Fleming 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 carriage pulled up at the Scotsman's modest home. A 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 home.
"Is that your son?" the
nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"I'll
make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. "If the lad is
anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."
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 and he was saved
by Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill and his son was Sir Winston
Churchill.