Little Mormon Jim

By James MacKnight Washington

Little Jim grows up in Salt Lake City and environs in the middle of the 19th century. He earns his keep as herder, teamster, journalist, and railroad worker, but longs for a career as a playwright. Along the way, he learns about love, loyalty, friendship and enmity. An interesting perspective from a bygone era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 21, 2003
• ISBN: 9781469723693

James MacKnight Washington

James MacKnight was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1855, the first child of a Mormon pioneer couple. This is his autobiographical novel, appearing in print after lying unpublished for over eighty years.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

(Unfortunately, the entire first chapter is missing from the manuscript. Although the scene-setting continues in the second chapter, I assume that the first introduced some of the principal characters, James Dean, his wife Laura, their son Little Jim, and their daughter Sarah. The Deans had married in Salt Lake City in about 1854. James Dean is a convert to Mormonism and trekked west with the pioneers from his home in Ohio. Laura Dean is a niece of the Mormon President, Brigham Young. Little Jim was born in 1855 and his sister Sarah a year later—jmw.)

CHAPTER 2

In those days Salt Lake City was a rambling village of one and two story adobe houses, with a more pretentious residence here and there. The place belonging to Brigham Young consisted of over twenty acres, surrounded by a high stone wall with supporting towers. The wall and towers were built of cobblestones. Within were the orchards and gardens; the family burial grounds, the residences, school, stables and family store; the silk mill, and small buildings for almost every purpose. This property occupied the space at the mouth of City Creek Canyon, in the path of the public road that entered the Eagle Gate, passed through the grounds, and was separated from them by continuations of the rough towered wall.

Beside the Eagle Gate stood the Beehive House and the Lion House, two famous adobe dwellings which are still in a good state of preservation. The second took its name from the carved stone lion on the front portico; the first from its cupola which was surmounted by a conventional beehive carved in wood. Between them stood another adobe building, in which were the offices of the church and the private office of the President.

The Lion House was arranged so that each dweller in the building had a dining room, kitchen and pantry in the basement; a parlor, sitting room, and a bedroom or two on the first floor; and bedrooms and closets on the floor above.

On one side of the broad central corridor, at the front of the building, was the general family parlor, where in response to a bell which was rung in the hall all the wives and children assembled to take part in morning and evening prayer. The President himself did the praying. Kneeling before his armchair at one side of the room, while his family disposed itself in similar attitudes in a huge circle about him, he besought the Deity to hasten the growth of his Kingdom as represented on earth by the Latter Day Saints; to hide up the treasures of the mountains that they might not be discovered by enemies of His people; to turn the Lamanites (the Book of Mormon’s name for the Indians) into the Battle-Axe of the Almighty, and to protect the Saints from their enemies; nor did he forget to include long periods calculated to instill lessons of obedience and respect in the young for their elders.

The evening prayer took place directly after supper, and the entire family then usually repaired to the theatre, entering by a private door in groups of two or three. They required no tickets as the amusement of the play was one of the perquisites which the head of the church claimed as his right.

The church theatre was only about a block from the home of the Prophet and offered the only amusement in the town. A local stock company played a long season each year of the standard plays which were being enacted in the east or in England, varied by the masterpieces of Shakespeare, and the classics from Europe. The stage was one of the largest in the country then, and employed an array of scenic artists, stage carpenters, costumers, and a large and competent orchestra.

The company was often recruited by one or two stars at a time, who stopped over on their way to fulfill engagements in California. Among them were Julia Dean Hayne, who became such a favorite of the Prophet that she remained and headed the company throughout an entire season; Lotta Crabtree; George B. Waldron; Edwin Adams in Enoch Arden; Joe Murphy in his Irish plays; Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. Bates, the parents of Blanche Bates, the famous actress of today; Madame Schiller, a German actress of decided talent; Frank Chanfrau; the Magiltons; the elder Sothern in Lord Dundreary; and many lesser lights of the stage of that period. One of the leading actresses in the local company was Asenath Adams, who afterwards married a young Gentile by the name of Kiscaddon, and whose only child was Maude Adams, the great American actress. At nearly all the performances it was filled to its utmost capacity, and because of the regular attendance of the Prophet and his family, the bill was changed almost every night, Brigham Young sat in a large rocking chair next to the aisle about the middle of the parquet. His wives and children occupied a special section reserved for them, under the dress circle on the right hand side of the orchestra, and inaccessible to the audience. Later on, when Young was surrounded by enemies and threats were made against his life, a box was built for him under the center of the first circle, which could be entered only from the basement by a private guarded stairway.

In his attitude toward the theatre Brigham Young showed unusual discretion. He argued that all young people needed amusement; that besides affording this, the play taught them.

One of the most important families in Salt Lake City was the household of Bishop White, who was in some respects as remarkable a man as Brigham Young himself. Bishop White had four wives and about twenty children. His first and second wives lived together in harmony in a large house near the heart of the city. It was with the children of this second wife that Little Jim fraternized when he came to Salt Lake City. They were Lucy White and her brothers Stanley and Jacob. Jacob was the eldest, Stanley was about Jim’s own age, and Lucy a couple of years younger. But from the first time he saw her Jim selected Lucy as his special friend and playmate. As soon as they were old enough to have any aspirations at all, he took her into his confidence in regard to his keen desire to become a writer of plays. This was not surprising in a child of his temperament, for he attended the theatre at almost every performance, and the drama played as important a part in his life as the religious services to which he was compelled to go regularly after he was five years old.

The spacious grounds about the Bishop’s house boasted unrivaled orchards and gardens. In the yard where the children played were tall locust trees, which not only provided excellent shade, but supported swings and hammocks from every available spot. The Bishop’s other two wives had separate homes in other parts of the city, and as the children of the first wife were almost grown, Lucy and her brothers had undisturbed possession of this yard and the orchard beyond. They were well fed and well clothed, for the Bishop was a prosperous merchant beside being so closely connected with the church. He also managed the Mormon theatre for a number of years, he was closely associated with the President in social, religious and business matters, and was one of his most intimate personal friends.

The adobe or sun dried brick, from which all of the houses were built, was made of a light bluish clay which was found in large beds near the banks of the Jordan River, within easy access from the town. This river rises in the adjoining valley to the south, and flows almost due north with a slow and sluggish current, emptying into the Great Salt Lake,. The length of the river is only about thirty miles. The Mormons named it the Jordan River, because the Utah Lake, in which it has its source, is a body of fresh water containing an abundant supply of fish like the Sea of Galilee in Palestine, while it flows into a Salt Sea like the Dead Sea. They noticed the similarity at once on their arrival in the great basin, and faith in their mission was strengthened by this resemblance to the land in which so much of the Bible’s history was enacted.

James Dean loved to talk upon this theme, and to enlarge upon the theory of a direct divine authority for the building of the Mormon City. A favorite source of argument was also evolved by the fact that the river flows towards the north, the exact reverse of the ancient Jordan. This was considered as being a direct sign from God, but the elders were puzzled as to the exact meaning to ascribe to it. Long and loud were the debates upon this point.

However all doctrines lessened and grew dim before the one great doctrine which was now so universally practiced, the doctrine of polygamy. At first, while James Dean tolerated this practice in others, he laughed at the notion for himself, and Laura, possessing to a fault the desire to be all in all to her husband, did not hesitate to express her hostility to the idea that it should ever touch her nearly. Little Jim began to be proud of his monogamous home, without understanding exactly why, and he looked down from his heights of superiority upon his playmates who had to share their father with other women and children.

Favver belongs jus’ to us, he would assert whenever the subject came up, and Laura would laugh and echo him.

Then came a time when the atmosphere in the little home grew tense. James was often away for such long intervals that Laura could not suppress a premonition of impending trouble.

Jim sensed the foreboding in his mother’s mind, as a child will do, and tried with all his little might to comfort her. Often, when he was thought to be asleep, he would hear his father and mother indulging in long arguments upon the one subject. Laura was to proud to approach it except in a general way. She felt it would be an insult to their mutual relations to even hint to Dean that she was fearful.

Dean was completely under the influence of the elders,and a faithful satellite of Brigham Young. At last, through their constant pressure, he was led to the belief that a second marriage was part of his duty. While Laura would always be the one woman to him, nevertheless his position made it really obligatory that he let at least one other be sealed to him.

The arguments, which Little Jim could not understand, took on a personal tone, and grew hotter and more bitter, though as yet no name was mentioned. Dean expressed his convictions frankly, to be combated by Laura. with more and more force, until she was only too sure of his ultimate intentions.

One day when Jim was about five years old, he was playing in the street when the children from two different homes ran to greet their common father. As usual, yet with a little hesitancy because of the sinister cloud which seemed to encompass his home of late, he said to the boy with whom he was playing, My favver belongs jus’ to us.

The boy did not trouble to answer in words, but he laughed, and in the laugh Jim read something, what he could not tell except that it terrified him. Without a word he turned and scurried home.

But when he reached the door towards which his short legs had been so swiftly bearing him, he could not make up his mind to enter. He could hear his little sister Sarah, chattering gaily as she trotted around the kitchen, but there was no answering voice from his mother. Instead a stillness rested within the house which the baby prattle served to emphasize.

It might have been ten minutes that little Jim stood there, unable to go in, equally unable to run back to his playmates. And in that ten minutes, every second of which seemed like an hour, there came to him a realization of what. might have happened.

At last he put his chubby body against this door and pushed it in. It opened directly into the kitchen, a large and cheerful room where the family lived. Little Sarah ran to meet him, telling him gleefully something about the doll with which she was playing. See the dolly the lady brought me, she cried. Jim sensed pathos in the little girl’s unconsciousness of ill and his eyes filled. Then with a great effort he choked back the sobs and his glance traveled on, to a dark shadow in the far corner of the room. The cloud which had hovered above his home had entered it and the storm had burst, for there, bolt upright in a chair and pretending a nonchalance which ill concealed her real trepidation, sat another woman, James Dean’s second wife.

Little Jim stood spellbound by the door, gazing at this other woman. Then from somewhere his mother came and stooped over him. He looked up into her eyes which she kept dry for his sake. Jimmy, she said, Oh, the tragedy in her tones! Father has brought home this person to live with us.

Jim scowled and clenched his fists.

The new woman laughed nervously. Come here and speak to me, she said.

Go away, cried the boy angrily. We don’t want you here. My favver, he belongs jus’ to us, to us, I tell you. You can’t have half of him, nor the teeniest littlest piece of him, not even so much as the end of his little finger. Go away!

Jimmy, said his mother mildly, overwrought by this partisanship from her small son. She can’t go away. She belongs here with us now. Oh, how could he! How could he! She buried her face in her hands and burst into tears. Sarah wept to see her mother so. Jim’s eyes filled and the anger died away from the childish face. He stood for a moment in deepest thought. He was always something of a philosopher, and though the paths through which his mind was wandering were all dark to him, he safely reached the light.

I don’t suppose you can help it, he said at last to the new woman. I suppose if you really could help it, you would.

The woman laughed defiantly and into her voice crept a note of triumph.

No, she said. I wouldn’t help it if I could. I’m glad it’s happened, and if your maw was the right kind of a woman, she’d welcome me instid o’ settin’ her own children against me, and treatin’ me like a dog.

How Jim’s father arrived on the scene, the boy did not know, but there he stood in the doorway, where he had evidently been listening for some little time. As yet neither Laura nor the woman had seen him enter.

That is a lie, cried Laura. I shall treat you the best I am able. You can’t expect me, she continued painfully, You can’t expect me to dance or sing with joy. But give me a little time and I’ll try to do as my husband bids me, even though it breaks my heart and ruins our home.

Nonsense, Laura, now spoke Dean from the open door. Is talk of breaking hearts the sort for Jim to hear?

Again Laura turned to her son and showed him only that bright look which he was later to remember as more pitiful than tears.

He’ll not hear it again, she said quickly.

She kept her word.

CHAPTER 3

It was inevitable that a child of five should soon grow accustomed to the new state of affairs. So Laura told herself even while she prayed passionately in her own heart that the boy might never grow to love this stranger. She need not have feared.

Alvira was pretty, but coarse and illiterate, and of a spiteful turn of mind. As soon as her position in the household was safely established, she began to do all in her power to make life unbearable for Laura. She realized the latter’s superiority, and was jealous and resentful, because Dean still loved his first wife with all his heart, and showed so plainly that the taking of a second was only that he might be in accord with the rulings of the church.

Laura would not have been a woman had she let slip any opportunity to make the other realize this more keenly. Her dark eyes would flash at Alvira whenever some little act or word of Dean’s showed the preference for herself. It was as though she said, See! You may enter my home, but you cannot take him from me. He is all mine.

Alvira dared not take an open stand against Laura, and she soon grew to love the baby Sarah and could not torment her. But she could make Jim the scapegoat for her ill temper and she did.

In spite of his serious turn of mind, Jim was a mischievous youngster at times, and he specially loved to steal the cream from the dasher on churning days. Alvira would shout at him to keep away, in raucous tones that were calculated to arouse his defiance and incite him to further rebellion. When this followed she supplemented her words with blows.

Still a little afraid of Laura, she indulged herself so only in the latter’s absence, and Jim was ashamed to run weeping to his mother, especially as he knew that he really deserved some punishment. But one day Laura entered unexpectedly, and caught Alvira beating little Jim, and heard the boy’s cries.

Instantly she caught fire. She had ignored all sorts of veiled insinuations from this new wife. She had stood by and seen her take her place as one of the household. But this was more than she could endure. She made no outcry, She kept her face set in that mask of brightness which she had so carefully cultivated that it was now habitual. But she walked straight across the room to Alvira, snatched the boy out of her hands slapped her on the face, seized her by the shoulders and turned her out of the house.

Alvira was too astonished to make any resistance, and she sat dumbly down upon the step until James Dean, returning home from the printing office, found her there and brought her in. She had already told him her side of the story, so his face was stormy,

What does this mean, Laura? he began. You descend to the acts of a common virago when you allow your passions to run away with you like this.

Laura had been getting supper ready. Little Jim was playing with the baby by the open fire, but at these words he ran to his mother’s side as if to protect her. There was a new note in his father’s voice, a note of cold fury which neither he nor Laura had ever heard before.

She trembled but she faced him.

That woman, she said in a voice that was scarcely audible, That woman beat my boy. He admits that she has done it before. Now, let me tell you this, James Dean. I’ve stood your bringing her into our house, because it was your religion and it had to be. But your religion doesn’t say that she has the right to lift her hand against my children and that I will not bear. You tell her to keep her distance or I’ll not answer for what I’ll do.

Dean came close up to her, leading Alvira with him by the hand. You listen to me, he said, his voice hoarse with rage, Alvira’s got the same rights here as you. If Jim misbehaves she has the right to punish him. Because I’ve loved you to well, you presume upon it. You be careful what you do. Do you understand?"

I don’t mind her beating me, spoke up little Jim bravely, I don’t mind it, muvver.

Oh, my little boy! My darling! said his mother, and bowed her head upon his curly locks a moment. When she looked up again her face was quite calm.

The bacon will be burning, she said. Alvira, will you watch it, while I get the milk and butter from the spring house?

The subject was dropped, the incident was apparently closed, yet things were different all the same. Alvira’s position was strengthened, and if she no longer dared to strike Little Jim, it was not because James Dean did not uphold her.

But Laura went about like a graven image. Tragedy kept her company. When she appeared in public, people stood aside to let her pass, and whispered to one another. Those women who were content with their lot looked at her askance and, as it was bruited about that she hated the doctrine of polygamy, and abused Alvira, they drew still further away, But if she walked alone upon the street, she walked mentally in the deepest solitude and gloom. If she had drawn apart from her friends she had drawn away completely from her husband. To her boy she seemed the same outwardly, or thought she seemed the same. She tried to spare him, but little Jim lost much of his childishness because of an ability to read behind her mask. If tragedy held her hands it also held her boy’s.

It was well for Jim that about this time he began to attend school, which was held in the ward meeting house, a building that served for all sorts of social and religious functions among the Mormons. It was a plain adobe structure like some twenty others, each of which belonged to one of the wards into which the city was divided.

Jim had a good time in this school. He played with an earnestness which surprised his mother, and he studied with the same eagerness. It was as though he felt that play and study were to have but a small share of his time, and that every moment must be utilized to the best advantage.

His love for his father had now within it an element of fear, since James no longer belonged jus’ to us. Yet he had never tried so hard to be his father’s companion, employing every means his childish brain could devise, to win him back to Laura.

In the orchard, which Dean had planted with his own hands, there was now growing a splendid crop of alfalfa, and the garden was producing a number of vegetables. All spring and summer, when his father rose early to work in this garden, the boy rose and worked by his side. After a frugal breakfast the two parted company, the boy for school, the man for the printing office. There Little Jim loved to go after a day at school. He was often fortunate enough to find his father setting type, when he would ask numberless questions. But if Dean was busy writing an article, the child would sit as sober and as quiet as a mouse.

One special diversion which Jim and his mother shared in common, and in which no sorrow was deep enough to keep her from indulging, was the arrival of the semi-weekly stage coach from the east. When it rattled through the street with its four or six horse team and passed in front of the cottage, Laura and Jim and little Sarah were always on hand to watch it pass, to wave to the passengers, and to laugh and call to the driver.

The trains of emigrants which were constantly arriving also furnished excitement and entertainment for the boy. They were usually corralled in Emigration Lot, a ten acre square in the southern part of the town. A number of one story frame buildings bordered the quadrangle, in which the emigrants were housed, while they rested from their thousand mile journey across mountains and plains, with only a crowded wagon for a home. Here again Dean’s efficiency was called into play, since it was his duty to see that the newcomers were provided for out of the tithing stores, and were liberally and hospitably treated by their fellow religionists who were already well established at what they called The Center Stake of Zion. Laura and Alvira were called upon to help in caring for the strangers, and Little Jim ran errands for his father and mother, dodging in and out among the wagons and horses, stopping now and then to scrape acquaintance with some strange boy or girl, and feeling himself quite indispensable to the general rush and flurry, The newly arrived converts made a deep impression upon his imagination. Often they spoke languages strange to him, and looked so different from any people he had ever seen that he thought they must have come from another world.

No matter how many there were in these companies; old or young; educated or ignorant; well to do or enured to the direst poverty; staunch patriots or of any nationality; they all found homes and employment in a short time and felt that they had done well in joining the Mormons.

Some two months after Laura had so summarily turned Alvira out of doors, in one of these emigrant troops James Dean ran across a Scandinavian girl, a strong and buxom young woman who had lived in the country near Stockholm, Sweden. She was an orphan, and, being as stupid and good natured as a cow, she had been easily led to link her fortunes to the Mormons. Religion did not appeal to her, and it is doubtful if she ever fully realized that it was in obedience to a new and divine revelation that the missionaries were inducing people from all over the world to come to Utah. Material advantage she could understand, and it was through this side of her nature that she had been persuaded to leave her squalid home, where she was only a lonely drudge.

When Dean went home that night, after a long and arduous day, he brought with him this young girl, whose name was Minna.

Laura had not gone down to the square that day, and was sitting by the fire, looking worn and tired. Alvira was not yet home.

When James entered the house and Laura looked up and saw the girl, she did not start or look amazed. It was as though she had been expecting this and had been nerving herself to meet it. She made a pitiful attempt to smile and half rose to greet Minna, who curtsied and rubbed her hands confusedly together.

Not that, Laura, cried Dean, seeing and recoiling from her thoughts. Only a poor ignorant Swedish girl on whom I have taken pity. You don’t look strong, dear, and I thought you might make use of her about the milking or the housework for a while, until we can find her a permanent home.

It was the first time for weeks that he had spoken to kindly, or shown any thought for Laura’s comfort, and it was more than she could bear. Weeping wildly she flung herself into her husband’s arms.

There, there, he soothed, patting her heaving shoulders and smoothing her bright hair. Everything’s all right, dear. Calm yourself, for here comes Jim.

Jim entered quietly enough, but when he saw his mother in his father’s arms, he thought it meant a frolic, and with a whoop of joy he launched himself upon the two. Baby Sarah joined gleefully, father and mother glanced at one another and joined in and for a moment there was an old time romp among them, while the Swede stood looking stolidly on, rubbing her hands together.

Then the door opened again, this time to admit Alvira. She was panting from her quick walk through the darkening street, and she stood for a moment, blinking in the light of the fire. With Laura in his arms again, Dean looked at his second wife and all at once he experienced a strong revulsion of feeling.

Was it for this coarse and blowsy woman that he had treated Laura with such cold indifference? Was it for this uncouth creature that he had made Laura endure who knows what depths of bitterness and sorrow? She seemed a fitter companion for the Swedish girl there, than for himself or his wife. Poor little wife!

All unconscious of the criticism her panting, blinking entrance had aroused, Alvira recovered her breath and moved toward the fire, stopping short again at sight of Minna.

Who’s this? she asked. What’s she here for?

She was thinking the same as Laura had thought, that James had taken another wife, But what had roused pity in him for Laura, made him angry at Alvira. Drawing Laura’s yielding body yet closer, he spoke with clear hostility.

Her name is Minna. She is to help about the house, he said, and then, resenting the need to explain, he added cruelly, She is to take orders from Laura only.

Alvira put her hands upon her hips and turned upon him, her teeth showing in a sneering smile.

And why from Laura only, I’d like to know, she cried, What’s to do here, anyways? Is she a-goin’ to set down all day and play the lady? Well then, so sh’ll I.

Laura isn’t well, said James coldly, I want the hard work taken off of her.

Isn’t well! shrieked Alvira. Why ain’t she well? She, with her high falutin’ notions? She’s just aimin’ to put me down, that’s what. I won’t stand it. A servant to take orders just from her, eh? Why, James Dean? Look at her rosy cheeks and them plump arms! Sick! Huh! S’pose I say I’m sick. Now then! What?

Be quiet! thundered James. You don’t understand. Laura is to have another baby, and she must be taken care of. She’s not strong in the same way that you are. She needs help now, and she needs to be kept from worrying. Don’t you worry her, do you hear? She is not to be bothered.

Little Jim, who had been a fascinated listener to the whole dialogue, gazed at Alvira with real terror, and indeed the expression on her face was enough to frighten an older person. She turned fairly livid with rage. She had not dreamed that Dean would put upon her in this way, and in the excitement of the moment she forgot all caution.

She needn’t expect nothin’ from me, screamed Alvira hoarsely. I know what’s due me. Either I get the same as she does, or I’ll leave. I won’t stay here to be nobody’s servant, classed with that foreign ape over there, to be ordered about like a dog!

She’s goin’ to have another baby, is she? continued the infuriated woman. Another baby, and I’m not to dare to touch her brats, Why haven’t I one of my own, I wonder? Is she to have everything? We’ll see about that, I’ll go to the Prophet hisself before I’ll be so ill tret.

Poor Alvira! She was only noisy and unlovely in her rage, and when she ended up with such a slip in grammar, it made all she had said ridiculous. James gave a short and scornful laugh.

I don’t care what you do, he said indifferently. "Get out if you aren’t satisfied. I’m not so crazy to keep you. Home has not been home with you in it.

Do—do you mean them words, James? stammered Alvira.

"Why not?’ answered the man. He was stooping now over Laura who lay back in her chair with her face covered.

Do—do you mean them words, James? repeated Alvira. The anger was gone from her face and voice. She was pale and tremulous. She knew well enough that she had no chance to gain the ear of Brigham Young or any of the elders while Dean stood so high in their concils. She knew that she loved this man faithfully and that her extravagant anger, instead of inciting him against Laura, had only roused him against herself. He did not even answer her. He was stooping over his wife, questioning her solicitously in tones which the others could not hear. Little Jim ran to her and pushed against her with all his might.

Yes, go, he said. You go. We don’t want you here. None of us want you. You go right now.

The tears began to stream over Alvira’s plump cheeks, I’ve got some pride left, she said brokenly. I reckon I’ll not stay where I ain’t wanted."

She waited another moment but no sign of relenting came from James. So she turned away and went into the room which had been hers.

Minna, by means of signs and pantomime, was shown how to get the supper. Reconciliation between James and Laura seemed complete. He had no thoughts to spare Alvira, and, strangely enough, neither had Laura. A woman usually feels for another woman in her distress, no matter how hardly she has been used by that other woman, but in the returned warmth of Dean’s love Laura sunk herself completely. It was as though Alvira had never existed.

Alvira lingered on for a few days, hoping against hope that Dean might come to her. She dared not go to him. But she might have stayed indefinitely so far as he was concerned. What she did was a matter of complete indifference to him. He had never loved her, and the fact that Laura was soon to bring him a third child, had roused all his tenderness.

As Alvira had said, she would not stay where she wasn’t wanted, so one day she joined a party of Gentile emigrants to California, She lived to be an old woman, but she never married again, and to her dying day she retained in her manner the confused and sorrowful bewilderment which had crept into it when Dean had said, I don’t care what you do. Get out.

After all she was not so much to blame, and later she redeemed herself fully for whatever harm she may have wrought, taking the place of an angel of mercy to the woman who had hated her when, timorous and defiant, she had been sealed to James Dean.

CHAPTER 4

During the few months that followed Alvira’s departure, harmony reigned again in the Dean household, but with this difference—that where before Laura had been thoughtlessly happy, she now was troubled always by a sense of insecurity. She demanded James’s attentions fiercely, hoarding up each little loving word or deed as something precious given her from a store soon to be exhausted. And in Dean’s attitude toward her, there was this same element of fierceness. It was as though they both felt that the time was short.

But Little Jim waxed bold and confident once more. Baby Sarah grew sturdy and rosy and happy.

The winter weather was ideal. The snow was deep and lasting enough for sleighing, and there was skating on the ponds and creeks. Though Jim was as yet too small to take his place among the skaters, he went with his playmates to Hot Spring Lake, to watch the older boys and girls. He longed for the time to come when he might join