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."

"In coorse, I remember him well enough; but I reckon our Marian do a
leetle better. He tried to spark the gurl, an' made fine speeches to
her; but she couldn't bar the sight o' him for all that. Ha! ha! ha.
Don't ye recollex the trick that ar minx played on him? She unbuckled
the girt o' his saddle, jest as he wur a-goin' to mount, and down he
kim--saddle, bags, and all--cawollup to the airth! ha! ha! Arter he wur
gone, I larfed till I wur like to bust."

"You did wrong, Hickman Holt, to encourage your daughter in her
sauciness. Had you known the man--_that man, sir, was a prophet_!"

"A prophet!"

"Yes--the greatest perhaps the world ever saw--a man in direct
communication with the Almighty himself."

"Lord!