Tuesday, 21.—Was in the office about nine, writing orders. About noon, started with William Clayton for Shokoquon. Dined at Brother Russel's, and then resumed our journey to Libeus T. Coon's, sixteen miles, when I returned.
Wonderful signs have been seen in the heavens during the week.
A Sign in the Heavens.
This night, about twelve o'clock, the pilot and officers of the steamer William Penn, on the Ohio river, between Aurora and the rising sun, Indiana, observed a great light in the sky, in the form of a serpent. It turned to a livid, bright red, deep and awful, and remained stationary among the stars for two or three minutes, and then in a gradual manner formed a distinct roman G: in about a minute and a half, it turned into a distinct O, and afterwards changed to a plain D, when it turned into an oblong shape, and gradually disappeared. [D]
[Footnote D: This description is condensed from an article in the Times and Seasons (Vol. IV, No. 10), quoted from a paper called the Daily Sun, but whether a New York or a local Illinois paper cannot be learned.]
Wednesday, 22.—Was spent in visiting my friends.
Elder Edwin D. Woolley writes from Westfield, Massachusetts, that he has baptized twenty and organized a branch in Little River village.
Elder James Burnham died in Richmond, Massachusetts, aged 46. He had been on a mission to England and Wales about two years, and was then on a mission in the Eastern States, and, through excessive labor and exposure, brought on quick consumption. He left a wife and several children to lament his loss.
Thursday, 23.—Spent the day in visiting my friends.
Signs in the Heavens.