The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-20

clear voice, but followed by curiously-
bewildered look.
"Don't you know me?" she repeated.
Rain-rain-" he began, hesitat-
ingly, tentatively, and then stopped, as
if frightened by the sound of his voice.
1t is a strange case" said the sur
geon who was summoned. We call
it aphasia. He has sustained an injury
in the frontal portion of the brain, and
has lost the power Of language. Does
he know how to write? No? That is
pity. In some cases they can still
write. The mind is not necessarily i'm
paired-he has simply forgotten how to
apply words to ideas. 1t is complete
aphasia. He says one thing and means
something entirely different. l would
not lead him to talk much; it will sim
ply excite him.
Mrs. Alden had the poor wreck in
stalled in cabin on the premises and
well cared for. She was persuaded that
he had received his wound in defense
of their home, and spared him no at
tention. For long time-in fact, for
months-a singular restlessness per-
vaded him. He babbled long strings of
incoherent words, he waved his one
sound arm wildly in the air, and then,
as if despairing of making himself I'M
derstood, he lapsed into state of apa-
thy and inertia, and would sit all day
long in his chair, rarely making a sound
or movement. Whether he thought or
reasoned no one could say with certi
tude. There never seemed to be any
marked change. His greatest delight,
perhaps, was in Anna Alden, and as
time went by and she grew into sweet
and serious girlhood, she never suffered
herself to neglect him. Many an hour
she spent at his cabin showing him pic
lures or telling him stories, which she
insisted that he understood. AT any
rate he seemed more animated when
she was there, and yet more tranquil.
But the locked chamber of his brain
was as far from opening, for any sign he
gave, as on the night they found him
lying in the grass.
Meanwhile things went wretchedly
bad upon the farm; the loss of their
money had thrown the family entirely
upon the remnant of their property for
support, and those who remember the
chaos that followed the surrender and
the dismal days of reconstruction need
not be told that their outlook was a
precarious one. Mrs. Alden strained
every nerve to keep her children in
school, but bad tenants and half-cul-
tivated lands made it an uphill fight.
They were overwhelmed by those per-
sistent and multiplied small disasters
which are easily enough traceable, and
yet which seem at the same time the
pure perversity of fate. The corn-crib
burned, their best mules died, the boil
worm came in the cotton, and so on
until they had tasted more than one
privation, and it seemed half useless to
prolong the struggle.
But they were proud people, and
would not yield nor complain, and had
a morbid fear of being pitied. Out
wardly there was no change, and nobody
but themselves knew how many desper-
ate expedients and heart breaking
makeshfts kept them afoat. Will left
school of his own accord and took a
pillow, and Anna, who was nothing but
child herself, obtained a school to
teach. The neighbors sympathized with
them and occasionally made advances,
which were not always characterized by
tact. One day Colonel Hough, who was
buying up good deal of cheap land in
the vicinity, stopped his buggy at the
gate, for chat.
"Times are mighty hard just now,
ma'am," he observed. Takes tight
scratching to get along"
Yes, indeed" said Mrs. Alden 4;
"yet we manage to make both ends
meet somehow"
~ declare 1 don't see how you do
it," exclaimed the colonel, Especially
with that paralyzed niger on your
hands. Why don't you send him to
the poorhouse?"
Mrs. Alden bit her lip. 1--WE prefer
to keep him here" she said coldly.
For some time new phase had de-
veloped in the cripple's condition. He
had obtained bit of pencil one day,
and after that was never satisfied unless
he was marking or scrawling with it..
He had never known how to write, and
yet it seemed as if he was endeavoring
to convey some sort of message. He
covered every scrap of paper they
brought him and thrust them eagerly
upon Mrs. Alden's or Annals attention.
This performance especially interested
| luC Slll anu ouO OllcD, DuL always
utterly in vain, to find some semblance
to writing in his strange scrawls.
Nevertheless his anxiety, his persist
ence, and, above all, his evident disap-
pointment at her failure to compre-
bend, convinced her that behind this
curious manipulation there was some
thing more than the freak of disor-
dered mind.
One afternoon she visited the cabin
with her mother, and the two sat down.
Abe had been particularly active that
day. With the incest care he had
traced one of his characteristic ciphers,
and this he Immediately motioned Anna
to take.
She puzzled over the slip for some
time. Mamma" she said at length
I" did you ever notice that there are
certain figures he always repeats
Now, here, for instance, is this square,
with the funny spots over it-that is on
all the letters he writes, and this thing
like an A. l wonder what it can
maap0)t