|
|
|
54
Maude and one time that she had the money & we didn't, she paid the taxes on the farm. Our children always helped us so much. While Forest was working for Bird Barret as they were shipping Cattle & were in Holbrook, the cattlemen put every temptation before Forest but he withstood them. Afterward one man who was with them told Moroni how Forest withstood all & said how proud he was of Forest. He hoped when his boys were older they would be as fine & pure. We were very thankful to our Father in Heaven that he heard our prayers for our boy & our teachings had been worthy for him to follow. That summer my Sister Lizzie came to visit us & brought her son Norman who was about Leigh & Josephine's age. She had been in California for her health & left her baby Sidney in a kind lady's care. Lizzie was better but not well & before she got home, while she was visiting a friend in Gallup, her husband wrote to her that he had left the home for her & gone off with another woman. It was terrible for her, she wasn't well & had no income. The house was rented, she sold all the furniture & moved to Salt Lake City where friends found her a job. We would have loved to have her make her home with us but we had so little to offer her & nothing near for her to help keep herself. my heart went out to her in her trials & sorrow & how I longed to help her. Aunt Harriet offered to care for her children while she worked but as they weren't in the same town it didn't work out. She had a hard time & many trials. We moved back to St.Johns for school, but it was in December before we could get the thrashing
|
|
|
55
done & get our share of the crop. Next spring we went back to the farm, there was more water for farming that year. We loved to go back to the farm, it was nice to have spring water & watercress. It was good for us & we liked it. There were so many vitamins in it. There was always early grass in the meadow for the cows. The boys were a big help to Moroni in getting the crop in but it was hard for the children to make their school grades to be late getting to school in the fall & leave early in spring. At times we had school at Richville then we didn't have to move to town. We had our Sunday School meetings then & school when there was enough children to make a district. At one time Ben got a small grist mill that ground wheat into graham. We washed the wheat to get trash out of it, then picked out weed stems & as it dried kept picking it over. The bread was so sweet made with the freshly ground graham & made into salt rising bread. We raised lovely gardens with the spring water. I could raise lovely flowers too. We worked hard to make it a beautiful home & it was a happy home. We didn't have much but always made the best of what we had & were so thankful for what we had. Moronis people loved to come visit us & their children often came & stayed for a week or two. We enjoyed having them, company was a treat to us.
I honor my Farmer as he sows his crop, as he plows his rounds of good old earth that God has made, he sees the future as he drops the seed in faith in the furrow, much of the seed he has saved of the best he raised or bought, hoping and
|
|
27