That night the father died, though every effort was made to revive him
and save his life. Grenfell and his crew gave the man and woman as
decent a Christian burial as the wilderness and conditions would
permit, and when all was over the Doctor found five small children on
his hands.
An uncle of the children lived upon the coast and this uncle
volunteered to take one of them into his home. The other four Doctor
Grenfell carried south on the hospital ship. There was no proper
provision for their care at St. Anthony, his headquarters hospital,
and he advertised in a New England paper for homes for them. One
response was received, and this from the wife of a New England farmer,
offering to provide for two. The Doctor sent two to the farm, the
other two remaining at St. Anthony hospital.
The next child to come to him was a baby of three years. The child's
father had died and the mother married a widower with a large family
of his own. He was a hard-hearted rascal, and the mother was a selfish
woman with small love for her baby. The man declined to permit her to
take it into his home and she left it in a mud hut, a cellar-like
place, with no other floor than the earth.
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