LAUEA BRIDGMAN. 251 " No," said the teacher with decision, and took her hand down. Laura sat awhile without motion, and then, as the teacher reports, " uttered the most frightful yell I ever heard." Her face was pale, and she was trembling in every limb. The teacher, hearing the sound of visitors approaching, said to her : " You must go and sit alone." She rebelled for a moment, and then went to her room. The spirit of defiance seemed to have obtained firm pos- session of her, and some days passed before she showed a genuine penitence. In the interval, she behaved very much as other naughty children do ; among other things, affecting gayety of a boisterous character. At length, however, through the tact and perseverance of the teacher, she came to a better state of mind. It was long before she gained the mastery of this fault ; lapsing occasionally after she was of age. More than forty years have passed since Charles Dickens saw this afflicted child, during most of which she has lived at the Asylum and spent her summer vaca- tions at her native village. Her education proves to be as successful as Mr. Dickens regarded it before it. had been tested by maturity. Miss Bridgman is now (1883) fifty-four years old. In appearance she differs little from a prevailing type of middle-aged New England ladies. She passes her life very much as she would if she enjoyed the use of all her senses. The most curious and interesting event of her later years was her reversion from the philosophical Unitarian- Ism of Dr. Howe to the religion of her parents, who were Baptists. She became acquainted in 1855 with a blind girl from Germany, an enthusiastic Baptist, who imparted to Laura her view of the Christian religion. She became after many months of reflection and internal struggle a
