Among the Prophets 



tions as for service. With a quiet stir, I must 

 lift the vessels of my priestly office from the desk 

 which is their shrine. Then as I begin to lay 

 them out, canvas, brush, and palette, and to pre- 

 pare them with solemnity, the voices of demand 

 are stilled; there is a reverent hush. The wives 

 of Joseph Smith would as soon have asked for a 

 distribution of affection at the moment that he 

 placed the golden spectacles upon his brow and 

 took down the golden book. 



But should you too desire a right to your es- 

 cape, you must first acquire a legend. My own 

 dates back, as any prophet's should, to childish 

 days when wide-eyed in wonder at the honor that 

 had come upon me, I reported the authoritative 

 voice. Impossible then to suspect one so conven- 

 tionally round and rosy, so stolid in acceptance, 

 of subterfuge or guile. Moreover, I could lead 

 all scoffers to the very place. It was at East 

 Gloucester. At the end of a long walk through 

 bayberry and bracken, I had come upon a beach 

 scooped out between red clifiFs. And here with 

 sketch pad on my knee, I sat among the salvage, 

 washing in crude surfaces of black and white. 



[43] 



