operated on him in the family dwelling. All the furniture had to be removed from the living room and a bed was set up for the surgery. His heart stopped beating during the ordeal, but they were able to revive him, and he later recovered from the operation. Another son, Danny, accidentally drank kerosene. There were two brown bottles which were identical, one containing water, and the other kerosene. Wanting a drink of water he selected the wrong bottle and soon discovered his mistake. His recovery was slow, surviving on diluted tomato soup for quite some time. Gradually, he was able to return to a normal life-style. One Christmas was one that some of the Sheehan children will remember, when seven of them were sick in bed with the measles. They were kept in bed in dark rooms, as it was feared that they might suffer damage to their eyes if exposed to the light. The children did not get toys for Christmas, but they were happy to receive a new pair of double mitts which Agnes had knit for them. The older children might even receive a sweater if she had time to knit them. Doing the laundry was a big problem for Agnes, since she had to do all the washing by hand, and boiling the white clothes on the wood stove to get them white. Bleach was unheard of at that time. There were no dryers either, so it was another problem to get the clothes dry in rainy or stormy weather. Many nights, Agnes had to burn the midnight oil trying to dry clothes that were needed for the next day, as they would only have one pair. "It was like a blessing in disguise the day that I received my first washing machine," relates Mrs. Sheehan . It was operated by gas, but was quite an improvement over the wash board. In 1951, the electricity was installed in Bear River , and that helped to improve the working conditions. Often, Agnes would have to patch overalls and mend socks after the children were tucked into bed for the night. If she didn't, they 41