r with them. She made
herself ready, and drove with him in his gig. When she entered the
schoolroom, she saw from twelve to fifteen girls lying about; some
resting their aching heads on the table, others on the ground; all heavy-
eyed, flushed, indifferent, and weary, with pains in every limb. Some
peculiar odour, she says, made her recognise that they were sickening for
"the fever;" and she told Mr. Wilson so, and that she could not stay
there for fear of conveying the infection to her own children; but he
half commanded, and half entreated her to remain and nurse them; and
finally mounted his gig and drove away, while she was still urging that
she must return to her own house, and to her domestic duties, for which
she had provided no substitute. However, when she was left in this
unceremonious manner, she determined to make the best of it; and a most
efficient nurse she proved: although, as she says, it was a dreary time.

Mr. Wilson supplied everything ordered by the doctors, of the best
quality and in the most liberal manner; the invalids were attended by Dr.
Batty, a very clever surgeon in Kirby, who had had the medical
superintendence of the establishment from the beginning, and who
afterwards became Mr. Wilson's brother-in-law. I have heard from two
witnesses besides Charlotte Bronte, that Dr. Batty condemned the
preparation of the food by the expressive action of spitting out a
portion of it. He himself, it is but fair to say, does not remember this
circumstance, nor does he speak of the fever itself as either alarming or
dangerous. About forty of the girls suffered from this, but none of them
died at Cowan Bridge; though one died at her own home, sinking under the
state of health which followed it. None of the Brontes had the fever.
But the same causes, which affected the health of the other pupils
through typhus, told more slowly, but not less surely, upon their
constitutions. The principal of these causes was the food.

The bad management of the cook was chiefly to be blamed for this; she was
dismissed, and the woman who had been forced against her will to serve as
head nurse, took the place of housekeeper; and henceforward the food was
so well prepared that no one could ever reasonably complain of it. Of
course it cannot be expected that a new institution, comprising domestic
and educational arrangements for nearly a hundred persons, should work
quite smoothly at the beginning.

All this occurred