Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-05-04

the lane and then turning to his wife,
and putting his arms around her and
kissing her, he said 'you stay here,
dear, with the four children that are
well and + will take the sick girl in
the wagon down to the end of the
lane, and we will call that the hos
pital, and I will stay with her and
nurse her the best know how.
Boy Had Small Pox.
When the doctor came in the after
noon he examined, those children that
were in the tent, and found that the
eldest boy already had the small pox.
He was carried into the wagon too;
so that my grandfather now had two
patients. My grandmother would go
to the village and get what food she
could, and then after preparing it on
her camp fire she would carry it half
way to the wagon, then laying it on
the ground she would call her hus-
band, or attract his attention in some
way, and ask him about her sick child.
Sometimes when she called him he
didn't answer; perhaps he was busy
attending to the children, or perhaps
he had gone for walk across the
field, and then in the anxiety of hei
big loving heart she would wonder If
ne was sick, or if the children were
worse, and then she would walk up
and down the lane in distracted
condition, saying "my poor, children
have died." Of course you couldn't
keep mother long away from her
two first born children, and there
came day when grandmother was
too sick to get up, and when the doc
tor came he had to tell them the aw-
full news, that she had the small pox
too. Now, my grandfather could not
keep them separated any longer, and
hitching his horses to the wagon he
pulled the wagon alongside the tent,
and as he did it a little baby was born
in the home, so that now, he had
mother, baby and two children all
down with the small pox, and three
children well. For thirty days and
nights he never had his clothes off
and never saw a person to speak to,
save the doctor who made his daily
visits and he fought that disease the
best he knew how.
The Death Bed Promise.
One morning going into the wagon
and trying to make his wife more
comfortable, she raised herself up in
bed and putting her arms around his
neck, she said 81 am going to leave
YOU soon, and before go want you
to promise me that you will be a bet
ter father to the children, that you
will not swear so much at them, and
that you will not drink so much" He
promised her because he loved her
and would have done anything to
have helped her at that moment. And,
afraid of breaking down in her pres
ence and feeling that he could not
contain himself any longer he ran out
of the wagon and throwing himself
full length on the ground by the wag-
on wheels, he laid there and sobbed
like a child, when presently he heard
his wife singing, and she was singing,
ssI have a Father in the promised
land. God calls me, must go to meet
him there"
If you had shot my grandfather
YOU could not have startled him more,
for God was never used in that home
only as an oath, and jumping up ne
ran into the wagon and said to his
wife "Where did you hear that? In
all the years of our life together l
have never heard you sing anything
like that" And then she told him that
when she was little girl her father
had pitched his tent and wagon on
village green opposite church, and
on the Sabbath day she crept over
and heard them sing. They would not
let her into the church because she
was only a Gypsy girl, but on that
day she had heard that chorus and In
all the years of their married life 1t
had not come back to her memory,
only on this occasion.
If you are skeptical, will you please
tell me what brought that chorus
back to her? Would you say it was
freak of memory, or would you say
it was coincidence? shouldn't. l
should say it was the Holy Spirit, for
God said "When the Comforter is