The Wedding Dress (15 page)

She scoured a spot on the floor and muttered, “I'll be eating my prophecy when I'm trying to explain the piano.”

She tidied her desk and sighed over the little stack of paper. Easily, she would forfeit a parlor stove for school books, paper and one of those newfangled blackboards which were decorating the walls of eastern schools.

Barely had Rebecca begun to tame the spirits of her summer-wild students when rumors began to fly thick and fast. At first Rebecca believed none of them. But it was true. Through a grant, Congress had appropriated the Territory five thousand dollars to establish the Utah Library. Close on the heels of the Utah Library appropriation came more good news. Two tons of school books were being shipped into the valley.

When Rebecca made the announcement to her pupils, their joy brought tears to her eyes. She couldn't forget the wistful eyes of little Jamie Smyth.

Great Salt Lake City was still rocking with the events of summer and autumn. At midsummer, the three federally appointed officials had arrived in the valley to take up their responsibilities of governing the new territory. Thinking back on the events, Rebecca winced as she recalled the mood of the city.

Like a sore tooth that had been probed and then ignored until it became a throbbing pain, the Saints had tolerated the status of territory with the demeaning threat of federally appointed government. But until those three Gentiles had erupted full voice into the midst of a people already ruffled by years of oppression, the pain had been ignored.

True, Brother Brigham's tart words at the Founder's Day celebration had set the stage for the equally tart words of government-appointed Judge Brocchus when, in his address to the general church conference, he had exhorted the women of Utah to give up living their sinful life and return to a life of virtue. During the coming weeks the city had continued to rock with outrage. The territorial officers quickly and quietly packed their bags and their records and rapidly headed back to Washington.

The dust behind their heels hadn't settled before every Saint in the valley realized the implications. Without a doubt, Brigham Young and his people would be fought every step of their way toward statehood.

Later, Washington reverberated with the Brocchus report. Words conceived in Utah trickled back to them: lawlessness, sedition, absolute control by the church, coining and issuing money, sanctioning polygamy as part of their religion.

But life must go on, and it was moving forward with confidence in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Trim carriages and sleek horses became commonplace on the streets. The little shops with empty shelves turned its bulging stores with enough variety to entice every housewife. While looms and spinning wheels were still evident in most homes, more and more often silk dresses and plumed hats were making their appearance at the Sabbath services and the many parties and balls.

With the advent of a library, Brigham Young instigated a new level of education. A school, called the Parent School, was established to train teachers. Rumor reached Rebecca that her visits to the new library had been noted, and she began to hope that she would be appointed to teach in the new school.

One afternoon she dared mention her hopes to Ann. Her stern glance was enough to settle her inches closer to the ground. You'd stand a better chance of getting your wishes if you'd go back to living your religion.”

“Why, Ann, what do you mean?”

“You've been flitting around here like a princess ever since they opened that library and gave you a stack of books for your school. The last straw was that wall they painted black for you.” She snorted, and pounded the bread she was kneading.

“Ann, I didn't dream I was becoming uppity. I'm just glad for all we have.” She studied the woman's face, noticing the lines and the puffiness under her eyes. “You don't feel well.” Ann moved abruptly, and the wooden bowl she held slipped to the floor.

“I'm fine!” she snapped.

“But you aren't, and I've been inconsiderate. Here, let me finish the bread.” She reached for the bowl, and Ann snatched it away.

“You tend to your school teaching. Trying to take even this away from me?” Rebecca stepped backward and looked at Ann. The woman's mouth was compressed in a tight line of anger, and her eyes flashed. “You hear? Tend to the teaching, and let me have the kitchen.”

Slowly Rebecca said, “It's Dee, isn't it? She's been following me around like a puppy. Ann, I'm not trying to take your daughter away from you. But you have been a little short with her lately. Be patient; she'll be your own dear daughter again. It could be she's having troubles of her own. She and Lisa are scrapping.”

Ann was watching her closely. The tight lines on her face gave way to astonishment, and then she smiled, “Oh, Becky, forgive me. Why must I always be suspicious? You're as dear as my own daughter.” Abruptly she turned away.

In November of 1851, the ground was broken for the construction of a new meetinghouse. Brigham Young was already calling it a tabernacle. The old bowery constructed during 1849 and 1850 now seemed inadequate and poor in comparison to the new buildings being erected about the city.

With the twenty thousand dollars appropriated by Congress, construction of a State House on Union Square was begun on the first day of September 1851. But now all eyes and attention were focused on the tabernacle.

In January of 1852, work began in earnest while every person in the valley took his turn inspecting the edifice. Brigham Young proclaimed completion would be in time to celebrate the twenty-second anniversary of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.

While the city seethed with this new excitement, Rebecca received the letter from Cora.

“Dear Rebecca,” she read. “I am so very lonesome for you. I think even Bessie misses you. I am expecting again, which does nothing to make matters happier around here. I do believe Mrs. Wright would take the first opportunity to return to Great Salt Lake City. The dear Lord knows she wouldn't be missed by me.

“Our homes are poor log cabins. None of the men have time to work on a meetinghouse. When one of the brethren is through here, we crowd into someone's cabin and feast on messages from home.

“Here in Pinto we are in the mountains. We scarce dare leave the house, thanks to the Indians. They seem to only want food, and they're thieving our cows.

“We have had many a jawing to gird up our loins and be content with what we have in order to build up Zion. Most of us would be content with enough to fill our stomachs. There wasn't time for planting last summer, so we must buy everything from the wagons. The main effort of the men has been toward the iron industry. The coke oven has been erected and roads hacked through to the coal mines. The iron ore is good quality and, the dear Lord willing, less than a year will see the first load into the furnace.

“How I miss you, but I wouldn't wish this place on you. Cedar City is a little better with more people and a proper fort. I long for the civilization of Great Salt Lake City. Just the trees and sidewalks, the gardens and new little orchards. I'd visit a store just to smell the bacon and soap. I'm thinking of those good feasts in Union Square on Founder's Day. I'd love to have some of Granny Hicks' ginger cake heaped with cream. I'd never complain again if I were allowed to spend the day, shoulder to shoulder with you, hoeing beans and chopping weeds.”

Rebecca finished the letter and fingered the smudges on it as she reflected on its unhappy tone. “No wonder Brother Brigham has to fuss so much to get the people to move south. It sounds terrible. It's as bad as starting over again.” She shuddered. “None of us would be willing to do that again unless we had to.”

“Miss Becky, what does ‘covenant' mean?” Rebecca raised her head and lowered the Book of Mormon she had been reading. She studied the serious eyes focused on her.

“I don't know, but we can find out.” She crossed the room to the line of books on the shelf beside the blackboard. Plucking a dictionary from the shelf she went to sit on a low bench among her students.

“Covenant.” Her finger moved down the words. “It says”—she paused to read and then raised her head—“it says an agreement between people. Ruth, were you thinking of the covenant mentioned in the Book of Mormon?”

Bewildered, the child nodded. “‘Course, what else is there?”

“Why it could be any agreement, but let's see what applies.” Again she searched. “Oh, there. An agreement of God with man, ‘as set forth in the Old and New Testaments,'” she quoted.

“That sounds like two covenants,” Isaac said. “Are there more?”

“What was on the hunks of stone?” asked Ruth.

“I don't really know,” Rebecca said slowly. “I've only heard it called the law or the commandments. But an
agreement
. I just don't know.”

“Well, why don't you go ask Brother Brigham? Ma says he wants people to bring their problems to him.”

“Oh, dear,” Rebecca murmured. “He may not think much of a teacher who can't discover this on her own.”

Redheaded, freckle-faced Alice jumped to her feet and, with a mischievous grin, thumped on the desk in front of her. “Here's tomorrow's assignment. Teacher, you are to come prepared to tell us all about covenants.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Rebecca said meekly. “Although I believe you're asking more of me than I can possibly do.”

“Oh, ho!” Isaac hooted. “Anybody who can prophesy can find a little old thing like that. Last year you predicted we would have books before the next year was up. Look at all the books.” He waved toward the bookshelf.

“Oh!” The awe was in unison, and wide eyes looked from her to the evidence.

“Children,” she protested, “that was only coincidence.”

“Pa doesn't think so,” Isaac continued. “Just like Brother Kimball's, it came true. Pa says it shows you have the Spirit.”

That evening, long after the others had gone to bed, Rebecca huddled before the fireplace, straining her eyes over the fine print in the two black books.

Ann came into the room. “Rebecca, are you ill?”

“No, my students want a full and complete report on covenants tomorrow. If only there were a dictionary to tell you where to find the answers in the Bible.”

“Well, I suspect if I were looking, I'd commence at the place where it tells about covenants.”

“Where would that be?”

“Doesn't covenant have something to do with Moses getting the stone plates?”

“Maybe the things that happened before the plates,” Rebecca said thoughtfully. A verse she'd memorized popped into her mind. Pressing fingers against her forehead, she concentrated on dragging up the words. “Put them in their hearts.”

“You are ill.”

“No, I'm trying to remember—there it's Hebrews 8:11.” She thumbed through her mother's Bible. She read, “‘For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.'” She sighed, “Well, that answers one question, there're two covenants.” With a yawn Ann returned to bed.