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Show 29 her. She "picked and dried and canned" until Milford returned there with the other Indian veterans. Home again in Salt Lake with her husband, she noted that her carpet was "duly appreciated." As a reunited family, they had an idyllic season: During the waning days of autumn we visited and entertained many dear mutual friends and passed pleasant hours. Our happiness together knew no bounds. As the autumn days blended into the wintry season my joys were complete in our cozy home, with our clean hearth and blazing grate fire. I was so happy!^ Mother Shipp once again came to the rescue when "yearning hands" desired to fashion "soft flannels...cambrics, linens and gossamer batistes, the dainty lace and embroideries." With a long cloth on her table, Ellis could sit with socks to darn or routine knitting to do, then quickly slip another small basket away under the table if someone knocked. We may only conjecture as to whether this was her own way of hiding her expectant condition or whether it was the fashion then to keep a pregnancy secret for as long as possible. On February 24, 1867, nine months and nineteen days from her marriage, Ellis bore a son, Milford Bard II. As she described her emotions at this signal event, Ellis, even in her nineties, became ecstatic. A modern woman will scarcely understand the distress in the heart of the young mother as her new baby contracted whooping cough, a dread disease which immunization has, in our time, virtually obliterated. At this inopportune juncture, Milford and his father decided that Milford should open a store in Fillmore. With two wagon loads |
