The widow set some bread and cheese
before him, but he thanked her, and said that through the kindness of
the charitable he had broken his fast once since morning, and was not
hungry. When he had made her this reply, he opened his wallet, and took
out a few pence, which was all it appeared to contain.
'Might I make bold to ask,' he said, turning towards where Barnaby stood
looking on, 'that one who has the gift of sight, would lay this out for
me in bread to keep me on my way? Heaven's blessing on the young feet
that will bestir themselves in aid of one so helpless as a sightless
man!'
Barnaby looked at his mother, who nodded assent; in another moment he
was gone upon his charitable errand. The blind man sat listening with an
attentive face, until long after the sound of his retreating footsteps
was inaudible to the widow, and then said, suddenly, and in a very
altered tone:
'There are various degrees and kinds of blindness, widow. There is the
connubial blindness, ma'am, which perhaps you may have observed in
the course of your own experience, and which is a kind of wilful and
self-bandaging blindness. There is the blindness of party, ma'am, and
public men, which is the blindness of a mad bull in the midst of a
regiment of soldiers clothed in red.
Pages:
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603