Sister Smith, mother of Sardius and Alma, has told some of the experiences which she passed through during that awful time.  Her husband and one son were killed, while another son had his hip nearly shot away.  During that first night she says that she prayed to God to know what to do for her wounded boy, and the Lord distinctly whispered to her what kind of poultice to put on the wound and how to treat him.

“I removed the boy to a house next day,” she says, “and dressed his hip, the Lord directing me as before.”

“‘Alma, my child,’ I said, ‘you believe that the Lord made your hip?’

“‘Yes, mother.’

“’Well, the Lord can make something there in place of your hip, don’t you believe he can, Alma?’

“‘Do you think that the Lord can, mother?’

“‘Yes, my son,’ I replied, ‘He has shown it all to me in a vision.’

“And then I laid him comfortably on his face and said:  ’Now you lay like that and don’t move, and the Lord will make you another hip.’

“So I laid Alma on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered, a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket.”

Alma grew up to be a man and became a useful member of the Church.

Topics.—­1.  The massacre at Haun’s Mill. 2.  Sardius and Alma Smith.

Questions and Review.—­1.  Where was Haun’s Mill. 2.  What advice did Joseph give the Saints who lived there? 3.  What happened October 30, 1838? 4.  Tell about the Smith boys and Charles Merrick. 5.  Tell about Thomas McBride. 6.  How many were killed?

CHAPTER XXI.

Driven from Missouri.

Wild reports now went over the country about the “Mormons;” and to make these reports seem true some of the mobbers actually set fire to their own log cabins and then accused the Saints of the act.

In a previous chapter, mention was made of Lilburn W. Boggs.  This man was now governor of the state, and we shall see how he used his power against the “Mormons,” whom he hated so much.

The reports that the “Mormons” were burning houses and driving people from their homes, reached the governor, and he believed, or pretended to believe, all these false stories.  So he gave orders to the officers of the state militia to organize an army of 2,000 men, march to the scene of the trouble, and see that the people whom the “Mormons” had driven from their homes were returned to them.  Note how eager the governor was to restore these few presumably abused people to their lands—­but it was all right that twelve hundred “Mormons” should be driven from their property!

The next day after the governor had issued this order, the news of the Crooked River battle reached him, so he changed his instructions to the commanding officer, General Clark.  This order, given October 27, 1838, is known as Governor Boggs’ exterminating order, and is one of the most disgraceful and wicked commands known in history.  Exterminate means to destroy utterly, to root out completely, and this is what a governor of a state said should be done to twelve thousand innocent people if they did not leave the state.