was preferable to the scorn and contempt I should necessarily meet if I survived.  Then came a reaction, and when our angel mother glided so noiselessly around my sick room; when you, darling Fanny, nursed me with so much care, and even father’s voice grew low and kind as he addressed me, my better nature, if I had any, was touched, and I thought I would like to live for the sake of retrieving the past.  But the evil spirit which has haunted me from infancy whispered that as soon as I was well all would be changed.  You, Fanny, would hate me, and father would treat me as he always had, only worse.”

“Poor dear child!  I didn’t or’to do so, I know,” said Uncle Joshua, and Julia continued:  “Then I thought how the world would loathe, and despise and point at me, until I was almost maddened, and when Dr. Gordon said I would live, the tempter whispered suicide; but I dared not do that.  About that time I heard rumors of a marriage which would take place as soon as I was well; and Fanny will you forgive me?  I tried to be sick as long as possible for the sake of delaying your happiness.”

A pressure of the hand was Fanny’s only answer, and Julia proceeded:  “I could not see you married to him.  I could not meet the world and its censure, so I determined to go away.  I had thirty dollars in my purse, of which no one knew, and taking that I started, I knew not where.  On reaching the schoolhouse something impelled me to enter it, and I found there a young girl about my own size.  Under other circumstances I might have been frightened, but now utterly fearless, I addressed her, and found from her answers that she was crazy.  A sudden idea entered my brain.  I would change clothes with her, and thus avoid discovery.  She willingly acceded to my proposition, and in my new attire I again started toward Lexington, which I reached about four in the morning.  I had no definite idea as to where I wanted to go, but the sight of the Cincinnati stage drawn up before the Phoenix determined me.  I had purposely kept my own bonnet and veil, as the maniac girl wore neither.  Drawing the latter over my face, I kept it there while securing my place in the coach, and until we were many miles from the city.  Passengers entered and left, and some looked inquisitively at me and my slightly fantastic dress.

“We reached Cincinnati about ten in the morning, and with a long glad breath I stepped from the coach, and felt that Kentucky and my notorious character were behind.  I stopped at the ——­ Hotel, and the next two days were spent in procuring myself a decent outfit.  Each night I went to a different house, for the sake of avoiding suspicion, and as my bills were promptly paid, no questions were ever asked.  At the D——­ House I saw in a paper an advertisement for a teacher in a school in one of the interior towns.  I had formed some such plan for the future, and instantly determined personally to apply for the situation.  I did so, but credentials were required, and I had none to give.  Somewhat weary of my adventure I returned to Cincinnati, and in passing through one of the streets, my eye caught the sign ‘Fashionable Dressmaking and Millinery.’  I knew I had a taste for that, and I concluded to offer myself as an apprentice.”