from the native people before asking them to change. She sought to understand the Nez Perce, while her husband sought for the Nez Perce to understand him and his strict rules about liquour, polygamy, and gambling. His punishments were to whip the native people or have them whip each other. While her husband could be "ridiculed and denounced", Spalding was appreciated by the Nez Perce, who saw that she tried to soothe her husband's temper. She was also calm and clear-headed during fearful and unsettling events. The Nez Perce women liked to shadow Spalding as she did her chores to see how a white woman cleaned, cooked, and dressed and cared for their children. They also helped care for her children as she did household chores. One time the Nez Perce threatened to kill one of their men who insulted her, but changed their minds when Spalding asked them to spare his life. She asked that he be allowed to repent of his sin and become a better person. Growth of the mission Within the first six months, Spalding adopted eight Nez Perce children into their family. The log mission building, part living quarters and part mission school and church, was completed on December 23, 1836, with the assistance of the Nez Perce people. In 1838, the Spaldings decided to move five miles away to a cooler spot with fewer mosquitos. They settled amongst the nimiipuu, the Nez Perce People in Lapwai along the Clearwater River, in what is now the state of Idaho. The Nez Perce People helped the Spaldings build a log house that was expanded three times to provide additional space for mission and school activities. They also had a printing house to publish Nez Perce language primers and hymn books. They boarded children at the mission. The mission grew to become the first white settlement in Idaho, with a blacksmith shop, two schools, student dormitories, a meeting house, two print-shops, a spinning and weaving shop, a summer kitchen, other outbuildings. It had 44 acres of cultivated land with 146 horses, pigs and cows. Missionaries William Henry and Mary Gray periodically lived at Lapwai, traveling back and forth from Waiilatpu in what is now the state of Washington. Annual meetings were conducted at the Whitman's or Spalding's mission, including subsequent missionaries who were stationed in Washington and Idaho. Leave the mission In late November 1847, the weyíiletpuu