It took me a lot of time to write this chapter, and I was originally going to use the subjective tone of the cat master, but after several attempts, I didn't think it was appropriate, after all, it was not a pleasant story...... Eventually, I decided to write this chapter from a third-person perspective.

Of course, I will not copy Mr. Conan Doyle's original text exactly, because the original text is really long, about nearly a third of the length of the entire study of Scarlet Letters, so I will only try to repeat it briefly, but it will still be divided into two chapters to finish.

This story may make you feel ambiguous, resentful, or even hateful about some religions, but I believe that this is not Mr. Conan Doyle's intention, and after all, fiction is just fiction...... ）

May 4, 1847, in the middle of the North American continent.

There is a desert abandoned by civilization, from the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, from the Yellowstone River in the north to Colorado in the south. Throughout the year, you can see countless dry bones on the road and vultures hovering in the air.

On this day, a lonely traveler walked in this barren and infinitely desolate land, his face haggard and thin, and his protruding bones covered by a brown skin like a dry sheep's skin.

He had endured several days and nights of hunger, trudged through a valley, and finally struggled to this small plateau, where his eyes had long since faded...... Hopes of finding a water source have been dashed here.

He threw the rifle to the ground, then put down the large gray burden on his back and sat down against the stone himself. A little girl poked her head out of her baggage, she had bright brown eyes, she was about five years old, and she was wearing a beautiful pink blouse and a burlap bib. It can be seen from this dress that her mother's love for her is meticulous.

It's a pity that the little girl's mother is already a dry skeleton in this desert......

She asked: Where did Mom go?

He replied, "I think you will see her soon, and if you are thirsty, just bear with it for a while, and it will be all right after a while."

He could only reply that in fact, he thought that he would soon leave this world.

The little girl picked up two pieces of mica and showed them: "How beautiful! That's nice! I'll give it to my little brother Bob when I get home. ”

The lord replied with confidence, "Soon you will see something more beautiful than this, just wait a while......"

The man's name was John Ferrell, and he was an explorer, and not so long ago, he was in a horse caravan, with clean fresh water and enough food to eat every day, but now, everyone is dead, and only he and little Lucy are left.

In fact, this little girl has nothing to do with him, and he can throw it down or even eat it...... But he didn't do that, because he still believed in heaven.

The vultures had landed in front of them, waiting for a feast, and John Ferrell said, "Let's pray." ”

The little girl replied, "It's not evening yet." ”

"It's okay, there doesn't have to be any fixed time, don't worry, God won't blame us."

The prayer began, but they were all so tired that they soon fell asleep against the stones......

If John Ferrell had slept half an hour late, he would have seen a spectacle. At the far end of this alkaline field, a cloud of smoke and dust was raised. At first, it was impossible to tell whether it was dust or fog from a distance, but gradually, the smoke grew higher and wider, until a thick cloud formed.

It was an incomparably large convoy, filled with smoke and dust, and canvas-topped caravans and heavily armed riders were moving westward. The front team is at the foot of the mountain, the back team is still out of reach on the horizon, this mighty group of migrants who are looking for a new home and a happy land.

A few riders who were scouting the way ahead noticed two tiny black dots on the rugged cliff, and they called for a man who looked like a leader, and the elder said, "Leave the horse below, and we will meet you here." ”

So a few young men picked up rifles and went to the high ground where John Ferrell was......

Half an hour later, two dying travelers were ushered into the largest tent in the convoy, where they had the privilege of meeting a great leader, Brigham Young.

"My name is John Ferrell, and I'm the only one left in the group of twenty-one people and this little one. The others had not eaten or drunk in the south, and they were all dead......"

"Is she your child?"

He boldly admitted: "I want to ...... Now that she is my child, I saved her, and no one can take her away, and she will be called Lucy Ferrell from this day forward. ”

The big man said sharply: "Only by believing in our religion can we take you with us." We will not allow wolves to creep into our flock, and instead of letting two rotten specks destroy the whole fruit in the future, it is better to expose your bones in the wilderness now. Are you willing to accept this offer and go with us? ”

"I'm willing to follow you, on any terms." Ferrell said in an accentuated tone, and some of the steady elders around him were all amused by the explorer, and only the big man Brigham Young still maintained a solemn and solemn expression.

He said, "Brother Stan-Jackson, take him in, give him food and drink, and give this child." You are also responsible for teaching him our doctrine. We've been waiting too long, so get up and head for Mount Xun (the name of Jerusalem, the holy place of Christianity, here referring to the place where the Mormons are about to choose to live)! ”

"Forward, march to Xunshan!" The Morocians shouted together. The order spread like a wave through the ranks, and the voices gradually faded into the distance. The whip crackled, the cars rumbled, the brigade of chariots and horses moved, and the whole convoy meandered forward again.

Elder Stan Jefferson took the two victims to his car, where food had already been prepared, and he said: "You will live here, and soon you will be restored, and from now on, remember that you are our disciples." Brigham Young instructed that his words were spoken by the voice of Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism, known as God's prophet on earth), that is, to convey God's will. ”

…………

Many years later, when we look back at the experiences of these immigrants, we may be able to write an entire book about the indomitable tenacity of the Mississippi River and the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains, overcoming all the obstacles that God could bring down by wild men, wild beasts, hunger, thirst, toil, and disease.

Eventually, when they saw the vast Utah Valley bathed in sunshine beneath their feet, and heard their leader proclaim that this virgin land was their God-given home and would be theirs forever, they fell on their knees and worshipped them.

The immigrants settled down, digging ditches and ravines, building fences, cultivating and cultivating, and a thriving scene. By the summer of the following year, thousands of wheat waves had sprung up in the whole village, and they were all golden.

John Ferrell also received his own piece of land here, where he built a solid wooden house, which was gradually built into a spacious villa over the years.

The adventurer was a very pragmatic man, shrewd and skillful, and his physique was very robust, which enabled him to tirelessly cultivate and improve the land from morning to night. As a result, his grange flourished, and within three years he surpassed his neighbors; Six years later, he was very rich; Nine years, rich on the first side; Twelve years later, there are less than five or six people in Salt Lake City (the capital of Utah, USA, on the shores of Salt Lake, whose original pioneers were these Mormons), who can be compared to John Ferrell, and he has become a figure of great propagation.

But there was one thing, Ferrell hurt his fellow teachers, and no matter how much he argued with him, no matter how much he tried to persuade him, Ferrel refused to marry and start a family in the "way" of his companions. He never said the reason for his repeated refusals, he was just unwavering in his stubbornness.

John Ferrell lived a strict celibacy in this way, and in addition to this, he was unrelenting in his devotion to the religion of the new colony. And he is recognized as a person who believes in Orthodoxy and behaves decently.

Lucy Ferrell grew up in such a land, and she was John Ferrell's only righteous daughter, helping her father with everything. The fresh air of the mountains and the fragrance of the pine forests nurture this young girl like a mother. The years have passed, and Lucy has grown slim.

Her cheeks grew more delicate, and her gait grew lighter. Passers-by could not resist stopping to see the beautiful angel as they passed by Ferrell's Grange, a slender maiden riding her father's horse, like a teenager from the American West, walking through the wheat fields with vigor and skill. Even the always expressionless Indians, who were transporting leather, were shocked at the sight of this fair-skinned maiden of great beauty, and could not help but relax their usual dull faces. If she is the most iconic American girl in the entire mountainous area of the Pacific coast, no one will object.

And it was not her father who first sensed that a girl had grown up, and it was seldom noticed by the father, and this mysterious change was subtle and formed very slowly, and could not be measured by time. But it was the girl herself who was most difficult to perceive, until she heard someone's words, or touched someone's hand, and she felt a deer in her heart bumble, and a feeling of pride and fear arose. That's when she understood......

This year, Lucy met another young man, his name was Jefferson Houbo, an explorer, gold digger, and a good hunter, who rescued Lucy from under the hooves of a herd of runaway cattle, and the sprout of love was planted in each other's hearts, but neither of them could have guessed the end......