r that
a sane mind could regard them seriously.

"It was seven years ago," said Emma, "at the time the big revival was
here and Joseph was converted; but he heard all the Methodists and
Baptists and Presbyterians disputing together as to which of them was
right, and he felt so burdened to know which was right, and he felt a
sort of longing in him to be a great man, bigger than the revival
preacher that had been here that all the people ran after, and Joseph
felt that he could be bigger than that, and preach and tell all the
people what was right, if they would all come to hear him. And he was so
burdened that one day he went out into the woods, and he began crying
and confessing his sins and calling out to God to show him what was
right and make him a great preacher. Well, when he had been crying and
going on like that for a long time, he just fell right down as if he was
asleep, and it was all dark till a light fell from heaven and an angel
came in the light." Emma went on to tell of Smith's vision and first
call, of his backsliding and final commission.

Susannah stared. The young mother was a reality; the baby was a reality.
Could the statements in this wild story bear any relation to reality?
The old woman stood by, nodding and smiling. The young girl's mind
became perplexed.

"It was just before he began to translate the gold book that he came to
board at my father's in Susquehannah County, and he told me all about
it, and I believed him; but my father wouldn't, so I had to go away with
Joseph to get married; but since then father's forgiven us; and we've
been back home this last summer, and we've been to Fayette too, living
with a gentleman called Mr. Whitmer, who believes in Joseph, and all the
time Joseph's been translating the book that was written on the gold
plates that he found in the hill. It's been very hard work, and we've
had to live very poor, because Joseph couldn't earn anything while he
was doing it, but it's done now, so we feel cheered. And now that it's
going to be printed, and Joseph can begin to gather in the elect very
soon, and now that baby's come--"

Emma stopped again; the last domestic detail seemed to involve her mind
in such meshes of bliss that she lost sight of the end of her sentence.
All her words had been calm, and the baby that lay upon the bed beside
her stretching its crumpled rose-leaf fists into the air and making
strange grotesque smiles with its little red chin and cheeks