once for all the huge courage by which his life was marked. His hand,
helping her to the shore, never trembled. He calmly directed her steps
into the quiet meadow before he gave himself to the battle.

When her person was no longer there to be protected, the Mormons gave
way at once before the gathering strength of the mob. She saw them
beaten down mercilessly; she saw Smith himself beaten and thrown
prostrate in the water. The still, warm air that a few minutes before
had seemed instinct with prayer was now vibrating to the howls and
taunts and curses of the mob. Susannah had no doubt that these, who were
now her friends, were being killed; their sufferings justified her to
herself and produced a fierce exaltation in the step which she had
taken. In her experience of life she thought that the mob would turn
upon her next, and stood waiting, every muscle tense, her hands
clenched, feeling excitedly that she would rather die than live to see
such intolerable wrong.

This tension of nerve relaxed somewhat when her uncle lifted her
forcibly into the waggon. With eyes wide open with horror and lips
trembling, she asked, "Did they kill them, uncle?"

"No, child, they only gave them a good trouncing in their own pond." He
choked here, out of pity for her, keeping back the torrent of his anger.

Even at this early date it was bruited that Joseph Smith exercised some
unseemly force of will by which he distorted the reason of his converts.
This report explained the fact that for the first day after the shock of
Susannah's baptism her aunt and uncle did not lay the blame of it at her
door, did not argue or persuade, only watched her as one recovering from
a strange disease. But in the afternoon of that first day the pent-up