Dotty Dimple at Play | Page 3

parted in the middle? How could they tell when they dropped
grease-spots on those nice clothes?
"I don't see," thought Dotty, "how they know when to go to bed! O,
dear! I should get up in the night and think 'twas morning; only I should
s'pose 'twas night all the whole time, and not any stars either! When my
father spoke to me, I should think it was my mother, and say, 'Yes'm.'
And p'rhaps I should think Prudy was a beggar-man with a wig on. And
never saw a flower nor a tree! O, dear!"
While she was musing in this way, and gazing about her with eager
eyes which saw everything, the children were reading aloud from their
odd-looking books. It was strange to see their small fingers fly so
rapidly over the pages. Horace said it was "a touching sight."
"I wonder," went on Dotty to herself, "if they should tease God very
hard, would he let their eyes come again? No, I s'pose not."
Then she reflected further that perhaps they were glad to be blind; she
hoped so. The teacher now called out a class in geography, and began
to ask questions.
"What can you tell me about the inhabitants of Utah?" said she.

"I know," spoke up a little boy with black hair, and eyes which would
have been bright if the lids had not shut them out of sight,--"I know;
Utah is inhabited by a religious INSECT called Mormons."
The superintendent and visitors knew that he meant sect and they
laughed at the mistake; all but Dotty and Flyaway, who did not
consider it funny at all. Flyaway was seated in a chair, busily engaged
in picking dirt out of the heels of her boots with a pin.
Horace was much interested in the atlases and globes, upon the surface
of which the land rose up higher than the water, and the deserts were
powdered with sand. These blind children could travel all about the
world with their fingers as well as he could with eyes and a pointer.
The teacher--a kind-looking young lady--was quite pleased when Mr.
Parlin said to her,--
"I see very little difference between this and the Portland schools for
small children."
She wished, and so did the teachers in the other three divisions, to have
the pupils almost forget they were blind.
She allowed them to sing and recite poetry for the entertainment of
their visitors. Some of them had very sweet voices, and Mrs. Clifford
listened with tears. Their singing recalled to her mind the memory of
beautiful things, as music always does; and then she remembered that
through their whole lives these children must grope in darkness. She
felt more sorrowful for them than they felt for themselves. These dear
little souls, who would never see the sun, were very happy, and some of
them really supposed it was delightful to be blind.
Their teacher desired them to come forward, if they chose, and repeat
sentences of their own composing. Some things they said were very
odd. One bright little girl remarked very gravely,--
"Happy are the blind, for they see no ghosts."
This made her companions all laugh. "Yes, that's true," thought Dotty.
"If people should come in here with ever so many pumpkins and
candles inside, these blind children wouldn't know it; they couldn't be
frightened. I wonder where they ever heard of ghosts. There must have
been some naughty girl here, like Angeline."

CHAPTER II

.
EMILY'S TRIALS.
At three o'clock the little blind girls all went out to play in one yard,
and the little blind boys in the other.
"Goin' out to take their air," said Katie. Then she and Dotty followed
the girls in respectful silence.
Almost every one had a particular friend; and it was wonderful to see
how certain any two friends were to find one another by the sense of
feeling, and walk off together, arm in arm. It was strange, too, that they
could move so fast without hitting things and falling down.
"When I am blindfolded," thought Dotty, "it makes me dizzy, and I
don't know where I am. When I think anything isn't there, the next I
know I come against it, and make my nose bleed."
She was not aware that while the most of these children were blind,
there were others who had a little glimmering of eyesight. The world
was night to some of them; to others, twilight.
They did not know Dotty and Katie were following them, and they
chatted away as if they were quite by themselves.
"Emily, have you seen my Lilly Viola?" said one little girl to another.
"Miss Percival has dressed her all over new with a red dressing-gown
and a black hat."
The speaker was a