EDUCATED TO DEATH. 



59 



As an instance, twenty-five questions were given her to be an- 

 swered. She was seated at a table, without books, from 10 a. m. till 

 8 p. M., ceaselessly thinking and writing ; and the twenty-five ques- 

 tions in classical literature were faultlessly answered, and that, too, 

 at a time when, had I known what I know now, she should have been 

 resting on her bed. 



Her father, to whom the paper was shown for his approval, wrote 

 on the margin : " It seems to me that the task imposed here was a 

 great one, indeed ; but it has been performed with good success." I 

 do not for a moment mean to find fault with her teachers, for kinder, 

 more interested ones no pupil ever had; and the delight that a teacher 

 derives from a painstaking and appreciative pupil cannot be under- 

 stood by those unused to teaching. 



While the dear child was meeting our utmost requirements as a 

 scholar, the foundations of her life were being sapped away. 



In May, 1872, a little more than two weeks before the June com- 

 mencement, she was taken with fearful sickness and severe chills, just 

 after one of the haemorrhages that came every three weeks regularly. 

 Our doctor was called, and the first thing she said to him was : "Doctor, 

 I must not be sick now. I cannot afford the time. I must be well for 

 commencement." For four days she suffered very much, but quinine 

 and all sorts of tonics brought her up ; and the two weeks that should 

 have been taken to get well in were spent in study, study, study. All 

 the examinations were passed successfully, even brilliantly, and she 

 was graduated with all the honors of the institution. Oh, how proud 

 we were of her ! and when she came home, frail and weak as a wilted 

 flower, we said that she should have a long rest, and every comfort 

 that we could give her. 



All summer she remained in the Highlands of the Hudson ; yet, 

 when autumn came, she was not as well as we thought she ought to be, 

 though very much improved with regard to the monthly turns, they 

 recurring at right times now. 



In September she commenced studying again ; her French and 

 music were continued, so that she might become still more accom- 

 plished in those branches, and lectures on rhetoric and moral philoso- 

 phy were attended also. 



The habit of studying was so strong upon her that she could not 

 give it up. Now came swelling of the joints and fingers, and the old 

 trouble, all of which she would have kept to herself if she could have 

 done so ; but I was so anxious about her that I ascertained her con- 

 dition, went to the doctor again, and begged him to tell me what to 

 do that would stop the weakening periodical disturbance, as I was 

 persuaded that was the cause of her trouble. He said she had inflam- 

 matory rheumatism, and prescribed soda. But I was not to do any 

 thing for the other matter, and, against my own convictions, I let 

 things take their course. Oh, if he had said, " Take her home, and 



