Twelve Mormon Homes : Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.

Twelve Mormon Homes, page 047

She had also lost five. "Aunt Mary" was childless in name, but I never saw a mother of whom children seemed to be fonder, or who took more pride in the promising future of her natural off spring. It was she who followed me to my room the first night, and, while she saw to my comfort, gave me incidental anecdotes in praise of "our girls." The bed-hangings were trimmed with finely-knitted lace, and, assuming it to be her own work, I had complimented her upon it in the morning. She disclaimed it: "Sister Sarah really is wonderful handy, but I have no turn that way." Next morning she apologized for her sister-wife's absence from the breakfast-room: "The baby breaks her rest so much at night, that the only thing to preserve her health is to let her lie late in the morning. The girls, partic- ularly Mary, are so useful; they can prepare the meal with very little assistance from me." Sunday afternoon, when the little mother happened to be talking with unusual energy, she brought little Mercy's head into violent contact with the stove-pipe. She looked distressed, and tried vainlv to soothe it for a few minutes, but then laid the infant, without a word, in Aunt Mary's offered arms, where it nestled down in a way that showed it was used to being cosseted there. The pair then pointed out to me the comfort, to a simple fam- ily, that there was in having two wives to lighten the labors and duties of the household, giving me a number of instances in proof. Mrs. Mary further spoke of the friendship that existed be- 47