Unto the Hills

Jerry, a moonshiner's son, has grown up in a remote section of the Southern mountains where living conditions are still in a primitive stage. One morning his mother is taken critically ill and Jerry is sent running to fetch the doctor. It is a long distance to the Community Center Hospital, and on arriving there Jerry finds the only available doctor can not attend his mother until the following day because he must first visit people who need him urgently on the other side of the mountain. The next day the doctor finds Jerry's mother beyond his help, and says, in the boy's hearing, that her life could have been saved if she had received medical attention sooner. Even in his grief, Jerry is impressed by the doctor's concern and the need for more nearly adequate health service in the district. The kindly neighbors who take the boy to help him over the first hard days without his mother, realizing his innate intelligence and potential ability, persuade his father to send him to the school at the Community Center where the hospital is also located. At school Jerry, inspired anew by the opportunities for service which are open to him, dedicates himself to the study of medicine so that in future years he may alleviate suffering and save lives that might otherwise be lost.