| OCR Text |
Show explanation: I had to find out for myself whether Anna ever lays her work aside before bedtime. Now I know that she doesn't and I'll never have to check again. No accolades which Ellis could fashion were too good for this "sainted mother" who lived perennially, in all her virtues, in the mind of her eldest child. She arose early each day, was dependably cheerful, and never descended to idle gossip. Anna taught her children household management and related skills at an early age and, along with her husband, encouraged the children to excel in their studies, verbalizing the wish that they could go on to college, thereby planting the desire even though financial conditions precluded the possibility. Ellis remembered vying with her brothers and sisters to do special favors for these beloved parents. They all tried to finish their work quickly and well. Such ideal parents no doubt deserved ideal children. In portions of the Salt Lake Valley there were lands covered with a white powder-bicarbonate of soda-which Ellis gathered and her mother used in biscuits and in making soap. They carefully saved every bit of grease for soapmaking. Ellis was proud of a dress woven from material she had personally "picked and dyed and carded and spun for weaving into cloth." Another dress, a print, she paid for with three months of summer work. Her father and grandfather were both builders. She later |
