* * * * *

“I shall never forget that day spent in a lonely part of the woods,” the good woman wrote to her brother.  “It endeared the children to me more than any day I can remember.  They brought water from the creek, a great quantity of which I drank, and bathed my aching head and told me stories and cheered me in every way they could.  Joe had his bear stick handy and his plans for bears or wolves or Indians.  Samson had made some nails at a smithy in Pennsylvania.  Joe managed to drive one of them through an end of his bear stick and made, as he thought, a formidable weapon.  With his nail he hoped to penetrate the bear’s eye.  He had also put some bacon in the bottom of the pack basket, knowing the liking of the basket for bears.  My faith in God’s protection was perfect and in spite of my misery the children were a great comfort.  In the middle of the afternoon Samson returned with a doctor and some tools and a stick of seasoned timber.  How good he looked when he came and knelt by my bed and kissed me!  This is a hard journey, but a woman can bear anything with such a man.  The doctor gave me Sapington’s fever pills and said I would be all right in three days, and I was.

“Late that afternoon it began to rain.  Samson was singing as he worked on his wheel.  A traveler came along on horseback and saw our plight.  He was a young missionary going west.  Samson began to joke with him.

“‘You’re a happy man for one in so much trouble,’ said the stranger.

“Then I heard Samson say:  ’Well, sir, I’m in a fix where happiness is absolutely necessary.  It’s like grease on the wagon wheels—­we couldn’t go on without it.  When we need anything we make it if we can.  My wife is sick and the wagon is broke and it’s raining and night is near in a lonesome country, and it ain’t a real good time for me to be down in the mouth—­is it now?  We haven’t broke any bones or had an earthquake or been scalped by Indians, so there’s some room for happiness.’

“‘Look here, stranger—­I like you,’ said the man.  ’If there’s anything I can do to help ye, I’ll stop a while.’”

* * * * *

He spent the night with them and helped mend the felly and set the tire.

The fever and ague passed from one to another and all were sick before the journey ended, although Samson kept the reins in hand through his misery.  There were many breaks to mend, but Samson’s ingenuity was always equal to the task.

One day, near nightfall, they were overtaken by a tall, handsome Yankee lad riding a pony.  His pony stopped beside the wagon and looked toward the travelers as if appealing for help.  The boy was pointing toward the horizon and muttering.  Sarah saw at once that his mind was wandering in the delirium of fever.  She got out of the wagon and took his hand.  The moment she did so he began crying like a child.