and has given me better health than I have had for one year. I have felt quite lighthearted and at times have felt the sweet peace of God resting upon me.1EGWLM 739.5

How is it with you, Eddie? Are you any homesick or do you keep so busy you do not find time to be homesick?³

As explained in the next paragraph, Edson, for some unknown reason, was temporarily staying with another family. Apparently by the end of October he had moved back home again, as is implied by the fact that Ellen White addresses her letter of October 30 to both Henry and Edson (An Appeal to the Youth, pp. 53-56).

I suppose your time is all usefully employed. We do not mean that you shall work all the time. Light work will not hurt you but be healthy exercise for you. We hope you will make some progress in your studies while we are absent.^{4
John Fletcher Byington had opened a school for Sabbatarian Adventist children in Battle Creek in November 1858. It is possible that Edson was enrolled in this school at the time of writing, especially since James White had given it his recommendation in the Review. The uncertainty lies in the fact that Byington's school failed and closed down “after a brief and stormy experience.” According to W. C. White, James White “hired a private teacher for his own children, at times, as his finances would permit.” One such private teacher had been Martha Byington, who taught “the White boys” beginning in late 1857 (see Ms 5, 1859 [notes under entry for Mar. 6]).
See: W. C. White, “Memories and Records” (DF 256) (Ellen G. White Estate, n.d.), p. 2; James White, “School at Battle Creek,” Review, Jan. 14, 1858, p. 80; C. Smith, J. P. Kellogg, “A School in Battle Creek,” Review, Oct. 14, 1858, p. 168. For a history of early school ventures in Battle Creek, see Floyd Greenleaf, In Passion for the World, pp. 16-21; Emmett K. Vande Vere, The Wisdom Seekers, pp. 11-14; E. M. Cadwallader, A History of Seventh-day Adventist Education, pp. 5-8, 21-23.}1EGWLM 739.6

Be faithful, Eddie, and take a right course, that those who so kindly care for you may love and respect you. I have been so grateful to hear such good news from you—that you were trying to do right and that you had not been wrong or caused the family grief that you are with.1EGWLM 740.1

I want to tell you a little circumstance: Yesterday we were with a family where there was a poor, sick, lame boy. He is a cripple for life and never will be able to walk or run like other boys. We inquired into the case and found this poor boy's affliction was caused by his going into a brook of water when he was warm. He has since been a great sufferer. He has a great ugly sore on his hip, which runs all the time, and one limb is drawn up some inches shorter than the other. He is a pale, sickly, feeble little fellow—has been so for five years.1EGWLM 740.2

You may sometimes think we are too careful of you and are too particular to keep you out of the river.⁵

The Kalamazoo River ran just a few hundred yards from the White home on Wood Street in Battle Creek. Ellen White wrote in 1865 of Edson's “strong desire to go on the river” despite his parents’ prohibition. “I think every day it would be nothing strange if my boys should go on the water contrary to our wishes, and one or both of them be drowned in their act of disobedience.” Ellen White had reason to be anxious. The previous summer, while the parents were traveling, it had come to light that Edson had not only gone into the river four times but also taken 9-year-old Willie with him. (By then the Whites had moved from Wood Street but still lived close to the Kalamazoo River.)

See: Ellen G. White, Lt 4, 1865 (June 20); Gerald Wheeler, James White, pp. 92, 93.

My dear boy, think of this poor cripple. How easy it is for a young child like you to be a little careless or venturesome and make himself a cripple or invalid for life. I thought, What if this poor boy were mine? What if I should be compelled to see you suffer so? Oh, how my heart would ache that I had not been more careful of you. Eddie, I could but weep as I thought these things. Father and mother love you very much. We instruct you and warn you for your good.1EGWLM 740.3

From your affectionate mother.1EGWLM 740.4

Lt 30, 1859

Uncertain