How the Quail Saved Little Edgar's Life

1895

Blessings On Wings — Birds That Seemed to Have Been Sent As Benefactors — 1

Edgar, the youngest son of James Keener of Claiborne parish, La., had been very ill for several weeks, so ill, in fact, that the little fellow's life was despaired of, when a singular occurrence, in which a quail played a conspicuous part, turned the tide in his favor. The boy had made a brave struggle with death, but the slow, wasting fever had almost exhausted his powers of endurance, and even his appetite had left him. The mother and father used every means in their possession to tempt him to eat, but in vain, and the only nourishment he received had to be forced upon him.

Finally, one morning, when, to the grief stricken parents, the end seemed near at hand, Edgar asked if he might have a broiled partridge. Quail are very plentiful in Louisiana, and Mr. Keener set out gladly with his gun, never doubting that he would kill one for his son. He searched the fields and adjoining woods eagerly, but in vain. At last he stopped all the hands on the place and sent them in every direction, scouring the whole neighborhood, yet not a bird was started.

Late in the afternoon, leaving the men still hunting, he went home sorrowful, fearing his child might have grown worse from disappointment. By and by Mrs. Keener came and called him softly, and following her into the sickroom what was his amazement to see sitting on the footboard of Edgar's bed a round, plump partridge. They shut the doors and windows, captured the bird, and Edgar was soon smacking his feeble lips over the broiled brown breast. The little fellow began to improve from that moment and still lives to tell the story of the bird that, as he says, "saved his life." — Philadelphia Times.