# Wife No. 19/Chapter 26
### CHAPTER XXVI.
#### AFTER MY DIVORCE. — AFFAIRS AT HOME.

* After my Divorce from Dee.
* "Is Polygamy Good to Eat?"
* Curious Experiences Among the Saints.
* A Man Who Thought His Heart was Broken.
* How Two Wives Rebelled.
* The Husband in a Fix.
* He Runs Away from Home.
* Dismisses his Plural Wife.
* Being "Sealed" to Old Women for Eternity.
* Nancy Chamberlain's Story.
* Who is to be Brigham's Queen in Heaven.
* An Old Wife Dresses Up as a Ghost.
* How Brother Shaw Replenished his Exchequer.
* The Battles Between my Father's Wives.
* My Mother Enjoys his Troubles.
* The Story of a Turkey.
* A First Wife Asserts Her Rights.
* My Life at South Cottonwood.
* I Receive Offers of Marriage.
"Grandma, what is Polygamy?"FTER my divorce, I went with my mother to live at my father's farm in South Cottonwood.
Here, I think, I was happier than I had ever before been in my life. My health was much improved, and what with the care of my children and the portion of the household duties which I assumed to assist my mother, my days were well filled. My boys. were growing healthy, hearty, rollicking fellows, and they returned my care with all the love which the most jealous heart could desire.
​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/431 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/432 ​first wife was a very independent woman, with a habit of speaking her mind quite freely; and the second had a fiery temper, which she did not hesitate to display when she considered occasion demanded.
In a few weeks he found that he must separate them; so he divided the house, giving each one her apartments — the first wife receiving the principal share, as she had several children. But he had not bettered matters, it seemed. He had intended dividing his time equally between the two; No Peace within Polygamy. but the first wife was so opposed to this arrangement that he offered to give her two thirds of his time, which, strange as it may seem, did not satisfy her, and made the second wife very angry, until, between them both, the poor man was driven almost to his wits' ends.
They had a peculiar way of finding out each other's secrets; and when the husband was visiting one, the other would apply her ear to the key-hole of her rival's apartments. On certain occasions, when the first wife was too ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/434 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/435 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/436 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/437 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/438 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/439 ​Elizabeth as his Christmas offering, and she received it, as my mother thought she would, gladly and thankfully.
Our Christmas dinner, with the chickens, and my mother's delectable puddings and pies, was a success, and we didn't even miss the turkey, though we did have a good laugh over it, and my mother was jubilant, because she had kept it from gracing the tables of the younger wives, since, according to her ideas of justice, if any partiality was to be shown, it should be given in the order of "seniority." Old Farm-House at Cottonwood. I have no doubt that the other tables were well set, in some way or other, but we none of us saw the bills of fare. "Father's turkey" was for a long time the standing jest at home.
During this time at South Cottonwood, while I was teaching my children, helping my mother, and getting all these peeps into the inside experiences of polygamy, my own life running along in the smoothest channels it had ever known, a great change was preparing for me. I had ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/441 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/442 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/443