It was about this time that polygamy, or "celestial marriage," was introduced into the Church. To say that it was no cross to these Mormon wives--daughters of the strictest Puritan parentage--would be to mock their experience. It was thus, also, with their husbands, in Nauvoo, in 1842. President Young himself tells of the occasion when he stood by the grave of one of the brethren and wished that the lot of the departed was his own. The burden of polygamy seemed heavier than the hand of death. It was nothing less than the potency of the "Thus saith the Lord," and the faith of the saints as a community, that sustained them--both the brethren and the sisters. Mary Angell gave to her husband other wives, and the testimony which she gives to-day is that it has been the "Thus saith the Lord" unto her, from the time of its introduction to the present. Scarcely necessary is it to observe that she was in the exodus. Seven children were now under her care. Alice, Luna, and John W. were born in Montrose and Nauvoo, while the twin sister of Brigham, Jr., had died. With these she remained at winter quarters while the president led the pioneers to the Rocky Mountains. Her benevolence to the poor at winter quarters (and who of them were then rich!) is spoken of to this day. Indeed, benevolence has ever been a marked trait in her life. Then came the hut in the valley. The "heat and burden of the day" had not passed. Full twenty years of struggle, self-sacrifice, and devotion as a wife, uncommon in its examples, filled up the pages of "Sister Young's history," as a latter-day saint, before the days of social prominence came. The hut in the valley, where she lived in 1849, is a good pioneer picture. It stood on the spot where now stands her residence--the "White House;" and some ten rods north-west of that location stood a row of log-cabins where dwelt President Young's other wives, with their children. Since then the days of grandeur, befitting her station, have come; but "Mother Young"--a name honored in her bearing--has lived most in the public mind as the faithful wife, the exemplary mother, and a latter-day saint in whose heart benevolence and native goodness have abounded. She is now seventy-four years of age--closing a marked and worthy life; and her latest expressed desire is that a strong testimony should be borne of her faith in Mormonism, and the righteousness of her husband in carrying out the revelation, given through Joseph Smith, on polygamy, as the word and will of the Lord to his people. CHAPTER XLI. THE REVELATION ON POLYGAMY--BISHOP WHITNEY PRESERVES A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT--BELINDA M. PRATT'S FAMOUS LETTER.