CHAPTER XIV 

 DANGERS TO THE EYESIGHT 



If any one should ask what you considered the worst 

 thing that could happen to you, you might say blindness. 



Think what it means, to lose the sunlight, the sky 

 and the clouds, the birds and the flowers ! Never to see 

 the faces of friends again ; never to see kites fly, or dolls 

 shut their eyes ; never to be able to read, or play ball or 

 top, or skip rope ! 



Words could not tell our loss, yet blindness comes 

 suddenly sometimes. 



To be sure, there is the bony eye socket like a mountain 

 range around the eyeball to protect it ; and it is true that 

 it stands guard like a faithful sentinel by day and by night ; 

 nevertheless, every Fourth of July of every year toy pistols 

 and cannon firecrackers blow their way past the sentinels 

 and bring darkness to hundreds of shining eyes. 



Scissors, knives, and sticks in careless hands do the 

 same thing. A college student friend of mine even fell 

 on a barbed-wire fence in such a way that a sharp point 

 pierced the eyeball. Since then neither darkness nor 

 daylight has made any difference with that eye. It is 



stone blind. 



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