My children and I knelt down, and I
prayed to our Heavenly Father for strength to bear this trial, if it was
his will to continue it. I felt consolation and strength from my
prayers, and rose with courage and confidence; and though the rain
continued unabated, I waited with resignation the pleasure of the
Almighty. I reconciled my children to our situation; and Sophia told me
she had asked her father, who was near the gracious God, to entreat Him
to send no more rain, but let the sun come back. I assured them God
would not forget them; they began to be accustomed to the rain, only
Sophia begged they might take off their clothes, and then it would be
like a bath in the brook. I consented to this, thinking they would be
less liable to suffer than by wearing their wet garments.
"The day began to break, and I determined to walk on without stopping,
in order to warm ourselves by the motion; and to try to find some cave,
some hollow tree, or some tree with thick foliage, to shelter us the
next night.
"I undressed the children, and made a bundle of their clothes, which I
would have carried myself, but I found they would not be too heavy for
them, and I judged it best to accustom them early to the difficulties,
fatigue, and labour, which would be their lot; and to attend entirely on
themselves; I, therefore, divided the clothes into two unequal bundles,
proportioned to their strength, and having made a knot in each, I passed
a slender branch through it, and showed them how to carry it on their
shoulders.
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