It was a bitter day for baptist and for the immersed. Joseph Smith went
out alone into the water, commanding the other elders to remain upon the
shore. Whatever else the man had or had not, he had splendid courage in
facing physical ills. There were but few candidates. Susannah, standing
apart near the shore, chanced to be in the path by which the younger
Knight descended to the water. He was a young man with strong features
and a thick, unhealthy skin. He was dressed in the wet garments which
another candidate had taken off. Cold he might have been, but as he
passed she heard his teeth chatter so loudly that it almost seemed to
her that his very bones rattled. She drew back with the impression that
some horrible thing had passed by. Before she had time to wonder that
the chill should have had such an effect upon the hardy fellow, his feet
were in the water, and he turned and caught her eye. The look he gave
her became suddenly one of terrified entreaty.

Susannah did not move; she was spell-bound. He began to wade toward
Smith, who stood in the deeper water. She wondered why he allowed
himself to be immersed. She was certain that he did not desire it, was
certain also that no motives of interest, no physical force, could have
operated to compel, when suddenly she asked herself sharply, what force
had taken her into the waters of this extraordinary baptism?

To her astonishment, when Newell Knight came up from the water he was
shouting aloud. She thought that his accents were a horrible simulation
of merriment, but by the others they were accepted as an evidence of
holy joy.

Two days after, when Susannah and her husband were returning from
Smith's preaching through the autumn night, they were met as they were
approaching Biery's hotel by a messenger from Knight's house. The