t her go with her ears ringing
of Tull, Venters, Lassiter, of duty to God and glory in Heaven.

"Verily," murmured Jane, "I don't know myself when, through all this, I
remain unchanged--nay, more fixed of purpose."

She returned to the main street and bent her thoughtful steps toward the
center of the village. A string of wagons drawn by oxen was lumbering
along. These "sage-freighters," as they were called, hauled grain and
flour and merchandise from Sterling, and Jane laughed suddenly in the
midst of her humility at the thought that they were her property, as was
one of the three stores for which they freighted goods. The water that
flowed along the path at her feet, and turned into each cottage-yard to
nourish garden and orchard, also was hers, no less her private property
because she chose to give it free. Yet in this village of Cottonwoods,
which her father had founded and which she maintained she was not her
own mistress; she was not able to abide by her own choice of a husband.
She was the daughter of Withersteen. Suppose she proved it, imperiously!
But she quelled that proud temptation at its birth.

Nothing could have replaced the affection which the village people had
for her; no power could have made her happy as the pleasure her presence
gave. As she went on down the street past the stores with their rude
platform entrances, and the saloons where tired horses stood with
bridles dragging, she was again assured of what was the bread and wine
of life to her--that she was loved. Dirty boys playing in the ditch,
clerks, teamsters, riders, loungers on the corners, ranchers on dusty
horses little girls running errands, and women hurrying to the stores
all looked up at her coming with glad eyes.

Jane's various calls and wandering steps at length led her to the
Gentile quarter of the village. This was at the extreme southern end,
and here some thirty Gentile families lived in huts and shacks and
log-cabins and several dilapidated cottages. The fortunes of these
inhabitants of Cottonwoods could be read in their abodes. Water they had
in abundance, and therefore grass and fruit-trees and patches of alfalfa
and vegetable gardens. Some of the men and boys had a few stray cattle,
others obtained such intermittent employment as the Mormons reluctantly
tendered them. But none of the families was prosperous, many were very
poor, and some lived only by Jane Withersteen's beneficence.

As it made Jane happy to go among he