Sight to the Blind | Page 6

hand so deftly and furtively that she
did not know it was 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 attentions 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
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 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 Marthy 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, leaning swiftly from the wagon, she
gathered 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; wonderful things was done unto me!" Here
Aunt Dalmanutha--for it was she--supplemented 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 more into the face she had failed to recognize,
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 sojourn. Yes, look, for in heaven you 'll
never see no better sight."
Embarrassed by the open-mouthed family 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 Dalmanutha."
"Tell about it? Tell that which ten thousand tongues could scarce relate?
God knows my stumbling speech hain't equal to the occasion; but I 'll
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