“‘Well enough!’” she said. “Is that how you feel? Come now, I thought you would have got over all that when you had been through your Endowments. You remind me of what Brother Brigham says,—We have so many whining women in Zion that it is quite a reproach. I do hope that you are not going to become one of them. Let me give you a bit of advice: The wisest thing that you can do is to look out for another wife for your husband, and get him to marry her.”
“Oh my!” I said; “what are you talking about? You surely cannot be in earnest.”
“I never was more earnest in my life,” she answered. “If you had persuaded your husband to take another wife when you went through your Endowments, you would have got over all your troubles at one time. The anticipation is ten times worse than the reality.”
“I do not see it in that light,” I said. “My own opinion is that my troubles in that case would only then have begun. I do not think that you yourself are really happy.”
“Oh, nonsense!” she exclaimed. “Why you can see how happy I am. My husband has two other wives, besides myself, and a more comfortable family could not be.”
“You never told me,” I said, “how your husband managed to get those wives. I should like to hear.”
“My husband managed! Why he did not manage at all; it was I who arranged everything for him, and I’ll tell you how it was done.
“During the Reformation,” she continued, “you, of course, know the men were constantly urged to take more wives; but my husband was rather backward, and used to tell me there was plenty of time, and not the slightest occasion for him to be in a hurry. I had my own opinion of the matter and did not agree with him, for you see I was afraid that after all, he would pick up some young girl or other and fall in love with her, and all my plans would be disarranged. It is, you know much the best for the first wife to look out for some girl who will look up to her and respect her, but not love her husband too much, and then they are likely to get on well together. If the first wife selects the other wives, it has the effect of showing them that the husband thinks much of her judgment and is willing to abide by it, and that they will have to do the same. This, of course, is as it should be. But if she lets her husband choose his own wife, he is almost certain to take a fancy to some one whom the first wife does not like at all, and consequently her authority is undermined. The first wife ought to keep all the power in her own hands.”
“Well,” I said, “I should not care much, I think, who ruled in my home if another wife was there.”
“You think so now,” she replied; “but when you get used to polygamy you will feel quite otherwise. People get used to it—the women as well as the men—and then they leave off fretting and become less selfish. But I was going to tell you how I managed my husband.