'
'Do you mean the deaf girl with the speaking eyes?' said Anne; 'you
wrote to tell me you had lost her.'
'Yes,' said Elizabeth; 'she it was whose example shewed me that an
infirmity may be a blessing. Her ear was shut to the noises of the
world, the strife of tongues, and as her mother said, "she did not
know what a bad word was," only it was tuned to holy things. She
always knew what was going on in church, and by her eager attention
learnt to do everything in school; and when her deafness was
increased by her fever, and she could not hear her mother's and
sisters' voices, she could follow the prayers Papa read, the delirium
fled away from them. Oh! it is a blessing and a privilege to have
been near such a girl; but then--though the last thing she said was
to desire her sisters to be good girls and keep to their church and
school--she would have been the same, have had the same mind, without
our teaching--our mere school-keeping, I mean. Aunt Anne, you say
you have kept school in your village for thirty years; you were just
in my situation, the clergyman's daughter; so do tell me what effect
your teaching has had as regards the children of your first set of
girls.
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