to
help them to forget their troubles. He was mindful, too, of the sick,
caring not who the sufferer was nor what his complaint; so long as he
was in need, so long was Gordon a regular visitor at his sick-bed.
Frequently when he heard that the doctors had ordered delicacies beyond
the reach of a patient, he would purchase what was required, and
administer it with his own hands. Mr. Lilley says:--

"On one occasion he visited a poor, wretched woman, in an
apparently dying condition. He at once lighted a fire, made some
gruel for her, and fed her with his own hand. He afterwards
appointed a nurse to look after her, and sent a doctor to her, and
it is believed that she is still residing at Gravesend, a living
testimony to his generous care."

The people so loved him, that often instead of sending for the
clergyman when in sickness or trouble, the poor would send for the
Colonel living at Fort House, the official residence of the officer
commanding the Royal Engineers.

Even his house and garden seem to have been placed at the disposal of
the poor in the neighbourhood. A visitor once remarked to his
housekeeper on the beautiful vegetables his garden produced. She
replied that the Colonel never touched them, but used to let the poor
people come in and cultivate plots of ground in the garden, and grow
their own vegetables; and even when presents of fruit were sent him by
friends, he used to take them to the bedside of some sick person, who
he thought needed them more than he did.

As for his own food, nothing could have been more simple and plain. The
Rev. S. H. Swaine says, "Coming home with us one afternoon late, we
found his tea waiting for him--a most unappetising stale loaf and a
teapot of tea. I remarked upon the dryness of the bread, when he took
the whole loaf (a small one) and crammed it into the slop-basin, and
poured all the tea upon it, saying it would soon be ready for him to
eat, and in half-an-hour it would not matter what he had eaten." It is
said that some of the boys whom he invited to live in his house were a
good deal disappointed when they saw the kind of fare that was put
before them. They had fondly imagined that the occupant of such a grand
house would have sumptuous meals, which they would share, and they were
not prepared for the plain salt-beef, and other good but very plain
food, to which the Colonel was in the habit of sitting down. But though
he denied himself luxuri