“The boys had just come home for their holidays, and as they were very popular in the village, and had a number of friends amongst the people, they were continually running across; and if they heard of a case of illness in any house they knew, they would look in to say a cheery word to the sufferer and ascertain if he had everything he wanted. “But at the end of a week the mortality became so great that the gravest fears were excited. Medical help from other places was called in, and we were soon made aware that the scourge of cholera had visited us. I took the alarm then. I said to my wife that she must make instant arrangements to leave, taking all the children with her, but that I should remain to do what I could for the sufferers and to help those who were working for them. My wife would fain have stayed with me, but I would not hear of it. For the sake of the children she submitted to my verdict; and, with the heroism that had always characterized her, she forbore to tempt me away from the place where my duty bade me stay. “It was on Saturday that we awoke to a sense of the peril of our position. On Monday morning we had arranged that all for whom any anxiety was felt, or who were at all afraid to remain, should leave the house. All our plans were made—but they were made too late. “On Sunday afternoon Mary came running to us with a frightened face, saying that Tom had been suddenly taken very ill whilst playing in the garden. We hastened to him, and found him cold and blue and almost pulseless. We saw at a glance that he had been smitten by the relentless foe, and when first I saw him my heart seemed to stand still, for I felt certain that there was death in his face. “We knew by that time what measures to take, and they were promptly taken. We had been two hours with him, and still that state of rigid collapse had not yielded, when Mary called us once again to say that Charley was complaining of dreadful pain, and looked almost as bad as Tom had done. “There were two beds in the boys’ room. Tom occupied one now, and in another hour Charley was lying still and rigid in his. The doctor came, and looked very grave. From the character of the seizure in both cases, he anticipated the worst from the first moment. “That night both my boys died. They were conscious towards the last, and they knew both their mother and me. She told them they were going home, and asked if they were afraid. They told her no; because Jesus had died for them. I asked them how they could be so sure of it; they looked half surprised, and Tom answered, with a look I shall never forget—it seemed so strange in the eyes of laughter-loving, careless, merry Tom. “‘He said so, father; and besides, I feel it _here_’—laying his hand on his heart. ‘He said, He died for _all_ of us. He said, He took away _all_ sin with His blood. I know He’s taken away mine. Mother and I have asked Him so often.’