but without the scars — by saving the lives of some kindred % 

 missionaries of Dr Seward returned out of the East! ) 



Family opinion held the mental effects of his scarlet fever 

 to be rather enduring. Sister Lillian used them to explain his 

 weakness in arithmetic — a weakness scarcely evident in the 

 close figuring he was to be called upon to do for thirty years. 

 "He forgot all he had learned earlier," she once said. Well, as the 

 evidence was to show, he had not forgotten how to read; and 

 as to writing, here was matter for debate unless it was granted 

 that in the submission of the sounds of the two languages 

 which he knew to paper, the boy had anticipated the modern 

 and phonetic method of spelling by some fifty years. (What 

 might any sensible boy be expected to do with an English in 

 which ite, ight, eit and aet all sound alike; or a Hindoostani in 

 which the a comes out so short that it is written u}) At thir- 

 teen he wrote from the country into which he had been sent 

 to recover from an illness, as follows : 



Agra Fort 



My dear Mama & Papa, ' 



I am enjoying myself very much. Agre is a very nice place. 

 We went to see the tage yesterday & I think it is the most 

 beautiful sight I ever saw. We went this morning to see 

 Sukndra, which is 6 miles from here. I hardly ever cough now 

 and am keeping quite well. I got a penknife this morning and 



a pencil, the penknife cost 



1 — o — 



I have a very bad cold but no cough. I hope you are all quite 



well, tell Jonnie that I am going to bring him a horse if I can 



get one, and Some braclets. now I must end with love to all. 



Your aff' Son 



„ f , , . Willie Wherry 



P s please excuse bad writeng. 



This letter, like the rest, went back to the boy in due season 

 properly "scratched up. At the moment this was the father's 

 educational method with him. 



IN 1 889 the elder Wherry had completed twenty- two years 

 of missionary toil. The number of his children, also, had 

 increased — to seven. Besides the older girls, Clara Eleanor 



