[Footnote C: Evening and Morning Star, p. 277.] Early in the spring the mob burned the remainder of the houses belonging to the saints. According to the testimony of Lyman Wight, two hundred and three dwelling-houses and one grist mill were so destroyed [D]--destroyed in the hope, perhaps, of discouraging the return of the exiles. [Footnote D: Lyman Wight's affidavit, Times and Seasons, 1843, p. 264.] CHAPTER XIV. AFTERMATH OF THE EXPULSION. The saints, exiled from their homes in Jackson County, found a temporary resting place in Clay County; though some of them were scattered through Ray, Lafayette, and Van Buren Counties. Those, however, who settled in Van Buren were again driven away, as related in a former chapter. The people in Clay County, as a rule, were kind to the exiles thrown so unceremoniously upon their hospitality. They were permitted to occupy every vacant cabin, and build others for temporary shelter. Some of the sisters obtained positions as domestics in the households of well-to-do farmers, while others taught school. For their acts of kindness the people of Clay County were well repaid in labor performed by the brethren, who were by no means idle, nor of the class who would receive a gratuity when it was within their power to give its equivalent in honest toil. But look at the situation of the saints in the best possible light, and after all, it was a gloomy prospect! In their scattered condition no regular discipline could be enforced. Many of them were beyond the reach of their spiritual teachers; and being surrounded by wickedness, their hopes blighted, and witnessing the apparent triumph of the wicked, is it any wonder if, in their despair, many of them committed sins, and were chargeable with follies unbecoming people of their profession? But in the main the saints were immovable as the everlasting hills in their righteousness, and in their integrity. They were willing to count all things as dross for the excellency of the knowledge of God. Their very sufferings only wafted them nearer to him who permitted their enemies to chasten them for their good, their very chastisement being a witness that they were sons of God--that he loved them.[A] [Footnote A: Hebrews 12:6-9.] The brethren were perplexed most of all as to what course to pursue. Their return to the lands from which they had been driven looked at least unlikely. They knew not whether it would be best to lease or buy lands in Clay County; whether to prepare for permanent or only temporary residence in that land. In the midst of this uncertainty, a conference was convened on the 1st of January, 1834, at the house of P. P. Pratt, at which it was-- _Resolved,_ that Lyman Wight and Parley P. Pratt be sent as special messengers to represent the situation of the scattered brethren in Missouri, to the Presidency of The Church, in Kirtland, and ask their advice.