Twelve Mormon Homes : Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.

Twelve Mormon Homes, page 039

a better belief than Tab-i-yuna's heathen superstition, or the moral law our soldiers teach in their intercourse with the In- dians. Ugh! If I were a man how I would speak out against the beasts ! The Steerforths had often seen both Wah-ker and Arrahpene, his brother-in-law and successor. Old Baptiste was a relative of Wah-ker's, too, Mrs. Mary said; and then she took me into the kitchen, to see the adopted son of the family, "Lehi," one of the Pi-ede children whom Wah-ker had captured in his infancy. Lehi sat in the warmest corner of the ruddy hearth, and the little Steerforths were coaxing him to tell my boys about his days of slavery. Like most of the Indians who have grown up in the Mormon families, he was sickly. Rheumatism, dyspepsia, and consumption seem to follow the change of diet and more seden- tary life. He would not talk while I stayed there, although he looked pleased when Mrs. Steerforth promised him that T. would play for him on the violin he had bought, but had not yet learned to use. After I was gone he described to my boys how * Wah-ker's band used to amuse themselves in terrifying him. Sometimes they buried the poor child up to the chin in earth, and leaving food and water just outside his reach, informed him that the band were going to move away. On other occasions, the young braves would send for him, and, telling him that the time had come to kill him, would take aim. When they found that he did not flinch, they would say he might go this time. The sweet little boys of the band, too, were allowed to exercise their infant skill in archery upon him, the game being to see how near they could come to hitting, without actually piercing him. He 39