HISTORY OE A GOVERNESS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 709, 16 August 1869, Page 4

HISTORY OE A GOVERNESS.

JTbb Syd» e y Herald is responsible for the following story, its accuracy is vouched for by the narrator, and cannot fail to be read with melancholy interest;—"A few days ago I stood by the side of a dying girl j her ago was seventeen, and this is her history: She was the youngest child in fx hrge family. Her mother was the widow of a clerk in the City Bank, who died sud denly, leaving his wife and children destitute. Her sisters went out as governesses: she remained at home until increasing want rendered it necessary for her, too, to make her own living. She found employment as a daily governess. She waiked each day four miles to and from her work, and received a few shillings a week. All dav Jong she toiled, getting no food until she returned home in the eyening. Who does jiot remember the h t summer of last year? Through the glare of that cloudless season this poor child starved on. The sun withered up flower and shrub, and withered the brain of the daily governess. Day by day her strength melted away; at last she broke down. She could go no more to the daily lesson ; it was too late now to give her food, kindly smiles, or more wages. Her cry from morn to night, as she rocked to and fro, pressing her hands on her burning forehead, was, 'Mother, mother, m> brain is gone!' One day she was found ■with one hand copying verses from the Bible ; with the other she had gashed herself with a knife. It was then I first heard of the case. I advised her mother to send her to a hospital for the insane. My advice was taken. I of;en went to inquire after her. I found the place full of governesses, and all that kindness could do seemed to be done for them. She soon became a raving lunatic One day I took two of her pisters to see her. They were just in time to see her die. In her cell, with an angel smile, she lay. She had fought the ol life to its bitter end, and all was over now. With a look as though she blessed the world that killed her, her young spirit passed away. Congestion of the brain was the cause of her death, hard work the cause of the congestion. A little food, a little kindness on the part of her employer, have saved her life. The birds were ginging gaily as they laid her by her father's side in a quiet country grave. There were few mourners j but some poor children, and an old cripple whom she taught, and to whom she read the Bible on Sundays, came some miles to see the last of the little teacher."