By W. B.

LACK OF EDUCATION—EARLY MARRIAGE—RESISTING TEMPTATION—GRAIN INCREASED BY THE POWER OF GOD—ANSWER TO PRAYER—LARGE FAMILY, RESULT OF EARLY MARRIAGE.

Thinking some incidents from my experience might be of interest to the young Latter-day Saints, I submit them for their perusal.

I was born in the year 1835, was reared in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and shared in its persecutions. At the age of thirteen, in 1848, I drove a team from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake Valley without any accident worth mentioning. The team consisted of five cows and one ox, making three yoke of cattle.

After we arrived and got fairly settled, my parents died, and left me without an education, as was the case with many more young folks who were driven with the Saints, and on this account deprived of schooling.

In this condition, I concluded to make a home for myself.

Before I was seventeen, it being the counsel to marry young, I went to President Young, as I was well acquainted with him, and told him what I thought of doing.

He advised me to get married.

I took his counsel, got married and lived with my wife's folks for a short time, as they requested.

Now, my young readers, we had not the value of fifty dollars, all told. I imagine, too, you think this was rather young for such and undertaking.

It was then, and is now the counsel to marry young—of course, at a proper age—and I bear my testimony to the good effect of early marriages.

My vocation was that of a farmer. The drawbacks we had in consequence of crickets, grasshoppers, drouth, alkali, etc., can be better imagined than described. A few circumstances will suffice to show how my wife and I were blessed by the Lord.

In the spring of 1855, seed wheat and bread-stuff were very scarce. I had none; but a neighbor of mine owed me a few bushels of wheat, and I went to collect it. He was absent from home, but his wife, being acquainted with me, sent me to the granary alone to help myself.

When I had put up all the wheat that was due me except the last half bushel, and while in the act of filling that, the temptation came to me to steal some of my neighbor's wheat. He had plenty and I had none, except the little I was then getting. I might take it without being detected, and he would never miss it. The thought had scarcely got through my mind when I knew it was from the evil one; and, as a punishment to myself for entertaining the temptation, I emptied part of the half bushel that was then in my hand back into my neighbor's bin, and did not take all that was my just due.

I took my wheat home. It was not as much as I wished to sow, but I was satisfied, and thankful for it. I placed it in a room adjoining the one I lived in, got my ground ready, and, as fast as I required it, I took wheat from my small store to sow it with.

I sowed all the ground I wished to, and sowed it thickly, as I wanted a good crop at harvest time. I afterwards noticed that I still had some sacks with wheat in left. I saw that they were my sacks, and it must be my wheat. I called my wife's attention to the matter, and then it was that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon us and convinced us that it had been increased by Him for our good.

I got the remaining wheat ground, and we had flour to last us till harvest, for which we gave God the glory; and I bear testimony that my wheat at that time was increased by the power of the same God that increased the widow's oil in ancient times.

In those days, most people that had teams had to depend upon the range for food for them. This was the case with me, and it often took me till ten or twelve o'clock in the day to find my team. When I found it I would return, tired out, and go to work. On one occasion I could not find my team. I knelt down and asked the Lord to direct me where to find it. After arising, contrary to my former intention, I went home. I found my horses tied up. They had come up themselves.

These things taught me to rely upon the Lord, and to ask Him when I needed help.

On another occasion I lost my team. I was satisfied it had been stolen. I was in Salt Lake City a short time after the occurrence, and was speaking to my uncle about my team being lost. He advised me to go to an old lady close by, and she would tell me where it was by means of cards. I told him I would do without the cards.

When I returned home my wife and I knelt down and prayed that the person who took my team might be prevented from taking it out of the country, and that we might get it again.

The team was taken in the summer, and in the fall of the same year a man came to me, in my field, and asked me if I knew of any person that had lost such and such animals, describing my horses. I told him they belonged to me. He then directed me where I should go to find them.

I thanked him for his information, and asked him how he happened to come to me, as we were strangers to each other, and my horses were not branded.

He said he did not know, only that he felt impressed to ask me.

Early next morning I started after my horses. That night I found them in charge of a man who told me that a person came to him in the summer time and desired to stop with him over night. The fellow had a band of horses which his host believed he had stolen. In the morning, as they were both looking at the horses, he said to the man who brought them there, "Here are two stray horses; I will take charge of these and get them to the owner." He accordingly left my two horses and took the rest of the band with him.

You can see, my young readers, how literally our prayers were answered. We recovered our horses in good condition, and thanked the Lord.

These, with many other blessings, served to keep us humble and faithful to our covenants.

Now, the result of our early marriage is this: my family numbers twenty-four. I am the father of nineteen children, four of whom are married, and I have seven grand-children, and my present age is forty-four. I have filled many positions of trust, and I think to the entire satisfaction of my superiors. I am now a Bishop in Zion, and I think I have the faith and prayers and confidence of the Saints over whom I have the honor to preside.

I mention this to show what can be done by being faithful and observing the counsel of those whose right it is to guide and direct.