to starve ? The young one hit died. 
 
 HIRAM STOTT. 
 
 Alfred sat down on the bed, the bit of 
 yellow paper in his hand. Captain Crossby 
 
Alfred's Wife 201 
 
 came in, and, seeing his friend's face, took 
 the paper. The two men looked at each 
 other. A flush of color appeared in the 
 older man's wrinkled, smoke-begrimed face, 
 but he said not a word. He turned to the 
 chimney-place and began kicking among the 
 cold ashes on the hearth. 
 
 Alfred was silent a long time, sitting weak- 
 ly, and apparently in a dazed state of mind, 
 on the bed. Captain Crossby moved in and 
 out, made a fire, unpacked the mules, cleaned 
 his rifle and Alfred's, and cooked supper ; all 
 which time he said nothing, only now and 
 again casting a side glance at Alfred. 
 
 After one of his momentary absences from 
 the cabin he found the room empty when he 
 returned. He put down the log he had on 
 his shoulder, and went out, peering around 
 in all directions for Alfred. It was dark. 
 The old man had some vague fear in his 
 mind, for he ran round the cabin, up the hill 
 a short distance, and back, with astonishing 
 speed, glancing quickly here and there, now 
 
202 Alfred's Wife 
 
 stopping to listen, now bending down over 
 the snow, and looking, in the suddenness and 
 celerity of his movements, and in the way 
 in which he bent down as he ran up the 
 slippery hill-path, with his gray hair piled up 
 on his small head and his eyes restlessly in- 
 quisitive, as unlike anything purely human as 
 can be imagined wearing a shirt and boots. 
 He presently heard the snow crunch behind 
 the stable, and concluded that Alfred must 
 be there. He stopped a few feet away. He 
 could see pretty plainly, for the brilliance 
 of the winter stars mingled with the last 
 radiance of twilight, and the snow reflected 
 whatever light there was. He saw Alfred 
 standing in the shadow of the stable, with his 
 face against the logs, his body moving, and 
 apparently shaken with some strong emo- 
 tion. He heard a succession of dull, bumping 
 sounds, and supposed he was kicking the 
 logs. But at the same moment he saw him 
 raise his hands and once and again bring the 
 closed fists with all his force against the 
 
Alfred's Wife 203 
 
 wall of the stable. The old man ran forward, 
 and, throwing himself upon his friend, forced 
 him away from the building. 
 
 As he did so, he saw that his forehead 
 was bleeding profusely. 
 
 " Have yourself! Have yourself !" said he, 
 and gripped the man by both wrists. Al- 
 fred's hands, too, were wet with blood, and 
 he was trembling as if in the violence of an 
 ague-fit. 
 
 " Alfred !" said Captain Crossby, as if he 
 would bring him to himself by calling his 
 name to him. Alfred made no reply other 
 than to continue breathing rapidly, as if 
 after violent physical exertion, and trem- 
 bling from head to foot. 
 
 Uncle Dan led him into the cabin. 
 
 "That'll do !" he said, with severity. He 
 took a piece of rag, and, dipping it in water, 
 sopped Alfred's bloody forehead and face. 
 It was more bruised than cut by the force 
 with which he had thrown himself against 
 the logs. But he became gradually quieter, 
 
204 Alfred's Wife 
 
 and in half an hour found himself eating the 
 meal that had been cooked for him. When 
 the older man had cleared up and washed 
 the dishes, he threw a section of a tree on 
 the fire and drew his chair up to it. Alfred 
 sat on the floor, with his back against the 
 stone chimney-pillar and his long legs out 
 in front of him. 
 
 "Alfred," said the old man, leaning over 
 and taking one of Alfred's hands gently in 
 his, an action probably as unusual with him 
 as standing on his head would have been 
 " Alfred, I guess we know each other. It's 
 natural you should feel as you do." Uncle 
 Dan spoke with something akin to a drawl 
 and in rather a high voice. " Now," he con- 
 tinued, "I've been a-thinkin' this matter 
 over, and hit's just my opinion that we must 
 go right down to Hiram we must go right 
 down to him; for I've a notion that that 
 man wants to be settled." 
 
 Alfred looked up at his friend sadly. 
 
 " Hiram has children, and they're mother- 
 
Alfred's Wife 205 
 
 less," continued Captain Crossby ; " but if 
 he ain't settled and done with, he'll bring 
 about more motherless and more fatherless 
 children, too, than he has himself twic't over. 
 Now that's what I conclude to be the case." 
 
 Alfred made no rejoinder. In a few min- 
 utes he threw himself on the bed. Captain 
 Crossby heard him breathing irregularly and 
 wakefully through the night. 
 
 The next morning, when they had eaten, 
 he intimated that there never was a time 
 like the present to do a just action. Should 
 they go down and "settle" Hiram ? Alfred 
 was sitting in the doorway, with his head 
 against the jamb, looking out into the dis- 
 tance. 
 
 " Uncle Dan," said he, " Hiram has done 
 me grievous wrong. He'd far better have 
 taken my life from me than her I loved. 
 But if we kill him, it throws her out on the 
 mercy of the snow. I don't reckon her faw- 
 ther will roof her now ; assuredly she shall 
 never come under my roof again." 
 
206 Alfred's Wife 
 
 Alfred paused, for something stopped his 
 speech and shook him violently. Then he 
 continued, more brokenly and more ex- 
 citedly : 
 
 " I will not kill that man no, not howso- 
 ever I may want to do so for he's her only 
 chance now. But I have what I would like 
 to say to him face to face." 
 
 Captain Crossby felt that a righteous 
 vengeance was slipping from his grasp. It 
 caused him unspeakable chagrin, but he 
 agreed to go with Alfred merely to inter- 
 view Hiram. The peace was to be kept. 
 
 It was a gray day, with a dense snow-fog, 
 and everything dripping, the tree-trunks a 
 few feet away obscure, and the distance at a 
 hundred yards altogether lost. 
 
 They heard Hiram chopping. The strokes 
 resounded dully. As they advanced farther 
 they saw the figure of the man himself, rais- 
 ing his axe and letting it fall regularly, his 
 body, as it swung to and fro at the work, 
 looming up indistinct and huge in the fog. 
 
Alfred's Wife 207 
 
 Captain Crossby called out. Hiram was 
 seen promptly to seize his rifle and make for 
 the cover of a tree. From this refuge he 
 would not hear of any parleying unless one 
 of the two men left his weapon behind. 
 Alfred leaned his gun against an oak. 
 
 As the two men confronted him, standing 
 about ten feet distant, it was evident to 
 both of them that he mistrusted their mo- 
 tives. Captain Crossby began the " busi- 
 ness," as he called it, by stating that his 
 young friend had somewhat to say to Hiram, 
 and that he himself had merely come as a 
 witness. Hiram replied in monosyllables, 
 with evident distrust of every word spoken. 
 His bloodshot eyes glanced restlessly from 
 one to the other, and his fingers pattered 
 constantly on his gun. 
 
 Alfred inquired first of the child's death, 
 and received such answer as Hiram had to 
 give. He then said, without any further 
 preface : 
 
 " Hiram, you have wronged me, and you 
 
208 Alfred's Wife 
 
 know it ; you have lied, and you know it. 
 And it is not the first time you have done 
 wrong or lied; for you are a wrong-doer and 
 a liar from your birth to now, and you know 
 that same to be true." 
 
 He stood looking into Hiram's angry, 
 anxious, and not unastonished eyes with the 
 same expression that he might have worn 
 upon his face had he been telling a child of 
 its naughtiness, and there was no other wit- 
 ness of strong emotion in his manner than a 
 violent, quick twitching of his long fingers 
 and a heightened color. Hiram appeared 
 doubtful what to say or do in reply. This 
 was plain language, to be sure ; but as the 
 man before him had left his rifle behind, it 
 clearly could not be meant as an insult. 
 Still, the words were not such as he was ac- 
 customed to hear, and he was about to re- 
 ply in kind, as he conceived kind, when he 
 glanced from Alfred's face to that of Captain 
 Crossby. The distant scrutiny of the older 
 man gave him a kind of cold shock. He felt 
 
Alfred's Wife 209 
 
 as if Uncle Dan were sighting an imaginary 
 rifle at him ; for one of the latter's eyes was 
 slightly closed and the other had an open, 
 observant look which Hiram felt to be dis- 
 agreeable. 
 
 " If ye think ye can cuss me out/* said 
 Hiram, turning to Alfred, "ye are mistook." 
 
 " I'm not a-cussin' any man," said the lat- 
 ter ; " but I wish and I mean to say this, Mr. 
 Stott, and I will say it clear: so long as you 
 treat Lucinda Carr right, as a woman should 
 be treated, you are free of me. I bear you a 
 grudge, but I will do you no evil. I wish not 
 to see you or her, and so far so good ; but if 
 you evil entreat her, or desert and leave her, 
 I will hunt you down and surely kill you, if I 
 can lay my hands upon you which is all I 
 have to say." 
 
 The man thus addressed was not a little 
 surprised by the termination of Alfred's 
 moral lecture. The latter's fingers were 
 holding one another, intertwined tightly, and 
 his eyes were wide open with excitement. 
 
210 Alfred's Wife 
 
 Hiram gave a short, gruff laugh. 
 
 "That all?" he said. 
 
 " You might just add this from me," said 
 Uncle Dan. "You're a man I don't com- 
 pletely respect, and there's nothing on this 
 earth would give me the same pleasure as a 
 settlement with you ; and if you leave that 
 woman, I tell you p'intedly, I never will rest 
 until I bury your body in the ground, for 
 you're a burden on it. Now that's just my 
 idee edzackly." 
 
 Uncle Dan, who had hitherto been exceed- 
 ingly grave in demeanor, and was sufficiently 
 fierce in what he had just said, now threw his 
 head back and broke out with a silent laugh, 
 showing the row of teeth behind his beard. 
 
 Hiram glanced darkly at him. 
 
 " Guess you're both done, eh? Guess the 
 meetin' 's adjourned, eh? Now suppose you 
 two get off from my place." 
 
 He drew his gun into the crook of his el- 
 bow, as if he were quite ready to use it if 
 not obeyed in this last injunction. 
 
Alfred's Wife 211 
 
 Uncle Dan suggested quietly to Alfred 
 that he should return to the tree against 
 which his rifle leaned, and cover his (Captain 
 Crossby's) retreat ; and as Alfred went back 
 to execute this movement, the old man 
 faced round upon Hiram once more. The 
 two confronted each other in silence. When 
 Alfred stood with his weapon in readiness, 
 Captain Crossby, who had kept his eyes fixed 
 steadily on the man before him, said, warn- 
 ingly, "You remember !" and rejoined Al- 
 fred. Hiram watched them disappear in the 
 fog. When they were out of sight, and as 
 he turned towards his cabin, he seemed to 
 be taken with passion. His face grew fiery 
 red in a moment, the veins in his neck 
 swelled, his eyes became redder with blood, 
 and he rattled and knocked his teeth to- 
 gether, at the same time bursting out every 
 few seconds in a short, guttural growl of a 
 laugh : this throaty, hoarse sound, and the 
 gnashing of his teeth, occurring at the same 
 moment, sounded, a few feet away in the 
 
212 Alfred's Wife 
 
 fog, as if a dog were worrying some animal, 
 which in return was clapping its bloody 
 teeth at him. 
 
 Alfred lived in his cabin alone, and salted 
 down his venison and bear's -meat. He 
 neither saw nor heard of Hiram or Lucinda. 
 
 There was a discussion of the affair at the 
 mill. The general opinion was clearly that 
 Mr. Bannerman should have removed Mr. 
 Stott from the scene of his activities. If he 
 had not, it was not their business. Mr. 
 Brown was especially severe on Alfred. 
 But the whole transaction seemed to him 
 like some ghastly error in his accounts. 
 There was something about it all that didn't 
 add up to him, so he averred. 
 
 It was reported later on that Lucinda took 
 extraordinary pains with Hiram's " brats," 
 but that she herself was careless and un- 
 kempt, and that she had lost her " counte- 
 nance." 
 
Alfred's Wife 213 
 
 It was a year after that when Hiram fell 
 ill. Alfred first heard of it through Captain 
 Crossby. The latter told him that Lucinda 
 had walked all the way to the mill to ask 
 her father for help, and that Amri had given 
 her food for herself, as much as would do 
 her two days, and a mule to carry her back 
 to Hiram's, and had gone with her himself 
 to within sight of the cabin ; but farther he 
 wouldn't go and more food he wouldn't 
 give ; and he had said very plainly at part- 
 ing, he being always a plain speaker, that he 
 would feed Lucinda and roof her and af- 
 fectionate her if she took to livin' and keep- 
 in' house with a catamount it wasn't wed- 
 breach he minded, that was all in the way o' 
 life ; but as for Hiram and hisn, he'd as soon 
 feed a hole in hell as fill their empty stom- 
 achs. If they starved, it was God's own will, 
 and a redemption at that. 
 
214 Alfred's Wife 
 
 With this sentiment every one at the mill 
 agreed. 
 
 Alfred, as he returned from the mill the 
 same day, wondered how Lucinda would 
 make out to " do " for herself and the three 
 children with Hiram ill. It was still warm 
 weather ; no doubt Hiram's cabin was well 
 stocked. 
 
 About a week later Alfred had a rest- 
 less night. The wind rose with the evening, 
 and the sky foretold a heavy snow. Alfred 
 dreamed confusedly, and woke repeatedly to 
 hear the wind constantly increasing in vio- 
 lence. Towards dawn, in his dreams he saw 
 Lucinda before him in deep snow, striving 
 to lift some heavy object that lay before her, 
 and which Alfred from his position could 
 not see. He dreamed this picture twice. 
 The third time he started up, for he seemed 
 to hear his wife call, and saw her face with 
 such distinctness that he was able to judge 
 whether, as he had heard, she had " paled 
 out." But in his dream she was rosier than 
 
Alfred's Wife 215 
 
 ever. He made no effort to sleep again. 
 However, as he sat alone before the fire, and 
 listened to the wind roaring loudly outside, 
 his thoughts came upon him troublous and 
 thick. He felt beset with them and in dan- 
 ger from them. For this there was a remedy. 
 He took his axe from the corner, drew on his 
 coat, and went out. The wind came from 
 the north with a steady rush, and the snow, 
 slanting down to the earth in a whirling 
 mist of fine, dry flakes, was scurried away as 
 soon as it had fallen, and piled into drifts 
 behind whatever obstruction happened to 
 lie as a break to the wind. 
 
 In the thick of the storm, and half-blinded 
 by the force with which the wind blew the 
 fine flakes of snow against his eyes, Alfred set 
 to work vigorously upon a tree at the edge 
 of his clearing. After some hours of swing- 
 ing his axe the day grayed faintly through 
 the falling snow; and the dangerous flood of 
 his thoughts having passed away with the 
 night and labor, Alfred returned to his cabin. 
 
216 Alfred's Wife 
 
 When he had cooked and eaten he looked 
 at the size and depth of the drifts outside, 
 now first visible in the dawning light, and 
 seemed suddenly to make up his mind. 
 
 In another hour's time he was striding 
 through the woods, a pack of venison, bear's- 
 meat, and corn-flour on his back. 
 
 He made his way down the ridge to the 
 swamp where stood Hiram's cabin. As he 
 came out of the thicket he saw that the 
 cabin was half snowed under on the north 
 side ; at the south the ground was bare. He 
 knocked. There was no answer. 
 
 Again he knocked, and fancied he heard 
 a groan. He entered cautiously, not with- 
 out a fear of being shot in the back. The 
 room was in the utmost disorder, and so hot 
 from a fire of hickory logs that the panes 
 were clouded. Hiram lay sprawling on the 
 bed, under a dirty quilt of all the colors of 
 the rainbow, groaning not much above a 
 whisper. 
 
 " Hiram," said Alfred, softly. 
 
Alfred's Wife 217 
 
 The form of the sick man appeared to leap 
 from his bed. He staggered among the 
 bed-clothes and grasped for his rifle, which 
 hung above his head along a rafter. Alfred 
 instantly seized him by the shin, and the 
 two men were rolling on the floor to- 
 gether as Lucinda entered and gave a cry 
 of horror, supposing that she saw a mur- 
 der. 
 
 " Speak to him ; he isn't hurt," said Al- 
 fred, sitting on the sick man's chest. And 
 Lucinda making no answer, he repeated, 
 "Speak to him ; make him keep quiet." 
 
 " I can't quiet him," cried Lucinda ; " he's 
 just crazy; he's not in his senses; he'll kill 
 you if you let him up." 
 
 " Give me a rope," said Alfred ; and with 
 the rope thus obtained he bound the pros- 
 trate man and laid him on the bed. 
 
 As he turned to Lucinda he now saw her 
 for the first time in a year. She was changed. 
 For not only was she standing there nerv- 
 ously catching at her dress with her fingers, 
 
218 Alfred's Wife 
 
 a look of pain and confusion on her face, 
 but she was also haggard. The color still 
 burned in her sunken cheeks, but it looked 
 almost unnatural now, and seemed, as Al- 
 fred regarded her, to flicker and waver, like 
 the flame and light of a candle which had 
 burned below the socket, and might present- 
 ly go out and leave her cold and wasted 
 and as pale as wax forever after. There 
 was about her expression, as she began to 
 recover from her fright, something of a set- 
 tled but none the less bitter self-contempt. 
 The hair that she used to tie up with a rib- 
 bon was laced round now with a leather 
 shoe-string, and looked knotted and tangled 
 in its masses, while her dress was greasy and 
 slovenly put on. She looked at Alfred as if 
 she feared him. 
 
 " What are you come for ?" she said, at 
 length. 
 
 " I heard say he was sick and couldn't 
 rightly do for you, and I judged that with 
 last night's snow you'd be hurried some to 
 
Alfred's Wife 219 
 
 do for yourself, and for him down, and his 
 children ; so I came to bring that." 
 
 Alfred pointed to the pack on the floor. 
 
 The girl made no answer. Then she 
 broke out, suddenly, "You don't say you 
 came to this house, and me, to bring food- 
 stuff to him ?" 
 
 " Seeing that he's sick," said Alfred, " I 
 did. I bring you both, and the children, 
 what '11 keep hunger from the door." 
 
 Lucinda's eyes the feature of her face 
 that had changed least were so bright, 
 with such a questioning brightness, as she 
 gazed at Alfred, that she seemed to desire 
 to throw light from them into his hidden 
 soul. What he really meant, his way of 
 feeling, was still dark to her ; whether he 
 was "a sheep," as Hiram had affirmed, a 
 creature not to consider, without the natural 
 passions of jealousy and anger, a coward, or 
 whether there was something she had failed 
 to get at behind that appearance of quiet, 
 and the sad, innocent eyes that avoided hers 
 
220 Alfred's Wife 
 
 as to all this she had remained uncertain. 
 But this present action of his seemed to 
 confirm her suspicions. 
 
 " You have forgiven him and me, then ?" 
 inquired she, the color blazing into her 
 cheeks. 
 
 Alfred raised his eyes full upon her. He 
 seemed to wonder what her thoughts were. 
 At length he said, with great calm, and ap- 
 pearing to rest deliberately on those words 
 which expressed most deeply his feeling and 
 conviction : 
 
 " Lucinda, I have brought you and him 
 food ; and as long as that man there " nod- 
 ding to where the fevered man lay bound 
 upon the bedstead, tossing his head from 
 side to side, and groaning " as long as that 
 man there is down, I will give him and you 
 the use o' my hands." 
 
 " You have forgiven me !" cried Lucinda, 
 and she began to laugh in a wild, reckless 
 way. Alfred raised one of his long arms 
 with a motion of deprecation. 
 
Alfred's Wife 221 
 
 " Lucinda, you are woful mistaken. I 
 have not forgiven you for your a-Ieaving me, 
 and I never will. Let it, therefore, be no 
 solace to you that I am able to forgive your 
 offence, for able to do so I am not ; no, nor 
 willing; and I tell you, face to face, word 
 for word, and p'intedly, what to your own 
 heart is well known, that you broke my life, 
 and made it a poor thing and hopeless, with 
 your a-leaving me. Yes, you made my life 
 such as my sleep is the dearest thing in it ; 
 and not to think of you, hit's the sweetest 
 rest I can know. And though I bring you 
 food-stuff, and though I will not stand by 
 and see you to starve, nor his little ones, 
 which are innocent, yet as I have a Maker, 
 and as he looks on us two standing here, 
 never will I forgive you for what you've 
 undertook to do never!" 
 
 The girl looked at him at first with a kind 
 of contemptu@us astonishment, then with 
 considerable uncertainty as to his meaning. 
 Finally she said, a little doubtfully, " I guess 
 
222 Alfred's Wife 
 
 you're good you're certainly good ; but you 
 ain't much of a man." 
 
 Alfred made no reply. 
 
 " You stayed away from me at the wrong 
 time," continued Lucinda, with a sudden 
 burst of emphasis. " Why in the world 
 didn't you come home ? It's all very well 
 to be good. I'm not good. You were too 
 easy and mild and soft, Alfred Bannerman ; 
 that's your life's trouble. Why didn't you 
 take me and just give me -one?" 
 
 Lucinda, with her figure drawn up and 
 her fist closed to make it clear to Alfred 
 what kind of " one " she had desired him to 
 give her, looked for a moment more like her 
 former self than he had hitherto seen her. 
 
 "Just give me one hit me when I got 
 the mopes and miserables. Not you ! You 
 were too mild. I'll never forgive you that 
 child's death never !" 
 
 Alfred flushed, but made no reply ; and 
 the girl went on, with a short sob or two : 
 
 a Oh, it's just as well as it is. He's a 
 
Alfred's Wife 223 
 
 man ; he knows his own mind," pointing to 
 Hiram, who had grown quiet now. " He 
 don't waste any mildness, I guess not on 
 me. But he's a man, anyhow, Alfred Ban- 
 nerman, more'n God made you ; and that's 
 what's ruined me ; and I wish if it wasn't 
 for the * new one ' yes, I do ! I do ! I do !" 
 Lucinda broke into a passion of dry, 
 angry sobs " that I was dead and cold, and 
 had no more to do with anything on this 
 earth nor anywhere !" 
 
 She turned her face from Alfred, and fell 
 down on her knees, with her arms over 
 something in the corner of the room, her 
 body shaken and convulsed with a kind of 
 wild grief. 
 
 " God have mercy on you," said Alfred 
 " on you and him and me !" 
 
 He heard a faint crying sound in the cor- 
 ner : it was the " new one " waking up. Al- 
 fred had not heard of the " new one " be- 
 fore, and now that he saw the cradle, with 
 Lucinda still sobbing violently over it, and 
 
224 Alfred's Wife 
 
 heard the voice of this child of his wife's, it 
 seemed to him that something sacred had 
 suddenly entered the house and made its 
 presence felt. He looked at the man on 
 the bed, and thought that perhaps now he 
 would be true to Lucinda. He thought of 
 his own dead child. The tears came sud- 
 denly into his eyes; he turned away, and 
 went out of the cabin, and home. 
 
 He came every day after that, and did 
 such work as Lucinda could ill do, chopping 
 wood and the like ; but he never spoke to 
 her more than to bid her good-morning or 
 good-night. 
 
 When Hiram began to recover, and saw 
 Alfred working about the place, he asked 
 himself if he, Hiram Stott, was a sane man. 
 When he heard briefly, from Lucinda, why 
 Alfred was there, he at once and finally con- 
 cluded that Alfred was not a sane man. 
 
Alfred's Wife 225 
 
 VI 
 
 As the spring drew on Hiram recovered 
 himself completely, and in June he took his 
 three older children over to their uncle's in 
 Case County. He made three trips, and 
 carried a good many of his more important 
 possessions with him. The last time he left 
 the mules there. Lucinda was surprised ; 
 but she concluded that Hiram was tired of 
 the " old place," and was going to try Case 
 County. She was willing to do the same. 
 Her final conclusion about Alfred was that 
 he was "queer" the only judgment pos- 
 sible, be it said, when comprehension of mo- 
 tive fails ; and further, that he was " mild," 
 and " no great of a man." She thought of 
 him often ; and when she thought of their 
 first days together she was very apt to cry. 
 But that was all desperately over. If he 
 had only not been so " mild " ! For Hiram 
 her feeling was simple : he was this, or that, 
 
226 Alfred's Wife 
 
 or what might be; but he was the father 
 of the "new one," and when she had the 
 "miserables" he gave her the mighty coun- 
 ter-irritant of blows. She never asked her- 
 'self if she loved or had loved him; she 
 simply saw in him the person who was her 
 refuge from herself. 
 
 It was during the evening of a hot July 
 day, when Alfred, successful enough this 
 year in his farm work, was coming home 
 down the Highland Ridge from salting 
 cattle of his own, that he heard and then 
 saw a man in the distance making towards 
 him along the ridge. The man had a pack. 
 It was Hiram. He eyed Alfred suspiciously 
 as he passed, bending under his load, a rifle 
 in one hand and his hat in the other, with 
 which every now and then he wiped the 
 sweat from his forehead. Neither spoke. 
 But Hiram, once his back was presented to 
 Alfred, kept his neck crooked round over 
 his shoulder, looking after the other, who 
 
Alfred's Wife 227 
 
 was walking straight ahead with his gun and 
 an empty salt-bag in one hand. He had a 
 shrewd suspicion that Alfred might turn 
 suddenly and shoot. He even felt the spot 
 in his back where the ball would hit ; and 
 fearing this, he stumbled heavily along, his 
 head twisted over his shoulder, until Alfred 
 was out of sight ; then he hitched his pack 
 up on his back, wiped the sweat from his 
 face again with his hat, and made the sort 
 of worrying, chuckling, hoarse sounds that 
 were with him laughter and fullness of soul ; 
 and so passed on his way, feeling more in- 
 finitely pleased with and proud of himself, 
 and more tickled by the smooth success of 
 his scheme, than ever before in his life since 
 the day he had shot Joe Rayner up an ash- 
 tree. 
 
 As Alfred came swinging up to his cabin 
 Captain Crossby was sitting on the step. 
 He looked grave. 
 
 " Have you heard the news of Hiram ?" 
 said he, abruptly. 
 
228 Alfred's Wife 
 
 " I just passed him," observed Alfred. 
 
 Where ?" 
 
 " On the Highland Ridge, going north.'* 
 
 " He has left Lucinda," said Captain 
 Crossby. 
 
 " He has ?" said Alfred. 
 
 " Has," replied his friend, briefly. 
 
 Alfred looked away across the wooded 
 hills towards the sunset. His big eyes 
 seemed suddenly as full of pity and distress 
 as human eyes can be. 
 
 " Uncle Dan, I guess we must kill that 
 man." Alfred spoke with his usual deliber- 
 ation. 
 
 " Well, now, that's just my notion ed- 
 zackly," returned the old man. 
 
 In a few minutes the two set out, taking 
 ammunition and three days' rations. They 
 kept together up the Highland Ridge, walk- 
 ing late into the night. The next morn- 
 ing they separated. Captain Crossby was 
 to go along the ridge north, watching at 
 daybreak and towards dark for Hiram's 
 
Alfred's Wife 229 
 
 smoke. Alfred pursued the course of the 
 Snake Branch. Hiram, whom they believed 
 to be making for Case County, might have 
 taken either trail. Towards evening of the 
 second day Alfred saw broken twigs and 
 footprints, and pressed on. It was after- 
 noon of the following day, as he came cau- 
 tiously around a turn in the little river, 
 that he first saw the man he wished to kill. 
 The Snake Branch was hemmed in by high 
 mountains here, darkened on either side 
 and overhung by tall pines and laurel; and 
 thus darkened and overhung, it went noisily 
 gushing down among stones and rocks. Al- 
 fred saw Hiram some few hundred paces 
 away, jumping from stone to stone lightly 
 under his heavy pack and making pretty 
 fast time. In a few minutes he was near 
 enough, unseen by Hiram, to have shot him 
 in the back. Instead, he called out. The 
 man ahead started, and, disengaging himself 
 from his pack with very considerable celer- 
 ity, dropped behind a rock in a foot or two 
 
230 Alfred's Wife 
 
 of water. Alfred was exposed, but he had 
 little fear that his opponent would risk his 
 single ball on him so long as he was in quick 
 motion, and accordingly he splashed through 
 the shallow water, and ran rapidly along the 
 beach, thus in a few moments making a flank 
 movement, and forcing the man behind the 
 rock to disclose himself, which he did im- 
 mediately, standing up, taking quick aim, 
 and firing. The shot took effect. Alfred 
 stopped, shaken with the sudden blow of a 
 bullet scathing the flesh of his shoulder; but 
 as Hiram turned to make the opposite bank 
 he levelled his rifle in turn and fired. While 
 the narrow and rocky gorge was still full of 
 echoes he heard a heavy splash, and as the 
 smoke cleared away, floating down-stream, 
 he perceived the man lying in the water. 
 He loaded, and then crossed to the spot. 
 Hiram's rifle lay between the rocks, still 
 smoking; the pack was some feet away in 
 shallow water ; and the man himself, as Al- 
 fred lugged him heavily out, was dead. He 
 
Alfred's Wife 231 
 
 laid the body on a rock, and, standing in the 
 water up to his knees, looked sadly at the 
 man that had been his enemy. 
 
 " My friend, it had to be." 
 
 He had never called him his friend before, 
 and why he did so now he would scarcely 
 have known had he thought of it. 
 
 " You made bad work when you were up 
 and doin', and now you're down and dead, 
 and it's a God blessing you are. I am sorry 
 for you." 
 
 He said this, shaking his head, with the 
 simplicity of grief, and as if indeed he re- 
 gretted something he had always expected 
 to regret. 
 
 " You're dead, and it's but right you should 
 be. Now that's the truth." 
 
 Alfred made a fire on the bank and cooked 
 his evening meal. As his own corn-meal 
 had given out he opened Hiram's pack, and 
 cooked and ate the dead man's. The dodger 
 thus made gave him no qualms. Nor did he 
 eat any the less that as he sat on the sand 
 
232 Alfred's Wife 
 
 he could look across to where the setting 
 sunlight fell on the face on the rock. Every 
 now and then he shook his head and sighed, 
 but said nothing. 
 
 He buried Hiram's body in the woods 
 and returned home. 
 
 Uncle Dan turned up three days afterwards, 
 and went the next morning to the mill to tell 
 Amri Carr. 
 
 Alfred set out at the same time for Hi- 
 ram's cabin. He found Lucinda pale, sloven- 
 ly, and red-eyed with weeping. As he ap- 
 proached, she said, " Read that." It was a 
 scrawl of charcoal on paper. 
 
 Before goin'. Bein' sick of you, I have left and 
 gone. Alfred he'll take you back. 
 
 HIRAM STOTT. 
 
 " I have made my mistake, and I must 
 bide by it," said Lucinda, in a shrill voice. 
 " Did you know this?" 
 
 " I did," replied Alfred. 
 
 " He told you ?" Lucinda laughed dryly. 
 
Alfred's Wife 233 
 
 " So you let him do what you said you 
 would not let him do, eh? He always said 
 you were a sheep, Alfred/* 
 
 Alfred looked down at her pityingly. 
 
 " He's dead," he said, simply. " I shot him 
 through the heart last Thursday, about sun- 
 set, in the Snake Branch. He had his chance, 
 and put me one here" pointing to his 
 shoulder ; " but he's dead now. I came to 
 take you to your fawther." 
 
 Lucinda was completely overcome with as- 
 tonishment. She felt, or pretended to feel, 
 no grief for Hiram. But she was astonished 
 to that degree that she said nothing. 
 
 They started for Carr's Mill the next day. 
 Alfred had loaned his mule, and as Hiram had 
 taken his away a month ago they were obliged 
 to walk. Alfred carried the "new one" in 
 its cradle on his shoulder. Lucinda came 
 behind. As she saw Alfred walking along 
 in front of her, the " new one " merrily gur- 
 gling at the tree-tops, clearly pleased with the 
 mode of conveyance and the swaying and 
 
234 Alfred's Wife 
 
 easy motion of it, she felt less sick at heart, 
 less sore, than she had for months, but much 
 more confused. She could not understand 
 it. Alfred was so much smoke a riddle to 
 her of the darkest kind. She trudged wea- 
 rily behind, and wondered, and thought of 
 Hiram with pity, and hate, and almost love, 
 and a strong dread of his being near about 
 somewhere, and not dead at all. Amri 
 Carr came out and took Alfred by the 
 hand. He had heard it all from Uncle 
 Dan. 
 
 " Alfred Bannerman," said he, "hit's a re- 
 demption! I'll go down with you to Somer- 
 set to-morrow, and we'll fix the sheriff. Oh, 
 ho !" 
 
 Mr. Carr blew a mighty blast, as if in the 
 act of clearing away all obstructions of a 
 legal nature from his son-in-law's path ; to 
 which, with a sort of shout, he added another, 
 as if he would blow some feeble posse, with 
 habeas corpus attached, like the tail to a kite, 
 into the remotest departments of the sky. 
 
Alfred's Wife 235 
 
 Her mother took Lucinda into the house 
 and kissed her. 
 
 " Kiss your sister/' she said to the children. 
 
 They did so, and warmly enough ; but Lu- 
 cinda was too tired to know or care. 
 
 " Let her learn by this/' said Amri to his 
 wife, and indeed to Lucinda " let her learn 
 by this that a hog ain't a man, and contrairy- 
 wise. ' Live and learn ' that's my motto. 
 Alfred says he won't take her back, mother; 
 he says she's broken his heart. I kind o' 
 believe she has. 'Live and learn' that's 
 what I say. She'll know better next time." 
 
 VII 
 
 Alfred was home again in a day or two. 
 The life which he now took up was as soli- 
 tary as it could well be. He had plenty of 
 time, therefore, to think and recall. Lucinda 
 passed to and fro in his mind continually, 
 and he recalled Hiram, dead and alive, not 
 
236 Alfred's Wife 
 
 seldom. He would sit over his fire in the 
 cabin, or over his camp-fire for, now that 
 he had no wife or child, he had taken up 
 hunting again, and spent weeks alone in the 
 Big Pines and there recall his last en- 
 counter with Hiram : how he had looked at 
 a distance, skipping from rock to rock ; how 
 he had appeared at the moment he himself 
 had shot ; how his face and wet hair looked 
 after death. 
 
 He saw all these things clearly, and, being 
 much alone, necessarily saw them often ; but 
 they affected him with no degree of remorse. 
 He had even no regret for what he had 
 done. It seemed to him only that he had 
 accomplished a needful act that he had 
 removed a nuisance. It gave him satisfac- 
 tion when he thought of it now, exactly as 
 it had done when he stood over Hiram's 
 body laid on the rock, and said it was right 
 that he should be dead, and that was the 
 truth. 
 
 Towards spring of that year it was rumored 
 
Alfred's Wife 237 
 
 that Hirarn's uncle from Case County, with 
 his two grown-up sons, had been seen about. 
 They had been so prolific of protestations, 
 and so loud in these, against any one's sup- 
 posing that they had come for retaliation, 
 that Captain Crossby, getting wind of them 
 and their words, rode directly up to inform 
 Alfred that they were probably bent on ven- 
 geance. Alfred said he had no doubt that 
 with time they would think better of it ; and 
 presently the three disappeared from sight 
 of man or hearing. They had descended 
 upon Hiram's cabin, and taken all that Amri 
 Carr had left there, which was not a great 
 deal. The cabin was deserted now, and 
 Hiram's uncle and his two sons had not been 
 heard of for a fortnight, when one evening, 
 as Alfred was stroking a kitten which had 
 been left to starve and mew most piteously 
 about Hiram's deserted place, and which he 
 had accordingly claimed and taken home, he 
 heard a sharp rap on one of the oak slabs 
 that served for shingles on his cabin roof. It 
 
238 Alfred's Wife 
 
 was followed by a report at no great dis- 
 tance. Alfred took down his rifle, and put 
 a short knife in his belt. He sallied out, 
 1 and when in a minute's time the same thing 
 happened again, the flash of the rifle being 
 apparent to him on the crest of the hill 
 above, he promptly fired at this flash. His 
 shot was answered by two in return. Then 
 all was still, and there were no more shots 
 fired that night. But about a week later, 
 this time after midnight, two % more balls 
 came tapping upon his roof. As there was 
 no third, Alfred could make no likely return ; 
 but when, the very next night, the thing oc- 
 curred again, and a ball crashed through the 
 roof, sinking itself into the log opposite, Al- 
 fred determined that Hiram's uncle was try- 
 ing to scare him into leaving his cabin tem- 
 porarily, when he and his sons would doubt- 
 less gut and burn it in his absence. He 
 made up his mind that he would disappoint 
 them, and accordingly passed four nights in 
 watch, forty paces, as near as he could judge, 
 
Alfred's Wife 239 
 
 from the spot whence the shots had been 
 fired on the hilltop. The fifth night, towards 
 morning, he heard muffled voices, and pres- 
 ently saw the three figures plainly, but con- 
 cluded not to shoot at once. Two of the 
 figures, as he expected, levelled their rifles 
 and fired at the little cabin below. Alfred 
 could have killed his man, but he felt, as 
 he said afterwards, that anybody who would 
 play such a trick must be a boy or foolish, 
 and he didn't like to chance killing a boy 
 or a fool. He did fire, aiming, however, at 
 about the ankle of the dimly seen man. 
 There was a howl, and a sudden scuffling 
 flight. " Barked him," thought Alfred. But 
 he was not content with so much, and be- 
 gan a vigorous pursuit, which lasted until 
 the evening of the day then about to dawn. 
 Twice during this day he sighted his three 
 men, and was twice fired upon, answering in 
 kind now, but at great distance, through a 
 drizzling rain and a tangle of underbrush. 
 As he was himself much exhausted at the 
 
240 Alfred's Wife 
 
 close of the day, and as he had found blood 
 in the track of one of the three men, he con- 
 cluded that he had given them enough to 
 make it unlikely that they would worry 
 him again. So he returned home, trying to 
 think how many men his Case County ma- 
 rauders could have supposed were hot upon 
 their pursuit. 
 
 When Alfred related this to Uncle Dan, 
 the old man was perhaps as much amused 
 as ever in his life. He met Mr. Carr in 
 Mr. Brown's store a few days later, Lu- 
 cinda and her mother both standing by, 
 and seized the opportunity to repeat the en- 
 tire tale, not without embellishment and an 
 added member or so to the Case County 
 crew. 
 
 "Alfred Bannerman's tasted blood," said 
 he, dryly, "and hit's my notion he's goin' 
 to be a terrible dangerous man comes the 
 time he get his full growth." 
 
 Captain Crossby threw his -head back, 
 looked out at old Carr, and laughed without 
 
Alfred's Wife 241 
 
 a sound for about a minute. He knew very 
 well that Lucinda had thought Alfred too 
 mild, and the temptation of her presence 
 was accordingly too great for him. 
 
 Mr. Carr heard the tale with a series of 
 explosive breaths and exclamations. 
 
 "Well," he said, at the conclusion, realiz- 
 ing very clearly that the story was aimed at 
 Lucinda, " people gets mistaken in people, 
 and people ain't always what people thinks. 
 Most men '11 fight and scratch like Mr. 
 Brown here but Alfred he's a slaughterer ! 
 Why, he's a danger to the peace ! Chase a 
 whole pack o' thieves and disturbers ! Bark 
 their shins! And shoot at 'em for thirty 
 miles ! In the night at that ! And all the 
 time to look as mild and gentle as a little 
 ewe lamb !" 
 
 Mr. Carr burst into a roaring laugh, which 
 shook him in all his limbs, as if he were a 
 tree struck suddenly by a strong wind. He 
 waved his arms, and ran his hands through 
 his hair, apparently in the desire to get all 
 
 16 
 
242 Alfred's Wife 
 
 the relief he could. Captain Crossby re- 
 sponded silently. 
 
 "When Alfred bleats he signifies blood," 
 said Mr. Carr, bringing both his fists down 
 on the counter to give exit to some of the 
 volume and violence of his mirth, and there- 
 by causing Mr. Brown to start and emit a 
 feeble exclamation. 
 
 Lucinda said nothing, but remembered 
 the story, and took care to hear it repeated. 
 At that time she was too worn, and too little 
 herself, to see clearly ; but later she began 
 to feel that she had mistaken Alfred. That 
 he was " mild," that he lacked some asperity 
 of nature, some commanding, enforcing qual- 
 ity, at least towards her, was plain enough 
 still; or, at all events, that, unlike the men 
 she was accustomed to, he chose not to al- 
 low himself to be imperative with his wife, 
 and gave her a freedom that Lucinda her- 
 self felt she was ill able to bear. All this 
 was plain to her now. In her opinion, no 
 man had any right to be as soft and yield- 
 
Alfred's Wife 243 
 
 ing as Alfred had been. She said to herself 
 that she hated him for it. But, on the other 
 hand, he was no coward ; although why he 
 had not killed Hiram at once she felt would 
 be a riddle to her forever. But, for the rest, 
 Alfred seemed to be rather unusually ready 
 and successful with his rifle, and not to know 
 what fear was. She wished he had shown 
 her that side of his character in time. 
 
 The following spring Alfred came down 
 to the mill to help Captain Crossby with his 
 harvesting, and remained there a month or 
 so. He passed Lucinda more than once, 
 but the girl, with her head carried very high 
 and her eyes in another direction, appeared 
 not to see him. She hated him to be any- 
 where near, and could have killed him when- 
 ever he passed her. Alfred never came to 
 Mr. Carr's cabin, but he gave the old man 
 six wild -cat skins for the " new one/* all 
 sewed roughly together by himself. 
 
 The day before he left Captain Crossby's 
 he knocked at Mr. Carr's door. Lucinda 
 
244 Alfred's Wife 
 
 happened to be sitting on the floor inside, 
 the rest of the household being absent. She 
 was teaching the " new one " how to crawl. 
 She said " Come in !" blithely enough ; for 
 hard work, the " new one's" pranks and 
 growth, and the rough, busy, noisy, laughing, 
 and joking household of people among whom 
 she had lived had put the color in her 
 cheeks again, and renewed her physically 
 and morally in the good course of time. 
 
 " Come in !" she cried out. 
 
 But when she saw the visitor she started 
 up from the floor, looking to Alfred just as 
 she used to in the days when he first knew 
 her rosy and fresh and proud, except per- 
 haps for something softer and kinder in the 
 expression of her face. 
 
 She gazed at Alfred now without a word. 
 
 " If I may come in," said Alfred. He 
 had a spray of blossoms in his hand, and 
 tossed it to the " new one." " If I'm wel- 
 come," he said, tentatively, and without the 
 usual assured quiet of his demeanor. 
 
Alfred's Wife 245 
 
 " You're not welcome/' said Lucinda, ab- 
 ruptly. The color rose to her face. Alfred 
 noticed, as she stood there, looking very an- 
 gry and breathing fast, that her hair was tied 
 with a blue ribbon again. 
 
 "That is," she added "come in; no one 
 you want to see 's here but you are wel- 
 come." 
 
 Alfred had suddenly lost the look of hope 
 with which he had entered. 
 
 " I am certainly right sorry if I am much 
 unwelcome." 
 
 He stood before her, with his long arms 
 hanging down, and looking at her with the 
 serious, innocent eyes that made her cry in 
 her sleep, and wake crying when she saw 
 him and them in a dream. 
 
 Lucinda felt anger, and pity for herself, 
 and hate of Alfred, and -despair, and some 
 other feeling, vague and strong, left over 
 from her former life she hardly knew what 
 to call it, or even what it was all rising and 
 swelling and coming heavily upon her, and 
 
246 Alfred's Wife 
 
 carrying her off her feet, like a succession of 
 waves : only to her they seemed to come 
 from all quarters, and from underneath, and 
 to clash and crash violently together. She 
 stood, trying to control herself. 
 
 " Luanda," said Alfred, evidently also 
 trying to get the better of some emotion 
 that appeared to catch him in the voice 
 " Lucinda, I want you to come and live with 
 me again." 
 
 The girl's expression suddenly fell, the 
 color left her cheeks, a look almost of 
 fright and weakness overcame her, chang- 
 ing back again to life and boldness as sud- 
 denly. 
 
 " If you can care enough to make you 
 want to do it," continued Alfred, speaking 
 slowly. " I am very poor of a hand at for- 
 giveness, and I wish not to make any make- 
 believes of forgiving you ; for what you did 
 is done, and hit cost a life. But all I say 
 now is, if you think you will be happier than 
 in the old days " 
 
Alfred's Wife 247 
 
 Lucinda clapped her hands together, and 
 seemed almost to gasp for breath as she 
 burst in: "Alfred Bannerman, unless you 
 can care for me I won't go not a step ! I 
 won't have your pity !" 
 
 " I give you none," said Alfred, bluntly. 
 
 " If you want me, knowing what I am, 
 what I was, and having suffered from me 
 knowing as I am a bad girl, and was false to 
 you, and a wicked devil and if knowing all 
 that, and those, you can care why, then, 
 I'll say too that I was terrible mistaken in 
 you, and that you're the only man right, 
 true man I ever met up to ! And I ain't 
 regrettin' nothing, and I won't make no 
 promise but but " 
 
 Lucinda tossed her head back as if the 
 words stifled her. Her hair came down 
 and fell over her shoulders in a mass, and 
 the color flared into her face and down her 
 neck. 
 
 " Lucy, I want you ; will you come ?" said 
 Alfred. 
 
248 Alfred's Wife 
 
 He moved a step towards her. There was 
 some word on her tongue, but what it was 
 he never knew, for she seemed to struggle 
 with it in a kind of death-agony of expres- 
 sion, the blood flushing her more and more, 
 and her entire figure trembling, until Alfred 
 took both her hands in his, when she burst 
 into tears and sobs, and cried as if she never 
 expected to have an opportunity of crying 
 again. 
 
 " Lucy," said Alfred, " will you come and 
 try?" very much fearing that this explosion 
 of grief in tears meant "No "to the new 
 hope he had so slowly formed. 
 
 " 'Ain't I said I would !" cried out Lucin- 
 da, indignantly, between her sobs. 
 
 Not many days after the " new one " was 
 crawling about Alfred's cabin, mauling the 
 kitten in a shocking and inhuman manner, 
 and setting up unheard-of yells at the most 
 distant approach of hunger. 
 
 " I couldn't live without him now," said 
 Alfred; " and I do hate to see a little one 
 
Alfred's Wife 249 
 
 grow up wanting its true fawther, without 
 some kind of a makeshift. " 
 
 Luanda loved him dearly when he said 
 that. 
 
 " I do hate it when one of these little 
 ones dies/' continued Alfred, thinking sadly 
 of his own baby. " Hit don't seem right ; 
 they're born with such a heap o' trouble 
 that it does seem they ought to live and 
 be a happiness to themselves." 
 
 Almost every morning, dull or bright, of 
 the spring and summer, if you had chanced 
 to pass by at the foot of Alfred Banner- 
 man's hill, you would have heard a girl's 
 voice floating down from the cabin where 
 she was at her work, where she had come 
 to live again, happily this time, with " the 
 only man right, true man she had ever 
 met up to." 
 
 THE END 
 
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