' says I; 'don't say she'll be dumb as well as
deaf; it's enough to break one's heart only to think of it.' 'But I
_must_ say so,' says he; 'for I'm afraid it's the truth.' And then
he asks me whether I hadn't noticed already that she was unwilling to
speak; and that, when she did speak, her voice wasn't the same voice it
used to be. I said 'Yes,' to that; and asked him whether the fall had
had anything to do with it. He said, taking me up very short, it had
everything to do with it, because the fall had made her, what they call,
stone deaf, which prevented her from hearing the sound of her own voice.
So it was changed, he told me, because she had no ear now to guide
herself by in speaking, and couldn't know in the least whether the few
words she said were spoken soft or loud, or deep or clear. 'So far as
the poor child herself is concerned,' says he, 'she might as well be
without a voice at all; for she has nothing but her memory left to tell
her that she has one.'

"I burst out a-crying as he said this; for somehow I'd never thought of
anything so dreadful before. 'I've been a little too sudden in telling
you the worst, haven't I?' says the old gentleman kindly; 'but you
must be taught how to make up your mind to meet the full extent of this
misfortune for the sake of the child, whose future comfort and happiness
depend greatly on you.' And then he bid me keep up her reading and
writing, and force her to use her voice as much as I could, by every
means in my power. He told me I should find her grow more and more
unwilling to speak every day, just for the shocking reason that she
couldn't hear a single word she said, or a single tone of her own voice.
He warned me that she was already losing the wish and the want to speak;
and that it would very soon be little short of absolute pain to her to
be made to say even a few words; but he begged and prayed me not to let
my good nature get the better of my prudence on that account, and not
to humor her, however I might feel tempted to do so--for if I did, she
would be dumb as well as deaf most certainly. He told me my own common
sense would show me the reason why; but I suppose I was too distressed
or too stupid to understand things as I ought. He had to explain it
to me in so many words, that if she wasn't constantly exercised in
speaking, she would lose her power of speech altogether, for want of
practice--just the same as if she'd been born dumb. 'So, once again,'
says he,