r forgot it for a moment. So it
went on till I was about twenty years old, and then came on the trouble in
my foot, and I was confined to my bed for many months. Oh! how bitterly I
suffered! Was every misfortune to fall on me alone?' I thought. How could
I foresee that this very trouble would turn out to be good fortune for
me?"

"The doctor came to see me constantly; he took as much interest in my case
as if I could have paid him handsomely.

He noticed that I was industrious, that I did not lie idle even when I was
in great pain. It pleased him to find me always with work in my hand. When
at last the acute attack was over, and the doctor told me that this would
be his last visit, he told me also that I was lame for life. At first I
could not walk at all; but bye and bye I learned to use my crutches. When
I offered the doctor the money that was due him for his attendance, he
said we would not speak of that; that we both had to work, but with this
difference, that he was sound and whole, while I was not. He took my hand
kindly, saying that it was hard for me not to be able to take any
amusement after working hard all the week; not to go out with the others
on Sunday; and that if I cared for reading, his wife had a great many nice
books which she would be glad to lend me, and they would make the Sundays
less tedious. I did not really care for reading; I preferred sewing as you
do, but I accepted the doctor's offer and went to his house. His wife was
very kind and gave me a book at once, bidding me come as soon as I had
finished it and get another. I began to read the very next Sunday, and I
became so deeply interested that I scarcely laid the book down all day,
and even during the week I took it up as often as I could find a spare
moment. It was an account of foreign countries and nations; how they
lived, and their manners and customs. I was particularly interested to
read about how the women were treated in different places; how in some
countries they are sold and bartered for cattle or wool or cloth, and how
they belong to their husbands just as if they were furniture, and their
husbands can treat them just as they please, as we do cats or dogs. And in
some places, it said, a wife has to be burned when her husband dies,
because she is only a part of him and has no value of her own after his
death. Oh! how many strange things there are in the world, to be sure! I
became hungry and thirsty for knowledge. The doctor's wif