Civilization in the Wilderness
A Tale of Adventure on the American Frontier
Read Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten.
Chapter Eleven
One evening, as they sat around the campfire, the captain pulled a small pocket Bible out of his jacket. The others were surprised, for they’d never seen it before. Captain Edwards wasn’t a praying man. But clearly he’d carried it with him these many miles, on a journey where every ounce of extra weight counted. Perhaps it was for good luck, or to assuage a guilty conscience. Or perhaps the captain believed in God, or wasn’t sure what to believe, and carried the Bible as a precaution of some sort.
“I’ve been thinking,” he addressed the men. “We’ve been runnin’ into bad luck recently. I think the river was a sign unto us. We’ve been carrying the fires of civilization out into the wilderness, but thus far we haven’t done much in the way of tribute to the Lord. I think our misfortune in the river was a sign from Heaven to us to mend our sinful ways. From henceforth, I am going to read from the Bible and say a prayer now and again to our Lord and creator of all, who has endowed us with reason and strength, and who has seen fit to bless our journey and keep us safe from harm. All this time, I’ve been talking about civilization without adding that ours is a Christian civilization and can be understood no other way.”
The others exchanged glances. Perhaps the captain had got religion. That must be why he was talking like a preacher, even to the point of using a different dialect.
“I must ask each of you,” he said. “Do ye believe in God?”
He looked at Sagamore first, and Sagamore said that he didn’t know. Daniel said that he did and that he’d always believed there was a Lord above and that he prayed frequently as he went to bed.
“The Lord delivered me up out of slavery,” said Daniel, “and I know someday he will bring justice for my friends, too.”
Robert said that he had attended church about once every month when they were back in Kentucky, but that he hadn’t prayed since they had left. And he added that he was glad they would be getting back to praying, because he was beginning to get worried something bad would happen to them if they didn’t.
“Very well,” said the captain. “I will go ahead and read a passage from the good book.”
He opened the Bible at random and flipped to a page.
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” he began, and then stopped. “No. No. Let’s not read that.”
He flipped to another page.
“Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon…”
He stopped and flipped some more pages.
“And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne and great authority.”
All three of them sat bolt upright and widened their eyes. The captain continued reading until the end of the chapter, and when he had finished he said he couldn’t make head nor tail of it, but that it must be important and that it should be a lesson unto them not to spend their days drinking or with loose women. Which, of course, he added, they couldn’t do anyway, there being no more alcohol and no women on their journey. Sagamore said that if the rest of the Bible was like that, he’d have to give it a read someday. Robert said that was a wild tale and he wondered why the preacher never preached on it on Sundays.
“It was always the parable of the prodigal son,” he said. “Almost every week it seemed. Maybe because there were a lot of prodigal sons in the congregation, come to think of it.”
Daniel said he was pleased Captain Edwards chose a passage from Revelations, although Ecclesiastes or Esther would have been fine, too. He said he’d always been curious about Revelations and that if they ever made it back to civilization alive, he’d have to ask some preachers what they thought about it. He added that if he didn’t make it back, he guessed he’d find out what it was all about even quicker.
They all turned in for the night, and for the next week, the captain read passages aloud from the Bible every day. After a week, he stopped, and they rarely saw the Bible again, although Daniel would put his hands together in prayer quite often and Robert crossed himself whenever he felt a chill. He wasn’t sure whether that did something, but he figured it couldn’t hurt. At critical moments in their passage west, the captain would say a little prayer and put his hand over the pocket where he kept the Bible.
But by and large, this single week was the most religion ever entered into their journey. Robert found himself praying silently when he was really scared, but when the sun was shining, he felt a little odd about it.
One night, when they were sitting around the campfire, Robert asked, “Do any of you believe in love at first sight?”
The captain gave him a withering look. Daniel gave a shake of his head as if to say, “here he goes again.” And Sagamore said nothing.
“You read too many novels,” said the captain. “They’ve corrupted your generation.”