these virgin acres were to be theirs for evermore.

 

Young speedily proved himself to be a skilful administrator as well as a

resolute chief. Maps were drawn and charts prepared, in which the future city

was sketched out. All around farms were apportioned and allotted in proportion

to the standing of each individual. The tradesman was put to his trade and the

artisan to his calling. In the town streets and squares sprang up, as if by

magic. In the country there was draining and hedging, planting and clearing,

until the next summer saw the whole country golden with the wheat crop.

Everything prospered in the strange settlement. Above all, the great temple

which they had erected in the centre of the city grew ever taller and larger.

 

From the first blush of dawn until the closing of the twilight, the clatter of

the hammer and the rasp of the saw was never absent from the monument which the

immigrants erected to Him who had led them safe through many dangers.

 

The two castaways, John Ferrier and the little girl who had shared his fortunes

and had been adopted as his daughter, accompanied the Mormons to the end of

their great pilgrimage. Little Lucy Ferrier was borne along pleasantly enough in

Elder Stangerson’s waggon, a retreat which she shared with the Mormon’s three

wives and with his son, a headstrong forward boy of twelve. Having rallied, with

the elasticity of childhood, from the shock caused by her mother’s death, she

soon became a pet with the women, and reconciled herself to this new life in her

moving canvas-covered home. In the meantime Ferrier having recovered from his

privations, distinguished himself as a useful guide and an indefatigable hunter.