had not an adequate notion of what these really were.
Perhaps those who are born blind, or who have lost sight at so early an
age that no memory of it remains, do not adequately realise their
privation. Sight is to them a "fourth dimension," a something that it is
absolutely impossible to realise. They can talk about it, but it is
impossible for them to understand it.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Confessions of an English Opium Eater_, pp. 48 and 73, by Thomas de
Quincey. Edinburgh, 1862.

[2] Gilbert.

CHAPTER III

LITTLE BLOSSOM

"What, were ye born to be
An hour or half's delight,
And so to bid good-night?"--HERRICK.

Mr. Wintle gave his little grand-daughter a new name after her loss of
sight. He called her "Little Blossom." She was never to develop into
flower or fruit, he said, on account of her great affliction, and the
limitations that it must entail. Miss Trotwood may have had a similar
theory as to David Copperfield's Dora, but these were days before
Dickens had written of Little Blossom. The theory was by no means
adopted by Bessie's parents; and the name of Blossom was used by Mr.
Wintle only.

Dr. Kynaston, in lines addressed "to Bessie," in 1835, tells how his
"soul" reproved

"That friend, as once I heard him say,
Oh, may it please Almighty God
To take that child away!"

We do not know who "that friend" was, who prayed for the removal, at
nine years old, of a singularly happy and engaging child; but the
prayer is indicative of the condition of the blind, the probable outlook
for the child, and the point of view from which blindness was regarded
even by people of culture and means. If such a one could pray for the
death of a blind child, what would the poor do?

Despite the "Blossom" theory, or perhaps because of it, Bessie was a
great favourite with her grandfather. He liked to have her with him at
Culham Vicarage. She often stayed there for weeks together, and would
learn more about flowers and birds than she could do in Oxford. There
was also a delightful companion and friend at Culham, the black pony,
Toby. Bessie was a fearless little rider, and delighted in a gallop
round the field. But Mr. Wintle would not trust her alone with Toby, and
there was always a servant to walk or run by his side. The grandfather
makes an entry in his diary as to Bessie's first ride, and adds that he
"was much pleased with Blossom."

It was at Culham that she was