The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old WestWilson, Harry Leon
General
The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West
Wilson, Harry Leon
Historical fiction; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Fiction; Western stories
“Don’t stand there, Brother Rae. Hurry and get to your fire and your
warm drink and your supper, or you’ll be bed-fast with the chills.”
“It has been a glorious day, Brother Maltby!”
“Truly, a great work has been begun, thanks to you—but hurry, man! you
are freezing. Get to your fireside. We can’t lose you now.”
With a parting word he turned and set off down the dark street, walking
unsteadily through the snow, for his feet had to be tossed ahead of
him, and he could not always do it accurately. And the cold, now that
he was out of the water, came more keenly upon him, only it seemed to
burn him through and through with a white heat. He felt his arms
stiffening in his wet sleeves, and his knees grow weak. He staggered on
past a row of cabins, from which the light of fires shone out on the
snow. At almost every step he stumbled out of the narrow path that had
been trodden.
“To your own fireside.” He recalled the words of Elder Maltby, and
remembered his own lone, dark cabin, himself perhaps without strength
to build a fire or to get food, perhaps without even strength to reach
the place, for he felt weaker now, all at once, and put his hand out to
support himself against the fence.
He had been hearing footsteps behind him, creaking rapidly over the
packed snow-path. He might have to ask for help to reach his home. Even
as the steps came close, he felt himself swaying. He leaned over on the
fence, but to his amazement that swayed, too, and threw him back. Then
he felt himself falling toward the street; but the creaking steps
ceased, now by his side, and he felt under him something soft but
firm—something that did not sway as the fence had unaccountably done.
With his balance thus regained, he discovered the thing that held him
to be a woman’s arm. A woman’s face looked close into his, and then she
spoke.
“You are so cold. I knew you would be. And I waited—I wanted to do for
you—let me!”
At once there came back to him the vision of a white-faced woman in the
crowd along the river bank, staring at him out of deep, gray eyes under
heavy, black brows.
“Mara—Mara!”
“Yes, yes—you are so cold!”
“But you must not stand so close—see, I am wet—you will be chilled!”
“But _you_ are already chilled; your clothes are freezing on you; and
you were falling just now. Can you walk?”
“Yes—yes—my house is yonder.”
“I know; it’s far; it’s beyond the square. You must come with me.”
“But your house is still farther!”
She had started him now, with a firm grasp of his arm, walking beside
him in the deep snow, and trying to keep him in the narrow path.
“No—I am staying here with Hubert Plimon’s two babies, while the mother
has gone to Provo where Hubert lies sick. See—the light there. Come
with me—here’s the gate—you shall be warmed.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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