Author Unknown
GOOD FOR THE SOUL…
The man’s name was Fleming and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself.
Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings.
An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. “I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”
“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.
At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel. “Is that your son?” the nobleman asked. “Yes,” the farmer replied proudly. “I’ll make you a deal. Let me take your son and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll grow up to be a man you can be proud of.” And that he did.
In time, Farmer Fleming’s son graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming; the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman’s son was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved him? Penicillin.
The nobleman’s name? Randolph Churchill.
His son’s name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Moral? “What goes around comes around.”
—–
Note: According to the investigative web site, TruthorFiction.com, this story is not about Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, says there is no record of Churchill nearly drowning or of his father paying for Fleming’s education, but Churchill was once treated for pneumonia. However, as an old friend once told me, “never let the truth interfere with a good story.” And I believe this is an inspiring story, true or not.