CHAPTER IX.

After Smith left Kirtland there was a great exodus Missouri-ward of his more devout followers.  The army which had gone out from Kirtland in ’34 to the rescue of the fugitives from the city of Zion in Missouri had failed, through disease and exhaustion, to make warlike demonstration; but the principle then accepted by the children of Zion of opposing force to force in self-defence, had been bearing fruit ever since in a bloody warfare between the hunted Saints of Missouri and their more powerful neighbours.

Before the Saints took up arms the Missourians had, it would seem, no real ground of offence against them except the religious faith which led them to proclaim that the land was to be given to them by the Lord for an everlasting possession.  Now this provocation was still in force, added to the greater one that the worm had turned.

So futile had been the mad persecutions, so fruitful the blood of the martyrs, that by this time there were some ten thousand Saints in Missouri, all heads of families, for although Zion in Jackson County still lay waste, and the colonies of Clay County had been swept away, the cities of Far West and Diahman, and numerous villages near them, had risen like magic, built by the thrift, the organisation, and the temperance of the Saints.

As for Kirtland, the hope of making it a prosperous city had died with the failure of the bank.  Of the few who remained two distinct parties were formed—­the orthodox, headed by Halsey, and the reformers, encouraged, if not headed, by the former leaders who were now apostate.  In the camp of the reformers there were those who saw visions and had revelations.  Before this, when Smith was at the helm, it had been counted unlawful for any but himself to have direct dealings with the Unseen; but the prophet was distant, directing the sect only through his published journal, and in this case it were hard indeed if no authoritative local word were spoken in the orthodox party.  Angel Halsey’s mystic soul fell easily into the region of voices and visions.  In his adversity, fasting and praying more than ever before, he heard voices which gave practical directions not only for himself but for his neighbours.  When the neighbours refused to accept these ghostly counsels, which all tended toward a more rigorous holiness, there was no room left for Halsey’s work in Kirtland.  He determined to fare forth to Missouri, there to comfort and edify the Saints scattered abroad in the rural districts.

It was now that Susannah expected the sprightly Elvira Halsey, still unbaptized, to return to the east.  Instead of that she proposed to travel with them, helping to take care of the child.