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

Twelve Mormon Homes, page 059

younger baby nodding an accompaniment with quite a good notion of the measure. This Mrs. Thompson had grown up in the Mormon faith, our friend I? told me. Her mother died during the exodus, and she, then a mere child, had taken care of her younger brothers and sisters, and managed her father's house-"wagon-hold," I sup- pose one should call it-without aid from any one. Indeed, she continued to be her father's right hand until her marriage. Per- haps the rigorous training of circumstances in her youth made her consider what I thought such hard work, easy when it was done in her own home, working for her own children and her pleasant-faced husband. Ought I to despise that woman? She certainly came up to Solomon's ideal of a virtuous wife. You would have despised her less, if you had felt the difference between her household and that of another woman at whose stronghold of freedom I halted the day afterwards. Above her house was exalted a pole bearing a candlebox lid, on which was painted, "Old Boor- -bun. Segars." Upon the roof lay old boots and shoes reluctant to be reduced to the rank of fertilizers, but giving token of what was to be seen inside. Entering the cabin, I found that the dirt-begrimed win- dow prevented the household from needing a curtain, and the smoke-blackened logs of wall and ceiling were in keeping with the unmade bed and its tattered hangings. There was a very pretty baby here, too, which lay in its cradle and looked at me in silent wonder. The mother did no more. She never offered me 59