| 259 the cloud passed away and the vision closed. A few days after this occurred I met this man Putnam Yates, and had a conversation with him in which he again urged upon me the idea of going to Utah; and my answer was in exact accordance with what I had seen. The other question, 'Is polygamy of God?' was as distinctly and definitely answered to me, as was the one referred to above; and the answer was, 'No,' and I was directed that I was to have nothing to do with it, but was to oppose it.
"Much of my opposition to polygamy has been charged to my mother's teaching and influence. Mother's influence may have had something to do with controlling my youth; but she did not trouble herself to teach me anything specially in regard to that tenet. I knew what she had said at times to others, and that she was opposed to it. I never questioned her upon the subject until near the close of her life. I relied upon what was given me concerning my own action in the premises, and trusted to my own judgment upon the records of the church as published. I heard her replies to questions put by Elder Jason W. Briggs before his mission to England; and interpreted the events of my childhood, remembered by me, in the light of the record.
"The question of my going to Utah in order to fill the destiny appointed me was now disposed of, and I was prepared for two events that occurred subsequently to what is here related.
"A week after my marriage my wife went with me to the farm and here we began our married life. We had hardly been settled more than a month when I was visited by George A. Smith and Erastus Snow. They came to visit and chat with me, and to discharge a commission intrusted to them by Mr. Fred Piercy, the artist to whom I had sat for a crayon sketch for his work 'Route to Salt Lake,' referred to elsewhere; he had sent me a copy of that work by them. I made them as welcome as my means permitted, set before them something to eat, and did my best to answer their inquiries and entertain them. Elder George A. talked but little, leaving the burden of conversation to Elder Snow. I was at this visit asked if I did not intend to come to Utah
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