Arizona -- Fiction; Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Western stories
“The first Mormon said God spoke to him and told him to go to a certain
place and dig. He went there and found the Book of Mormon. It said
follow me, marry many wives, go into the desert and multiply, send your
sons out into the world and bring us young women, many young women. And
when the first Mormon became strong with many followers he said again:
Give to me part of your labor--of your cattle and sheep--of your
silver--that I may build me great cathedrals for you to worship in. And
I will commune with God and make it right and good that you have more
wives. That is Mormonism.”
“Nas Ta Bega, you mean the Mormons are a great and good people blindly
following a leader?”
“Yes. And the leader builds for himself--not for them.”
“That is not religion. He has no God but himself.”
“They have no God. They are blind like the Mokis who have the creeping
growths on their eyes. They have no God they can see and hear and feel,
who is with them day and night.”
It was late in the afternoon when Bishop Kane rode through the camp and
halted on his way to speak to Shefford. He was kind and fatherly. “Young
man, are you open to faith?” he questioned gravely.
“I think I am,” replied Shefford, thankful he could answer readily.
“Then come into the fold. You are a lost sheep. 'Away on the desert
I heard its cry.'... God bless you. Visit me when you ride to
Stonebridge.”
He flicked his horse with a cedar branch and trotted away beside the
trader, and presently the green-choked neck of the valley hid them from
view. Shefford could not have said that he was glad to be left behind,
and yet neither was he sorry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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