“Well, Sister Ann,” I said, “I never thought of it in that light. I loved Carrie very much, and I tried to make her love me. It was not until almost the last that I knew of her love for my husband; but if I had known before, I am sure my own heart would have rebelled against my husband taking another wife. I did, however, ask him to marry her, and after she was dead I was married to him for her.”
“That’s all very well, Sister Stenhouse,” she replied, “but for all that I think you have committed a great wrong against that poor orphan girl. You ought to be thankful that at last you were able to repair a little of the mischief which you did. I don’t want to vex you, but I am really sorry that you had such an antipathy to your husband having Carrie. However, I suppose, now he has really got another wife, you are not so much set against Polygamy. You must find it quite a blessing to have Miss Pratt—I beg pardon, I mean Mrs. Stenhouse number two—with you now.”
I did not answer her, for I had my own opinion about the matter. She went on without hesitation: “Well, you must not be vexed with me, dear; I say it all for your good, you know; but I do wish you felt a little more as I do about these matters. Why, do you know, I have been trying to show my faith and zeal in every possible way ever since we came to Utah. It was only last week I was baptized for Queen Anne.”
“Queen Anne!” I exclaimed. “What can you possibly mean?”
“Exactly what I say, Sister Stenhouse; I was baptized for Queen Anne, and if you like I’ll tell you all about it. It is only just what every one else has been doing, only they were baptized for other people. I don’t think you’ve ever thought much of this, and so I’ll explain myself. You see, Sister Stenhouse, the Elders teach us that the whole world is lying in darkness and sin, and has been so ever since the apostolic gifts were lost ages ago. Now there is no salvation outside the Church, and you may remember that Christ Himself went and preached to the miserable souls in Paradise.”
“In Paradise?” I said, “why I thought that was a happy place.”
“Oh, no, Sister Stenhouse,” she said, “not very happy. The souls of those who have not heard the gospel, and have not been baptized, go there, and it’s a sort of prison for them until they are brought out again through the kindness of some believer. The thief on the cross went there, and Christ went there and preached to the spirits in prison; and when the Elders die, they go on mission to Paradise and preach to them also. All your people and my people, our fathers, and mothers, and grandfathers, and so on, right up to the apostolic times, are waiting in Paradise with millions and millions of souls to be released and be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom. All the good brethren and sisters have been doing their best to get out their relations and friends, and I know many of them who have sent over to England and have spent large sums of money in tracing their pedigrees and genealogies, in order to find out the right names and to be baptized as proxies for the dead who owned those names. I have been baptized for a good many of my own relations, and I mean to be baptized for scores more; and many of the brethren, too, have been married as proxies for their own friends, and for distinguished people besides, so that they might be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom, and raise up patriarchal families of their own. The poor souls, if they were released from Paradise by a proxy baptism, could not, of course, have been married in heaven, as there is no giving in marriage there; so some one was married for them as proxy to some one else, and now they can begin to establish their own celestial kingdoms.”
“And have you been proxy in this way, Sister Ann?” I asked.
“No, and yes,” she replied; “I haven’t yet been proxy in marriage for any one, but I was proxy in baptism. When we were children, I remember we used to have some rhymes about Queen Anne, and, as it was my own name, I always thought a great deal of her. It seemed to me that it would be very nice, and at the same time very charitable, if I were to help her out of Paradise. It quite struck my fancy, for it was no small thing to have a real queen thankful to you for so much. So I went and was baptized for her, and now she is out of Paradise and has entered the Celestial Kingdom. But that isn’t all. There was my old friend, George Wilford, who heard all about the matter, for I see him frequently, and he at once said that he would be baptized for Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne’s husband, and he means to do so; and after that we’ll be married by proxy for them here on earth, and then they’ll both be happy.”