d
cisterns and wells.*

* About twenty years later the Bristol Water Works Co. introduced pipes
and thus a permanent and unfailing supply.

Second, when, for three years, scarlet and typhus fevers and smallpox,
being prevalent in Bristol and the vicinity threatened the orphans,
prayer was again made to Him who is the God of health as well as of
rain. There was no case of scarlet or typhus fever during the whole
time, though smallpox was permitted to find an entrance into the
smallest of the orphan houses. Prayer was still the one resort. The
disease spread to the other houses, until at one time fifteen were ill
with it. The cases, however, were mercifully light, and the Lord was
besought to allow the epidemic to spread _no further._ Not another child
was taken; and when, after nine months, the disease altogether
disappeared, not one child had died of it, and only one teacher or adult
had had an attack, and that was very mild. What ravages the disease
might have made among the twelve hundred inmates of these orphan houses,
had it then prevailed as later, in 1872!

Third, tremendous gales visited Bristol and neighbourhood in January,
1865. The roofs of the orphan houses were so injured as to be laid open
in at least twenty places, and large panes of glass were broken. The day
was Saturday, and no glazier and slater could be had before Monday. So
the Lord of wind and weather was besought to protect the exposed
property during the interval. The wind calmed down, and the rain was
restrained until midday of Wednesday, when the repairs were about
finished, but heavy rainfalls drove the slaters from the roof. One
exposed opening remained and much damage threatened; but, in answer to
prayer, the rain was stayed, and the work resumed. No damage had been
done while the last opening was unrepaired for it had exposed the
building from the _south,_ while the rain came from the _north._

Mr. Muller records these circumstances with his usual particularity, as
part of his witness to the Living God, and to the goodness and mercy
that closely and continually followed him.

During the next year, 1865-6, scarlet fever broke out in the orphanage.
In all thirty-nine children were ill, but all recovered. Whooping-cough
also made its appearance; but though, during that season, it was not
only very prevalent but very malignant in Bristol, in all the three
houses there were but seventeen cases, and the only fatal one was that
of a little gi