The Indians have made a local saint of him and every night you will see candles burning on the spot and little plates of rice and other food placed there for his spirit.—
For a moment Columbus stood as if spell-bound by the fact of this new country. Soon however he regained his self-possession and with Alonzo Pinzon ordered the trunks of trifles to be opened which, being opened, the Indians drew near in wonder and began to try to communicate with these gods.
It was indeed a new world.
[CHAPTER VIII]
No man can tell the truth and survive—save through prestige. And no child either. Aristocracy is license to tell the truth. And to hear it. Witness the man William in Henry Fifth, the camp incident. Fear clutched at his heart.
Agh-ha-ha! Shouted the vaqueros plunging their spurs into the bronchos' sides. Up with the heels. Buck, buck, buck. Agh-ha-ha! Fortissimo. The wild and unexpected cry out of the Mexican Indian country rang through the quiet house so that the pup leaped up and rushed to the door.
Someone had taken the apple. Both denied they had had a hand in it. Each accused the other. The truth did not appear. For an hour the man tried his best to arrive at a just decision. Joseph Smith shook where he stood and fell frothing at the mouth. He was of Vermont mountain stock. His birth among the poor white trash there had not even been thought worth recording. Yet a vision came to him of the marriage in Cana. Christ drank the wine and Martha and Mary her sister became his wives—so to speak. It is the truth. The world shall be saved anew, said Joseph Smith in the mountains of Vermont—where the mushrooms are so plentiful among the fir trees.
Who had given the boy the apple against the father's express orders? Had he taken it himself—which he denied or had the girl gone into the store room—as he asserted but which she denied—and selected it herself? Where was the truth?
In Illinois Brigham Young was recruited. Off they set with fifty oxen for the Promised Land away over the prairies and deserts—through the Sioux country, in search of Zion. The whole world they would leave behind and for the truth's sake they would live in that far country—to be discovered, to which the Lord would lead them.