noon
This sight of comfort and plenty restored our confidence in civilization , which confidence we had totally lost at the first settlement we had fallen in with ; and perceiving , among others , a dwelling surrounded with gardens arranged with some taste , we stopped our horses and asked for accommodation for ourselves and beasts . Three or four smart young boys rushed out , to take care of our horses , and a venerable old man invited us to honour his hearth . He was a Mormon , and informed us that hundreds of farmers belonging to that sect had established themselves in East Texas , at a short distance from each other , and that , if we were going to travel through the Arkansas , and chose to do so , we could stop every other day at a Mormon farm , until we arrived at the southern borders of the state of Missouri . We resolved to avail ourselves of this information , anticipating that every Mormon dwelling would be as clean and comfortable as the one we were in ; but we afterwards found out our mistake , for , during the fifteen days ' journey which we travelled between the Sabine and a place called Boston , we stopped at six different Mormon farms , either for night or for noon meals , but , unlike the first , they were anything but comfortable or prosperous . One circumstance , however , attracted particularly our attention ; it was , that , rich or poor , the Mormon planters had superior cattle and horses , and that they had invariably stored up in their granaries or barns the last year 's crop of everything that would keep . Afterwards I learned that these farmers were only stipendiary agents of the elders of the Mormons , who , in the case of a westward invasion being decided upon by Joe Smith and his people , would immediately furnish their army with fresh horses and all the provisions necessary for a campaign . One morning we met with a Texan constable going to arrest a murderer .