ng was wet with the winter rain, chilled and stiff
with the frosts. On the faces of many the unnatural flush and excitement
of fever were seen, and other faces grew pallid, the lips blue or dark,
and the eyes sunken. To all who retained the natural hue and pulses of
health a heavier burden was added every day because of the help they
must needs give if they would not bury too many of their comrades by the
wayside. In that sad caravan souls were born into the world or freed
from it by death almost every hour.

Susannah was greatly struck by the meek manner of the boldest and
roughest of the Mormon leaders in their dealings with the parties of
Missouri militia who, with the ostensible purpose of defending Missouri
homesteads from Mormon violence, drove the stricken multitude as with
goads. She had learned from her husband what the strength of true
meekness could be, the lightness of heart which commits itself to God,
who judgeth righteously, the glance of love that has no reserve of
hatred, the infinite force that can afford to be gentle. Such a spirit
had upheld Angel Halsey, but his widow looked in vain among the leaders
of this band for a face that bespoke the same upholding. She soon
perceived that there was among them a free-masonry of understanding, and
that their mildness was assumed to serve the temporary purpose. By many
a prayer she heard breathed, which was in truth, though not in form, a
curse, she knew that in the souls of Halsey's successors there was no
forgiveness, yet her heart went out in sympathy to men who were
sacrificing their own sense of honour, holding in check their most
delicious impulses of revenge, for the sake of being worthy shepherds to
the weak.

"Do you love them the less because they are not angels?" asked Elvira.
"Have you forgiven?"

Susannah shuddered at the intensity of the hard low tones, the passion
in the word "love," the sneer in the word "forgive." Yet she knew that
the rage against injustice which in youth had driven her forth upon this
journey had, since the death of her child, changed into such fierce
hatred of the persecutors that she could, except for very fear of
herself, have taken upon her own soul the Danite's vow. In these days
the pain of bodily suffering or heart-felt grief was as nothing compared
with her agony when at times waves of this hatred passed over her heart.

The two friends were walking together, pushing before them a small cart
in which, on the top o