Morgan Robertson

“ No word of sympathy, no kindly inquiry or expression of friendly interest lightened his darkness or relieved the hideous nightmare which enveloped his soul; he was merely a subject for forecastle wit and ridicule. But into the depths of his misery and helpless terror, surrounded by phenomena of sound and motion beyond the power of his mind to grasp, when the old life in the garden faded to a dream of another world, and even his father's voice would not come back, he carried the memory of the soft, yielding features of the girl, and the kiss on his lips, and the sympathy of her voice. ”

“ They left the ship and returned to their own, the clipper, where the boy, astonished that no one shared his joyousness, was lifted up the side and placed on the deck. He looked around and staggered, until, shutting his eyes, he recovered his balance.
"Oh, it's the blind boy," exclaimed a voice that he knew, which sent his blood leaping.
"Mary!" he cried. "Mary! Mary, where are you? I can see now! I can see with my eyes!" She was at his side in an instant. With his eyes still closed, he felt of her face and hair, reveling in ecstatic delight of the senses which remembered her ”

“ Mary was kinder than his father.
As he thought of the generous sympathy of the girl, which he had felt without wholly appreciating, his resentment toward his father increased to passionate rebellion.
"Mary lives in a ship," he muttered. "It has no garden. It can’t be far." He climbed the ladder, raised it, lowered it on the other side, and descended. ”

“ As the ship neared the tropics, his education, from being confined to the work on deck, progressed on higher lines. Followed by objurgations from the officers, he felt his way aloft one day to the mizzen-royal yard, and, under the instructions of a sailor who accompanied him, learned to loose and furl the sail. This became his especial task, to which, asleep or awake, night or day, he was called when sail was shortened or set. ”

“ We can see everything in front of us."
"And is every one that way but me?"
"Most every one. There are a few blind people. But, tell me," said the girl, wiping her eyes, "how do you know the color of my hair?"
"With my fingers. Do you tell colors with your eyes?"
"Mary! Bear a hand now, my girl," came a voice over the wall. "Where are you?"
"Oh, there's papa!" she exclaimed. "I must go." She moved toward the ladder. "Good-by." ”

“ THE CLOSING OF THE CIRCUIT WHILE my child lives and I am here to teach him, he will not know the meaning of the words light, color, and darkness. He will grow up ignorant of his condition and will be educated from expurgated books for the blind. ”

“ The men needed no encouragement. They saw the portent in the southern sky, and hauled and worked and multiplied themselves as only a short-handed merchant crew can. The three royals were soon hanging in the bunt-lines and they manned the top-gallant gear. The blind boy quickly furled the mizzen-royal, and came down while the men were still tugging at top-gallant clew-lines and bunt-lines. ”

“ The boy obeyed, and as the captain directed the hauling-up of courses and lowering of upper topsails before sending the men aloft to furl, he was alone in the rigging, climbing a strange road to find in his darkness, by the similarity of structure with the mizzen-mast, a royal-yard where he was to do two men's work. ”

“ I'm just visiting Aunt Mary, and thought I'd climb the fence. I don't live anywhere; I've been aboard papa's ship all my life. He's coming for me to-day, for we sail to-morrow. We're going to Shanghai this voyage. ”

“ The child grew, healthy and strong. With his father for teacher and a few trusted servants his only companions, he passed his childhood and early youth, and was educated as are the blind—with this difference: nothing was taught him that in his father's judgment would lead him into inquiry as to his true condition. His four remaining senses became abnormally keen ”

“ While none approved of his plan, few cared to question or openly criticise the stern, iron-faced man who occasionally appeared on the streets, and in time, as they died off or moved away, the strange existence unfolding within those high walls was forgotten. ”

“ The trouble was with the optic nerve or the inner connection with the brain. He would never know light from darkness, though the eye, being well nourished, would grow with the body and retain its color. ”

“ The wife and mother had died in giving birth to the little one, and as there were no solicitous relatives on either side to interfere, the doubly afflicted man was free to educate his child as he wished. ”