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Show THE MORMON LION really I don't. I guess salvation ain't for the likes of me, anyhow. I'll go with Helga. You'll be rid of the both of us. I ain't afeared of hell-fire-not after him I Are you, Helga ? " "I ban most awful tired a-livin'," sighed the Swede. "I tank I ban keel myself an' go to haal." "We'll go down to the Jordan," suggested Ann Jane, standing up to grasp the hand of her companion in ?Jisery. " It'll be easy to fall off the bridge. Come on.' I " Yas, I come," assented Helga. They started towards the door. Mrs. Senby stared at them in bewilderment. Then the meaning of their words flashed in upon her dazed brain. She struggled up in frantic haste and rushed around between them and the door. "You shall not!" she forbade. "No, no! not if it kills me! You shall not! Destroy yourselves?no not'' :, I tank I go keel myself," repeated Helga in her dreary monotone. " You'll soon be rid of us. Then you can go to the Endowment House, and we'll not be there to be sealed to your man," said Ann Jan e. " Let us by. You care, and we don't-no, not if we go to hell forever and ever and ever! " "Child! child! you know not what you say! God bless you! ... But it would be useless! Others would be sent to him--others- unlike you! ... And you, too, poor foreign sister- you also have a heart! ... Yes, yes, if it must be, I would rather that you who have suffered, you who can realize my anguishif it must be! 0 God! God !- if it must be! " Her husband had come to her. He caught her as she sought to fling herself upon the floor. Helga and Ann Jane cowered before him, as if expectant of harsh words, perhaps even blows. Though hoarse and broken, his voice was very gentle: THE MORMON LION 141 " Sisters, God bless you! She has said it, and I say it. God bless you! You have done your best to lessen the bitterness. It is a heavy cross for her to bear. It would be still heavier had you been as some others .... I have heard a little of how you have been made to suffer- and you are still young girls, hardly more than children! It is hard to subm1t ; but if we cannot escape it, we must endure 1t ; and you arc blameless. God pity you, innocent young martyrs! God pity you and give us strength to make amends so much as lies in our power for the wrongs done xou by the Beast! " " I 11 try 1 Dear Christ, give me strength to try! " sobbed Mrs. Sen by. Ann Jane fell on her knees and pressed her lips to the hem of the lady's skirt. The duller Helga looked up at Mr. Senby, her big Chin~ blue eyes beaming with childlike delight between hds red and swollen with weeping. "I tank I ban een Heaven already!" she murmured. "You do not cuss me-you do not beat me - r,ou do not kcek me weeth your boots! " ' To hear her say that !- and she still a young girl! " cried Mrs. Sen by. .. " I didn't mmd so much when he was cross, whispered Ann Jan e. " It was when he- when he -- If only I hadn't been afeared to die when I was first sealed to him! I tried once, but the water was awful cold when I waded in. I didn't think of jumping off the bridge.'' It was too much. I could no longer repress the rage that ran through my veins like fire. Had I not cursed I must have gone mad. . " God! " I invoked, " You say that vengeance 1s Yours! I call upon You to destroy, not that man, but this devilish organization that made hu~ what he is! Almighty God, strike it down! blast 1t from off the face of the earth !- this destroyer of homes I this cursed work of Satan! Deliver us from evil I |