Questing Lights

By Belle Watson Anderson

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Chapter 8

Synopsis: Andrew Rumgay leaves his mother and his fiancee Jane Allison in Scotland and join his friend Hugh Shand to emigrate to America. They meet Mother MacKinlay and her son Bob, whom they had known while doing missionary work, and become acquainted with Kathleen Coleman and her friend Margaret Purvis. Hugh and Kathleen are married on board the ship. While crossing the plains Andrew is lost in a blizzard and is rescued by Margaret. She later leaves the Macs and goes to live in Tooele. Andrew and the Macs arrive in Zion and Kathleen and Hugh have a son – Mac Coleman Shand. Andrew farms and saves money to bring Jane from Scotland. When he finally ends it, he receives news that Jane has married someone else. Andrew is a grieved and lonely man and he sends for the two youngest children in his family. He is called on a mission, and Margaret comes to stay with the children while he is gone.

Andrew became a hero overnight. The news spread to every part of King’s Kettle that Andrew Rumgay, the Mormon boy, who went to America a few years ago, had returned.

Friends and relative from near and far began calling to see him, asking many questions. “What about the gold lying in the streets of America? What about all the free land? Does every man own his home? Are you rich, Andrew? Show us some of your wealth.”

Andrew decided this was an opportunity to preach the gospel, so he answered every question carefully and truthfully.

The one thing in which they were all interested was the land. They would it for hours and nod and listen to the young man discuss the soil – mother earth. It was the desire of every one of them to own a piece of ground.

He told them about the real wealth of America, the rich spiritual values – the purpose for which the land had been held for so many centuries for the restoration of the gospel. He had seen Mormonism in action and it was wonderful.

“Yes, but we have a religion,” they countered.

They had a church which most of them attended every Sunday. Father Douglas was a guid man. He baptized the children, preached a guid sermon, came whenever he was needed. Yes, they had a religion, but no land.

There were different places to which the restless sons of Scotland were emigrating – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, but the choice of them all was America. For a few times on Sunday the branch church was filled to overflowing with people, in hopes the young elder from Utah would speak about America.

Andrew’s mother’s home of two rooms, which had furnished a roof over the heads of his loved ones since the happy day David Rumgay had carried Janet Black over its worn threshold, was still a model of efficiency. Everything was planned, budgeted, and carried out to the last detail. It had always taken careful organization to care for ten children without the father.

The thing that seemed uncanny to Andrew now was the suit problem his mother handled so skillfully. She had five boys to keep decently dressed at their work every day, and at church on Sunday. She kept a record of who got the suit last year, whose turn it was this year, material on hand, what relative had given them a worn suit, what she got out of it after washing and cutting it down. She had made every suit Andrew had worn, until the new suit he had bought for going away.

Life for the children was different in Scotland that in America. The bairns were all up at daylight, eating their porridge before their eyes were half open and, with their dinner pail in their hands, off to work before sunup. Often the Sabbath was the only day they saw the sun.

The missionary thought of the children in Utah, well-fed and warmly clothed, with plenty of the necessities of life, if their parents were willing to work for them. They had time for rest and play, and the opportunity of attending school every day. How thankful he was that Bill and Janet were in Zion, and with such a wonderful person to take care of them!

He remembered that Margaret was very much like his mother around the house, quick and efficient in getting things done. He had worked, cooked, and cleaned for the bairns, and what a slow, hard job it had been. Then Margaret had come into his home, and he found there was magic in her touch. The place, so out of harmony at times, began to respond immediately to her woman’s contact. He smiled when he remembered the curtains he had hung in such pitiful folds and plaits. The first night he had come home after Margaret had arrived the curtains fairly laughed and shouted, “Man, look at us now!” The dishes on the shelves kept their faces clean and shining in spite of the fact that they were still used three times a day. What a time he had had to keep them clean and he had been always breaking dishes.

Margaret was beautiful and so the cabin was beautiful, he recalled. Margaret smiled, and was cheerful, so the cabin was smiling and cheerful. He always thought of her in a long, full, billowy dress of blue, with flowers in her black, silken hair.

Andrew stayed close to his mother during his time out for visiting. All his friends and relative had been to see him, and time was precious. Soon he would be leaving for his missionary work. So, while she cooked, darned, and mended, he read to his mother from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. He wanted to study the gospel, so this was an opportunity for them to study together.

Janet Rumgay’s joy was full and brimming over, as she sat and listened to her son. He was such a guid lad. Out of her tears, trials, heartaches, and prayers, he had somehow come through. He was growing to look like his father. David was about again now that Andrew had come back home. But David could not talk and read like Andrew. Mormonism had been like a college education for her son. She must keep all his brothers and sisters in the Church. She wanted every one of them to become just like their brother.

She often asked him about the young lady with the pretty name who was caring for the bairns. He seemed to trust her; he never worried about the children. But then Mother Mac and Kathleen were near, if they should get sick.

Andrew would become excited and very enthusiastic. “Why, Margaret is the best little nurse in America.”

His mother suggested that perhaps, only perhaps, if Margaret was willing to take care of the bairns, she might be willing to take care of him, too, when he returned. She watched his face light up and she studied him very intently, pleased with what she saw. Then Andrew would grow sad and disappointed again.

“Why worry about Jane Allison when Margaret is in Utah? She must be wonderful, Andrew. She would make a guid Scotch wife for you, and you like her, I’m sure.”

Why worry? That was the question he was trying so hard to answer.

One evening Andrew stood in his mother’s doorway comparing Resplendence with King’s Kettle. Resplendence was new and young, new land, new homes, new mountains, the great storehouses of water, homes, food, and wealth. King’s Kettle was old; the soil needed constant replenishing; the homes were slowly wearing away. Just then the moon suddenly appeared from behind the clouds and spread its silvery light over his childhood home. It brought back pictures of the past. Jane was strangely in the floodlight, at home in the garden the night before he left for America; at the monastery, promising to be faithful in life, faithful in death.

Suddenly a sweep of emotion came over Andrew. He crossed the street and went running up the trail, along the sidehill, toward the pits.

Mary saw him and ran after him. “Andrew, Andrew, wait for me.”

They climbed the hill together in silence, to the childhood trysting place. All the months of hard living on the plains, the days and nights of loneliness on the river bottoms, his precious dreams in the forest, overwhelmed him. There was no purpose in the life he had been living. Everything was gone with Jane. He sat down with his head in his hands, praying for self-control.

Mary began speaking softly. “I thought it better not to even mention her name. Maybe that wasn’t the right way out. Now I will tell you everything I know. For nearly two years after you left Jane was just the same. She came to Church and to see mother once and sometime twice a week. Then she began to change. She didn’t come to Church regularly, nor to see mother so often. You know how unreasonable Herbert Allison and his wife were against the Mormons. Well, your letter were far apart, and you wrote Jane all about the trek across the plains. Jane told me she was frightened. She could never live through such an experience, she said. A few months later a man began calling at the Allison home. He was a business associate of Mr. Allison, and lived in Dumferline. He had a lot of money and property. You know what money meant to Jane. She was always the best-dressed girl at church. Jane didn’t go out with the stranger, but he continued to call. Later, they were married and made their home in Dumferline. She has riches, but not happiness. She still loves you. I met her in a store one day when I was shopping. She stopped and talked with me for a few minutes and asked about you. No, Andrew, Jane is far from being happy.”

“Thanks, Mary. You’ve always been a true sister and such a comfort – pouring oil on turbulent waters.” he smiled, took her hand, and they walked back home in the moonlight.

Andrew’s peace of mind was won through the study and preaching of the gospel. He reported to his president, was assigned his companion, and they went to work. The Lord had been generous with him, he would be generous with the Lord.

They studied and worked hard. They called at every home in King’s Kettle and taught the gospel wherever the people would receive them. When the branch president was released Andrew was appointed to take his place. They continued to work in King’s Kettle and hen went to nearby villages to tract. Finally, Andrew was made conference president and he and the elders continued to labor in the vineyard of the Lord.

Andrew received many great blessings – health and peace of mind. He could see the hand of the Lord shaping his destiny, and he was a wise designer. The missionary was grateful for the hard things he had passed through; they were blessings in disguise.

Then came the time his mission was completed. He was released to return home.

Some months before Mary had told him of the death of Jane’s husband. He received a letter from Jane, asking him to call, so he went for old time’s sake.

She lived in a castle, it seemed to the elder, on a street where only the rich could afford to live. He rang the doorbell. Jane answered it.

She was charming, gracious, and had developed into a wonderful picture of womanliness, but Andrew was unmoved.

“I have this home, many acres of land, and a lot of money, left to me by father and my husband, and because, Andrew, I have never stopped loving you for one minute, I am asking you again not to go to Utah.”

“My answer is the same, Jane. My home and all I shall ever want are in Zion. Now that I have completed my mission, I’m returning home.”

“I’m sorry for what I did. I did not want to hurt you, but after I read of your long walk across the continent I could not face it. Andrew, I am no pioneer. I hate poverty, misfits, everything that goes with it. I could not come. You have loved the riches of another world, while I love the wealth of this one. Our paths are so far apart. I am in the fog. You are beyond me.”

“My treasures belong to this world, too, Jane. I draw my interest every moment of my life, and it is mine for the asking. I am no longer in the fog. My heart and head are clear and free.”

“Someone else?” Jane inquired.

“Yes, Jane, I am sure there is someone else.”

Andrew walked the flagged streets of Dumferline back to his childhood home. He wanted to think things through.

Jane never would have been happy in the cabin or in Resplendence. How very thankful he was that she had not come.

His head was clear and free, but his heart was not free. At home in the cabin was the lass he loved. Margaret was a pioneer, and would make a wonderful wife for a pioneer. Jane wold be happy in her beautiful home, with her acres of land and her money – while he would be happy in the cabin with the bairns, and with Margaret – if she cared enough for him to stay. He prayed that he would not be too late in asking her.

(To be continued)