Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/129

Rh the young man came to deliver his letter, the family were engaged in a game of blindman’s-buff in their dining-room, Mr. Carter went to his guest in the parlor, and, remembering his own days of loneliness when he was a stranger in a strange land, he thought a little taste of home life would do him good; so he asked him if he would not like to participate in the frolic, and the invitation was gladly accepted. The young man wrote to his father: “You need not have cautioned me about behaving soberly before Mr. Carter. I have had the jolliest evening at his house I ever spent in my life. He is as full of fun as a boy.”

After the death of Mrs. Carter, Mr. Peter Carter wrote the following description of the home which he most intimately knew.

“Napoleon, it is said, being on one occasion asked what was the greatest need of France, replied, ‘Mothers.’

“And so the greatest need of America is Christian mothers. One beautiful illustration of this crowning glory of woman was Mrs. Robert Carter, of this city, who, on the 19th of July last, entered into her rest. Like the Shunamite woman in the days of Elisha, ‘She dwelt among her own people.’ Born in New York in 1810, her whole life was spent in this city. Baptized in the Scotch Presbyterian Church by the eminent Dr. John M. Mason, she continued till her death in the membership of that church.

“Her first-born was a bright and lovely boy, too sweet, too lovely for earth. He exhibited that beautiful evidence of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling not unfrequently seen in those who are early transplanted to the garden of Paradise. Scarlet-fever, that fearful and fatal disease among children, carried him into the Saviour’s arms, For nearly fifty years that loving mother cherished the memory of her darling boy. Other children were given to her to train for usefulness, and 8