THE RAVAGES OF DISEASE 113 
a restless night, and next day she stayed in bed. She had 
the dysentery. The parents were depressed and anxious, 
for a serious disease had entered their home, and was spread- 
ing among the people. Two days later, Madgie, six years 
and eight months old, became ill. Then Ruth, their youngest 
child, was smitten by the ruthless scourge, and the truth 
was forced upon them that Connie could not recover. These 
little girls had been exceptionally strong and active, and it 
had been the parents’ purpose to take the two older children 
to Sydney and leave them there at school. Their furlough 
was overdue, but they postponed going home in order to 
complete the translation of the New Testament into the 
Fotunese. 
Willie, their five-year-old son, now contracted the disease, 
and all four of their children lay apparently dying. Next, 
Mrs. Gunn revealed symptoms of its attack upon her, and 
not long after Mr. Gunn found himself severely in its grip. 
All around were the dead and dying. The constant sounds 
that greeted their ears were the death wail, and the clang 
of the digger’s tools as the natives dug the graves for their 
dead. 
The missionary was too ill to visit the sick, and the na- 
tives were too busy attending to their own sick to visit the 
missionary. Goat’s milk in large quantities was brought to 
them by Mangan, but it seemed to aggravate the children’s 
complaint. Nailo sometimes laid a breadfruit inside their 
door, but they received no other attention from the natives. 
At last Mrs. Gunn began to shake off the disease, and hope 
began once more to gleam in their lives; but had they not 
felt in those dark days the sustaining grace of God, they must 
have perished. 
At first the children suffered intensely, and nothing seemed 
to give them relief. The agonies that little Madgie endured 
were almost continuous and distressing to witness. Each 
new day found her perceptibly weaker until she became 
emaciated almost beyond recognition. 
