Their arrangements for searching were hurriedly made. They divided into squads and went in different directions, calling loudly as they went and searching every place where they could imagine the children would have strayed, and thus the search was continued all night till the men were almost tired out and frozen. Morning dawned upon that desolate cottage--a cold and cheerless morning to its inmates, for no relief had yet come to the anxious parents. Another call was made upon the people to continue looking for them, and they turned out and scoured the country, but in vain, for not a sign of the missing children could be found. Thus the second night passed. As the news of the loss spread through the district additional interest and anxiety were awakened, and the sympathetic neighbors turned out in force to aid the bereaved parents in seeking the lost ones. As the time passed the hope of finding them alive died out, but the efforts did not cease. About four miles from the house there were large iron works that employed about three hundred men, and on the third day these workmen turned out _en masse_ and increased, by their number, the force engaged in the search. They organized and examined, as they thought, every foot of land in the vicinity, but with the same discouraging result. A number of Spiritualists resided in the neighborhood, also some "fortune-tellers;" and they were applied to to divine, if possible, where the children were. They pretended to do so, but their stories conflicted fearfully and all conjectures failed. It was finally suggested that they had been kidnapped. A couple of "Mormon" Elders, it was said, had been in that vicinity and they were suspected of having spirited them away and sent them to Salt Lake. This was only one among a great many reports circulated against the Latter-day Saints, all of which gained ready credence. A reward of three hundred dollars was offered for the recovery of the children; and a great many, stimulated by a desire to gain the reward, spent days in searching them.