ASHAMED TO PAY TITHING—LOSS OF CROP—LESSON HE LEARNED BY IT—POTATOES PURCHASED TO PAY DELINQUENT TITHING—NO LOSS OF POTATO CROP SINCE.

Brother Parkin had not been married more than two or three years when a season of partial drouth occurred, and his potatoes, which he had counted upon as being his profitable crop, was a partial failure. The tubers when dug were very small, and very few in a hill. When his wife saw the small pile that represented the total crop she remarked: "Well, they look hardly fit to eat, but we can manage to get along with them. Now go and pay your tithing on them, and perhaps the Lord will furnish a better crop next year."

Her husband replied that he would be ashamed to take such potatoes in for tithing; he would rather wait until he raised some decent looking potatoes and pay tithing on two years' crop at once. She didn't approve of that decision, and urged him to take a tenth of the present year's crop for tithing just the same as if they had been as good as ever before produced, as the Lord knew the kind of potatoes he had raised as well as he did, and would be satisfied with a tenth of the potatoes, such as they were.

On general principles he agreed with her, but he felt a sense of pride about taking a good article for tithing, and so stuck to his original decision to wait until he raised some good potatoes and then pay enough to cover the tithing on this year's crop as well.

The following year he planted a good sized patch of potatoes and took the best of care of the field in the hope that the crop would be a record-breaker, which meant something like a thousand bushels to the acre. The tops looked good enough to warrant the expectation, but to his great surprise and mortification, they proved to be a complete failure, which was all the more remarkable, for the reason that the general yield that year was not much if any below normal.

His wife had never been entirely reconciled to his failure to pay his tithing on the previous year's crop, and readily connected that in her mind with their present lack of a crop, and so expressed her feelings without hesitation. "That is what you get for your failure to pay your tithing! Now go and buy three bushels of the best potatoes you can get, and turn them in for tithing, and ask the Lord to forgive you for not paying them last year, and I don't believe you will ever have another failure."

He did not dispute the wisdom of her counsel, but promptly acted upon it, and felt satisfaction in so doing.

The good wife has long since gone to her rest, but she lived long enough to see many good crops of potatoes produced upon that same land and not one failure, nor has there ever been a failure since her death.

That proved a lesson to Brother Parkin that he has never forgotten. He has felt ever since that the Lord was entitled to a tenth of whatever crop he produced, whether good, bad or indifferent, and believes now that the measure of prosperity that he has since enjoyed has been largely if not wholly due to his willingness and faithfulness in the matter of paying his tithing. In other words, he feels that it pays to be on good terms with the Lord.