t, like a lady, with a delicate colour in her face, and silky hair;
the new-comer's tanned, and fat, and freckled, and clumsy. If you don't
believe me, you can ask them as have been there. There's something in
the dress they wear, too, that sets 'em off. No female goes out without
a veil, which hangs down behind. They don't want to hide their pretty
faces, not they."

Mary Green, a damsel of twenty, she who had previously spoken, really
did possess a pretty face; and a rapturous vision came over her at this
juncture, of beholding it shaded and set off by a white lace veil, as
she had often seen Miss Decima Verner's.

"Now, I can't explain to you why it is that the women in the city should
be fair to the eye, or why the men don't seem to grow old," resumed
Brother Jarrum. "It is so, and that's enough. People, learned in such
things, might tell the cause; but I'm not learned in 'em. Some says it's
the effect of the New Jerusalem climate; some thinks it's the fruits of
the happy and plentiful life we lead: my opinion is, it's a mixture of
both. A man of sixty hardly looks forty, out there. It's a great
favour!"

One of the ill-doing Dawsons, who had pushed his way in at the shop door
in time to hear part of the lavished praise on New Jerusalem,
interrupted at this juncture.

"I say, master, if this is as you're a-telling us, how is it that folks
talk so again' the Mormons? I met a man in Heartburg once, who had been
out there, and he couldn't say bad enough of 'em."

"Snakes! but that's a natural question of yours, and I'm glad to answer
it," replied Brother Jarrum, with a taking air of candour. "Those evil
reports come from our enemies. There's another tribe living in the Great
Salt Lake City besides ours; and that's the Gentiles. Gentiles is our
name for 'em. It's this set that spreads about uncredible reports, and
we'd like to sew their mouths up--"

Brother Jarrum probably intended to say "unaccredited." He continued,
somewhat vehemently--

"To sew their mouths up with a needle and thread, and let 'em be sewed
up for ever. They are jealous of us; that's what it is. Some of their
wives, too, have left 'em to espouse our saints, at which they naggar
greatly. The outrageousest things that enemies' tongues can be laid to,
they say. Don't you ever believe 'em; it flounders me to think as
anybody can. Whoever wants to see my credentials, they are at their beck
and call. Call to-morrow morning--in my room upstairs--ca