Page:Life of Octavia Hill as told in her letters.djvu/245

 v CONCERT FOR THE BLIND to you of each of them, for the thought of them all haunts me continually ; they seem such a bright, strong, dear band of young things, better knit to me just now, on the whole, than ever they were before. December 9th, 1865. EMILY TO MRS. SHAEN. Last week we gave a concert to upwards of a hundred poor people, eighty of whom were blind. It was a very pathetic sight ; but their great delight in the music, and the beautiful expressions of many of their faces, redeemed it. Some of the faces were continually turned upwards, and seemed as if they were drinking in every sound. One of the blind people, in speaking of music, said : " Why you know it is like meat and drink to us blind." Some of them had never had such an evening; and did not even know what the word concert meant. We admitted a great number of guides this time, which we had not done before. The blind people seemed to care so much about having them, that we thought it better to let them come, even tho' it excluded more of the blind. One man spoke so nicely about it ; and said, " You see we feel so grateful to our guides ; they are like eyes to us, and we don't half enjoy it if they are shut out." One of the blind men we know is teaching a poor crippled boy chair-mending; and, when we asked how the boy was getting on, the man answered " Why he ought to learn to do it by feeling; for it stands to reason his sight don't help him much. I don't think much of sight." The boy enjoys his work so much, and he says he dreams of it ; and if he had a chair at home he would practise all day.