I am proud of my children, and they are proud of me;
When the reaping comes, what will my harvest be?
In the three chapters preceding this, I gave the best statement of motives and experiences of my life as it passed in rain and sunshine, with the three noble wives who shared my joys and sorrows. There is one other wife, who has claim as valid and sacred as the ones that I have so warmly eulogized. The reason that a chapter is not given to her memory is a sad one.
On the 10th of October, 1878, I married in the Salt Lake Temple, Catherine Coles, to me a sweet, chaste girl.
On the 27th day of November, 1879, she gave her life, in giving birth to a sweet baby girl. By her request the babe was named Mary Ellen, and with my consent she was adopted by Aunt Ellen Young, who cuddled her to her breast and held her there until the child grew to womanhood and found a pleasant nest of her own.
In that child's veins flows the blood of a Young. She came honestly and virtuously by that heritage.
The woman does not exist, either dead or alive, who can say that I ever invited her to commit sin.
My wives were given to me in sacred places, by those who had authority to seal on earth, and it was sealed in heaven, and if I can be pure to the end, those ties will be eternal.