When he discovers that the farm foreman, the bishop and some other men are stealing food from the other farmers, he reports this to the authorities.
An hour later, their sons show up at Mr. Carpenter's house and take him out to a dry riverbed that will flood with the coming rain and dump him into it so that he will drown.
After Mr. Carpenter is rescued from drowning, he learns that the acting group that saved him is called the "Sweetwater Miracle Pageant".
The story "Pageant Wagon" by Orson Scott Card is about how a young man named Deaver Teague meets up with and joins that same group.
In that story, he tells about how the governor of Deseret, Sam Monson, met and had a baby with an American Indian woman when he was a teenager.