Christian life -- Fiction; Farm life -- Fiction; New England -- Fiction
But as Isabel grew better, Mary Fuller seemed to sink and droop in all
her being. She was often found amid the shrubbery, weeping bitterly,
and alone. Toward nightfall, and at early morning, she might have been
detected stealing softly up the Hospital stairs, and away to a dim
corner of the garret, with a handful of berries or a fragment of cake
which the matron had given her during the day. Sometimes her voice,
low and sweet, as if in tearful entreaties, floated along the garret,
and then might have been heard another voice, sometimes rude,
sometimes querulous, but very feeble, answering her with sharp
reprimands. After this the child would come down in tears and steal
away, as we have described, to weep alone.
Thus they entered upon sweet June, literally a month of roses at the
Infant's-Hospital. The pale little invalids grew better that month,
and were gathered beneath the huge old trees with their nurses,
forgetting their pain in the sweet breath of the flowers; but that
month, though the butterflies were numerous, and humming-birds came
and went through the thickets like flashes from a rainbow, Mary Fuller
was seldom abroad with the rest. More and more of her time was spent
in the low, dim garret; but when she did come forth, those who
observed her saw a new and tranquil light upon her face. She was
sometimes seen to smile, as if a pleasant thought possessed her mind.
Just before this, Mary had asked permission to carry away a little
Bible from the matron's table. It was not brought back, but the matron
only smiled, and never inquired the reason. She had learned to love
and trust Mary Fuller.
There was a clergyman stationed at Blackwell's Island, to whose
spiritual charge was given from four to seven hundred persons at the
Penitentiary, four or five hundred of the insane, and nearly a
thousand children, at the nursery and its hospital. The welfare of all
these souls was entrusted to this meek Christian, and most faithfully
has he performed the solemn duties of his office from that day to
this. Always busy in behalf of the unhappy creatures, who, amid all
their degradation, loved and respected him, always cheerful, always
ready with his gentle word and consoling advice, he made this holy
mission with the helpless and the prisoner the one great business of
his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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