s rather a preparatory service, and I talked familiarly with
those present, individually as well as collectively. There were three
men and their wives who wished to be married. Seven applied for
admission to church membership, and there were also several infants to
be baptized.

After dismissing the morning gathering, I arranged for communion
service. I had no plate, so I sent a boy to his home to get one. He
returned saying they had none, and I sent him to another house, from
which he returned saying he could not get in. Then I decided to use the
best I had, which was the card-board back broken from a hymn book. This
I covered with a napkin and it answered very nicely. I had not prepared
for any applications for baptism and had to send for a bowl, instead of
which a _tin cup_ was brought just as we were ready to begin service.

After the opening of service, I first married the three couples, (one of
these consisted of an old man and woman nearly seventy years old, both
of them gray-headed). The applicants for Christian fellowship were asked
to give some public expression of their faith and were received into
membership and baptized together with the infants. We, also, at the
close of the service elected a deacon, who holds office for two years,
and then I talked to them regarding the duties of another year. When
dismissed, all went to their homes. I, too, went to a house near by and
drank some coffee, for by this time I was quite faint. After this I rode
home, reaching there just as the family were separating from the
tea-table.

It seems odd to speak of men and their _wives_ coming to be married--it
is meant that they are husbands and wives _after the Dakota custom_.
When they come to understand Christian marriage, and especially if they
desire to unite with the church, they ask to have the marriage
solemnized in a Christian manner. Sometimes a man and woman who have
several children, perhaps a baby in arms, present themselves for
marriage.

It is required of married candidates for admission to the church, that
they be married in a Christian way. This sometimes seems hard, as in a
case which has been before our Oahe church for some time. A woman of
fine character whom we believe to be a sincere Christian, desires to
unite with the church. Her husband, who is a veritable heathen, refuses
to marry her. He says he never has had another wife and does not intend
to take one, but he is a Dakota and does not wish to adop