ust have passed through his mind, as he clasped to his heart his
chastened, motherless child, and, while other loves and other ties were
his, "the shades of friends departed" as told by Longfellow must have
entered a weird train, and amid other angel footsteps must have come--

"That being beauteous
Who unto his youth was given;
More than all things else to love him,
And is now a saint in Heaven."

Notwithstanding so many former attempts at the restoration of my sight,
another effort was made, involving a trip to New York, where a most
painful operation was undergone. But, alas! although a brief period was
accorded me, in which I saw with rapture objects around me, it was only to
be shut out into utter and hopeless sightlessness. As the wounded hare
seeks some cover remote from the human ken, so did my sinking soul seek
the solace of solitude, where for twenty-four hours I searched my nature
to its depths, and made resolves for my future course, known only to God
and pitying angels. They alone comforted me then, and they have sustained
and soothed through every succeeding trial!

CHAPTER III.

"The saddest day hath gleams of light,
The darkest wave hath bright foam near it.
And, twinkles o'er the cloudiest night,
Some solitary star to cheer it."

In the year 1855, my heart still heavy with its burden of blindness, I
entered the Baltimore Institution for the Blind. With kind friends to aid
and cheer me, high hopes, rich resolutions and ambitious aims to inspire,
I commenced the course of study which was to fit me for my new avocations.
Ofttimes was I found in the deep valley of humiliation, where I sat me
down and sighed; and in many a "Garden of Gethsemane" were seen the
trickling "tears of blood." The cross and the crucifixion came, but
afterwards came the resurrection of dead hopes and angels bearing the
crown.

I must say with undying gratitude to all connected with the Institution,
that it is to them I am indebted for the might and the mastery; for while
many a daisy was crushed in my path, many a rose bloomed upon a thorny
stem, and these kind ones led me at last to the sun-crowned mountain-tops
and clear blue skies.

After being in school for three years, without consulting with any friend,
I wrote, with much difficulty, a letter with pin-type, to Governor Hicks,
asking a three years extension of time. I preserved secrecy in this matter
in the fear of disap