The Best Kind of Friend.....the Kind that God Gives You

This was a very sweet story that was in today's lesson. It made me think of all the times I've felt that a friend came along right at the right time to offer just what was needed to my life.

"Emily Ellen Swain Squires was born in England in 1852. Her mother was a member of the Church, and when Ellen was eleven years old, she was sent with some Church members to live with her mother’s sisters in Utah. The rest of her family planned to join her when they had enough money. The journey was very long and hard, especially for an eleven-year-old girl who had left her mother and family in England.

"She walked the entire distance across the plains to Utah, carrying a sack in which she gathered buffalo chips and sticks of wood for fuel. Her shoes wore out, so she was barefoot during most of the trip, and her feet were often cut and bleeding. Her dress was ragged and dirty. She was so lonely and the trip was so long that she wondered if it was worth even trying to keep going each day.

"One day when she felt that she could go no farther, something happened to help her. She saw an abandoned ox standing by the trail watching the wagon train pass. No one stopped to look at him or talk to him. But Emily stopped and patted the ox’s bony back and gave him some water. The ox willingly followed her, for he was lonely too. Emily was delighted that she had someone she could call her very own. She spent much of her time hunting for grass or other things for him to eat. He stayed by her side throughout the rest of the trip, and Emily found herself more cheerful than she had been at any other time on the trip. She was so absorbed in her new friend that she was able to partly forget her sore feet and tired body, and the trip did not seem so long. Soon she had arrived in Salt Lake City and was met by her relatives.

"The ox became lost soon after she got to Salt Lake City, and she often wondered what happened to her strange friend. She grew to womanhood, married a righteous member of the Church, and had children. She continued to have opposition, but she overcame it all and served the Lord valiantly for many years." (See Laura Squires Robinson, “The Child’s Journey,” in Treasures of Pioneer History, comp. Kate B. Carter, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1953], 2:115–18).