ral spoonfuls she got for the baby and wiped my
mouth out. She did not even do that for herself, for she left me the bit
of damp rag to chew.

The situation grew unspeakably worse in the afternoon. The quiet sun
blazed down through the clear windless air and made a furnace of our hole
in the sand. And all about us were the explosions of rifles and yells of
the Indians. Only once in a while did father permit a single shot from
the trench, and at that only by our best marksmen, such as Laban and
Timothy Grant. But a steady stream of lead poured into our position all
the time. There were no more disastrous ricochets, however; and our men
in the trench, no longer firing, lay low and escaped damage. Only four
were wounded, and only one of them very badly.

Father came in from the trench during a lull in the firing. He sat for a
few minutes alongside mother and me without speaking. He seemed to be
listening to all the moaning and crying for water that was going up. Once
he climbed out of the rifle pit and went over to investigate the well. He
brought back only damp sand, which he plastered thick on the chest and
shoulders of Robert Carr. Then he went to where Jed Dunham and his
mother were, and sent for Jed's father to come in from the trench. So
closely packed were we that when anybody moved about inside the rifle pit
he had to crawl carefully over the bodies of those lying down.

After a time father came crawling back to us.

"Jesse," he asked, "are you afraid of the Indians?"

I shook my head emphatically, guessing that I was to be seat on another
proud mission.

"Are you afraid of the damned Mormons?"

"Not of any damned Mormon," I answered, taking advantage of the
opportunity to curse our enemies without fear of the avenging back of
mother's hand.

I noted the little smile that curled his tired lips for the moment when
he heard my reply.

"Well, then, Jesse," he said, "will you go with Jed to the spring for
water?"

I was all eagerness.

"We're going to dress the two of you up as girls," he continued, "so that
maybe they won't fire on you."

I insisted on going as I was, as a male human that wore pants; but I
surrendered quickly enough when father suggested that he would find some
other boy to dress up and go along with Jed.

A chest was fetched in from the Chattox wagon. The Chattox girls were
twins and of about a size with Jed and me. Several of the women got
around to help. They were t