A MORMON ROMANCE. 377 A MORMON ROMANCE.-REGINALD GLOVERSON. THE morning on which Reginald Gloverson was to leave Great Salt Lake City with a mule-train, dawned beautifully. a Reginald Gloverson was young and thrifty Mormon, with an interesting family of twenty young and handsome wives. His unions had never been blessed with children. As often as once a year he used to go to Omaha, in Nebraska, with a mule-train for goods; but although he had performed the rather perilous journey many times with entire safety, his heart was strangely sad on this particular morning, and filled with gloomy forebodings. The time for his departure had arrived. The high-spirited mules were at the door, impatiently champing their bits. The Mormon stood sadly among his weeping wives. ["ARTEMUS WARD." See Page 281.] "Dearest ones," he said, "I am singularly sad at heart this morning; but do not let this depress you. The journey is a perilous one, but-pshaw! I have always come back safely heretofore, and why should I fear? Besides, I know that every night, as I lay down on the broad starlit prairie, your bright faces will come to me in my dreams, and make my slumbers sweet and gentle. You, Emily, with your mild blue eyes; and you, Henrietta, with your splendid black hair; and you, Nelly, with your hair so brightly, beautifully golden; and you, Molly, with your cheeks so downy; and you, Betsy, with your wine-red lipsfar more delicious, though, than any wine I ever tasted-and you, Maria, with your winsome voice; and you, Susan, with your-with your-that is to say, Susan, with your--and the other thirteen of you, each so good and beautiful, will come to me in sweet dreams, will you not, Dearestists ?" "Our own," they lovingly chimed, we will!" "And so farewell!" cried Reginald. "Come to my arms, my own!" he said; "that is, as many of you as can do it conveniently at once, for I must away." 66 He folded several of them to his throbbing breast, and drove sadly away. 48-VOL. I. (Drawn by J. GORDON.) But he had not gone far when the trace of the off-hind mule became unhitched. Dismounting, he essayed to adjust the trace; but ere he had fairly commenced the task, the mule, a singularly refractory animal, snorted wildly, and kicked Reginald frightfully in the stomach. He arose with difficulty, and tottered feebly towards his mother's house, which was near by, falling dead in her yard with the remark, "Dear mother, I've come home to die!" "So I see," she said; "where's the mules ?" Alas! Reginald Gloverson could give no answer. In vain the heart-stricken mother threw herself upon his inanimate form, crying, "Oh, my sonmy son! only tell me where the mules are, and then you may die if you want to." In vain-in vain! Reginald had passed on. 66 "I say he did!" "And I say he didn't!" "He did!" "He didn't!" "Don't look at me, with your squint eyes!" "Don't shake your red head at me!” "Sisters!" said the black-haired Henrietta, 'cease this unseemly wrangling. I, as his first wife, shall strew flowers on his grave." "No, you won't," said Susan. "I, as his last wife, shall strew flowers on his grave. It's my business to strew!" "You shan't, so there!" said Henrietta. "You bet I will!" said Susan, with a tearsuffused cheek. "Well, as for me," said the practical Betsy, "I aint on the strew, much; but I shall ride at the head of the funeral procession!" "Not if I've been introduced to myself, you won't," said the golden-haired Nelly; "that's "that's my position. You bet your bonnet-strings it is." 66 Children," said Reginald's mother, "you must do some crying, you know, on the day of the funeral; and how many pocket-handkerchers will it take to go round? Betsy, you and Nelly ought to make one do between you." A manly Mormon, one evening, as the sun was preparing to set among a select apartment of gold and crimson clouds in the western horizonalthough for that matter the sun has a right to "set" where it wants to, and so, I may add, has a hen-a manly Mormon, I say, tapped gently at the door of the mansion of the late Reginald Gloverson. The door was opened by Mrs. Susan Gloverson. "Is this the house of the widow Gloverson?" the Mormon asked. 66 "Madam," he softly said, addressing the twenty "I'll tear her eyes out if she perpetuates a sob disconsolate widows, "I have seen part of you on my handkercher!" "Dear daughters-in-law," said Reginald's mother, "how unseemly is this anger. Mules is five hundred dollars a span, and every identical mule my poor boy had has been gobbled up by the red man. I knew when my Reginald staggered into the door-yard that he was on the die; but if I'd only thunk to ask him about them mules ere his gentle spirit took flight, it would have been four thousand dollars in our pockets, and no mistake! Excuse those real tears, but you've never felt a parent's feelin's." before! And although I have already twenty-five wives, whom I respect and tenderly care for, I can truly say that I never felt love's holy thrill till I saw thee! Be mine-be mine!" he enthusiastically cried; "and we will show the world a striking illustration of the beauty and truth of the noble lines, only a good deal more so "Twenty-one souls with a single thought, They were united, they were! Gentle reader, does not the moral of this ro mance show that-does it not, in fact, show that "It's an oversight," sobbed Maria. "Don't however many there may be of a young widow blame us!" The funeral passed off in a very pleasant manner, nothing occurring to mar the harmony of the ccasion. By a happy thought of Reginald's mother the wives walked to the grave twenty a-breast, woman; or, rather, does it not show that, whatever number of persons one woman may consist of-well, never mind what it shows. Only this writing Mormon romances is confusing to the intellect. You try it and see. 66 The figure which advanced to meet them made many signs, which the haze of the atmosphere, now disturbed by wind and by a drizzling rain, prevented them from seeing or comprehending distinctly. Some time before they met, Sir Arthur could recognise the old blue-gowned beggar, Edie Ochiltree. It is said that even the brute creation lay aside their animosities and antipathies when pressed by an instant and common danger. The beach under Halket-head, rapidly diminishing in extent by the encroachments of a springtide and a north-west wind, was in like manner a neutral field, where even a justice of peace and a strolling mendicant might meet upon terms of mutual forbearance. S Sir Arthur and Miss War- | observed a human figure on the beach advancing dour paced along, enjoying to meet them. "Thank heaven," he exclaimed, the pleasant footing afforded we shall get round Halket-head! that person by the cool, moist hard sand, must have passed it." Miss Wardour could not help observing that the last tide had risen considerably above the usual water-mark. Sir Arthur made the same observation, but without its occurring to either of them to be alarmed at the circumstance. The crags which rose between the beach and the mainland, to the height of two or three hundred feet, afforded in their crevices shelter for unnumbered sea-fowl, in situations seemingly secured by their dizzy height from the rapacity of man. Many of these wild tribes, with the instinct which sends them to seek the land before a storm arises, were now winging towards their nests with the shrill and dissonant clang which announces disquietude and fear. The disk of the sun became almost totally obscured ere he had altogether sunk below the horizon, and an early and lurid shade of darkness blotted the serene twilight of a summer evening. The wind began next to arise; but its wild and moaning sound was heard for some time, and its effects became visible on the bosom of the sea, before the gale was felt on shore. The mass of waters, now dark and threatening, began to lift itself in larger ridges, and sink in deeper furrows, forming waves that rose high in foam upon the breakers, or burst upon the beach with a sound resembling distant thunder. Appalled by this sudden change of weather, Miss Wardour drew close to her father, and held his arm fast. "I wish," at length she said, but almost in a whisper, as if ashamed to express her increasing apprehensions, "I wish we had kept the road we intended, or waited at Monkbarns for the carriage." They were now near the centre of a deep but narrow bay, or recess, formed by two projecting capes of high and inaccessible rock, which shot out into the sea like the horns of a crescent; and neither durst communicate the apprehension which each began to entertain, that, from the unusually rapid advance of the tide, they might be deprived of the power of proceeding by doubling the promontory which lay before them, or of retreating by the road which brought them thither. As they thus pressed forward, longing doubtless to exchange the easy curving line which the sinuosities of the bay compelled them to adopt, for a straighter and more expeditious path, though less conformable to the line of beauty, Sir Arthur "Turn back! turn back!" exclaimed the vagrant; "why did ye not turn when I waved to you?" "We thought," replied Sir Arthur, in great agitation, "we thought we could get round Halkethead." "Halket-head! The tide will be running on Halket-head, by this time, like the Fall of Fyers! It was a' I could do to get round it twenty minutes since-it was coming in three feet abreast. We will maybe get back by Bally-burgh Ness Point yet. The Lord help us, it's our only chance. We can but try." 'Oh, my child!" "My father, my dear father!" exclaimed the parent and daughter, as, fear lending them strength and speed, they turned to retrace their steps, and endeavoured to double the point the projection of which formed the southern extremity of the bay. "I heard ye were here, frae the bit callant ye sent to meet your carriage," said the beggar, as he trudged stoutly on a step or two behind Miss Wardour, "and I couldna bide to think o' the dainty young leddy's peril, that has aye been kind to ilka forlorn heart that cam near her. Sae I lookit at the lift and the rin o' the tide, till I settled it that if I could get down time eneugh to gie you warning, we wad do weel yet. But I doubt, I doubt, I have been beguiled! for what mortal ee ever saw sic a race as the tide is rinning e'en now? See, yonder's the Ratton's Skerryhe aye held his neb abune the water in my daybut he's aneath it now." Sir Arthur cast a look in the direction in which the old man pointed. A huge rock, which in general, even in spring-tides, displayed a hulk like the keel of a large vessel, was now quite under water, and its place only indicated by the boiling and breaking of the eddying waves which encountered its submarine resistance. of nothing ?-of no help?—I'll make you rich—I'll give you a farm-I'll—” “Our riches will be soon equal," said the beggar, looking out upon the strife of the waters-“ they are sae already; for I hae nae land, and you would give your fair bounds and barony for a square yard of rock that would be dry for twal hours." While they exchanged these words, they paused upon the highest ledge of rock to which they could attain; for it seemed that any further attempt to move forward could only serve to anticipate their fate. Yet even this fearful pause gave Isabella time to collect the powers of a mind naturally strong and courageous, and which rallied itself at this terrible juncture. "Must we yield life," she said, "without a struggle? Is there no path, however dreadful, by which we could climb the crag, or at least attain some height above the tide, where we could remain till morning, or till help comes? "Mak haste, mak haste, my bonny leddy," continued the old man, “mak haste, and we may do yet! Take haud o' my arm-an auld and frail arm it's now, but it's been in as sair stress as this is yet. Take haud o' my arm, my winsome leddy! D'ye see yon wee black speck amang the wallowing waves yonder? This morning it was as high as the mast o' a brig-it's sma' eneugh now-but, while I see as muckle black about it as the crown o' my hat, I winna believe but we'll get round the Bally-burgh Ness, for a' that's come and gane yet." It was indeed a dreadful evening. The howling of the storm mingled with the shrieks of the seafowl, and sounded like the dirge of the three devoted beings, who, pent between two of the most magnificent yet most dreadful objects of nature-a raging tide and an insurmountable pre- Sir Arthur, who heard, but scarcely comprecipice-toiled along their painful and dangerous hended, his daughter's question, turned, neverpath, often lashed by the spray of some giant theless, instinctively and eagerly to the old billow, which threw itself higher on the beach man, as if their lives were in his gift. Ochiltree than those that had preceded it. Each minute paused. "I was a bauld craigsman," he said, did their enemy gain ground perceptibly upon ance in my life, but it's lang, lang syne, and them! Still, however, loth to relinquish the last my foot-step and my hand-grip hae a' failed hopes of life, they bent their eyes on the black mony a day sinsyne. There was a path here rock pointed out by Ochiltree. It was yet disance, though maybe, if we could see it, ye tinctly visible among the breakers, and continued would rather bide where we are. His name to be so, until they came to a turn in their pre- be praised!" he ejaculated suddenly, "there's carious path, where an intervening projection of ane coming down the crag e'en now!" Then, rock hid it from their sight. Deprived of the exalting his voice, he hilloa'd out to the view of the beacon on which they had relied, they daring adventurer such instructions as his now experienced the double agony of terror and former practice, and the remembrance of local suspense. They struggled forward, however; but circumstances, suddenly forced upon his mind :when they arrived at the point from which they "Ye're right—ye're right!—that gate, that gate! ought to have seen the crag, it was no longer-fasten the rope weel round Crummie's-horn, visible. The signal of safety was lost among a thousand white breakers, which, dashing upon the point of the promontory, rose in prodigious sheets of snowy foam, as high as the mast of a first-rate man-of-war, against the dark brow of the precipice. The countenance of the old man fell. Isabella gave a faint shriek and "God have mercy upon us!" which her guide solemnly uttered, was piteously echoed by Sir Arthur-"My child! my child!-to die such a death!" "My father! my dear father!" his daughter exclaimed, clinging to him-" and you too, who have lost your own life in endeavouring to save ours!" 66 that's the muckle black stane-cast twa plies round it-that's it!-now, weize yoursell a wee easel-ward-a wee mair yet to that ither stanewe ca'd it the Cat's-lug-there used to be the root o' an aik-tree there-that will do!-canny now, lad-canny now-tak tent and tak time. Vera weel! Now ye maun get to Bessy's Apron, that's the muckle braid flat blue stane-and then I think, wi' your help and the tow thegither, I'll win at ye, and then we'll be able to get up the young leddy and Sir Arthur." The adventurer, following the directions of old Edie, flung him down the end of the rope, which he secured around Miss Wardour, wrapping her previously in his own blue gown, to preserve her as much as possible from injury. Then, availing himself of the rope, which was made fast at the other end, he began to ascend the face of the crag -a most precarious and dizzy undertaking, which, however, after one or two perilous escapes, placed "Good man," said Sir Arthur, "can you think him safe on the broad flat stone beside our friend man. "That's not worth the counting," said the old "I hae lived to be weary o' life; and here or yonder at the back o' a dyke, in a wreath o' snaw, or in the wame o' a wave, what signifies how the auld gaberlunzie dies ?" Lovel. Their joint strength was able to raise Isabella to the place of safety which they had attained. Lovel then descended in order to assist Sir Arthur, around whom he adjusted the rope; and again mounting to their place of refuge, with the assistance of old Ochiltree, and such aid as Sir Arthur himself could afford, he raised himself beyond the reach of the billows. The sense of reprieve from approaching and apparently inevitable death, had its usual effect. The father and daughter threw themselves into each other's arms, kissed and wept for joy, although their escape was connected with the prospect of passing a tempestuous night upon a precipitous ledge of rock, which scarce afforded footing for the four shivering beings, who now, like the sea-fowl around them, clung there in hopes of some shelter from the devouring element which raged beneath. It was a summer night, doubtless; yet the probability was slender that a frame so delicate as that of Miss Wardour should survive till morning the drenching of the spray; and the dashing of the rain, which now burst in full violence, accompanied with deep and heavy gusts of wind, added to the constrained and perilous circumstances of their situation. "The lassie the puir sweet lassie!" said the old man; "mony such a night have I weathered at hame and abroad, but, guide us, how can she ever win through it!" His apprehension was communicated in low, smothered accents to Lovel; for, with the sort of freemasonry by which bold and ready spirits correspond in moments of danger, they had established a mutual confidence. "I'll climb up the cliff again," said Lovel, "there's daylight enough left to see my footing; I'll climb up, and call for more assistance." "Do so, do so, for heaven's sake!" said Sir Arthur eagerly. |