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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
We began our journey that afternoon. About four o’clock I took
my sick child upon a pillow, and we rode twenty miles. He seemed
very nervous that night. He could not sleep, and I held him in my arms
nearly the whole night.
The next morning we consulted together as to whether to return to
Rochester or go on. The family who had entertained us said that if we
went on, we would bury the child on the road; and to all appearance
it would be so. But I dared not go back to Rochester. We believed
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the affliction of the child was the work of Satan, to hinder us from
traveling; and we dared not yield to him. I said to my husband: “If
we go back, I shall expect the child to die. He can but die if we go
forward. Let us proceed on our journey, trusting in the Lord.”
We had before us a journey of about one hundred miles, to perform
in two days, yet we believed that the Lord would work for us in this
time of extremity. I was much exhausted, and feared I should fall
asleep and let the child fall from my arms; so I laid him upon my lap,
and tied him to my waist, and we both slept that day over much of the
distance. The child revived and continued to gain strength the whole
journey, and we brought him home quite rugged.
The Lord greatly blessed us on our journey to Vermont. My hus-
band had much care and labor. At the different conferences he did most
of the preaching, sold books, and labored to extend the circulation of
the paper. When one conference was over, we would hasten to the
next. At noon we would feed the horse by the roadside, and eat our
lunch. Then my husband, laying his writing paper on the cover of our
dinner box or on the top of his hat, would write articles for the Review
and Instructor.
Conversion of the Office Foreman
While we were absent from Rochester on this Eastern tour, the
foreman of the Office was attacked with cholera. He was an uncon-
verted young man. The lady of the house where he boarded died with
the same disease, also her daughter. He was then brought down, and
no one ventured to take care of him, fearing the disease. The Office
hands watched over him until the disease seemed checked, then took
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him to our house. He had a relapse, and a physician attended him, and
exerted himself to the utmost to save him, but at length told him that his