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From under my Hat
Of his twelve children, six were allowed to go to college and the other six worked his farms. Later on I thought the reason he was a bitter man was because he had a guilty conscience. My father was one of those who worked the farms. He ran away three times but always came back. Maybe I learned a lesson from it. I ran away from home and never came back.
When I was thirteen my grandf ather was very sick, and the illness threatened his eyesight. Grandmother was too old to have the care of a sick man, and besides, the doctor was in Altoona. So, like a bear with a sore paw, Grandfather moved in on us. It would be cheaper to have Mother and me nurse him than pay a hospital bill.
So, on top of everything else we had to do, we took care of him. An operation was out of the question. He had high blood pressure and was too old.
It was the first time I ever saw leeches— the animal kind. Every few days the doctor leeched him, a horrible sight. Every other hour, too, for an hour, hot compresses had to be put on his eyes at fiveminute intervals. I was elected because my hands were the only ones that were tough enough to take boiling water. As he couldn't control his functions, the bedclothes had to be changed five or six times a day. In those days there was no washing machine for the Furrys, so laundry was something more to be done by hand.
In eight weeks his health was better and he had his eyesight back, so he went home to New Enterprise, in Bedford County.
When school let out for the summer I went to stay at the farm. One day my grandfather said, "Elda, I want to speak to you; come into the parlor."
I can still see the place: a big, square room, with flower decorations under glass, tidies on the tables and chairs, and him sitting at a beautiful hand-carved secretary in one corner.
"I want to show you I appreciate your help in getting back my eyesight," he said. Pulling out a drawer in the secretary, he took something in his fingers, closed the drawer carefully, and said, "Here— I want to give you this. Put out your hand."
What do you think he gave me? One silver dollar.
If I hadn't recently saved his sight, I might have destroyed it by
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