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