Later, when he had endured martyrdom and privations for the sake of this belief, he found himself face to face with the till-then concealed doctrine of plural marriage. From this his Puritan instincts revolted and he quitted the church with many others who located near Council Bluffs. But, cast out from a church he had loved, his faith shattered, his illusions destroyed, he was ready to turn to any creed or ism which came his way.
As he learned more of the newly taught creed of modern spiritism, he began to give it credence, the more so as he believed he could understand, from such a standpoint, the life of the prophet Joseph Smith. Was not Smith a spirit-medium and were not the trances and visions which he claimed to have had similar or identical with those mediumistic exhibitions which he now witnessed? Might not the prophet himself have been deceived and the revelation which he supposed to have come from God been but the communication of a false and dangerous spirit? In this way, only, could he find an apology for the prophet, whom he had loved and believed in as little less than a god.
Squire Bartram’s sons had grown up stalwart, brainy lads, ambitious and capable. Nathan, the elder, who had lately brought to his father’s home a bright little sixteen-year-old wife, with black eyes, shining ringlets and bird-like movements, had prepared a home on the Nebraskan prairies, to which he was soon to take his bride. He had preempted a homestead, bought another one hundred and sixty acres, and thus secured a nice farm on the plain some distance north of the Platte River. He had, after the manner of the pioneers of the country, built himself an adobe house, and was now ready to begin life in earnest.
His wife, Lissa, whose sister lived in that locality, was possessed of the delighted eagerness of a child to see and occupy the new home and was almost impatient of the delay which Nathan insisted upon, namely, the visit of a few weeks at his father’s house.
The sun had already been hidden from view by the huge bluff behind the house, though it was still broad daylight at the homestead, and good Mrs. Bartram had dallied in her supper work to talk with Nathan’s wife, when the Squire put his head in at the door to announce that Professor Russell, the noted seer, medium, and clairvoyant, would honor them with a visit and give them proof of his supernatural powers.
“For the land’s sake,� exclaimed Mrs. Bartram, “why didn’t you tell us before! Here I hain’t got my work done up yet. How long before he’ll be here, I wonder?�
“O, not for a half hour or so; he stopped down to Job Atkins to help find them that colt that was lost,� replied the Squire.
“And how can he help them, unless he’s the one that took it? Them that hides can find, I take it,� continued the good lady, with a sniff. “I haven’t much use for these folks that knows too much and whose ways are dark.�
“Wait until after you see the Professor, before you judge,� said the Squire.
“And so we are to be entertained to-night by one who is in league with the powers of darkness,� said Donald, a young man of eighteen years, as he entered the family room and seated himself by the side of his new sister-in-law. “Lissa, don’t you tremble at the thought of the evil wraiths that are to fill this room?�