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Show 33 business in the east. While his father was yet away, little William became ill. In spite of his mother's prayers and frantic efforts, in concert with Mother Shipp, the baby continued to wilt "like a lily flower with a 25 broken stem" and finally died in December with his father still absent. Ellis's heart cry, though she did not realize it, provided three rhymed lines: I could not doubt my Father's wise decree. And yet my inmost soul would cry, why should it be? Such heartaches now to come to me? [adding later] When Milford came, he comforted my soul as was ever in his power to do.2^ Having made the transition from sorrow and questioning to a calm resolve "to bear the cross and seek to win the crown," Ellis again waxes poetic as she describes her self-improvement regimen of that time. (Remember it is the mature Ellis in her nineties speaking. Emphasis is provided by author=) In my early hours, when all was quiet and the world so beautiful, I followed out my plan for self improvement-the humble prayer, the morning air, the thoughts I gleaned from books, all were jewels rare, becoming bulwarks of defense against all tendency to lose self control, to even think or say or act unjustly.27 Her bereavement in the loss of her baby was partially offset by displays of affection from little Bard, and partially by the anticipation of another child. Richie greeted the world five months after Willie's passing, on May 27, 1869, and Ellis found her "hope renewed, spirit chastened, and faith grown strong." Nine days later, his father left on a mission to England. At Milford's departure, Ellis was still not recovered from childbirth. "My convalescence |
