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Show 52 Two months have gone by and, back in Salt Lake City, with the little boys in bed and the rest of the family accompanying Milford to a meeting in the 7th Ward where he is to speak, Ellis remarks that the press of work and the resulting fatigue have long prevented her from writing but that she is now "meditating upon the occurrences of the last few weeks." Then in one short concluding paragraph she says: On the 23rd of October Milford married another wife, Elizabeth Hi 1 stead. I do not allow myself to become low spirited. I have trusted in my Heavenly Father and He has blessed me. I know there is but one way to be happy in polygamy and that is to keep burning in our hearts the spirit of God.15 Is it modern cynicism which causes the mind to flip back to the scene on the Ogden-bound train with Milford extolling the "principle," and the day, immediately following, when Ellis, in ecstatic prayer, invokes the Holy Spirit's guidance for Milford in governing his family and rededicates herself to being a better wife? Or did Ellis, too, in retrospect, see it as her only preparation for another of life's rude shocks? At any rate, the ensuing months bring much soul searching, self reproach, rededication, and importuning for divine guidance. Nearly sixteen months after this third wife joined the Shipp family, Ellis still seems to be trying to subdue her feelings, for she returns to the page in her journal where she called down the blessings of heaven upon the Hillsteads l ft for their help to Milford during his mission. There she makes this note in the margin: |