I replied negatively, and he said he would see if any of them were about. Presently he returned accompanied by an elderly woman whom he introduced as Mrs. Simpson. Then came another, not quite as good-looking as the first, but a great deal younger, and he introduced her as “My wife Ellen. And this one,” he said, turning to the one with whom I had been conversing, “is my wife Sarah. Don’t you think I have got three fine-looking women?” Then, after a pause, he added, “And they are just as good as they are good-looking—good, obedient wives. I have no trouble with them; my wishes are law in this house. Here you have a family in which the Spirit of God reigns. We are not rich in worldly goods, as you see, but we are laying up treasure in heaven. We all live in this little home of four rooms. My wife Ellen here, has given up her room for a parlour for us all to meet together in, and she sleeps in a waggon-box; it is not the most comfortable, but she never grumbles. Then, here is our Sarah; we are obliged to humour her a little, and give her a room all to herself. She is young and inexperienced, and doesn’t like to put up with the inconveniences that the Saints have to bear with; while old mother here has got to have half-a-dozen children in her room, but she never complains.”
“Why did you not wait,” I said, “until you had a larger house?”
“Then where would my kingdom be?” he answered, “Young men may wait, but old men must improve their time.”
There came in now a troop of children of all ages. They had been playing in the lot, were miserably clad, barefooted, and some looked gaunt and hungry:—manners to match. “These,” he said, with all a father’s fondness—“these constitute my kingdom, and I am proud of them.”
I felt thankful that I was not destined to be queen over such a kingdom, wished them good-bye, and with a sad heart went home to my own darling little ones, not knowing what might be their fate.
Brigham Young