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Show 362 WESTERN WILDS. might have been a queen in the celestial heavens." Still she raved, and railed on the Church and all the priesthood. Again was she bound ; again the holy oil and laying on of hands. Then " the devil left her." A strange calm followed. The faithful rejoiced over a sister restored. She went about her duties in silence and submission. But there was that in her eye which the dull brethren about her did not note ; there was a far away look, that showed a mind set on something the eye could not see. An inward fever scorched her blood, and dried up the sources of her beauty. Her child was born and died, but she heeded it not. Two years passed, and the bishop's " favorite and No. 5 " began already to be known as the bishop's " old woman." Another year, and she was away from Logan ; now on the bishop's ranche, in Bear River Valley. The bishop now had another " favorite," a No. 6 ; and few who noticed No. 5 at her wearing tasks, " taking care of things at the ranche," ever stopped to think how fast the bishop's late favor-ite had become an " old woman," or to wonder that that head, fast turning gray, and that wrinkled face, could belong to a woman over whose head but twenty- five years had passed. At length there came a night when the storm was abroad upon the desert. The fierce wind howled along the Humboldt Range, gathered the red sand in ghastly pillars that rolled over Promontory Range, and swept with blinding force upon the eastern valley. People said : '' It is one of our worst dust storms it Avill purify the air," and thought of the season, the crops and their several material gains. But the dust storm grew to a tornado; and when it passed, the crazy log- hut on the bishop's ranche was in ruins. A calm and glorious morning followed the storm; the Utah valleys never looked more peaceful than then. But in that storm a greater storm had been stilled. Beneath the pitying stars that shone through the flying clouds that night, a soul had found release ; another subject had deserted from Brigham's kingdom, and the sad Danish girl was young again in the heaven of her beloved. ^ fCSjC^ jC^ Jji^ fC^' ti^ t* The mystery of his intended father- in- law was no longer a mystery to Willie Manson. The elder had long been apostate in heart, and secretly mourned his inability to escape from his bondage. But how could he break the ties which bound him in Utah? He now had three wives, but every day he secretly thanked God that the last one was childless. Ten years he had lived in polygamy, and Marian had nine half- brothers and sisters. Could he leave these innocent ones in this country? And could he hope to get them safely away? Could he trust his own wives, whom the ward teachers, in accordance |
