her.

Susannah had given up her school. The winter was severe, and mother and
child hibernated together by the sweet-scented pinewood fires till the
stronger sun had melted the frost flowers on the panes. Spring had
nearly come before Susannah divined that for the child's sake Halsey had
been protecting her for months from the fear of a near disaster that was
weighing upon his own heart.

This was the year of what was called in the early Mormon Church "the
great apostasy." One evening Halsey came in looking so white and ill
that Susannah drew back the baby, which she had held out for his evening
kiss.

In a few minutes she understood what had occurred. Some four or five
leaders in the Church, with their families and friends, had charged
Smith with hypocrisy and fraud.

It was not Susannah's own opinion that such a charge could be
maintained. Smith appeared to her to be like a child playing among awful
forces--clever enough often to control them, to the amazement of himself
and others, but never comprehending the force he used; often naughty; on
the whole a well-intentioned child. But she could well see that
childishness combined with power is a more difficult conception for the
common mind than rank hypocrisy.

Angel had been assisting in a solemn excommunication of the apostates.
He looked upon them as having been overcome by the devil.

After this Halsey instituted a series of unusual meetings for prayer and
revival preaching, which he held after the ordinary evening classes in
the School of the Prophets, which was now removed to the upper chambers
of the finished temple. Now, as at other times, his preaching was
successful. His power was with men rather than with women; they gathered
in excited crowds, and their prayer and praise went up in the midnight
hour.

Susannah was not in the habit of going to bed till her husband returned.
One night, after twelve had struck, while she sat warming the dimpled
feet of her restless babe at the rosy fire-light, she was greatly
astonished to hear a tapping, low but distinct, on a window that opened
to the back of the house. She lifted her head as mother animals prick
their ears above their young at the faint sound of any danger.

After an interval the tap was repeated; it was no accidental noise.
Susannah laid the child in its cradle and went nearer the window
shutters, hesitating.

She knew only too well that this secrecy was the sign of some one's dire
distress. She