me in another direction so it was some time before I set out to find Axe Handle. Off from Stony Fork at the head of the Branch one of the rudest of new log houses was the home of Jacob (Jake for short). He had recently come there had been a world-war veteran now a victim of circumstances with his deaf-mute wife and five living children – two having died. The least-one was six weeks old and had been much neglected as Jake had been ill several months and since the baby was born Sally the mother had been obliged to get the wood. The oldest child being a natural child is cared for by his maternal grandparents. The next is six years old and he helps hisHarrison’s wife; grandmother Liz that is mother in law who had acted as mid-wife at the previous confinement; a young widow, sister of the patient completed the guests. It was my first visit to this house and I was agreeably surprised and even elated to find it remarkably clean with linoleum on the floors. Kitchen cabinet and dish cupboard in the dining room. Two year old Doris trained to sit in her high chair until her hands were washed before she left the table.

The patient had supplied plenty of sheets, gowns, pads and even her own rubber sheet. The party proceeded normally for an hour or two. Then some accident of birth caused the death of the child. There was some regret but the old grandmother said it