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Show CHAPTER VII A PLURAL HOUSEHOLD BISHOP CHILCOTT's ward was only two streets away from the Senby's. Seeing from my dress that I was one of the newly arrived immigrants, the first man I met volunteered to guide me. On the way I mentioned my connection with the Chilcott's family. " Her cousin, hey ? Then you're fixed all right, brother," congratulated my guide. " Sister Mandy has her own rooms- which is more than some first wives have- and Bill's woodpile ain't the smallest in town. He gets more opportunities than even some of the Apostles. Mighty good fellow to tie up toprovided he feels friendly to you." " What's that about his woodpile? " I asked. "You ain't been here long, that's sure for certain," chuckled the man. " You see, wood is about the scantest article in the Basin. Back in Indianny we used to size up a man by his corn crib. Here's the gate. Good luck I " I thanked him and passed through the neatly painted wooden gate into the Chilcott lot. Within was a long low adobe house that ran far back among the shrubs and fruit trees with which the walled yard was thickly set. Over towards one side, where a great number of pine logs were piled up between the apple trees, I saw a young woman chopping wood. The gracefulness of her movements, no less than her rounded bosom and the abundance of her glossy brown hair disclosed by her back-flung sunbonnet, told me at the first glance that she was not my cousm. I walked up into the brightly painted porch that 6• THE MORMON LION ornamented the narrow front of the house. The door was provided with a great brass knocker, brought overseas, no doubt, by one of the English immigrants. At my first knock the door opened and Cousm Amanda stood before me. Her thin hair had begun to turn grey. Her sharp eyes were a bit harder, her face was a shade more sallow, and her tall figure a trill~ more angular above the bulging mass of her cnnohnes. Otherwise she appeared to be exactly the same Amanda who had stood dumbfounded before her picket gate m Nauvoo and watched my father and I drive away with the body of my mother. Either her husband had described me to her, or she recognized me from my resemblance to my father. Before I could speak she caught me by the arm and drew me into the prim parlour. "I've been waiting for yo~, Dave!" she ~xclaimed. " The Lord be prmsed! : . . Where ve you been all this time? Brother Chilcott said you rode off with one of the ewe lambs- that Bngham hisself loaned you his carriage. Land's sake I to think you've found favour a'ready in the eyes of the Prophet!" " Daniel in the Lion's House! " I laughed. Though unmistakably delighted to sec me, she did not kiss me or make any other demonstration of affection. While, on my part, the emotion that her hard face awakened in me by recalling fond memones of my mother was not sufficiently intense for me to disregard her awkward restramt. Instead of kissing her, as I had intended, I shook her bony hand. . "You're no Dan'el," she rejoine? to my Jest. "Dan'el didn't amount to shucks longside Kmg David. That's what you'll be- David with a crown of glory, eternal glory. My! but you do look ganteredup, though- ' most starved still f Sit nght down, and I'll fetch you a bite to stay your sturum1ck while |