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Show LEE NELSON'S ! I isaMiiSI I ADMIRED Brown's courage. He wasn't fooling anyone by his law and order act. Everybody knew the criminals would be free within hours. But, whereas the Mormons were eager to gun down escaping arsonists, they were hesitant hesi-tant to shoot a deputy who was going through the motions of doing his job. By this time, a Mormon authority author-ity had arrived and ordered the Mormons not to shoot. Leaving Caroline on the scaffold, the three arsonists mounted the horses and galloped away with the brave deputy. de-puty. CAROLINE was climbing down the ladder when I rode up to the scaffold. Figuring she didn't want to talk to the approaching men, I crowded the horse beside the ladder, lad-der, allowing her to get behind me. "Take me home, please," she asked in a loud but calm voice. "I want to be alone." The encounter with the mobbers certainly hadn't made her hysterical, as one might have expected. AFTER DROPPING her off, I headed towards the cabin. The bay horse was lively and well-behaved. I figured I'd keep him, and the saddle, sad-dle, too. I didn't figure anybody would contest my ownership, not around Nauvoo, anyway. Besides, I needed a horse to drag logs to my cabin site. It was easy to think about Caroline Caro-line as I worked on my new cabin in the long summer evenings. Pat was supposed to help me as I had helped him with the other cabin, but now that he was engaged to Sarah Lange, he always seemed to have something that needed doing away from the cabin. I ENDED up doing most of the work by myself, but I didn't mind, and with the new bay horse to drag the logs, the cabin progressed quickly. I knew I would miss Pat's cheerful cheer-ful company, and I didn't look forward for-ward to living alone. Knowing I had one of the most beautiful building build-ing sites in Nauvoo was comforting. com-forting. THE VIEW of the temple, the river, the distant fields and forests, was always refreshing-but I felt an undeniable urge to have someone to share it with. A woman's touch would make my cabin a paradise. The right : woman, of course. And as I worked, work-ed, I found it increasingly easy to picture Caroline standing in the doorway to greet me when I came home from work. I could see her stirring a kettle of beef stew hanging hang-ing from a kettle hook in the soon-to-be-built fireplace, fresh flowers in the window, a blue and white checkered tablecloth on the table. I could hear the humming of a contented con-tented woman, Caroline and I sitting sit-ting on the porch after supper watching the sun set over the Mississippi Mis-sissippi River. BUT IT didn't take long to realize real-ize that something was wrong. After Af-ter the narrow escape at the temple, tem-ple, Caroline avoided me, and I didn't know why. As 1 worked on the cabin, I supposed that something some-thing good might happen between us. We seemed to get along so well, and it was so easy to talk to one another. I was even beginning to feel that perhaps I had mourned Red Leafs death long enough. At first it was just little things. I would call on Caroline at the Lee House where she shared a room with Sarah. The first few times, she said she was behind on her lessons and needed to prepare for the next day of classes. I believed her. She was always polite and friendly, but somehow distant, a distance I hadn't noticed before the attempted attemp-ted temple burning. THEN ONE night when I stopped stop-ped by to see her, she was already gone for the evening. I learned later from Pat that she had attended a party at the Parley P. Pratt residence. resi-dence. A few days later, she attended a party at John D. Lee's. The object of my affection had suddenly become a rising socialite. Through Pat and Sarah I heard that she was an excellent dancer, often twirling across the floor with some of the most prominent men in Nauvoo men like John Taylor, Lorenzo Snow, John D. Lee, and even Brigham Young on several occasions. SOMETIMES I compared my little, lit-tle, partially-completed log cabin with the prominent homes where Caroline attended her parties-homes parties-homes made from lumber and brick, with polished plank floors, large windows, gables and long flower boxes. As much as I enjoyed en-joyed building it, my little cabin wasn't much when compared to the nobler houses of Nauvoo. I stopped calling on Caroline, figuring there was no sense in making mak-ing a donkey out of myself. I figured fi-gured Caroline and the prominent people of Nauvoo might look down their noses at my cabin, but I liked it. I had made it myselffelled, peeled and worked every log into place. SOMEDAY maybe I would build a brick or frame house, like those where the parties were held, but for now I liked my little cabin. I only wished Caroline had similar feelings. feel-ings. While working on the temple each day, I managed to keep up on the latest news of the exciting events occurring in and around Nauvoo events that were making history and keeping the community in turmoil. THE ATTEMPTED burning of the temple was quickly forgotten when the judge in Burlington, Iowa--above Montrose on the other side of the river-found William Wil-liam and Stephen Hodge guilty in the murder of a Mennonite preacher and his son-in-law. The Hodge brothers were Mormons, Mor-mons, but they weren't the churchy chur-chy kind. They spent more time in saloons than worship services, hanging out with the likes of Bi(l Hickman and Porter Rockwell. BUT WHEREAS Hickman and Rockwell were defenders of the faith, using guns if necessary, the Hodges were more involved in their own version of the law of consecration. con-secration. They consecrated cattle, cat-tle, horses, whiskey, guns, and anything else of value that Missou-rians Missou-rians and gentiles didn't keep a close eye on. Before his death, Joseph Smith cautioned the people about stealing from gentiles. He said a man who would steal from a gentile would also steal from his brother-but his advice was not remembered by many, at least not by the Hodges. I DIDN'T figure Joseph's warning warn-ing applied to horses belongong to mobbers in the act of burning the temple. Reportedly the Hodge brothers killed the two Mennonites for a bag containing $400. Mormons usually stuck together, protecting each other from the heavy and often unjust un-just hand of gentile judges and lawyers. Most everyone was surprised sur-prised when Brigham Young turned the Hodge brothers over to the Iowa authorities. AN INTERESTING complication complica-tion to the whole affair was the murder of Irwin Hodge, older brother to Stephen and William, on the streets of Nauvoo shortly after the guilty verdict had been reached. Just before his death he had warned the Iowa authorities that Brigham Young would be coming to rescue the Hodge brothers. On the evening before the scheduled sche-duled hanging in Burlington, I was seated on a stump beside my cabin, chisel in one hand and mallet in the other, splitting cedar shingles for the roof, when I was startled by a female voice. It was Caroline, and she seemed her old friendly self. "I CAN'T believe it's almost finished?" she exclaimed, sounding sound-ing like she really meant it. I showed her around, explained how the logs were notched together, how the joists were placed just right to keep the sides' from bowing out, and how the newly new-ly split shingles would keep the bad weather out. SHE SEEMED pleased and even excited with the progress, as if it were her own cabin. Having already concluded that she wanted nothing to do with me, I was totally bewildered by her behavior. "Caroline," I said, pausing a moment to get her to look at me and give me her full attention. "Why did you come here?" SHE LOOKED surprised, not sure how to respond. "You never have time to see me when I call," I continued. "You're attending every party in town. Why are you here?" SHE JUST looked at me, not responding. re-sponding. She seemed taken back, surprised-as if she suddenly realized real-ized something about me she hadn't known before. I began to regret that I had spoken so bluntly. When she finally spoke, she was as forward as I had been. She didn't make excuses or apologies. She didn't attempt to explain her behavior-her avoidance of me, the parties. Her words were blunt and to the point, as mine had been. "WILL YOU take me to the hanging tomorrow?" |