Chapter 7 continued
In making his visits to patients while we resided in Portland Mills, Father rode horseback and he had two horses which he generally rode on alternate days. One of them was "Mose" a large claybank and the other was "Alec" a chestnut sorrel horse. The name "Alec" was given the last named animal, after Father bought him of Mr. Alec Tindle, in Webster County before the Civil War. One of my jobs every day Father was away from town to see the sick, was to ride the horse he left in the barn and to water him down at the creek. One day I prepared to take "Alec" to water. I had a small hornless or "muley" saddle with iron stirrups, which each had a spring in one side near the top, and pressure on that side or the bottom of the stirrup would release the spring and fall down, making the opening in the stirrup larger.. Having saddled and bridled "Alec", I mounted him and gaily set forth for a ride at a brisk canter. But suddenly the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing me off. My foot hung in the left stirrup and I hung dangling near the heels of the horse for quite a distance, but fortunately the spring came loose releasing my foot and I fell to the ground. One of my hands was pretty badly scratched and bruised, but I was otherwise uninjured, though a very much frightened lad. It was a lucky escape. If my foot had not come loose from the stirrup I might have been badly crippled or killed. After recovering from my fall, I caught the horse which I found quietly grazing near the creek and led him home. After that I was always very careful and rode "Alec" slowly.
During the first summer we lived in Portland Mills we had some sickness. The location of the town was too low, being on Raccoon Creek and the greater part of the town was situated in the bottom and in a very malarious section. I had quite a siege of fever and ague, a very prevalent disease there during the spring, summer and fall seasons of the year. The attack of this illness with which I was afflicted, lasted for several weeks finally terminating in the third day chills from which I did not recover until cold weather. That was a very malarious section of the state and much of the illness of the people was of that kind.
Brother Dolph also had an attack of jaundice, a disease of the liver, and the skin of his face, hands, arms and neck and all visible parts of his body became as yellow as a pumpkin. He was very ill for some time, had no appetite and became very much emaciated. I remember that one kind of food he was required to eat was bran bread, the only kind of bread he was permitted to eat while he was so ill I thought it was surely bad eating. After his recovery, he and Irene and baby Alice visited some relatives near or in Greencastle among whom were two sons of Aunt Sarah Slavens , Luther Clay and William Leander, and her married daughter Louise, wife of Rev. Cyrus McMutt, Methodist minister, and they visited Aunt Sarah too.
After their return from Greencastle and vicinity they visited cousin Reuben Slavens and wife, Martha, and George Inge and wife of Rockville, Parke County. Mrs. Inge and Reuben were sister and brother of Dr. Jack Slavens. Dolph and Irene became greatly attached to these kinfolk and enjoyed their visits with them very much.
That summer, Mother and I visited relatives too. They were Grandfather Rountree’s cousin, Charles Roundtree and some of his children who lived near Alamo in Montgomery County, about 25 miles from Portland Mills. Cousin Charley, as Mother always called him, was a native of Ireland, but had been in America, I think, some time. He was tall, had white hair and was a very courteous old gentleman. He talked very fluently but with a rich Irish brogue, and was surely genuinely pleased to see us and very glad to have us visit him. I think his wife was dead. His granddaughter, Mary Gilkey, whose parents lived on a farm near Alamo, lived with him and kept house for cousin Charley. Mary was a pretty young lady about eighteen years old and she and her grandfather did all they could do, and succeeded in, making our visit with them a very pleasant one. Mary was an excellent cook and a splendid housekeeper. While we were there an accident happened to me that was not only painful, but alarming. That day while playing in the hay mow at their barn, I had the misfortune to fall through the opening in the loft through which hay was loaded into the mow. The opening from some cause was lightly covered over with loose hay and not knowing it was there, in romping over the hay, I stepped through the opening and fell to the hard oak floor of the barn, a distance of ten or twelve feet. The fall knocked the breath out of me and stunned me badly for a few minutes, but I was soon able to get up and continue my play but not in the hay mow. It was a rather bad scare, and an experience I did not soon forget. We remained at cousin Charley's about a week, visiting also the Gilkey’s and other relatives in the meantime and I never did enjoy a visit better, they were all so very kind to us.
During the first summer we lived in Portland Mills I went occasionally with other boys to the creek and waded about in shallow water while the boys who had learned to swim were swimming in the deeper water and having a lot of fun. I was anxious to be able to swim but I was afraid to try to swim for awhile but one day I plucked up courage and wading into deeper water, I made the effort to swim and suddenly was in water that was over my head. I struggled with all my might to keep afloat but could not, and began to sink, when another boy swam to me, caught me by the arm and swam with me to shallow water. My rescuer was George Ball a much larger boy than me and a good swimmer. I would not try to swim again for some time until one day, George Ball, in whose ability as a swimmer I had great confidence, taught me how to swim and stayed right with me, occasionally supporting or otherwise assisting me, until finally I learned to make the strokes with my limbs properly. Before we left the water I had accomplished the big feat and could swim pretty well without any assistance. George’s presence gave me more confidence in myself, as I realized from experience that I had no cause to fear that I might run the risk of drowning while he was near me. After that I could swim all right but I would surely have drowned if George had not come to my assistance when I was sinking in my first attempt to swim. I always felt under great obligation fully believing that he had saved my life.