Heroines of "Mormondom": The Second Book of the Noble Women's Lives Series — John Shaqi
Heroines of "Mormondom": The Second Book of the Noble Women's Lives SeriesVarious
History
Heroines of "Mormondom": The Second Book of the Noble Women's Lives Series
Various
Chittenden, Mary Dunster, 1818-; Latter Day Saint women; Latter Day Saints -- Biography; Smith, Mary Fielding, 1801-1852
him.
Passing over from the Platte to the Sweetwater, the cattle suffered
extremely from the heat, the drought, and the scarcity of feed, being
compelled to browse on dry rabbit brush, sage brush, weeds and such
feed as they could find, all of which had been well picked over by
the preceding companies. Captain ----'s company being one of the last,
still keeping along, frequently in sight of, and sometimes camping with
President Kimball's company which was very large. One day as they were
moving along slowly through the hot sand and dust, the sun pouring down
with excessive heat, toward noon one of Widow Smith's best oxen laid
down in the yoke, rolled over on his side, and stiffened out his legs
spasmodically, evidently in the throes of death. The unanimous opinion
was that he was poisoned. All the hindmost teams of course stopped, the
people coming forward to know what was the matter. In a short time the
captain, who was in advance of the company, perceiving that something
was wrong, came to the spot.
Perhaps no one supposed for a moment that the ox would ever recover.
The captain's first words on seeing him, were:
"He is dead, there is no use working with him; we'll have to fix up
some way to take the Widow along, I told her she would be a burden upon
the company."
Meantime Widow Smith had been searching for a bottle of consecrated
oil in one of the wagons, and now came forward with it, and asked her
brother, Joseph Fielding, and the other brethren, to administer to
the ox, thinking the Lord would raise him up. They did so, pouring a
portion of the oil on the top of his head, between and back of the
horns, and all laid hands upon him, and one prayed, administering the
ordinance as they would have done to a human being that was sick. Can
you guess the result? In a moment he gathered his legs under him, and
at the first word arose to his feet, and traveled right off as well as
ever. He was not even unyoked from his mate. The captain, it may well
be supposed, now heartily regretted his hasty conclusions and unhappy
expressions. They had not gone very far when another and exactly
similar circumstance occurred. This time also it was one of her best
oxen, the loss of either would have effectually crippled one team,
as they had no cattle to spare. But the Lord mercifully heard their
prayers, and recognized the holy ordinance of anointing and prayer, and
the authority of the Priesthood when applied in behalf of even a poor
dumb brute! Sincere gratitude from more than one heart in that family,
went up unto the Lord that day for His visible interposition in their
behalf. At or near a place called Rattlesnake Bend, on the Sweetwater,
one of Widow Smith's oxen died of sheer old age, and consequent
poverty. He had been comparatively useless for some time, merely
carrying his end of the yoke without being of any further service in
the team; he was therefore no great loss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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