He returned no answer to my
application, but he did not forget us.
As the time that Moodie might retain this situation was very
doubtful, he thought it advisable not to remove me and the family
until he could secure some permanent situation; by so doing, he
would have a better opportunity of saving the greater part of his
income to pay off his old debts.
This winter of 1839 was one of severe trial to me. Hitherto I had
enjoyed the blessing of health; but both the children and myself
were now doomed to suffer from dangerous attacks of illness. All the
little things had malignant scarlet fever, and for several days I
thought it would please the Almighty to take from me my two girls.
This fever is so fatal to children in Canada that none of my
neighbors dared approach the house. For three weeks Jenny and I were
never undressed; our whole time was taken up nursing the five little
helpless creatures through the successive states of their alarming
disease. I sent for Dr. Taylor; but he did not come, and I was
obliged to trust to the mercy of God, and my own judgment and good
nursing. Though I escaped the fever, mental anxiety and fatigue
brought on other illness, which for nearly ten weeks rendered me
perfectly helpless. When I was again able to creep from my sick bed,
the baby was seized with an illness, which Dr. B - - pronounced
mortal.
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