“I have only got a small lump above my leg, which pains me a little, father.”
The doctor came presently and gave the boy some medicine, but the medicine did not seem to have much effect.
That evening Yo-ah felt poorly. “If the fever does not go down to-night I will certainly be in Heaven to-morrow, father,” said Yo-ah.
Next morning Yo-ah looked so much better that Poah was very glad and exclaimed to one of his friends, “I took a straw rope for a serpent this time,” meaning that he had been frightened by his boy’s illness when there was no reason to be afraid.
During the day one of the schoolboys, a great friend of Yo-ah’s, went to see him. The sick lad was very glad to see him, and said: “Ah! So-and-so, you will go on to the middle school by-and-by. Afterwards you must give yourself to God’s service and work for Him.”
“You, too, must work for God, Yo-ah,” answered his friend.
“The Lord is not going to leave me long in this world,” said Yo-ah.
After this he begged one of his uncles to believe in Christ and find safety in Him. He also spoke to several of his friends asking them to give up things which they knew to be wrong in their fives. To one, who was careless about money, he said, “Brother Lin, you ought to live more sparingly. How can you glorify God when you are constantly in debt and people have to dun you for money at the end of the year?”
His father, seeing that though Yo-ah looked better, he acted like one about to leave this world, said to him:
“If you die, I will go and hang myself.”