It Was The Dread Typhus, An
Almost Obsolete Malady In Europe, And In Fact In All Civilized
Countries, But Not Uncommon At That Date In The Pestilential City.
It
was wonderful that I lived through it in a place where we were out of
reach of doctors and apothecaries, with only my mother's skill in
nursing and her knowledge of such drugs as were kept in the house to
save me.
She nursed me day and night for the three weeks during which
the fever lasted, and when it left me, a mere shadow of my former
self, I was dumb-not even a little Yes or No could I articulate
however hard I tried, and it was at last concluded that I would never
speak again. However, after about a fortnight, the lost faculty came
back, to my mother's inexpressible joy.
Winter was nearing its end when one morning in late July I ventured
out of doors for the first time, though still but a skeleton, a shadow
of my former self. It was a windy day of brilliant sunshine, a day I
shall never forget, and the effect of the air and the sun and smell of
earth and early flowers, and the sounds of wild birds, with the sight
of the intensely green young grass and the vast crystal dome of heaven
above, was like deep draughts of some potent liquor that made the
blood dance in my veins. Oh what an inexpressible, immeasurable joy to
be alive and not dead, to have my feet still on the earth, and drink
in the wind and sunshine once more!
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