"My special work," continued the trained nurse, "is of course with
the sick, nursing and teaching how to nurse, and how to prevent as
well as to cure illness, and sending cases I cannot help down to the
level country for proper treatment. I see, Aunt Dalmanutha, that
you are blind. Have you any objection to letting me take a close
look at your eyes?"

"Look all you want," was the grim reply; "I am used to being a'
object and a spectacle."

The nurse took from her satchel a glass with which she carefully
examined the dulled and lifeless eyes, sitting down afterward
without a word.

"And not only a' object and a spectacle," continued Aunt Dalmanutha,
bitterly, "but a laughing-stock and a byword for the preachers in
especial to mock and flout at. Yes, I that were once the workingest
and most capablest woman up and down Clinch; I that not only could
weave my fourteen yard', or hoe my acre of corn, or clear my man's
stint of new ground, a day, but likewise had such faculty in my
head-piece that I were able to manage and contrive and bring to
pass; I that rejoiced in the work of my hands and the pyeertness of
my mind and the fruits of my industry, and when my man died were
able to run the farm and take keer of the children as good as
before--I am sot down here in the midst of rack and ruin, with the
roof a-leaking over me, the chimbly sagging out, the fence rotten
and the hogs in the corn, the property eatin' their heads off, and
the young uns lacking warm coats and kivers, John and Marthy being
so mortal doless; I am sot here bound hand and foot, my strength