She soon found, and this history
is taken from her own lips, that for a few days during every fourth
week, the effort of reciting produced an extraordinary physical
result. The attendant anxiety and excitement relaxed the sluices of
the system that were already physiologically open, and determined a
hemorrhage as the concomitant of a recitation. Subjected to the
inflexible rules of the school, unwilling to seek advice from any one,
almost ashamed of her own physique, she ingeniously protected herself
against exposure, and went on intellectually leading her companions,
and physically defying nature. At the end of a year, she went home
with a gratifying report from her teachers, and pale cheeks and a
variety of aches. Her parents were pleased, and perhaps a little
anxious. She is a good scholar, said her father; somewhat over-worked
possibly; and so he gave her a trip among the mountains, and a week or
two at the seashore. After her vacation she returned to school, and
repeated the previous year's experience,--constant, sustained work,
recitation and study for all days alike, a hemorrhage once a month
that would make the stroke oar of the University crew falter, and a
brilliant scholar.
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