THE GOSSIPS AT THE FOUNTAIN
THE LAMANITE GIRL WAS PRETTY.
"Hurry with your trifling, and lend me your cup that I may fill my jars," admonished Abish.
"You are in a hurry, today?" queried Sara lazily. The water in the fountain was low and it had to be scooped up from the bottom. Sara was trickling the cool liquid over her fingers quite oblivious to her own empty water pitchers standing; with gaping mouths on the curb.
The two women, Abish, servant in the house of Ahah, and Sara a servant of Seantum, often met at the fountain to gossip. At these times the possible union between the heads of their two houses was an inexhaustible subject, for Seantum, the proud Nephite, was a suitor for the hand of Ahah, a girl of mixed blood. Possible exigencies were suggested by the fact that Ahah was believed to love Hagoth, a Lamanite soldier; on the other hand her mother, the widowed Miriam, openly encouraged the suit of Seantum.
Truly the plaza in the beautiful suburb, Antionum was a pleasant place to loiter. The fountain was the life source of the city, and sooner or later everyone came there to drink. The gorgeous flowers of the tropics were so rich that the very bees became intoxicated and produced a honey that was the original nectar. A long line of Biblical looking girls carrying water jars on their heads extended from the fountain. Alternating with oval Madonna-like faces lit with lustrous eyes was the ardent gypsy coloring that told of mixed blood, for Lamanites and Nephites mingled freely in the community.
"The servants at our house do not dawdle the day away," announced Abish severely, "Our mistress looks after her household."
Sara felt the implied sneer, for the ancient halls of Seantum languished in bachelor neglect.