The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1854-06-08

child on dry land, with the passengers
and set without as much as looking up &
New York packet Alone in Liverpool
and its no place for blind child, sir, to say
nothing of one that's got eyes--I found
her, amusing her self pretty much as you
see her now, with bits OF chips, at the cor,
ner of a ship yard! How the creature had
lived, can't say. I'll believe after this,
shipmate, there's God in the sky, who,
as she says, keeps watch over children; ii
He don't over us grown up sinners! II
seems she had never wanted for berth
nor mess. "Iwant to go to New Y York, -
she would say to every stranger who spoke
to her I couldn't have left the little
thing-but | don't know where I'm tax
ing her. III can't anchor her safely, I'll
keep her for first mate of the Down; hey,
sea-bird?"
"What could you do with her in that
terrible storm off Cape Clear? shud-
der to recllect that night !"
"Well, sir, while you were lying fat on
your back, and the rest of US were hurra-
ling and pulling hither and thither, work
ing for dear life against the winds and
waves, the pretty creature was rolling
about the cabin floor, clapping her hands
as though she were in an apple-tree swing,
and found it capital fun! When I tumbled
down to my locker for FIVE menutes' rest,
found her on her knees, in her little night
wrap, saying, "0ur Father" and felt
sure no storm would sink the ship with
HER on it!'
Poor mother of Mittiel how her heart
was wrung at sending her blind, trusting
child from her arms But her brother in
America had written, telling her that he
would provide for Mittie--poor sightless
Mittie, who could learn little in that un-
civilized land. So, with many tears and
prayers, that missionary mother had pack
ed her Mittie' small trunk, and klaced her
in the care of a friend--the English lady
before mentioned-to be transported to
our country. What but mothers prayer
guarded the helpless darling in her lonely
wanderings!
On arriving at New York, Captain +
and Mr.. L--made inquiry everywhere
for Mr.. Wythe. Directories we're search
ed, streets ransacked and questions re-
peated hundreds of times to no purpose
No relative of the poor blind Mittie could
be found.
"Leave her with me, captain" said Mr..
L.. 81 am soon to return to London,
bat before sailing / will place her in an
Asylum for the blind, and see that she is
comfortably cared for.''
Instead, however, Of placing Mittie in
the State Asylum ofNew York, her friend
took her to q southern city, where he had
business connections, & left her in one of
those beautiful retreats which nature and
art have combined to adorn for those
whose eyes tell not night from day, nor
beauty from defromity.
Kind voices welcomed the little stran-
ger, but they were voices she had never
heard, nor hoped to heard. For the first
time since she sobbed good-by on her
mothers lap, her hope and faith faltered.
She felt that she was alone in the world,
and she sought out corner to cry. Had
the superintendent particularly interested
himself in the child, he would have found
out her history, and probably have sought
some communication with her parents
But setting down her name as charity
scholar, he forgot that she was not an or
phan.
And Mr.. L.? His sympathies had
been strongly enlisted. and he really in
tended to find out the mystery. But he
was man of the world and immersed in
its busy cares. Having placed sum Of
money for her use in the hands of the di-
rector, with permission to apply to him in
any emergency, he returned to his Eng
ilsh homeland only remembered the
blind child of the voyage at moments
when his own laughing Carrie climbed in
to his lap.
One among hundred children, Mittie
was well educate in all that the blind can
learn. She was taught how to read the
Bible from which her mother had read to
her, by passing her small finger over the
curiously raised letters. She learned to
sew, to braid, and to write strange
thoughts that young head used to frame,
for that unsteady hand to jot down in its
crooked wanderings over the paper. She
learned to sing the sweet hymns of her
schoolmates and to touch for herself the
keys of the piano, whose melodies had
almost made her fancy herself in Heaven,
only that she had been told in Heaven she
should see like other children! Sometimes,
IN her dreams, she would find herself on
a soft couch, with strange perfumes and
sounds about her, and would feel warm
tears dropping one by one, on her fore
head, while dea, arm pressed her close.