Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/355

 the world where there's a bigger chance for his abilities than in that godless valley."

Judith turned from the preacher impatiently. "Douglas Spencer! You know you'll never be happy anywhere else. Lost Chief is your home and the home of all your people before you."

"How about its being home to you?" asked Douglas.

"No place can be home to me that doesn't need all that's in me," replied Judith. "Lost Chief is no place for me. It's not a woman's country."

"It ought to be made fit for women and for little children!" cried Mr. Fowler, with sudden vehemence. "I should have done it. But I failed there as I have everywhere. I didn't bring God to Lost Chief, nor to Judith, nor worst of all, to Douglas."

"Don't you two young people believe in God?" demanded Elijah Nelson.

They stared at him without replying.

"Who guided Judith over the Pass?" asked the Mormon. "Her own smartness, I suppose, or chance, anything but the hand of the Almighty!"

"It was Destiny. All of it has been Destiny," said Douglas suddenly.

"And what is Destiny but God?" asked Elijah.

No one spoke for a moment. Then Elijah went on, with Mr. Fowler's own vehemence:

"You folks over in Lost Chief have seen fit to treat us Mormons as if we were a pack of coyotes bedding down too near your herds. Did you ever try to find out what kind of people we really are and why we stay and win out when we settle in a place? I'll tell you. The church makes our settlements for us. When she calls us to settle in the wild she says, Go, five families, or ten, or twenty, and settle in such a place. Take with