UNCLE SAM'S FARM. 61 



or exposed upon the mountain to wild beasts. But 

 now there are millions of people by whom it is recog- 

 nized as a duty and esteemed as a privilege to protect 

 and cherish her, or any one in the like situation. 



" There is something, perhaps, in the rarity of such 

 cases of manifold bereavement— something in the fact 

 that she is the first person who ever came out of 

 such a dark and silent prison to tell us plainly of its 

 condition —something of pride in the proof which she 

 gives of the native power of the human soul ; but still, 

 bating all this, the amount of tender sympathy in her 

 misfortunes, and of the real attempt to lighten them, 

 which has been shown by thousands of sensitive hearts, 

 is most gratifying to reflect upon. 



" laura's present state. 



" At the period when the last mention was made of 

 her in our Annual Report, she had gained a sufficient 

 knowledge of language to converse freely by means of 

 the finger alphabet, on all topics which would be under- 

 stood by girls generally of twelve years old. She had 

 begun to come into relation with a variety of persons ; 

 with the teachers and pupils in the school for the 

 blind, all of whom could converse rapidly and easy 

 with her. She had become intimate with several 

 6 



