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Show 79 Priesthood authority?) to take another young wife to keep her company. Whether or not this account, and the one to follow, is spurious, they surely make a good story. When Milford was a "Home Missionary" (a 19th century designation for returned missionaries assigned to speak on local circuits) he met Mary while staying overnight in Draper with her parents. The two of them enjoyed, on Milford's subsequent visits, a courtship right there in the home. Sitting close to the stove with their feet in the oven to keep warm, Milford told Mary missionary stories and outlined his ambitions and plans in order "to impress her with the bright prospects she had in becoming his wife." These anecdotes are introduced more for color than for authenticity. We may now return to our narrative. Ellis, on the following day, feels a return of her weakness and attributes it to over-exertion on the wedding day but still feels "the comforting spirit" of her Heavenly Father. That she was somewhat of a marvel even in her own time she tacitly acknowledges: My feelings to many would be a source of wonder; but I can readily account for this happy state of things. It is because Milford-our husband-is the man that he is; because he is so kind and generous, so noble, chaste and pure, and by his advice, counsels and exemplary course leads his family in the path of truth and righteousness.13 Ellis is not so simple-hearted as to idealize everything in the pink fog of a mindless devotion. She notices aberrant behavior not only in herself but in others and occasionally comments in a general way upon laziness, whisky drinking, and other social ills which were |