cutting off a diseased limb. He will die, of course, and the sooner
it is over, the better for him and every one else."

"He will have a hard struggle for life, poor little thing!" said the
nurse. "I would rather see him dead."

Mrs. Dinneford, now that this wicked and cruel deed was done, felt
ill at ease. She pushed the subject away, and tried to bury it out
of sight as we bury the dead, but did not find the task an easy one.

What followed the birth and removal of Edith's baby up to the time
of her return to reason after long struggle for life, has already
been told. Her demand to have her baby--"Oh, mother, bring me my
baby! I shall die if you do not!" and the answer, "Your baby is in
heaven!"--sent the feeble life-currents back again upon her heart.
There was another long period of oblivion, out of which she came
very slowly, her mind almost as much a blank as the mind of a child.

She had to learn again the names of things, and to be taught their
use. It was touching to see the untiring devotion of her father, and
the pleasure he took in every new evidence of mental growth. He went
over the alphabet with her, letter by letter, many times each day,
encouraging her and holding her thought down to the unintelligible
signs with a patient tenderness sad yet beautiful to see; and when
she began to combine letters into words, and at last to put words
together, his delight was unbounded.

Very slowly went on the new process of mental growth, and it was
months before thought began to reach out beyond the little world
that lay just around her.