ging her hateful news.

There were only two roads on the island--one extending from the harbor
town in the north end to a village called Galilee at the extreme
southeast end, the other to the southwest shore. Along these roads farms
were laid out, each about eighty rods in width and a mile or two in
length, so that neighbors dwelt within call of one another, and the
colony presented a strong front. The King of Beaver could scarcely have
counselled a better division of land for the linking of families. On one
side of the Cheesemans had dwelt an excellent widow with a bag chin,
and she became Elder Cheeseman's second wife. On the other side were the
Went-worths, and Billy Wentworth courted Roxy across the fence until
it appeared that wives might continue passing over successive boundary
lines.

The billowy land was green in the morning as paradise, and Emeline
thought every day its lights and shadows were more beautiful than the
day before. Life had paused in her, and she was glad to rest her eyes
on the horizon line and take no thought about any morrow. She helped her
cousin and her legal and Mormon aunts with the children and the cabin
labor, trying to adapt herself to their habits. But her heart-sickness
and sense of fitting in her place like a princess cast among peasants
put her at a disadvantage when, the third evening, the King of Beaver
came into the garden.

He chose that primrose time of day when the world and the human spirit
should be mellowest, and walked with the farmer between garden beds to
where Emeline and Roxy were tending flowers. The entire loamy place sent
up incense. Emeline had felt at least sheltered and negatively happy
until his voice modulations strangely pierced her, and she looked up and
saw him.

He called her uncle Brother Cheeseman and her uncle called him Brother
Strang, but on one side was the mien of a sovereign and on the other the
deference of a subject. Again Emeline's blood rose against him, and she
took as little notice as she dared of the introduction.

The King of Beaver talked to Roxy. Billy Wentworth came to the line
fence and made a face at seeing him helping to tie up sweet-peas. Then
Billy climbed over and joined Emeline. They exchanged looks, and each
knew the mind of the other on the subject of the Prophet.

Billy was a good safe human creature, with the tang of the soil about
him, and no wizard power of making his presence felt when one's back
was turned. Emeline k