evidently some point in view.

About four in the afternoon they left the forest and came to another and
much larger house. The Danite advanced here with more confidence and
spoke with some men who gathered at their approach. Afterwards three
men, a father and sons, came and one after the other shook hands
respectfully with Susannah. Within the house she found a motherly woman,
the wife of the elder son. When Susannah's misfortunes were related to
her in undertones she cast her apron over her head and groaned as with
pain.

Susannah thought that the concern of this household must arise from fear
on their own account. "Are you Latter-Day Saints?" she asked
mechanically.

The eldest man, with the air of a patriarch, replied, "No, madam, we are
not Saints; the fact is we don't hold by religion of one sort or
another; we just believe in being kind to our neighbours and living,
good lives; so whatsoever your belief may be it is no affair of ours,
and you shall rest here for the sake of our common humanity. We'll look
after you, madam." He made a bow that was a queer mixture of
uncouthness in keeping with his surroundings and a recollection of some
more formal society.

The woman of the house, taking her apron from her head, suddenly
bethought her of the best things that she had to offer. Gently forcing
Susannah into an elbow chair, she ran, and lifting an infant a few weeks
old from its cradle, put it in Susannah's arms.

The next night the young Danite went away.

CHAPTER XIII.

Only the outline of passing events was reported to Susannah in her haven
of peace. The elder man took her into his courtly care, and made a point
of explaining to her what he thought she needed to know. The newspapers
were sedulously kept from her, and so reticent were the other members of
the household on the subject of their contents that her heart constantly
sickened at the thought of what she was not allowed to hear.

"You see, madam," the old man explained, "it was Major-General Atchison
that called out the militia in first defence of your people against
Gilliam's mob. Gilliam had about three hundred men, and they started in
the north of the State. Well, Parks and Doniphan, commanding the militia
called out by Atchison, seem to have set about fighting the mob
sincerely enough." The old man pushed back his spectacles and rubbed his
hair. "Then you see, madam, that didn't please Governor Boggs. Here was
the militia of his State