Transcript

NOVEMBER DIP IN THE LAKE

"My sister was six years of age. I was four and I barely remember the old oxen and the wagon with the place where the accident occurred. We were coming across the plains in Cyrus H. Wheelock's company, and the wagon on which we rode was loaded with freight. In fact the freight completely filled the wagon box even with the top or a little above it. My sister and I were playing on top of this wagon when a wheel went into a chuck hole and she was thrown off the front, directly under the wagon. The driver did not notice it and the wagon went on both the front and rear wheels of this monster freight wagon passing over my sister's head.

"The people in the wagon train were all of the Church. They did what no other people I think would have done out in the plains alone and far from medical aid. They gathered up the little girl; found her head crushed to a pulp with portions of the brain showing. And then all the elders of the wagon train gathered around and submitted their cause to a God in whom they devoutly believed and trusted. They prayed for the little girl, and then with their hands anointed her and washed her head as best they could, shoving its skull bones back into shape. Instead of the death that all regarded as certain, the little one lived, and in a very few weeks was playing as usual with me on our wagon top, only more careful to keep away from the edges.