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Show 354 WESTERN WILDS, pointed often to the hills, and said, in his oracular way : " Money there, my boy ; don't you run away from it." To add to Manson's perplexities, his dearer friend, Thomas James, had suddenly departexl for the northern settlements, and had never sent him word or line. What a horribly selfish passion is love ! It makes one forget all the world but two persons self and the other self. Manson was almost ready to conclude that human nature itself had changed in this anomalous country. Here were lakes of pure brine with no outlet to the sea; all the streams ran towards the center and none towards the ocean; a river was larger at the head than at the mouth ; it had two ends and was biggest in the middle ; most of the streams came to an end without joining other streams, and though the lakes were forever fed, they were never full. Why should not man's nature be inverted in such a country ? Where there was no consist-ency in nature it was unreasonable to look for it in man. So he de-cided to take chances and visit the Briarlys. There was a change indeed. He saw but one " wife," and heard no allusion whatever to Marian. The elder explained in an a\ vkward way that his " wife Matilda was on the ranche down on the Virgen" that was all. Manson was strangely distrait and nervous; and was not at all helped by observing every time he looked up, that his host's eyes were fixed upon him with a strange, inquiring look he could not comprehend. But as they sat down to dinner it wa's on Sunday a man appeared at the gate, and the elder broke forth at once, without warning or prefatory remark, into a wordy defense of polygamy. As no previous reference had been made to this subject, Manson could scarcely conceal his astonishment. But his habits of thought were very different from what they had been four years before, and he was prepared for argument, as are nearly all Gentiles who reside long in Utah. The new- comer entered, and made the usual salutations just as Briarly was saying : " Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for right-eousness. He was called the friend of God the father of God's chosen people. He had no child till he took Hagar to wife, then God blessed him with a son by Sarah also, showing that God approbated his polygamy." " Yes," said the new- comer, whom Manson soon suspected to be one of the ward teachers ; " you pretend to revere Abraham you might profitably follow his example." " Which example?" said Manson, " when he married his sister, or when he lied about it? You know he did both." |