Tell Him So. A Poem

A LIFE SKETCH. 919

indeed if my baby boy doesn't know me," she said, as she reached the loving arms for him in vain. After a time, the sorrowing husband and motherless children continued on their way alone, and many of the people in the set- tlements through which they passed came out to see the long trains of "Mormons," as though they were a wild beast show. A little boy sitting on a gate-post in one of the towns to watch them pass by, turned to his father and was heard to remark, "Why, papa, I don't see but what they look just like othe'r folks." While in camp, near a certain village, Brother Staker sent his daughter Sarah to a tin shop to have the handle soldered to a quart cup, cooking utensils being scarce and hard to procure. When she stated her errand, the tinner thought he would have some fun with this unfledged "Mormon," so he winked slyly to the by-standers and said, "So you want the handle soldered to your cup, do you?" "Yes, sir." "Why, you're a 'Mormon,' ain't ye?" "Yes, sir."

"Then why don't you have faith that the handle will solder itself, and surely it would be so according. Haven't you faith to heal your cup?" "No, sir, I haven't faith that I can mend my cup; but if you will put the handle on good, I have faith that it will stay on." The bystanders laughed and clapped their hands, and the tin- ner was so amused with the answer that he mended the cup "good," according to her request, and refused any compensation for his trouble. After a long and toilsome journey, they reached the "prom- ised land," and here faced uncomplaingly new conditions and many hardships. And the children grew up and waxed strong, and took the world much as it came, as children will; and if their wants occupied the father's hands, their little sayings and doings solaced his heart, as God intended they should. Yet there were times when he felt keenly his inability to fill the double duty of father and mother, and his heart bled within him for the loss of one at once so dear and so necessary to the welfare of the children. By degrees they scattered out. Some had married, and some went