Letters 10 Part 4
The Baylor era ends, Lee describes Maxwell, and the Hopkins era begins
FAREWELLS
September 25, 1943
Here I am back in the grand old ranch country again. We have been working with sheep, separating the lambs from the ewes and cutting out the bred ewes to sell. The work is done in the corrals amid much dust, shouting and wrestling. There are 800 sheep on the ranch. Yesterday I drove 200 of them a couple of miles and discovered it's quite an art to keep then moving in the right direction.
Another day I watched Gene ear-mark 125. He neatly cut the tips off each left ear, and branded each posterior with red paint. I have ridden the horses till I seriously numbed my "local government" as Chief used to say it, but I had a lot of fun. I walk ten to fifteen miles in the bracing air each day and sleep well at night. I think my body will be ready for the hard grind ahead at med school.
Thanks for telling me about the books on prayer you have been reading. The book of "great simplicity and challenge"-- could that be Dr. Hallesby's Prayer? If so I have just finished it. I found a copy here at the ranch and think it is the best book on prayer I have ever read. I am trying to put it into practice.
I shall try to locate the other one you mentioned, Lower levels of Prayer. I'm only sorry I didn't grasp the significance of prayer earlier in my life. I am convinced it is a vital matter.
Our Gene got started in school all right. He hasn't heard from the Draft Board yet, but in the meantime is trying to handle four courses. He is thinking of med school too.
Finances for my year ahead seem to be straightening out. I have enough faith in God that if it is His will I should go through, he will somehow provide the means. He has cared for me more than sufficiently thus far.
On top of all you have already done, could you possibly send me a gold puzzle ring? No conclusions are to be drawn as to its purpose but suffice it to say I have a gleam in my eye and am optimistic!
November 15, 1943
Well, folks, her she is!
Name, Maxwell Campbell Croft.
(She lets me call here "Tissie".)
Baptist.
Currently, Baylor senior.
Brown eyes. Light hair, Charming personality.
Weight 115. Kinda tall.
Common sense and human understanding.
We both hope you like her and we both hope you like the picture we had taken together for your benefit.
Baltimore, Maryland
November 28, 1943
Before I left the ranch Mrs. Roach outfitted me like one of her own sons with a lovely new suit, shirts, underwear, sox and such, so I'm all ready for the snobbish aristocrats of the East. I'll show 'em what grows on a ranch! My last Sunday there I spoke again to the wonderful people I've known the last two years at their little country church. They are the salt of the earth and I feel well buttressed by their love and their faith in me.
From the ranch I went back to Baylor for a last week end with Gene. He had taken a Navy exam which if he passes, will allow him to take his pre-med work under Navy auspices. He is still being mistaken for me just as I was often mistaken for Bill. (Four peas in a pod!) We have been dreaming about establishing a hospital together, "Howard Brothers", and John the architect, will design it for us.
After Texas I spent three weeks in Kansas with Grandmother Howard and Aunt Bess.[ Father's brother Will's wife.] I admire my Aunt Bess tremendously and she treated me like her own child too. My cousin Martha Ruth-she roped me in on a dozen speaking engagements!
I found Grandmother, at 93 years of age, in excellent health but a little hard of hearing. I took her shopping and sat beside her at church. She is still the grand old family monarch and I love her. She and the two friends she lives live have real family worship, with real prayer, every night. It gave me a lift to share it. The night I spoke at the Baptist church it was Grandmother who stood up at the pulpit and read the entire 53rd chapter of Isaiah in a clear strong voice. I'm sure she will live to be well over a hundred so you will see her again.
From Kansas I turned East to Rahway, New Jersey, where I found Aunt May and Uncle Lee still at breakfast the day of my arrival there. They were in process of moving to a house on Church Street so my strong arms were in time to give them a lift.
Uncle took me into his office in New York to see about a medical scholarship the Mission Board sometimes grants. I am eligible for $1000 over a three-year period if I don't flunk.
That afternoon I filled up my homesick stomach with all kinds of indigestible Indian food at the Rajah restaurant, and then, next day, came on to Baltimore to find me a room.
MED STUDENT
I was fortunate to find a room quite near the medical center. I share it with a fine chap, Bob Faulconor, from Virginia, a graduate of Willian and Mary. Like me he neither drinks nor smokes so we shall get on fine, and its just as well we are good boys for we found a notice tacked on the door, "No drinking in the house and no women in the room after midnight"!
The Johns Hopkins buildings are really tremendous. The twenty or more of them look more like the business section of a city than a hospital.
In the main foyer of the administration building stands a colossal marble statue of Christ with outstretched arms. It is a replica of the one the Denish sculptor Thorvaldsen made for a Copenhagen church. On its base is engraved "Come unto me all ye that labor and are leavy laden and I will give you rest". It is the most impressive thing I've seen here yet, and I'm sure the words give the right clue to the solution of human ills.
Seventy-five of us new students gathered in the lecture room Friday for preliminary announcements. The dean made it plain that we shall we strictly on our own. All facilities are at our disposal, and instructors are here for our guidance, but what we learn is strictly up to us.
The first thing we did was to check out our microscopes. I drew a fine Bausch and Lomb, binocular, triple objective, oil immersion-- a beauty! I hope to own one
like it some day. Our chief course to begin with is Anatomy, one cadaver to each four students. I have already purchased lab coats and dissecting knives and am all set to go.
On Thanksgiving Day Dr. Bryant of the University Baptist Church which I shall probably join, invited me out for lunch and supper. Between meals we drove to Annapolis to see the chapel of the Naval Academy. John Paul Jones, famous naval hero of the American Revolution, is buried in one of its crypts.
This Thanksgiving I had so much to be thankful for. I know better than to think I have arrived here by my own efforts. It has been a long road though, and I thank God for His leading. I thank Him too for such wonderful parents. I shall work hard here because I am planning to do His will with what I receive, and I shall work hard for you too, Mother and Dad, to prove your efforts on my behalf have not been in vain.
Not everyone who wishes to can come to a school like this. They say for every one who comes there are the shadows of fifteen who couldn't make it. Some day I want you tosee me, your son, a finished piece of business and be proud of me.