ying, do you,
my dear?' says he in a hearty cheerful way. 'You don't hear me saying
that you're the prettiest little girl I ever saw in my life?' She looked
up at him confused, and quite silent. He didn't speak to her again, but
told me to turn her on the bed, so that he could get at one of her ears.

"He pulled out some instruments, while I did what he asked, and put them
into her ear, but so tenderly that he never hurt her. Then he looked in,
through a sort of queer spy-glass thing. Then he did it all over again
with the other ear; and then he laid down the instruments and pulled
out his watch. 'Write on a piece of paper,' says he to the other doctor:
_'Do you know that the watch is ticking?'_ When this was done, he makes
signs to little Mary to open her mouth, and puts as much of his watch in
as would go between her teeth, while the other doctor holds up the paper
before her. When he took the watch out again, she shook her head, and
said 'No,' just in the same strange voice as ever. The old gentleman
didn't speak a word as he put the watch back in his fob; but I saw by
his face that he thought it was all over with her hearing, after what
had just happened.

"'Oh, try and do something for her, sir!' says I. 'Oh, for God's sake,
don't give her up, sir!' 'My good soul,' says he, 'you must set her an
example of cheerfulness, and keep up her spirits--that's all that can be
done for her now.' 'Not _all,_ sir,' says I, 'surely not _all!'_ 'Indeed
it is,' says he; 'her hearing is completely gone; the experiment with my
watch proves it. I had an exactly similar case with the mason's boy,'
he says, turning to the other doctor. 'The shock of that fall has,
I believe, paralyzed the auditory nerve in her, as it did in him.' I
remember those words exactly, sir, though I didn't quite understand them
at the time. But he explained himself to me very kindly; telling me over
again, in a plain way, what he'd just told the doctor. He reminded me,
too, that the remedies which had been already tried had been of no use;
and told me I might feel sure that any others would only end in the same
way, and put her to useless pain into the bargain. 'I hope,' says he,
'the poor child is too young to suffer much mental misery under her
dreadful misfortune. Keep her amused, and keep her talking, if you
possibly can--though I doubt very much whether, in a little time, you
won't fail completely in getting her to speak at all.'

"'Don't say that, sir,