"To this request I consented, and getting a number of folded sheets, and laying them under his leg, I retired, going several hundred yards from the house in order to be out of hearing. The Operation "The surgeons commenced operating by boring into the bone of his leg, first on one side of the bone where it was affected, then on the other side, after which they broke it off with a pair of forceps or pincers. They thus took away large pieces of the bone. When they broke off the first piece, Joseph screamed out so loudly, that I could not forbear running to him. On my entering the room, he cried out, 'Oh, mother, go back, go back; I do not want you to come in--I will try to tough it out, if you will go away.' . . . "I was immediately forced from the room, and detained until the operation was complete; but when the act was accomplished, Joseph put upon a clean bed, the room cleaned of every appearance of blood, and the instruments which were used in the operation removed, I was permitted again to enter. He is Healed "Joseph immediately commenced getting better, and from this onward continued to mend until he became strong and healthy. When he had so far recovered as to be able to travel, he went with his uncle, Jesse Smith, to Salem, for the benefit of his health, hoping the sea breezes would be of service to him, and in this he was not disappointed." Removal to New York Continued sickness pursued the family for a year; this, together with three successive years of crop failure, placed the family in rather straitened circumstances. So discouraged did they become that the decision was reached to move to the milder climate and more fertile region of western New York, where there would be a better opportunity to retrieve their fortunes. As soon as arrangements could be made and obligations settled, Joseph Smith and family moved to Palmyra, New York, a distance of about three hundred miles from their home in New Hampshire. The members of the family now counseled together relative to the course they should adopt. It was finally decided to purchase about one hundred acres of land, situated about two miles south of Palmyra on the border of Manchester township. It should be remembered that western New York, at that time, was sparsely settled. Ohio, Michigan and Illinois were still largely in a state of wilderness, and beyond the great "Father of Waters" lay a vast country scarcely known. More than ten years later Missouri was spoken of by the Lord to Joseph Smith, in a revelation as being on the "borders of the Lamanites."[1] The Purchase of a Home