With one more example from his life among the Mormons, which, perhaps, though brief, includes a greater variety of wit and humor than any single passage I could select, I must conclude my memorial glimpses of this incomparable and lamented humorist.
"I regret to say that efforts were made to make a Mormon of me while I was in Utah.
"It was leap year when I was there, and seventeen young widows—the wives of a deceased Mormon (he died by request)—offered me their hearts and hands. I called upon them one day, and taking their soft, white hands in mine—which made eighteen hands altogether—I found them in tears. And I said 'Why is this thus?—what is the reason of this thusness?'
"They hove a sigh—seventeen sighs of different size. They said—
"'Oh, soon thou wilt be gonested away!'
"I told them that when I got ready to leave a place I usually wentested. They said—'Doth not like us?'
"I said, 'I doth, I doth!' I also said, 'I hope your intentions are honorable, as I am a lone child and my parents are far, far away!'
"They then said, 'Wilt not marry us?'
"I said, 'Oh no, it cannot was.'
"Again they asked me to marry them, and again I declined. When they cried—