A MORMON WOMAN 18i
"Because I was not good enough to endure polygamy; I was too great a sinner. I couldn't obey the gospel and keep my senses."
"Did the thought never strike you that the fault might be in the gospel, instead of your heart or head?" asked Hal.
"The High and Holy One of Israel cannot err," she replied, shaking her head, and again waving her long arms to and fro in the smoky air. "There are disbelievers in this camp, and I cannot tarry. May Heaven guide and protect you all, and bring you into the holy faith of the Latter-Day Saints! O blessed Lord, direct these souls into Thy kingdom before it is everlastingly too late!"
She waved her arms over their heads once more, and turning suddenly, vanished like a deer into the darkness.
"That poor misguided creature has the spirit of a martyr," said Captain Ranger, after a painful silence.
"It is a good deal easier for some folks to preach than to practise," exclaimed Sally O'^Dowd.
"There are kernels of truth in all 'ologies," said Scotty.
"As a man thinketh, so is he," exclaimed Mary.
"She is striving to save her immortal soul. All religions have their origin in human selfishness," remarked the Captain, dryly.
"Better say they originate in human needs," replied Jean; "but selfishness is universal, all the same."
"Yes. Selfishness is a necessary attribute of human existence," said the Little Doctor, punching the dying fire into a blaze. "Don't you think so, Mr. Bums?"
"I quite agree with you, madam. Selfishness belongs to human environment, and is as much a part of us as hunger, thirst, love, or ambition. Nothing is made in
vain."
Not even sin?" asked Mary. '* Not even sin!" echoed Jean. "This would have been a very useless world if there had been no wrongs to set right in it, and no suffering to relieve. Nobod
