xt77m03xsv5r https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt77m03xsv5r/data/mets.xml Furman, Lucy S. 1914  books b96-4-34068176 English Macmillan, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Hindman Settlement School (Hindman, Ky.) Sight to the blind  : a story / by Lucy Furman ; with an introduction by Ida Tarbell. text Sight to the blind  : a story / by Lucy Furman ; with an introduction by Ida Tarbell. 1914 2002 true xt77m03xsv5r section xt77m03xsv5r 



    maf Ad I B 




    my ; :W g g i







LUCY FURMAN  

 This page in the original text is blank.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 












Sight to the Blind

 





























     THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  NEW YORK - BOSTON  CHICAGO  DALLAS
        ATLANTA e SAN FRANCISCO

     MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
     LONDON  BOMBAY I CALCUTTA
             MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lri.
              TORONTO

 This page in the original text is blank.

 

























fN  



"WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR AUTHORITY OVER PREACHERS,
                  WOMAN "

 


SIGHT TO THE BLIND


          A STORY



              BY
       LUCY FURMAN



   WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
      IDA TARBELL









        Nrw fork
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
         1914



AU rigks reserved

 


























              COPYRIGrT, 1912
      By THE CENTURY COMPANY

              COPYRIGHT, 1914
      By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1914.

 




















     TO
HARRIET BUTLER

 This page in the original text is blank.

 









               Contents



INTRODUCTION BY IDA M. TARBELL.



SIGHT TO THE BLIND ..

AFTERWORD ..........



................  3

    ... ... ... ... 77



The illustrations reproduced in the Introduction to this
volume have been selected from those in Miss Furman's
" Mothering on Perilous."



PAGE
. '3

 This page in the original text is blank.

 














114a
Introduction
Ida M. Tarbell
  4

 






I-.  



/- I
4i 

                I-



MAb.YLA . -1



   fd,, '- t, I I
        jt
   I
;  ly
- M    Pf   j  0

 








           Introduction

A     MORE illuminating interpretation of
       the settlement idea than Miss Fur-
man's stories "Sight to the Blind" and
"Mothering on Perilous" does not exist.
Spreading what one has learned of cheerful,
courageous, lawful living among those that
need it has always been recognized as part
of a man's work in the world. It is an
obligation which has generally been dis-
charged with more zeal than humanity.
To convert at the point of a sword is hate-
ful business. To convert by promises of
rewards, present or future, is hardly less
hateful. And yet much of the altruistic
                   I3

 















































X-   l "' itn  -

      --Y -F - k S'



t,

 
INTRODUCTION



work of the world has been done by one
or a union of these methods.
  That to which we have converted men
has not always been more satisfactory than
our way of going at it. It has often failed
to make radical changes in thought or con-
duct. Our reliance has been on doctrines,
conventions, the three R's.   They are
easily sterile-almost sure to be if the
teacher's spirit is one of cock-sure pride in
the superiority of his religion and his cul-
tivation.
  The settlement in part at least is the
outgrowth of a desire to find a place in
which certain new notions of enlightening
men and women could be freely tested and
applied. The heart of the idea lies in its
name. The modern bearers of good tidings
instead of handing down principles and in-
structions at intervals from pulpit or desk



IS

 

















en t l,

.II t

 
INTRODUCTION



settle among those who need them. They
keep open house the year around for all,
and to all who will, give whatever they
have learned of the art of life. They are
neighbors and comrades, learners as well
as teachers.
  It would be hard to find on the globe a
group of people who need more this sort
of democratic hand-to-hand contact than
those Miss Furman describes, or a group
with whom it is a greater satisfaction to
establish it. Tucked away on the tops and
slopes of the mountains of Eastern Ken-
tucky and Tennessee are thousands of
families, many of them descendants of the
best of English stock. Centuries of direful
poverty combined with almost complete
isolation from the life of the world has not
been able to take from them their look of
race, or corrupt their brave, loyal, proud



17

 















i



t l



7

 

INTRODUCTION



hearts. Encircled as they are by the richest
and most highly cultivated parts of this
country, near as they are to us in blood,
we have done less for their enlightenment
than for that of the Orient, vastly less than
we do for every new-come immigrant. On
the religious side all that they have had is
the occasional itinerant preacher, thunder-
ing at them of the wrath of God; and on
the cultural what Aunt Dalmanutha calls
the "pindling" district school. In the teach-
ings of both is an over-weight of stern-
ness and superstition, little "plain human
kindness," almost nothing that points
the way to decent, happy, healthy liv-
ing.
  The results are both grotesque and pitiful.
Is it strange that the feud should flourish
in a land ruled by a "God of wrath" Is
anything but sickness and death to be ex-



I9

 


i     - " -
, 1. 1 ,1-11,7

   11"I-,-
       - "I.  t-



       I
, , flxi  C, " ",  -



I

 

INTRODUCTION



pected where both are looked on as visita-
tions of an angry God
  Among these victims of our neglect and
our blundering methods of teaching the
settlement school has gone. It goes to stay.
Not three months, but twelve months its
teaching goes on; not one Sabbath in the
month, but three hundred and sixty-five
days in the year it preaches. Literally it
is a new world which the settlement opens
to the mountaineers, one ruled by cleanli-
ness, thrift, knowledge and good-will. The
beauty of it is that living day after day
under this order they come to know that
its principles are practical truths; that they
work out. To be told that the baby is
dying not because the Lord is angry with
the family but because the milk is impure
may seem little better than impiety at first,
but save the baby by proper care and you



21

  

INTRODUCTION



have gone a long way to proving that
pure milk is God's law and that all the
prayers in the world will not change His
ruling.
  For distorted imaginings of the way the
world is run the settlement is giving to the
mountaineers something of the harmony
and beauty of science.
  New notions of heroism and honor are
filtering into the country along with the
notions of sanitation and health. That
injuries can be honorably forgiven and for-
gotten is a hard doctrine to swallow in
Eastern Kentucky, but when you see it
practiced by those from the great world of
which you have only dreamed it comes
easier.
  The contrast between the two ways of
living-that in the settlement and that in
their mountain homes-is not long in doing



23

 




)



"I



Z/Ilt



Ft U, I v iiIII
ir-



-  -            li,



-k

 

INTRODUCTION



its work.  Decent living even in great
poverty is possible if you know how, and
the settlement shows what can be done
with what you have. The relation of their
poverty and ill-health to their lack of knowl-
edge and their perpetual lawless warfare is
quickly enough grasped by the young, and
means a new generation with vastly im-
proved morals, health, self-control.
  What more fruitful and appealing world
for work, particularly for women, do these
United States offer If there is an idle or
lonely woman anywhere revolting against
the dullness of life, wanting work with the
flavor and virility of pioneering in it, let
her look to these mountains. She '11 find
it. And what material to work with will
come under her hands! "I often ask my-
self," says the heroine of "Mothering on
Perilous," one of Miss Furman stories of



25

 







tI/S:IV  I
,-AA.



X, v i
.,Y,
/.



,A,     I
""4
I  : ,I'I
I

 

INTRODUCTION



the settlement school, " What other boys
have such gifts to bring to their nation
Proud, self-reliant, the sons of heroes, bred
in brave traditions, knowing nothing of the
debasing greed for money, strengthened by
a hand-to-hand struggle with nature from
their very infancy (I have not known of
one who did not begin at five or six to
shoulder family responsibilities such as hoe-
ing corn, tending stock, clearing new ground,
grubbing, hunting, gathering the  crops)
they should bring to their country primal
energy of body and spirit, unquenchable
valor, and minds untainted by the lust of
wealth."
                       IDA M. TARBELL



27

 This page in the original text is blank.

 













Sight to the Blind

 This page in the original text is blank.

 






     Sight to the Blind


O    NE morning in early September, Miss
       Shippen, the trained nurse at the Set-
tlement School on Perilous, set off for a day
of district-visiting over on Clinch, accom-
panied by Miss Loring, another of the
workers. After riding up Perilous Creek a
short distance, they crossed Tudor Moun-
tain, and then followed the headwaters of
Clinch down to Skain's Fork, where in a for-
lorn little district-school-house the trained
nurse gave a talk on the causes and preven-
tion of tuberculosis, the spitting of tobacco-
juice over the floor by teacher and pupils
abating somewhat as she proceeded. Two
                    31

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



miles farther on she stopped at the Chilton
home for a talk to half a dozen assembled
mothers on the nursing and prevention of
typhoid, of which there had been a severe
epidemic along Clinch during the summer.
  Afterward the school-women were in-
vited to dinner by one of the visiting mothers.
Mrs. Chilton at first objected to their going,
but finally said:
  "That 's right; take 'em along with you,
Marthy. I allow it '11 pyeerten Aunt Dal-
manuthy up to hear some new thing. She
were powerful' low in her sperrits the last
I seed."
  "Pore maw!" sighed -Marthy, her soft
voice vibrant with sympathy.   "It looks
like things is harder for her all the time.
Something new to ruminate on seems to
lift her up a spell and make her forgit her
blindness. She has heared tell of you school-



3 2

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



women and your quare doings, and is sort
of curious."
  "She is blind" inquired the nurse.
  "Blind as a bat these twelve year'," re-
plied MVIrs. Chilton; "it fell on her as a judg-
ment for rebelling when Evy, her onliest
little gal, was took. She died of the breast-
complaint; some calls it the galloping con-
sumpt'."
  "I allus allowed if Uncle Joshuay and
them other preachers had a-helt off and
let maw alone a while in her grief," broke
in Marthy's gentle voice, "she never would
have gone so far. But Uncle Joshuay in
especial were possessed to pester her, and
inquire were she yet riconciled to the will
of God, and warn her of judgment if she
refused."
  "Doubtless Uncle Joshuay's high talk
did agg her on," said Mrs. Chilton, impar-



3 3

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



tially, "but she need n't to have blasphemed
like she done at Evy's funeral occasion."
  Marthy covered her face with her hands.
  "Oh, that day!" she exclaimed, shud-
dering. "WEill I ever forgit it John and
me had got married just a month before
Evy died in October, and gone to live up
the hollow a small piece from maw, and
even then she were complaining of a leetle
scum over her eyes. Losing Evy, and re-
belling like she done atterward, and Uncle
Joshuay's talk, holp it along fast, and it
were plain to all before winter were over
that he had prophesied right, and her sight
were a-going.  I would come down the
branch of a morning and beg her to let me
milk the cow and feed the property and red
up the house and the like, but she would
refuse in anger, and stumble round over
chairs and table and bean-pot and wash-



34

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



kittle, and maintain all spring and summer
her sight were as good as ever. Never till
that day of the funeral occasion, one year
atter Evy died, did she ever give in."
  Here Marthy again covered her face with
her hands, and Mrs. Chilton took up the
tale:
  "I can see her now, up thar on the hill-
shoulder, betwixt you and John on the front
log, by Evy's grave-house, and Uncle Joshuay
a-hollering and weeping and denouncing like
he does, and her setting through it like a
rock. Then finally Uncle Joshuay he thun-
dered at her the third time, 'Hain't it the
truth, Sister Dalmanuthy, that the judgment
and the curse of God has fell on you for
your rebelliousness, like I prophesied, and
that you hain't able to see John thar or
Marthy thar or the hand thar before your
face thar' when Aunt Dalmanuthy riz up



3 5

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



sudden, and clinched her hands, and says
slow and fierce: "Man, it is the truth you
speak. The curse has fell; and I hain't able
to see John here or Marthy here or the hand
here before my face here. But listen what
I got to say about it. I'm able to hate and
to curse as good as God. And I do! I hate
and curse the Hand that, after taking all
else I loved, snatched from my bosom the
one little yoe lamb I treasured thar; I hate
and curse Him that expected me to set down
tame and quiet under such cruelty and
onjestice; I hate and curse and defy the
Power that hated and spited me enough,
atter darkening the light of my life, to put
out the sight of my eyes! Now,' she says,
'you lay claim to being mighty familiar
with the Lord; take that message to Him!'
she says.
  "Women, that whole funeral meeting



36

 
SIGHT rO THE BLIND



kotch its breath at them awful words, and
sot there rooted and grounded; and she
turnt and looked around defiant-like with
them sightless eyes, and strode off down
the hill, John and Marthy follering."
  After a somewhat protracted silence,
Marthy's gentle voice resumed:
  "And from that day to this John and me
hain't left her sence. We shet up our house
and moved down to hern; and she tuck to
setting by the fire or out on the porch, allus
a-knitting, and seldom speaking a word in
all them years about Evy or her sorrow or
her curse. When my first little gal come
along, I named it Evy, thinking to give
her some easement or pleasure; but small
notice has she ever showed. 'Pears like
my young uns don't do much but bother
her, her hearing and scent being so powerful'
keen. I have allus allowed if she could git



37

 

SIGHT TO THE BLIND



her feelings turnt loose one time, and bile
over good and strong, it might benefit her;
but thar she sets, day in, day out, proud
and restless, a-bottling it all up inside."
  "She biles over a right smart on you,
Marthy, I should say," remarked the hostess.
  "No, now, Susan, she don't, neither,
considering her provocations. She were the
smartest, most managing woman in these
parts, and I never did have no faculty, and
don't run her house like I ought; and John
is a puny man and not able to do all her
bidding; and the young uns they gits ter-
rible noisy and feisty at times, all but
Evy."
  "The women" rode with Marthy a mile
farther, stopping before a lonely log-house,
with corn-fields climbing to meet the timber
half-way up the mountain in the rear.
Marthy ushered her guests into the porch



3 8

 























































" AUNT DALMANUTHY



RIZ UP SUDDEN AND
  HANDS"



CLINCHED HER

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



with the words, "Here 's the fotch-on
women, Maw."
   The tall, gaunt, forbidding-looking old
woman sitting there turned sightless eyes
toward them, putting forth a strong
hand.
  "Howdy, women," she said grimly. "Git
cheers for 'em, Evy."
  They seated themselves, and Aunt Dal-
manutha resumed her knitting, swiftly and
fiercely, all the pent-up force of a strong
nature thrown into the simple act. Instead
of the repose that characterizes the faces
of the blind, her eaglelike countenance bore
the marks of fretful, sullen, caged, almost
savage energy.
  "Go quick and take a look that 'ere
pot of beans, Marthy," she ordered. "Evy
declar's they hain't scorching, but my nose
informs me different'. Take the women's



41

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



bonnets, Evy, and lay 'em on my 'stead;
and round up all the young uns back in
the corn-crib, so 's I can git the benefit of
the talk. Now, women," she continued
peremptorily, "I been hearing a whole
passel about your doings and goings and
comings these four or five year' gone, and
I 'm right smart curious to know what it 's
all about. What air you in these parts
for, anyhow, and how come you to come"
  "We are here," began Miss Shippen,
quietly, "first and foremost because we
want to educate the children who have
never had the chance they deserve  "
  "That 's so; they hain't, more shame to
the State," interrupted Aunt Dalmanutha.
"Take me, now; I were raised forty-five
mile' from a school-house or church-house,
and never had no chance to l'arn 'a' from
'izard.' And these few pindling present-



42

 
SIGHT TO THE BLFND



day district-schools scattered here and yan
they only spiles the young uns for work,
and hain't no improvement on nothing."
  "Next," proceeded the trained nurse,
''we want to be friendly and helpful to the
grown-up people who need it, especially
to the sick and suffering."
  " I heared of the nursing you done in
these parts in the typhoid last summer,"
said Aunt Dalmanutha, " and certainly it
sounded good.   But, women, one more
question I crave to put to you. Do you
mix in religion and preachifying as you go
along "
  "We do not preach at all," replied Miss
Shippen; "we let our deeds speak for us."
  Aunt Dalmanutha extended a swift hand.
"I am proud to make your acquaintance
then," she said. "I have had my 'nough
of religion and preachifying, but of plain



43

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



human friendliness not, because there is
little of it on the ramble."
  "Mly special work," continued the trained
nurse, "is of course with the sick, nursing
and teaching how to nurse, and how to
prevent as well as to cure illness, and send-
ing cases I cannot help down to the level
country for proper treatment. I see, Aunt
Dalmanutha, that you are blind.   Have
you any objection to letting me take a
close look at your eyes"
  "Look all you want," was the grim reply;
"I am used to being a' object and a spec-
tacle."
  The nurse took from her satchel a glass
with which she carefully examined the
dulled and lifeless eyes, sitting down after-
ward without a word.
  "And not only a' object and a spectacle,"
continued Aunt Dalmanutha, bitterly, "but



44

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



a laughing-stock and a byword for the
preachers in especial to mock and flout at.
Yes, I that were once the workingest and
most capablest woman up and down Clinch;
I that not only could weave my fourteen
yard', or hoe my acre of corn, or clear my
man's stint of new ground, a day, but
likewise had such faculty in my head-piece
that I were able to manage and contrive
and bring to pass; I that rejoiced in the
work of my hands and the pyeertness of
my mind and the fruits of my industry,
and when my man died were able to run
the farm and take keer of the children as
good as before-I am sot down here in the
midst of rack and ruin, with the roof a-
leaking over me, the chimbly sagging out,
the fence rotten and the hogs in the corn,
the property eatin' their heads off, and the
young uns lacking warm coats and kivers,



45

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



John and Marthy being so mortal doless;
I am sot here bound hand and foot, my
strength brought to naught, my ambition
squenched, my faculty onusable, a living
monument to the hate and revenge and
onjestice of God!" She spoke with growing
passion, but checked herself, and began more
calmly.
  "And if it were just, Dalmanuthy Holt
would be the last to speak ag'in' it. I allus
prided myself on being a reasoning woman.
But just it is not, and never were, and
never will be. I have seed a sight of trouble
in my day, women, and bore up under it
patient and courageous. Besides the man
of my love, and the payrents that begot
me, seven sons of my body have I laid in
the grave, three in infancy of summer-
complaint, two with the choking-disease,
two with typhoid; and in all this I never



46

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



once lifted up my voice ag'in' God, but
bore it still and patient, even when I were
reduced down to just John, my sorriest
son, and little Evy, my onliest daughter
and the child of my prayer. But, women,"
-and again strong passion thrilled in her
voice,-"when I seed that one little tender
yoe lamb that I cherished with deathless
love begin for to pale and cough and pine,
then and thar the sword entered my soul,
my heart turnt over in my breast, and I
cried out wild and desperate: 'Not this!
not this! Take all else I got, but not her!
It is cruel, it is onjust.  I rebel ag'in' it,
I will never endure it.' And I kep' a-crying
it as I seed her fade and thin; I cried it
when the last breath flickered from her pore
little body; I cried it when I laid her in
the cold ground; I cried it when the preach-
ers come to see me atterward, threatening



47

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



judgment; I cried it when I felt the curse
a-falling and the sight of my eyes a-going;
I cried it loud and fierce at her funeral
occasion; and cry it I will to the end of my
darkened days! It were cruel, it were on-
just, it were horrible, it were wicked, of
God to treat me that way, and never will
I say it wa' n't!"
  Miss Shippen waited a full minute be-
fore answering quietly and slowly: "It was
cruel, it was unjust, it was horrible, it was
wicked, that you should have been made
to suffer so; above all, Aunt Dalmanutha,
it was unnecessary. With a little knowl-
edge, and proper food and fresh air, your
daughter's life could have been saved; with
knowledge and proper treatment your sons
need not have died of dysentery or typhoid
or even diphtheria; with knowledge your
blindness itself, which is no curse, but would



48

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



as surely have come upon you had you
never lost Evy and never rebelled in your
heart, need have lasted only a few months.
For these are cataracts that you have on
your eyes, and nothing would have been
simpler and easier than their removal."
  Amazement, incredulity, almost horror
were written upon Aunt Dalmanutha's
countenance as she heard these quiet
words.
  "Where do you get your authority over
preachers, woman" she demanded, lean-
ing fiercely forward.
  "I get my authority," replied the trained
nurse, firmly, "from my knowledge of
modern medicine and surgery; I get my
authority from things seen with my eyes
and heard with my ears during days and
nights of duty on the battle-line between
life and death; I get my authority," she



49

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



continued more solemnly, "from Him whose
spirit of freedom and tolerance has made
possible the advances in modern science;
who is the source of the rising tide of
helpfulness manifest in human hearts every-
where; who, when he was on earth, went
about doing good, and proclaiming not
the hate, the vengeance, the cruelty of God,
but His mercy, His kindness, His pity,
His fatherly love."
  The blind woman sat as though turned
to stone, except that the veins in her neck
and temples throbbed violently.
  " Do you mean to tell me God never
wanted to take my loved ones from me"
she asked at length from a dry throat.
  "I do. I mean that their deaths, so far
from being the will of God, were the fruit
alone of ignorance and of evil condi-
tions."



5o

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



  "You mean to say that the hand of
vengeance wa' n't never lifted ag'in' me, and
I hain't never sot under no curse"
  "I do."
  "And that the preachers has lied to
me" she said through clenched jaws.
  "They were simply mistaken; they knew
no better."
  Aunt Dalmanutha lifted a shaking arm.
"Woe to them if ever they cross my path
ag'in!" she cried hoarsely.
  "Don't think about them," said the
nurse; "the thing for you to do at once is
to go down to Lexington, in the Blue Grass
country, to a doctor I know there who does
great things for eyes, and who, if it is not
too late, will remove those cataracts and
restore you to sight and usefulness and
strength, as God intends. I will write at
once to the hospital, and make the arrange-



S I

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



ments; you should start within a week.
The trip," she added, "need cost you noth-
ing, if you are unable to pay your way."
  Aunt   Dalmanutha   drew  herself  up
proudly.
  "I hain't a' object of charity," she said.
"If I go, I '11 pay my way. I got some-
thing laid by still from my weaving days.
But it has come on me too sudden'; I feel
all lost; I will have to study a heap before
I can make up my mind." She moved her
hands about before her in a dazed, helpless
way.
  During the rest of the visit she was silent
and distraught. Twice at dinner her shak-
ing hands knocked over her coffee-cup, and
once the sorghum-pitcher, little fair-haired
Evy cleaning up quietly after her granny,
and placing things to her hand so deftly
and furtively that she did not know it was



52

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



done at all, while on her other side sat
Marthy, ever kind, solicitous, and patient,
and at the far end of the table John vied
with her in unobtrusive but loving atten-
tions to "maw." Never had "the women"
seen an elderly or afflicted person more
tenderly and devotedly cared for. But the
object of it all sat rigid, self-absorbed,
frowning, as oblivious to the light and
warmth of love as to the light of day, her
sole remarks being contemptuous apologies
for Marthy's cooking, and complaints of
the hardship of having to "gum it," or
eat without teeth.


  ONE week later there was a call from
the road in front of the school hospital,
and Miss Shippen was pleased and relieved
to see Aunt Dalmanutha mounted on a
nag behind John.    In her black calico



53

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



sunbonnet and dress, and long, drab apron,
with her hand tightly clutched to John's
arm, and dark apprehension written upon
her blind face, she was indeed a pitiable
sight.
  "I have pondered your words," she said
to Miss Shippen, " and have made up my
mind to foller them.   With naught but
them to swing out on, I am setting forth
into the unknown. I that hain't never so
much as rid in a wagon, am about to dare
the perils of the railroad; that hain't
been twenty mile' from  home in all my
days, am journeying into a far and absent
country, from which the liabilities are I
won't never return.  Far'well, if far'well
it be!"


  ON the last day of October, Miss Shippen
had just dismissed her seventh-grade class



54

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



in home-nursing, and was standing in the
hospital porch drinking in the unspeakable
autumnal glory of the mountains, when a
wagon, rumbling and groaning along the
road and filled with people, stopped with a
lurch at the gate. Advancing, the nurse
was at first puzzled as to the identity of
the people; then she recognized the faces
of John and Mlarthy Holt and of little Evy.
But for several seconds she gazed without
recognition at the striking figure on the
front seat beside John. This figure wore a
remarkable hat, bristling with red, yellow,
and green flowers, and a plaid silk waist in
which every color of the rainbow fought
with every other. Her bright and piercing
dark eyes traveled hungrily and searchingly
over the countenance of the trained nurse;
her lips opened gradually over teeth of
dazzling whiteness and newness.  Then,



5 5

 
56  SIGHT TO THE BLIND



leaning swiftly from the wagon, she gath-
ered the nurse into a powerful, bear-like
hug, exclaiming, with solemn joy:
  " You air the woman! I know you by
your favorance to your talk.  I allowed
you would look that fair and tender. Here
air the woman, John and Marthy, that
restored unto me my sight, and brung me
up out of the Valley of the Shadow. She
tolt me what to do, and I follered it, and,
lo! the meracle was performed; wonder-
ful things was done unto me!"     Here
Aunt Dalmanutha-for it was she-supple-
mented the embrace with kisses rained
upon the head and brow of the trained
nurse.
  Extricating herself at last from the strong
arms in which she was lifted from the
ground and rocked powerfully back and
forth, Miss Shippen was able to look once

 




















































"TTHEN CAME THE GREAT DAY WHEN I LOOKED MY FUST ON A
            HUMAN COUNTENANCE AG'IN"

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



more into the face she had failed to recog-
nize, and from which at least a score of
years were now erased.
  "Yes, John and Marthy and Evy and
t' other seven young uns, take the look of
your life at that 'ere angel messenger that
brung me the good tidings of great joy;
that lifted me up out of the pit of darkness
on to the mountain-tops whar I now so-
journ. Yes, look, for in heaven you '11 never
see no better sight."
  Embarrassed by the open-mouthed fam-
ily gaze, and by the additional presence of
several teachers, who stopped to see and
listen, Miss Shippen said:
  "Tell me all about your trip, Aunt Dal-
manutha."
  "Tell about it   Tell that which ten
thousand tongues could scarce relate God
knows my stumbling speech hain't equal



59

 

6o   SIGHT TO THE BLIND



to the occasion; but I '11 do my best. You
last seed me a-taking my fearsome way to
the railroad; and what were the sinking of
my heart when John left me thar on the
cyar, words will never do jestice to; seemed
like I were turnt a-loose in space, rushing
I knowed not whither. The first ground
I toch was when I heared the voice of that
'ere doctor you writ to inquiring for me at
the far eend. He said he allowed I would
be skeered and lonesome, so he come hisself
to fetch me to the hospital.  Woman, it
were the deed of a saint, and holp me up
wonderful'.  Then I were put to bed a
spell, and soft-footed women waited on me.
Then one morning he tolt me he were aim-
ing to peel them 'ere ingun-skins off my
eyes, and for me to have no fears, but trust
in him; that he believed them eye-nerves,
shet back thar in the dark, was still alive

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



and able to do business. And though my
heart shuck like a ager, I laid down on that
table same as a soldier. When I got up,
I were blind as ever, with rags tied thick
around my eyes. And I sot there patient
day after day, and the doctor he 'd drap
in and cheer me up.    'Aunt Dally,' he
would say-he claimed he never had no
time to git out the Dalmanuthy-'in just
a leetle while you 'II be a-trotting around
the Blue Grass here worse 'n a race-hoss;
but you got to git your training gradual.'
Then he 'd thin the bandages more and
more, till a sort of gray twilight come
a-sifting through. 'And don't think,' he
would say, 'that I am aiming to let you
lope back to them mountains till I git you
plumb made over. Fust thing is a new
set of teeth,-you done gummed yourself
into dyspepsy and gineral cantankerous-

 

62   SIGHT TO THE BLIND



ness,-and then I 'm sot on taking you to
mv house to visit a month and eat good
victuals and git your stummick opened up
whar it done growed together, and your
mind unj'inted, and your sperrits limbered
similar.' And straightway he sont for a
tooth-dentist, that tuck a pictur' of my
gums in wax then and thar. Then come
the great day when I looked my fust on a
human countenance ag'in. I axed that it
be the doctor's, and I seed him only through
black glasses darkly; but, 0 God! what a
sight it were none but the blind can ever
tell' Then for quite a spell I looked out
through them dark glasses at the comings
and goings and people there in the hospital.
Then one day the doctor he run in and
sa-s. 'Time for you to look on the sunlight,
Aunt Dally. Keep on them glasses, and
wrop a shawl round you, and come with

 
SIGHT TO THE BLIND



me. I 'm aiming to show you the prettiest
country God ever made.' Then he holp
me into a chariot that run purely by the
might of its own manceuvers, and I seed
tall houses and chimblys whiz by dimlike,
and then atter a while he retch over and
lifted my glasses.
  "Women, the tongue of seraphim hain't
competent to tell what I seed then! That
country hain't rugged and on-eend like
this here, but is spread out smooth and
soft and keerful, with nary ragged corner
nowhar', and just enough roll to tole the
eye along. Thar I beheld the wide, green
pastures I had heared tell of in Scriptur',
thar I seed still waters, clear as crystal,
dotted here and yan, and on them pastures
and by them waters thousands of sleek
nags and cattle a-feedin