"While I was undergoing this ordeal (as my wife related afterwards) her spirit left her body, and she saw it lying upon the bed and the sisters there weeping. She looked at them and at me, and upon her babe; while gazing upon this scene, two persons came into the room, carrying a coffin, and told her they had come for her body. One of these messengers said to her that she might have her choice--she might go to rest in the spirit world, or, upon one condition, she could have the privilege of returning to her tabernacle and of continuing her labors upon the earth. The condition was that if she felt she could stand by her husband, and with him pass through all the cares, trials, tribulations, and afflictions of life which he would be called upon to pass through for the gospel's sake unto the end, she might return. When she looked at the situation of her husband and child she said, 'Yes, I will do it.' At the moment that decision was made the power of faith rested upon me, and when I administered to her, her spirit re-entered {98} her tabernacle, and she saw the messengers carry the coffin out of the door. "On the morning of the 6th of December, the spirit said to me, 'Arise, and continue thy journey,' and through the mercy of God my wife was enabled to arise and dress herself; she walked to the wagon, and we went on our way rejoicing. "The weather being very cold, on the night of the 11th I stopped for the night at an inn. I there learned of the sudden death of my brother, Asahel H. Woodruff, a merchant of Terre Haute, Indiana. I had anticipated that the following day I should have a joyful meeting with this brother; instead of this, I had only the privilege of visiting his grave, in company with my wife, and of examining a little into his business. I was offered the position of administrator of his affairs, but I was leading a company of Saints to Zion, and could not stop to attend to his temporal business. Strangers settled his affairs and took possession of his property; his relatives obtained nothing from his effects but a few trifling mementoes. "I left this place on the 13th of December and crossed into Illinois, arriving at Rochester on the 19th. Getting information there of the severe persecutions of the Saints in Missouri, and of the unsettled state of the Church at that time, we concluded to stop at Rochester and spend the winter there. "Thus ended my journey of two months and sixteen days. I had led the Fox Island Saints to the West, through all the perils of a journey of nearly two thousand miles, in the midst of sickness and great severity of weather. In the spring I took my family and removed to Quincy, Illinois, where I could mingle with my brethren; and I felt to praise God for His protecting care over me and my family in all our afflictions." {99} CHAPTER 11. CALL TO GREAT BRITAIN, 1838.