Elder Seegmiller, who is now a Bishop in Richfield, Utah, remembers meeting those men as mentioned. He also had the place pointed out to him where the sacrifice so nearly occurred, and heard the circumstance incidentally alluded to many times in connection with the folk lore of the island, or as a legend of the days of heathendom. All that he heard was substantially in accord with the narrative as here given.
[PARKIN REMINISCENSE]
[CHAPTER I.]
PROMISE TO PAY MONEY WITH ONLY FAITH TO BACK IT—HOW THE MONEY WAS PROVIDED—LESSON HIS WIFE DREW FROM IT.
Brother Wm. J. Parkin, of South Bountiful, tells this story of how the Lord can and will open up the way for those who have faith to fulfill their promises and accomplish their righteous desires:
He arrived in Utah in the year 1863, fresh from England, and very poor. He had not succeeded in accumulating much when, in the following year, he ventured to get married. While attending conference in Salt Lake City the following spring he heard President Brigham Young announce to the assembly that he wanted a collection taken up in the several wards for the immigration of the poor, and wished every man to subscribe to the extent of his ability. The following Sunday he attended meeting in Bountiful and heard Bishop Stoker repeat the call.
Brother Parkin is a man of generous impulses, and felt like doing his full duty in so worthy a cause, but was absolutely without funds, and didn't know where or how he would be able to obtain any, but he was the first man to arise and say what he would do. He said, "Bishop, you may put me down for $2.50." The money was to be paid within two weeks.
When he returned home from meeting his wife, who had not been at the meeting, met him at the gate with tears in her eyes. She had already heard from a neighbor of what her husband had promised to do, and knew too that he had no money. Her heart was in the work of the Lord, and she would have been more than willing to help migrate the poor if she had been able so to do, but her high sense of honor would not brook the making of a promise she could not fulfill. She greeted him reproachfully with the exclamation: "What have you done?" He had no guilty feeling, and asked her what she meant. "You have promised to give two-and-a-half dollars, and haven't a cent, nor any way of getting any. Do you know that I had to sit up and wash and iron a shirt for you after you went to bed last night, so that you might have a decent shirt to wear to-day?"
"Well, I know that we are very poor," he replied, "but I believe the Lord will provide a way for me to fulfill the promise. Perhaps he will make the chickens lay more eggs, or the cow give more milk, so you will have butter to sell."
"How can you expect that," said she, "when we only have three hens and a rooster, and the cow is almost dry."