This
Wretched Little Thing Was About Two Years Old--A Girl; Its Eyes Were
Nearly Closed With Inflammation Caused By
Dirt and neglect; it was
naked, with the exception of a filthy rag that hung in tatters scarcely
below its
Hips; and as its ill-tempered and over-worked mother
alternately raved, or cried, the child, which even at this age depended
mainly upon her nursing for its food, joined in a perpetual yell, which
at length terminated in a faint and wearied moan, until it laid itself
down upon the bare, hard stones, and fell asleep. It was a sad picture
of neglect and misery; the shepherd's pretty children shunned it, and in
its abandoned solitude the little creature had to amuse itself. The face
looked like that of an old careworn person who had lost all pleasure in
the world, and the child wandered about alone and uncared for; its only
plaything was my good-tempered dog Wise, who allowed himself to be
pulled about and teased in the most patient manner. I cured the child's
eyes after some days' attention, and my wife had it washed, and made it
decent clothes. This little unusual care, with a few kind words in a
strange language only interpreted by a smile, attracted the poor thing
to the tent, where it would sit for hours, until it at length found
solace in the child's great refuge, sleep. It would always follow Lady
Baker to and fro along the only level walk we had, from the tent to the
running spring, and would sit down by her side directly she arrived at
our favourite seat--a large flat rock looking down upon a precipitous
descent to the ravine some 500 feet below, and commanding a view of the
low country and the distant sea. It was an obstinate and perverse little
creature, and it insisted upon climbing upon rocks and standing upon the
extreme edge overhanging a precipice. If it had been the loved and only
offspring of fond parents, heiress to a large estate, it would of course
have tumbled over, in the absence of nurses and a throng of careful
attendants, but never having been cared for since its birth, it
possessed an instinctive knowledge of self-preservation, and declined to
relieve its mother of an extra anxiety. It was an agreeable change to
lose the sound of a child's constant wailing, and I suggested to the
monks that its presence was hardly in accordance with the severe aspect
of the establishment. There was some mystery connected with it of which
I am still ignorant, as I never ask questions; but it is at the least
ill-judged and thoughtless on the part of "maids of all work" to engage
themselves to any situation where the kissing of a rock, or a holy
effigy, may lead to complications. It was of no use to moralise;
Christina was gone, together with the child; there was absolute quiet in
the monastery; neither the scolding of the mother, nor the crying of an
infant, was heard.
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