to aprons of scarlet linen, to collars and belts of red velvet, and
she had a general air of being fresh, thoroughly alive, and in a
state of dewy and perennial bloom. Mary was right in her surmise,
and whenever she herself was out of Lisa's sight or reach the child
turned to Rhoda instinctively and obeyed her implicitly.



CHAPTER V--THE NEW PLANT GREW



'Now, Rhoda dear,' said Mistress Mary one day, when Lisa had become
somewhat wonted to her new surroundings, 'you are to fold your hands
respectfully in your lap and I will teach you things,--things which
you in your youth and inexperience have not thought about as yet.
The other girls may listen, too, and catch the drippings of my
wisdom. I really know little about the education of defective
children, but, thank heaven, I can put two and two together, as Susan
Nipper said. The general plan will be to train Lisa's hands and
speak to her senses in every possible way, since her organs of sense
are within your reach, and those of thought are out of it. The
hardest lesson for such a child to learn is the subordination of its
erratic will to our normal ones. Lisa's attention is the most
hopeful thing about her and encourages me more than anything else.
It is not as if there were no mental processes existing; they are
there, but in a very enfeebled state. Of course she should have been
under skilled teaching the six years, but, late as it is, we couldn't
think of giving up a child who can talk, use her right hand, dress
herself, go upon errands, recognise colours, wash dishes; who is