We were lately shown a curiosity in the shape of a sewing machine
entirely of wood. It was whittled out of ordinary pine with an ordinary
jack-knife by an ordinary boy--no, not an ordinary boy; it was the
handiwork of a deaf and dumb boy who resides at Massachusetts. A machine
was left at the house of the boy by an agent, and the lad, with
considerable ingenuity, made a counterpart of the machine, and did it
wholly with a jack-knife.
"MIGHTY PROUD."
At a meeting held in a country village in aid of the Deaf and Dumb
Institution, Derby, a number of the pupils were present on the platform.
One of the speakers called attention to a bright looking little fellow,
and asked the audience if they knew him? and amidst general laughter
spoke of the boy's earlier years, how he had seen him running about
barefooted and dirty, playing with the worst boys in the streets; but
now completely changed in his habits and character. He went on to relate
a little incident he had himself observed a few weeks previous, when the
boy was home from the Institution for his holiday. The little deaf and
dumb boy was coming along the road, looking clean and bright, and
carrying a book in his hand, when four of his old gutter companions, all
in dirt, and who ought to have been at school, saw him, and one of them
shouted out, "Hello, here's owd dummy comin;" and all four went to meet
him, and tried to make friends with him, but he thought they were
scarcely clean enough for his company, and quietly passed on his way
towards home. The boys were surprised, and stared at each other for some
time; at last one of them said, "Oh, ain't he got mighty proud?"
[Illustration]