--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Barker, T. W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 7 published: 1906-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'T. W. Barker, "His Awakening," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 7 (May 1906): 520–527.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0907unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0907unse start_page: 520 end_page: 527 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0907unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # His Awakening HIS AWAKENING. BY T. W. BARKER. I. No one was able to explain why John Parton left his home so suddenly and mysteriously. His home life was happy. Indeed, he had often declared that his wife was a jewel, and his baby girl the sweetest in the world. His business affairs were in the best of condition. In fact, the chief criticism passed upon him by his friends was, that he applied himself too closely to business, and in his successful efforts to amass wealth, neglected his social and religious duties. And there was good ground for this criticism. Ever since his marriage, Parton had bent all his energies to the accumulation of comforts for his wife; and when the baby came, a new incentive was given for spending his energy so. Of course, it was a laudable and worthy aim, if it had not been exclusive of other necessary duties; but in her secret heart Ethel Parton longed for the social and spiritual warmth which she had known and loved in her girlhood home, and missed so sadly since her marriage. In her sweet, quiet, womanly way, she had remonstrated with her husband, endeavoring to impress him with the idea that participation in Church work, and occasional association with family and friends, is better than constant grinding at the commercial mill. John Parton was born of ' 'Mormon" parents, and had filled a mission in his early manhood; but not long after his return home, he allowed his mind to become engrossed in financial matters, until he had, as he said, no time for spiritual work. "Let those devote their energy to Church work, who have no genius for finance,'' HIS AWAKENING. 521 was his short answer, gently uttered, to his wife's entreaties. And thus he had gradually but surely drifted away from the faithful motives bequeathed to him, into the world of mere Mammonworship. The efforts of the bishop were as fruitless as those of Parton's wife. John laughed good naturedly when the bishop or the ward teachers called on him. "I don't suppose it makes much difference, so long as I pay my tithing and fast offerings, and 'my share of the ward expenses, " he was wont to say, half seriously and half in jest. The answer of the bishop, "We don't want your money, Brother Parton, half so much as we want you," was lightly dismissed with a laugh, and the man went on with his scramble after wealth. In vain was he told that his mistaking the payment of tithes and offerings—a necessary part of his religious work—for the whole of his duty to the Church, 'was a fatal error, and must lead to spiritual deficiency. His course was deliberately chosen, he said, and he thought it was for the best. And so matters had gone on until his daughter Jennie's first birthday. On the previous evening he had come home late as usual, and brought a costly present for the little one. Not much was said by Parton or his wife about the coming anniversary, and the man seemed strangely preoccupied. The next morning, to his wife's great disappointment, he left home for his pursuit of business before the baby awoke. He did not come home for luncheon, nor did he telephone an excuse to his wife. In the evening Ethel put on her most attractive dress, and robed the baby in its daintiest clothes. When the usual time came for her husband's return to dinner, she held the baby at the window to welcome him. An hour Dassed, and yet she stood there. Anxiously she placed the baby in her chair and went to the telephone. She called up her husband's business associates, but they had not seen him since morning. She called up his banker. He said her husband had deposited to her credit a considerable sum of money that morning, remarking that he had concluded that a woman had as much right to a bank account as a man. He had drawn the remainder of his money, stating that he needed it for a business transaction, * 'Your bank book and check book we kept at the bank, expecting 522 IMPROVEMENT ERA. your husband to call for them,'' he continued, ' 'but he did not return, and I do not know where he is.'' By this time the poor woman was almost frantic with apprehension. She called into requisition all the means she could think of, and all night she and her friends and the officers worked on the slight clues they could secure. But it was all in vain. John Parton had dropped completely out of sight. Sorrowfully his wife went into her sad and strange widowhood, and the weeks and months passed by without tidings from the eagerly-sought-for husband and father. Little Jennie was just learning to lisp her father's name when he went away, and now her innocent prattle of that name brought mingled sweet and bitter feelings to the heart of the desolate woman. II. On the memorable night preceding his daughter's birthday, a strange notion had come into the mind of John Parton. He had concluded that he wanted to make his little Jennie a prodigy of training and ability in some particular line, and for that purpose it was necessary that he amass a fortune to be spent in her education. He thought he was not making rapid enough progress by the slow methods of ordinary business. He concluded that it would be necessary for him to leave home and go to the newly-discovered goldfields of Alaska, where he hoped to pick up a fortune in a few months. This he intended to invest as an endowment fund, to be used sacredly for the ambition which had so suddenly entered his mind. "An absurd notion," the reader will say; and I agree with him. But notions still more absurd have come into the minds of men who allow themselves to be engrossed in one pursuit to the exclusion of all others. It is a sort of monomania, caused by the giving of the mind to one object; and has its counterpart in nature, when a twig is continually bent in one direction until the tree is permanently inclined to an unnatural position. In accordance with this absurd notion, Parton made the elaborate provision for his family previously noted, and departed for the north. In order that his whereabouts might not be known, he disguised himself so successfully that his friends failed to rec- HIS AWAKtJA'L\G. 523 ognize him on the street. He intended that his going should be a profound secret, and his return home a joyful surprise. His warped imagination led him to think that the amassing of sudden wealth for his family would be a compensation for the anxiety and care they would endure through his absence. It was late in the day when he left his home. He went by rail to Vancouver, intending to take the first steamer that sailed for the gold fields. He was particularly fortunate in his arrangements. He secured excellent accommodation on the Star of the North, a well appointed and eiR3ienbl/in anaged vessel. The voyage was without special incident, and Parton soon found himself at the port of landing. But here the difficulties of his undertaking began to appear. The toils and perils of the long march to the Klondike are fresh in the minds of all who ever undertook it. Even the stout and determined heart of John Parton almost fainted under the burden of the toilsome, dangerous journey. Day after day, he struggled on, rising wearily each morning to face the trials of the day, and sinking exhausted to rest at night under the cold, blue canopy with its glittering stars. Those who had spent years in the desolate regions he traversed, declared that they had never before witnessed so cold and stormy a June. Heavy snows were followed by brief periods of thawing, and then a severe frost would turn the slushy snow into crusty, cutting ice. The passes on his route were often blocked by huge avalanches which impeded his progress, and time and again he was strongly tempted to return. But he persevered, and was one of the very few who braved all the dangers of the march, and reached the place they had so eagerly set out for. Of the other wayfarers, many had sunk into unmarked graves, while others had turned back, to reach, as best they could, the places whence they came. HI. Parton immediately set to work. He staked out his claim, and began to mine systematically. He was fortunate, much more so than the average prospector. Yet it was fully ten months after he reached the Klondike before his dream of wealth was fulfilled. 524 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Finding himself in the possession of gold dust to the value of perhaps ten thousand dollars, he concluded as suddenly and determinedly to return home, as, eleven months before, he had determined to leave for this El Dorado. During the long and dreary winter, he had thought much of his wife and child, and now a strong impulse had seized him to be at home on Jennie's second birthday. Securing his gold and other valuables, he commenced his homeward journey. The difficulties of the return overland were not nearly so^great as those he had encountered a year before; and he soon reached the place of embarkation. He considered himself fortunate in securing passage for Vancouver on the same vessel that had carried him northward. We do not wonder that his hopes were high. With his wealth secure, and the most difficult and dangerous part of the journey past, he now looked forward only to the pleasant passage home, and the joyful meeting with his wife and babe. But the very joy of his situation and his hopes for the future had the effect of making him more secretive than was his wont. He seemed almost to fear that if he mingled with his fellow-travelers, he would in' some way be robbed of his promised joy. On the last evening of the voyage, some of the passengers had assembled in the main saloon, where an impromptu musical program and social was enjoyed. Parton's icy reserve was sufficiently thawed that he looked in on the little group. At that moment, a young woman with a child, of two years was standing in the middle of the room. The other passengers were gathered around her, laughing at the baby's droll prattle and pretty tricks. Someone asked the mother why she and her baby had undertaken the toils and dangers of the northern regions. '1 guess it was all foolishness," she answered with a bright, happy laugh, which belied her words. "My husband lost his employment at home, and was attracted nearly two years ago by the glittering promise of the goldfields. He talked with me before deciding to go, and I made a remark that changed his plans. I said I could not and would not let him go without baby and me. I told him,'' and she blushed prettily, ' 'that his presence, his words, his smiles, were more to me and to his child than all the wealth of the Klondike. Well, the outcome of it was, that he abandoned his HIS AWAKENING. 5iJ6 plan of going to the goldfields, and went into busines on a small capital at Skagway. And baby and .1 went with him. But he prospered," she went on, as one of the passengers took the child from her and began to romp with it. "And now I am going back to get the old home ready, and Frank is coming on the next steamer, with enough money to start a little business in our home town. Becausfc," she said, dismissing the subject, "one may make money in the goldfields, but it's hard to make a home there." As she finished her story, the passengers burst into spontaneous applause; and with a mist rising to his eyes and a queer feeling at his heart, John Parton hurried to the deck, where he could be alone. The moon was shining brightly, and the scene before him was beautiful. The mellowness of the night had its counterpart in his feelings. Tears rolled down his cheeks, as he remembered his hardness of heart, and his deafness to his wife's entreaties, and his lack of regard for her sacred feeling. Isn't it strange that men will sometimes harden their hearts to the words of those nearest to them, and open them to the words and feelings of strangers? But his repentance was brief. As he thought of the reunion, now but a few days ahead, and consoled himself with the gold sewed in the belt about his waist, he went to his state room and retired. For the first time his belt of gold disturbed him, and he took it off and placed it in a valise under his pillow. After an hour or two of thought, he fell asleep. Just before daybreak, as he was dreaming of his wife and baby, a loud crash awoke him. Hastily throwing on his trowsers, and taking his precious valise in this hand, he rushed on deck. A sudden and terrible storm was raging, and the ship had struck and was rapidly sinking. The boats were quickly cut away, and the passengers were entering them, when a sudden lurch of the vessel threw several persons into the water. Among these were Parton and the woman and her baby. All but these three managed to get into boats as they were launched, but they were carried away by a swift current. Parton clung to a heavy piece of timber with one hand, and to his valise with the other. The mother tried to hold herself and baby up on a piece of wreckage. Suddenly a great wave broke over them, and when Parton could look around, he saw the baby floating beyond its mother's 526 IMPKO VEMENT ERA. reach. The golden curls were spread out on the water, and the little skirts formed a temporary parachute, and helped to keep her afloat. The frantic appeals of the mother were not lost on Parton. He knew that in order to save the little one, he must lose the fruits of his year of toil and danger. Not a moment did he hesitate. He seemed to see his own little one in deadly danger, and hear her mother pleading for her life. Dropping his precious burden, he swam to the babe, seized her in his left hand, and regained his place. After a few hours of weary waiting, a vessel bore down upon them, and the three were safely taken on board. The mother did not scream or faint; but Parton often said afterwards that her tears and smile and hearty hand-clasp when he handed the baby to her on the deck of the vessel, were worth more than he had lost. That evening the rescuing vessel landed at Vancouver. IV. It was the night before Jennie Parton's second birthday, and the anniversary of John Parton's last night at home. Ethel sat by the fire eagerly scanning the paper. Not a day had passed since her husband's departure, that she did not read with eager interest every item of news that might throw light on his whereabouts. She was reading the telegraphic news, when a special dispatch from Vancouver attracted her attention. It was as follows: A touching incident connected with Tuesday's shipwreck has just come to light. A miner returning from the Klondike with ten thousand dollars in gold dust was among the passengers. He and a woman with her babe of two years, were among those who were thrown into the water by the lurching of the vessel. The babe was about to drown, when the miner, dropping his bag of gold, swam to the child and rescued it; and a few hours afterwards all three were picked up by a passing steamer and landed safely at Vancouver. The miner refused to tell his name or home, and merely said that the gold was a year's savings in the Klondike; but he was glad to have rescued the baby at the expense of his treasure, because of common humanity, and especially the remembrance of his own baby at home. He refused all reward, merely accepting enough money to purchase a suit of clothes and pay his expenses home, Ethel dropped the paper and ran to the telephone. As she was about to take the receiver down, she heard a step on the porch. She sprang to the door and opened it, and fell, laughing HIS AWAKENING. 527 and sobbing, into the arms of the bronzed, bearded man who entered. "My husband! Thank God, my husband!" she cried in ecstasy, as he folded her to his heart. She led him to the crib where little Jennie was just awaking. He clasped the little one in his arms, and covered the wondering face with tears and kisses. Then followed a scene of sacred joy, with explanations and fervent pleas for forgiveness, stopped by loving kisses. Only one statement would his wife accept from him, and that was his confession that nothing on earth could fill the void in his heart but his family and his religion; and that he now knew the meaning of the beautiful scripture, '*A little child shall lead them." ****** ** John Parton went into his old line of business, and prospered more than he had dared to hope. In a few years he had gained much more than he lost in the rescue of the babe. And he was wont to say that "the peace that passeth understanding," more precious to him than all his wealth, came to him through association with family and friends, and his active fealty to the Church of Christ. Salt Lake City, Utah.