The Red Cloud chief., 1881-09-15
WHAT MADE SAM SICK!


only ones v no have been for a longtime,
and still are. subject 10 occasional spells
of mysterious sickness. To be sure,
they all have their turn OF the measles.
md take their saffron tea "to make
them come out" the mumps. and make
horrible faces when they taste anything
sour; the whooping-coueh, also, and
double themselves up in the most ride
uious shapes in their paroxysms of
coughing. But i'm none of these dis
eases do they seem anxious to conceal
what is wrong. IL would be perfectly
useless TO try to conceal il, and, indeed,
why should they want to? Are they
not all necessary complaints which come
10 us sooner or laterp
But the boys on the billy farms have
actually been known TO have spells Of
the most mysterious illness, spells which
bailied the medical skill OF the whole
family. / once knew Sam Thompson
TO wake up in the morning very sick,
quite too sick, apparently, to go to
school. IL happened, strangely enough,
10 be on the morning of the day when
the men were to wash the sheep. |
don't suppose | need describe how they
do this piece of work on the hilly farms.
They do it the same way everywhere,
so that a boy who has learned it prop
crly in n State can easily put his
knowledge into practice in another.
Well, l said Sam walked up sick. He
lay in bed late, and couldn't eat IN
breakfast; but he begged off from TAX
ing medicine. and dropped around like
a confirmed invalid till the rest of the
children had gone TO school. OF course,
If he had been well, he would have
gone, too. for it is Just on such occa-
sions rs these that the fathers on the
hilly farms seem obstinately bent on
making scholars out of their boys.
They scarcely leave n point to hang an
excuse upon for staying out of school.
don't mean to say that Sam was
dangerously sick. by no means. If
he had been, he would not have been
able II 90 TO the creek to see the fun
of the sheep-washing. Hc was merely
= too sick TO go To school. In fact, l
don't know anything thatrcquires nicer
judgment than it does to contrive just
how 10 he too sick TO go to school and
yet not so sick as TO unit one for en-
joying the sport of washing sheep.
Sam d not be of any practical use
at the sheep-washing, for his legs were
too short to 90 into the deep water. A
last wears lamb, frightened at being
plunged into the stream, might have
scrambled on him and drowned him.
He was too small TO catch sheep in the
pen and hand them down TO the wash
erS. Indeed, NJ one without longer
Ices and stuuter body could be very USE
full on that occasion; but Sam could
look on as industriously and enjoy the
fun as much Us anybody You ever saw.
But you said San was sick. Certain
ly | did; but didn't l say he wa not
dangerously sick? People who are
dangerously sick seldom get well; and
il was but a short time after the chill
dren had gone to school when he
began To get better. He improved
SO rapidly that, long before noon.
he went down to the creek
10 sec how the sheep-washing came
along. In n surprisingly short time he
was shouting and hallooing with glee.
and had entirely forgotten how ill he
was i'm the morning. | should be safe
I'm saying that he quite overdid the
matter. for he got SO well that, when
dinner was over, his father had made
up his mind that it was altogether too
Utt " q W - lo IA co u "
lose a whole day from school, and sc
sent him of for the afternoon session.
1 think | see him now, trudging along
sorrowfullv to school, looking wistfully
toward the sheep pens on the bank OF
the creek, and wondering, in a boyish
way, why things in this world cannot
be differently arranged.
But Sans mysterious spells of sick
- II ~. .-. ,L
j recall no less than four other separate
and painful attacks which he suffered.
On two of these occasions his mother
was heard TO say that she had known
boys to die who didn't seem a bit sicker
than Sam was; and yet he was able to
be up again in a remarkably short time.
One of these spells came upon him in
this way:
Ii was in the spring of the year. For
- several reasons think L may be quite
positive about that. Yet / feel sure il
vas not the 'spring fever that allied
him, because boys seldom-in fact,
never-getr really sick with that disease,
and what is wonderful about it, they
may take it-or it may take them,
!. rather-at any season of the year.
though most frequently when the sun
is hot, and, so far as / know, never in
the midst of their slumbers at night.
These are some of my reasons for say
inc that | know it was not "sprins
fever
sam had an uncle Henry and aunt
Jane Welton. who lived away over on
Slippery Elm bottom, where they had
q famous sugar-camp. One spring,
after they had finished sugar making
\ they loaded up the wagon witt
great buckets filled with sugar
thew didn't make it into
cakes - and drove up through
the hillv country to sellit. They stopped
over night at Mr.. Thompson's where
Aunt Jane remained to visit a few days
But when Uncle Henry started the mex
morning he left a bucket well hlled
with sugar. and it was set in the pantry.
This was a nice thing to do, and
have no the slightest fault to find with
ANYBODY, except that the Thompsons
We . not so generous with their sugar
as tl.ey might have been. Nobody OF
. fered Sam a taste of it. This made him
feel that he was treated with very little
consideration. He bore it as best ht
could, and late in the evening hi.
mother called to him from the sitting
room:
..Sam, my son." said she, ''what an
you doing?"
. ..Oh. nothin' much" said Sam. from
pantry. n
But it's time to 60 and feed thu
calves" said his mother.
"Well, can't 1 get a string to make
a whip-cracker?" said Sam.
Certainly you can" said his mother
ssbut you'd better hurry, or you'll moi
get the wood in till after dark"
- Sam was usually quick about hi
work; but this evening he spent an un
reasonable length Of time feeding thu
calves, and it was quite late before b