There was silence while both drank; and Holt was again under the necessity of beginning the conversation. As already observed, he had noticed the altered style of the schoolmaster's costume; and it was to this transformation that his next speech alluded. "Why, Josh," said he, attempting an easy off-hand style of talk, "ye're bran new, spick span, from head to foot; ye look for all the world jest like one o' them ere cantin' critters o' preechers I often see prowlin' about Swampville. Durn it, man! what dodge air you up to now. _You_ hain't got rileegun, I reck'n?" "I have," gravely responded Stebbins. "Hooraw! ha, ha, ha! Wal--what sort o' thing is't anyhow?" "My religion is of the right sort, Brother Holt." "Methody?" "Nothing of the kind." "What then? I thort they wur all Methodies in Swampville?" "They're all _Gentiles_ in Swampville--worse than infidels themselves." "Wal--I know they brag mightily on thur genteelity. I reckon you're about right thur--them, storekeepers air stuck-up enough for anythin'." "No, no; it's not that I mean. My religion has nothing to do with Swampville. Thank the Lord for his mercy, I've been led into a surer way of salvation. I suppose, Brother Holt, you've heard of the new Revelation?" "Heern o' the new rev'lation. Wal, I don't know as I hev. What's the name o't?" "The book of _Mormon_?" "Oh! Mormons! I've hearn o' them. Hain't they been a fightin' a spell up thur in Massouray or Illinoy, whar they built 'em a grandiferous temple? I've hearn some talk o't." "At Nauvoo. It is even so, Brother Holt the wicked Gentiles have been persecuting the Saints: just as their fathers were persecuted by the Egyptian Pharaohs." "An' hain't they killed their head man--Smith he wur called, if I recollex right." "Alas, true! Joseph Smith has been made a martyr, and is by this time an angel in heaven. No doubt he is now in glory, at the head of the angelic host." "Wal--if the angels are weemen, he'll hev a good wheen o' 'em about him, I reck'n. I've hearn he wur at the head of a putty consid'able host o' 'em up thur in Massoury--fifty wives they said he hed! Wur that ere true, Josh?" "Scandal, Brother Holt--all scandal of the wicked enemies of our faith. They were but wives _in the spirit_. That the Gentiles can't comprehend; since their eyes have not been opened by the Revelation." "Wal, it 'pears to be a tol'able free sort o' rileegun anyhow. Kind o' Turk, aint it?" "Nothing of the kind. It has nothing in common with the doctrines of Mohammedanism." "But whar did _you_ get it, Josh Stebbins? Who gin it to you?" "You remember the man I brought over here last fall?" "Sartint I do. Young he wur--Brig Young, I think, you called him." "The same."