The next morning Thomas hitched up his team, and, taking his son Ephraim, who was then seven years old, with him, drove up to the field. When he arrived there he was astonished to find that the road bordering his field fairly swarmed with bugs, that were making their way to a wheat field on the opposite side, and that the swath that had been cut through the field was covered with millions of the insects, that seemed to travel as if they were inspired. The field they entered was just about ready to ripen, and before the advent of the bugs, gave promise to yield forty bushels to the acre, but a few days later the forty-acre field was completely destroyed. The owner was so disgusted that he later set fire to the straw which was left standing, and thus cleared the land; and the language in which he denounced Thomas and the bugs was simply awful. Still he acknowledged, and so did many others, that there was something marvelous about the saving of one crop and destruction of the other. Thomas wished his neighbor no harm, but he acknowledged the power of the Lord in what had occured. When his wheat was ready to cut, his leg was so much worse that he was not able to stand on it. Hired help was so scarce and hard to obtain that it seemed doubtful whether he would be able to save his crop after all. He finally induced the former who cultivated the adjoining land to cradle it, a little at a time, while the boy Ephraim raked it into bundles, and Thomas crawled on his hands and knees, and bound it. When threshed, the wheat yielded twenty-five bushels to the acre. He was gratified with the result of his summer's work, felt that the Lord had greatly blessed him and had strong hopes of being able to migrate to Utah in the following spring. CHAPTER III. START TO UTAH--OBSTACLES IN TRAVELING--STRAINED FROM OVER-LIFTING--HALTED THROUGH ILLNESS--JOURNEY TO UTAH ABANDONED--GO TO SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS--NEW OCCUPATION--MONEY MADE AND LOST--JOURNEY RESUMED--PROVIDENTIALLY HELPED--UNEXPECTED MEETING OF RELATIVES--WORK AT OUTFITTING POST--JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS--ARRIVAL IN SALT LAKE CITY. IN THE fall and winter of 1861 Thomas had better health, and he hauled wood from Janesville, twenty-one miles distant, buying it for $1.00 per cord and selling it for $5.00 or $6.00 per cord, accumulating something thereby. About the middle of April, 1862, Thomas, his wife and their four children started for Salt Lake City, a distance of nearly two thousand miles, with their earthly chattels loaded into one wagon, drawn by a span of horses.