Heber, and Orson Hyde, returned to America, leaving the British mission in charge of Joseph Fielding, with Willard Richards and William Clayton as councilors. Here the apostolic thread connects with the wife and family of Heber, who have been left to the care of Providence and the brotherly and sisterly love of the saints during this immortal mission to Great Britain. His daughter Helen, in her journal, says: "In the absence of my father the Lord was true to his promise. My father's prayer, that he had made upon the heads of his wife and little ones whom he had left poor and destitute, was answered. Kind friends came forward to cheer and comfort them, and administer to their wants. "Soon after my father's return to Kirtland he commenced making preparations to move his family to Missouri, where Brother Joseph Smith and a majority of the church authorities and nearly all of the members had gone. About the first of July he commenced the journey with his family, accompanied by Brother Orson Hyde and others, and arrived in Far West on the 25th of July, when he had a happy meeting with Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney, and others of the twelve, and numbers of his friends and brethren, some of whom were affected to tears when they took him by the hand. During our journey from Kirtland, the weather being very warm, we suffered very much, and were much reduced by sickness. Father continued quite feeble for a considerable length of time. Joseph requested him to preach to the saints, saying, 'It will revive their spirits and do them good if you will give them a history of your mission;' which he did, although he was scarcely able to stand. It cheered their hearts and many of the elders were stirred up to diligence. "Soon after our arrival Bishop Partridge gave father a lot, and also sufficient timber to build a house. While it was being erected we lived in a place eight by eleven feet and four feet high at the eaves, which had been built for a cow. The brethren were remarkably kind, and contributed to our necessities. Brother Charles Hubbard made my father a present of forty acres of land; another brother gave him a cow. But about the last of August, after he had labored hard and nearly finished his house, he was obliged to abandon it to the mob, who again commenced to persecute the saints." The history of those persecutions, and the exodus of the saints, is already sufficiently told. Suffice it to say that Sister Vilate nobly bore her part in those trying scenes, while Heber, with Brigham and the rest of the twelve, kept their covenant--never to rest a moment until the last faithful saint was delivered from that State, and the feet of the whole people planted firmly, in peace and safety, in a new gathering place. CHAPTER XXV.