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Show Chapter 5 NEW BEGINNINGS Ellis begins her next marital year not with her usual tribute to her husband of nine years, and not even on her anniversary, but nearly four weeks later with an essay on one appropriate use of the sabbath. Of all days I deem this the Sabbath day the most suited to serious reflection. To think of life, the past, present and future. Of the past to note the result of certain thoughts and acts, of the present sufficient to do nothing we may afterwards regret, and for the future make plans the practice of which would make life a success. Paint the ideal though it may never be known. If our attempts are but feeble they will make us better and nobler than if we made no effort whatever.1 Three weeks later, upon returning from a ten-day visit to Pleasant Grove, she finds things strangely different. Maggie has moved away. As Ellis has not yet seen Milford, perhaps he can make her feel better; but there is no further clarification. A three-month silence is broken on September 22 to announce the arrival of "another priceless treasure of Heaven," little Burt, whom his mother shall ever regard as "an especial favor," no doubt because he came, alive and well, out of a prolonged illness predating by several months his December conception. Early in October, probably at general conference when it was then customary to read the lists of such assignments, Milford, affirms Ellis, "was called on a mission to the States." She does |