Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

THE LIFE OF OUR SISTER 287
to become connected with our sister's family, Init so it
was to be.
Her youngest was iiuleed the comfort of her age, just as
our mother had foretold. I am glad she was with our mother
to the very last, but I have envied her the sweet pain. We
returned to Ohio in 1868, and my husband began to have
regular pastorates; we remained in southern Ohio for over
six years, and our two chddren were born there. In Minnesota
the winter of 1870 had been a long, cold time; much deep snow
fell. The season was hard in more ways than one, as smallpox
entered the home at Pearl Lake Place and became epidemic,
as upon its first appearance it was not recognized and so it
spread. By the beginning of winter it had become a sore
affliction in the country. One of the neighbors lost a son from
the disease. Our entire family living at Pearl Lake contracted
the disease, one after the other, m form more or less severe.
Our parents had it in the mildest form. The entire winter
was spent in caring for the sick and fumigating the house between
the attacks upon the different members of the family.
Spring approached and our people were once more resum-
ing their ordinary routine, when mother took ill with a pain in
her head, thought at first to be a cold. During the early stage
of her disease father had a dream one night that occurred to
him as being so peculiar that before he came to full consciousness
he gave to his unusual dream an interpretation. The
dream was like this: He was seated in a small, self-propelling
handcart, and as the cart moved along the front wheels gave
way, and he suddenly found himself stranded. "Ah," thought
he, "I know this is but a dream, but its meaning is this: I am
to lose my wife!" The dream so deeply impressed him that
he could think of but little else. Mother noticed his sad face
and guessed the reason of his depression. Dear soul as she
was, she sought to relieve his fears by telling him that she had
been sicker many times during her life, and that her present
illness had been of short duration.
As the days went by and no improvement came in her
condition, a physician was called. Brother Datus had to walk