Page:Letters of Life.djvu/160

148. The young girls brought up by her were uncommon workers, and thoroughly indoctrinated in moral and religious obligation. They often married well, and in thrift and industry were a fortune to their husbands. She was a sagacious observer of human nature, and not unfrequently a profitable adviser to her lord, whose unsuspicious charity made him occasionally the prey of imposture. One morning a man presented himself with a written paper, purporting that he was deaf and dumb. No institution for the nurture of that class of persons then existed in our country; and as instances of that misfortune were rarely exhibited, they were wont to call forth both curiosity and sympathy. This stranger enforced his claim by signs, and answered in pantomime such queries as were made palpable to the eye. The pity of the good old gentleman was warmly awakened for a fellow-being thus cut off from all the privileges of speech and sound. The antique dark mahogany desk was opened, which never turned upon its hinges in vain. Still a pair of keen black eyes occasionally raised from the needle, critically regarded the mute applicant. Suddenly a sharp report, like a pistol, issued from a chestnut stick that had intruded itself among the hickory on the great, blazing fire, and he involuntarily started.

"My dear," said the lady, "this person can hear."

Horror-struck, and enraged at thus losing the large bounty almost within his grasp, he discourteously, and,