She paid no heed; when she had made the couch to her mind she signed to
him to lay Halsey and the child in it, which he did. She herself stooped
in the grave to clasp the dead man's hands more tightly over the little
one's form, and her last touch was to stroke Halsey's hair from off the
brow. She laid the baby playthings at Halsey's feet; she unlocked the
box and took from it all the household treasures that so far she had
sought to keep--some silver, a few small ornaments, a few books, and
Halsey's Book of Mormon, in which was written their marriage and the
baby's birth. She brought a silken shawl, the one bit of finery that
remained from her girlish days. She covered her dead with it very
carefully, tucking it in as though they slept; then she moved away,
wringing her hands and heaving convulsive sighs. The Danite put back the
earth.
All the grass was strewn pretty thickly with poplar leaves, gold, lined
with white, and after leaning against a tree some minutes looking away
from the grave, Susannah began gathering up these leaves hastily, so
that when he levelled the earth she could strew the top, hiding the
place from the curious eyes of strangers.
"I guess, ma'am, if there's anything you would like to take with you
now, we'd better go into the bush."
"No, there is nothing, but," she cried, "I thank you very much, and if
there is anything that would be of use to you--"
When the Danite had first laid Halsey under the tree he had taken a
white cloth from the tent and wiped the blood from the coat, that
Susannah might not be too much shocked at the sight. He took this cloth
now and tore it till the stained fragment alone remained in his hand. He
thrust it in his breast.
"This will stand for the blood of them both," he said. "I guess that's
all I want." But when he had started towards the thicket he remembered
Susannah's needs, and went back for a blanket.
The poplar saplings that bordered the creek were still holding a thin
gold canopy overhead, and the dogwood was glinting with scarlet. The
other members of the community had gone so far ahead that it was a long
time before, making their toilsome way, they came upon their former
neighbours.
The fugitives had called a halt where a brook which passed through the
bush offered some relief to the pain and fever of those who were
wounded. One of these, a little girl, had already died by the way, and
her frantic mother began to reproach Susannah, wailing that if the child
had not been saying her texts to the elder she would not have been a
mark for the enemy.
The men were cutting down saplings to make place for a camp. It was
their intention to remain, going back under the cover of night to get
food and blankets from the houses, if they were not pillaged and burned,
going back in any case to bury their dead at the first streak of dawn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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