| 672 him the dearest and the saddest events that come into a man's life, center in the happy old city of Nauvoo. His first memory of home; his fondest memory of mother in life and death; his only memory of father, a dimly sweet and vividly sad one, were here on the hill slopes of Nauvoo. Though but a lad of six, he remembers with clearness the exodus from Nauvoo after the tragedy in Carthage. The scene was too full of woe to escape in many details the grasp of his sensitive, tender nature. Clinging to his mother's hand, with her he left the home on the banks of the Mississippi, his young heart excited by the firing of guns and the sad-faced, hurrying throng, pushing through the streets to the ferry. On the Uncle Toby, a north-bound steamer, they passed up the river to a village on its eastern banks, called Fulton City.
The return to Nauvoo in 1847 was almost as sorrowful and dangerous as the exodus had been. Happily for him, a brave-hearted mother held the helm, and his life was steered through the varying waters of youth until 1857. Quickened by the excitement consequent upon the discovery of gold in Pike's Peak, the spirit of adventure caused him to join a party starting for that promising field. The venture did not prove a success; and from the plains of Western Kansas they returned homeward. This was a disappointment; but subsequent events bear out the thought that the hand of God overruled.
In the year when his brother Joseph took his place in the church, the home circle was much agitated. A mighty force tugged at the bonds of peace. Alexander was not religiously inclined. His experience with religion had not been of a character to induce him to give it much thought. The fundamental principles of the gospel must first awaken him to a love of God. His mind was in a tumult. His adored younger brother, David, joined himself to the church; while the mother stood stoutly by them. It was a serious outlook. Already friends were turned against them. A warning had come to his brother Joseph from the citizens, that he must neither preach nor pray in public, nor in any way attempt to promulgate his doctrine in the county in which he lived. The popularity of the Smith boys was on the wane. This
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