Now Father and Mother did not immediately get out in the work of the Lord as soon as Mother was converted. The continued struggling hard for a home. True, Father held regular appointments in various school houses, walking I have heard him say, some times six or ten miles to some of his appointments. They received little or no support from those labors but Father had that yearning for the salvation of souls.
He cleared and farmed their 40 acre farm. Set out fruit trees and shade trees and followed his natural inclination to make a home cozy and comfortable. But nearly every spring the whole family would have a seige of ague. One year in particular Father developed malaria and kept for weeks, yes months, in a very weak condition. He got where he could not work but a very little indeed.
Now they had a pair of young oxen if I remember the story at all correctly. They had been broke to haul. Father had some shingle bolts all ready cut. The larder was low indeed and something must be done, so David and hauled those bolts to town. They were still quite young boys. Too young to load up the load alone, even both of them. I have wondered if they were not about the ages our two boys were when we vent on the homestead in Alberta. Well, Father would manage to get on the wagon and go with the boys to the woods. Then with a great effort he would help those two brave 17little men to load up the bolts and off they would be for town, to sell those and bring back the necessary flour or corn meal etc. Of nurse they raised their potatoes and other vegetables. In fall they took jobs ill cutting and husking corn. Father managed to cut most of the corn and helped husk it, but to Mother fell really most of the husking. She use to tell me how she husked day after day when the blood rao from her fingers. Oh they knew hardships in those days.