“What news?”
“Solomon Garrett has asked Jessica to marry him. With a little help from Father Steed, Jessica accepted.”
For the first time there was a softening. “Really?”
“Yes. We’re all very pleased. She seems very happy.”
“That is good news.” Then immediately the stiffness was back. “Does Caroline know about this whole thing between Will and me?”
“Yes. Will asked me to give his letter to her after I finished reading it.”
Joshua shook his head, staring at the table top. “Welcome home,” he muttered to no one in particular.
“You might be surprised.”
Suddenly Joshua sat straight up. “Did Carl talk to you before you left?”
Nathan gave him a quizzical look. “Well, I didn’t see Carl on the day I left, but he was at the family dinner three nights before where we honored Solomon and Jessica.”
“But he didn’t say anything about—” He caught himself and shook his head. “Never mind. If he had, you’d know what I was talking about.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing. It can wait until we get back to Nauvoo.”
Nathan saw a chance to move to safer ground. “Which is how soon?”
Joshua shrugged. “The river’s running high right now, which will save us lots of grief with the rapids. Jean Claude figures it will take about ten rafts to get it all down to La Crosse. Then we’ll put them together into three or four platforms there. We’ve got four of the ten done, another one nearly so. We’re hoping we can be on our way by next Monday.”
“Monday! That’s great. Then I got here just in time.”
Joshua stood. “Let’s go take a look.”
Nathan stood too. Joshua started around him, then stopped and gave him a warning glare. “I appreciate you coming back up to help, Nathan. I do. But this isn’t the time for meddling. Will and I are going to have to work this out between us, but we need to do it in our own way. Understood?”
“Understood. I didn’t come up here to take over your role as father, Joshua.”
“Good,” he grunted. “I wasn’t looking for a replacement.”
They walked out together and started down the path that led to the sawmill. Nathan watched his brother out of the corner of his eye, but if Joshua was aware of the scrutiny he didn’t show any sign of it. As they approached the clearing where the sawmill had been constructed, Nathan steeled himself and spoke. “Joshua?”
There was a murmured grunt.
“There’s something you need to consider.”
There was a sudden icy glint in Joshua’s eyes. Nathan flinched a little, knowing this wasn’t going to lessen the strain between them but knowing also that it needed saying. “You say you’re not looking for someone to replace you as Will’s father.”
“That’s right.” It came out in clipped, hard words. “So don’t you be volunteering.”
“Then maybe you’d better ask yourself why it is that Will shares his innermost feelings with me and with Jean Claude but not you. You don’t know what he thinks about Jenny. You don’t know why he decided to join the Church. You don’t know what he’s feeling about you. In other words, you have no idea what’s in that boy’s heart, Joshua, and that’s part of being his father too.”
Joshua stopped, the fury rising in his eyes.
Nathan met it calmly. “Sorry, big brother. But that’s something you need to think about, like it or not.” And with that, he turned and walked on, leaving Joshua to stare balefully after him.
Chapter Notes
The great rafts of logs or lumber shipped to growing markets for building materials via the rivers of America are one of the little known aspects of our heritage. Masts and spars for the shipbuilding industry were a major export from the New England states, and people from those states perfected many of the rafting techniques described here. It is reported that along the Delaware River, which flowed out of the Catskills in New York State into Delaware Bay, there were as many as a thousand rafts going downriver each spring and summer. Huge rafts carrying as much as 150,000 board feet of lumber in a single chain became a common sight along the Mississippi as well during the early 1840s. The Wisconsin pineries—or “the Pine Woods,” as the Saints often called them—became a major self-support effort of the Nauvoo Saints and proved to be a valuable source of lumber for the temple, the Nauvoo House, and other construction needs in the burgeoning city. (See Eric Sloane,
A Museum of Early American Tools
[New York: Ballantine Books, 1964], pp. 42–45; Dennis Rowley, “The Mormon Experience in the Wisconsin Pineries, 1841–1845,”
BYU Studies
32 [Winter and Spring 1992]: 136–37.)
Chapter 21
I’ll be working at the quarry today.”
Melissa, at the stove, turned around slowly, the surprise obvious on her face.
Carl’s head was down and he was working on cutting his ham and eggs with studied intensity. “Your father mentioned they’re behind on getting the rock up to the temple site because they don’t have enough teams.”
“I thought you were taking that load of bricks out to the Morley settlement this morning.”
He popped a generous forkful of ham, eggs, and fried potatoes into his mouth and began to chew. “That can wait until tomorrow, I reckon.”
Melissa pushed the pan back to a cooler part of the stove and came over to sit across the table from him. “Did Papa ask you if you’d help out?”
“No, he just mentioned in passing that they were short.”
“I see,” she responded. She hadn’t thought her family would make that request of him, and so it pleased her all the more that he was doing this on his own.
“Melissa?”
“Yes?”
“I do want to help out at the quarry. That’s my main reason for going, but it may give me a chance to talk to people too.”
She gave him a quizzical look; then a moment later she understood. He meant that he would talk to people concerning John Bennett and his wild stories. “I think that’s good, Carl. Are you ever going to tell me what you’re learning?” She had bitten her tongue more than once, trying to be patient until he felt it was right.
He sighed heavily. “Yes, of course. And I’ll tell you now if you want. But I don’t have all the answers. I’d really like to wait until I do. That is, if you’re sure you want to hear it.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s not pleasant stuff. It’s ugly, twisted, vicious. It’s like taking poison for your mind.”
Melissa nodded. And what was this doing to her husband’s feelings about the Church? After all, Joshua wasn’t the only one who needed worrying about. “I’m sure some of this is coming from our enemies. Is there any danger in hearing only one side of the story?”
There was a moment’s silence, then a touch of reproof in his voice. “Joshua sent Bennett to me because Joshua thinks I will be fair-minded. Do you think I am a fair-minded man, Melissa?”
She was instantly contrite. She came over and stood beside him. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry, Carl.” She bent over and kissed him on his forehead. “I have complete faith in you. And I’m glad you’ll be talking to people at the quarry too.”
He finished the last piece of ham, then stood up. “Kiss the children for me when they wake up.”
“I will.”
“Well, well. Good morning, Carl.”
“Good morning, Israel.”
“Where you off to this morning?”
Trying to appear nonchalant, Carl clucked softly to his team, pulling on the reins. He turned them off the road and pulled them in alongside Israel Barlow’s wagon and team. “To be honest, I heard you might need some help hauling rock. I’ve got a free day, so here I am.”
Israel gave him a long, appraising look, then smiled. “That’s right decent of you to do that. We are running quite a bit behind.”
“Then what are you doing sitting up here?” Carl asked chidingly. “Why aren’t you down in the quarry loading up?” They were up on the bluff above the stone quarry. Some of the bluffs lining the river were made of limestone. The quarry was being cut into the face of one of those bluffs. Across the road and about fifteen yards beyond, the ground sloped and then suddenly disappeared. That was the edge of the quarry. About thirty feet below that was where the men were blasting and cutting the great stone blocks for the temple walls.
Barlow ignored the good-natured dig. “You’re so anxious, you drive on down there. About the time you get your team backed into place, they’ll set off that black powder and then you’ll have your hands full.”
“Oh,” Carl said meekly. “So that’s it. How soon?”
“About ten more minutes, they said. And that was five or six minutes ago. They’re the ones who suggested it might be well to wait up here.”
Carl nodded and set the brake lever. Then he stood and jumped off the wagon. Barlow’s two horses, a finely matched team of black mares, jumped at the sudden movement. The near one snorted and started prancing nervously in the traces. Barlow grabbed the reins and pulled them in. “Whoa there, girls. Whoa! Settle down.”
Snorting and blowing, gradually they calmed again.
“I see they’re full of vinegar this morning, as usual,” Carl said, admiring the two animals. The two of them looked almost like twins, though they had been foaled by different mothers. Black, with white stockings and with white blazes down their faces. They were a handsome team. But they had always been high-spirited and more than a touch jittery.
“They’ll settle in, once they pull a couple of loads of stone back up this road and on to the temple grounds.” Barlow stood and swung down from the wagon seat as well. He came around and took the bridle of the more nervous animal. “You may want to hold the heads of your team,” he said, looking at Carl’s heavier pair of draft horses. “The blasting always seems to spook ’em.”
Carl laughed. His two—a roan and a bay—were a good working team, but they weren’t much to look at. And right now their heads were down and their eyes half-lidded. “If I’m lucky it’ll wake ’em up.”
But as Barlow chuckled, Carl went around anyway to take the bridle of the near horse. The two men stood that way for a minute or two, looking over in the direction of the quarry, and then Carl decided to take advantage of the opportunity. “Can I ask you a question, Israel?”
“Sure.”
He hesitated a moment, anxious not to offend this good man. And yet he knew Israel well and felt that he could ask him things he wouldn’t feel comfortable asking other Church members. “I don’t cotton much to gossip. Never had much patience for it.”
“Wish more were like that,” Barlow said, obviously surprised by that opening line.
“But I’ve just got to ask this.”
Barlow guessed what he was going to ask. “No, Carl. There’s no truth to those crazy stories about Joseph and Hyrum and the Twelve. None whatsoever.”
Carl smiled briefly. Israel was a shrewd man, you had to give him that. “Then why isn’t Joseph or any of the other leaders saying anything? Is Joseph aware of what’s going on? Or the Twelve?”
There was a long silence, then finally a slow nod. “Oh, yes, they are very aware of it.”
“You know how I feel about the Church, Israel, so what I’m about to say I say as a friend.”
“And I’ll take it as coming from a friend.”
He reached up and started rubbing the muzzle of his horse. “There have been no public denials, no outward action. John C. Bennett—” Carl shook his head. “He’s Assistant President of the Church, Israel. It looks like Joseph is either protecting him or is looking the other way.”
“Carl, let me say something. Maybe it will help.”
“All right.”
“First of all, you need to understand something about how the Church works.”
“I’m listening.”
“In the revelations given to Joseph, the Lord set up ways for the Church to govern itself and cleanse itself of iniquity. In some ways, that system is similar to civil court systems. You appear before a tribunal, witnesses can be called, testimony heard, and if you disagree with the verdict, there is a way to appeal to a higher court, if you wish.”
“Yes, Melissa has told me a little about this.”
“But in the Church, just like in other courts, you can’t simply act on hearsay, especially if someone is denying the accusations. You have to look into it, find out what is true. That’s the first point. The second point is that the Lord specifically said these things are not to be done before the world. In other words, the proceedings are confidential. If the decision is that a person has fellowship withdrawn or is excommunicated, then that will be made known, but until then, the proceedings are confidential. This protects the innocent from being victimized by every rumor or wild accusation.”
Carl grunted, considering that. “Then let me just ask you straight out. Is the Church trying to deal with this whole thing with John C. Bennett or is it simply being ignored because it is too embarrassing?”
Barlow just looked at him steadily.
“I’m not asking you to break any confidences, Israel. Just tell me this much. Is it being looked into?”
Barlow nodded slowly and solemnly.
“All right,” Carl said, glad to hear that. “But I think Joseph is foolish if he doesn’t publicly do something to counteract the stories.”
“Why don’t you come to the conference tomorrow? You might hear some things that will interest you.”
Carl knew about that. Tomorrow was April sixth, the twelfth anniversary of the Church’s founding. There would be three days of conference as part of that. “I’ve got to take a load of brick down to Yelrome. That’ll take a couple of days, so I won’t be back until Thursday afternoon.”
“Then when you get home, ask Melissa if anything happened.”
Carl leaned forward a little. “You think there will be something said?”
Before Israel could answer that, from behind them there was a tremendous
carrumph!
The earth shook beneath their feet. Carl’s team jerked up, thoroughly startled, but he had a firm grip and that was that. Barlow’s team was another thing entirely. The smaller of the mares jumped violently, nearly jerking Barlow off his feet.
“Whoa, girl! Whoa!” She whinnied wildly, panicking the second horse. They tried to bolt, nearly yanking Barlow off his feet, but he was hanging on to both bridles now. “Steady, girls! Steady!” he soothed, not giving them an inch of slack. Gradually his quiet firmness, the steady hand, and the soothing tones did the job. The blacks settled down again, though the far one was looking around with nervous jerks of her head.