didn’t know she was to be my wife. Sarah says she told him she would give him an answer later. She said she knew I would come to her home. Her brother Will had written home to her. If I wanted her company, I would tell her so.
        You can probably guess what Sarah’s answer was to John Riche. She had great respect for him. She hated to have him feel bad because of her, but she must send her answer. (It would no doubt be quite a shock when she told him she was soon to be married. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple, September 3, 1902.) Sarah often inquired about her former friend. She wished he would marry some good girl, but he apparently failed to find another girl he loved before we lost track of him. My sympathy went out to him. He had not been unfair. He had the right to love a girl.
        The way she waited for me is one of the strong testimonies I have of the power of prayer. She was a wonderful companion, religious, full of faith and ambition, a good housekeeper, a good cook, a good mother, attractive, a good entertainer. She was sympathetic and kind. If I made a mistake in business, she did not chastize me. If she did not quite agree she would tell me why, but was cooperative in all things, tried to make a better home and play her part. When times were hard and money scarce, she worked without complaint. There was no jealousy in her heart. She trusted me and I trusted her. I loved to hear her friendly chats with others the young boys and girls or older men and women. They liked to be around with her.

HARD WORK

After our marriage, we both worked hard. Night and day we worked. When I was out working hours after dark, night after night, Sarah would busy herself knitting our doing some other kind of work. She hated to go to bed while I was still out working.
        In the summer of 1903, I turned in the best examination papers, so I became the first R.F.D. Mail Carrier to carry mail from the Charleston Post Office and distribute it out through Midway and Charleston. I started to carry the mail with a salary of $50.00 per month. I furnished my own conveyance. I used two horses and did extra work on the farm. I soon learned I needed more horses.
        I had rented the old Kinney house and farm of 28 acres. Only 6 or 7 acres had been farmed before, but I soon cleared the land of sage and planted grain on the land.
        When I returned from my mission, I learned father had turned to my account sufficient hay and grain, etc. so my mission expenses were all paid that way by my father. Also, when I was married, father gave me five acres of farm land. I then sold to brother Will all my interest in the Louise Murdock 26 acres. I bought other pieces of land until I had in my possession about 80 acres of farm land at the time I quit carrying mail on April 1, 1910. While I was still carrying mail, I raised as much as 150 tons of hay and 3,000 bushels