I said: "Yes, I will go with you as soon as I take a little refreshment."
"Oh, sir," said he, "I was going to try to get a bushel of corn, and get it ground to carry home, and I am afraid the child will die before I get there. I wish you would not wait for me"; and then he added: "We want to save the child's life if we can."
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It being some miles to his house, I didn't arrive there until the sun was two hours high in the morning, when I found the mother holding her sick child, and six or seven little boys and girls around her, with clean hands and faces, looking as their mother did, lean and poor. On examining the sick child, I discovered that it was starving to death! I said to the mother: "You don't give milk enough for this child."
She said: "I suppose I don't."
"Well," said I, "you must feed it with milk."
She answered: "I would, sir, but I can't get any to feed it with."
I then said: "It will be well, then, for you to make a little water gruel, and feed your child."
To this she replied: "I was thinking I would if my husband brings home some Indian meal. He has gone to try to get some and I am in hopes he will make out."
She said this with a sad countenance. I asked her with surprise: "Why madam, have you not got anything to eat?"