But the privations, or rather the hardships, of Lowood lessened. Spring drew on: she was indeed already e; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated. My wretched feet, flayed and swollen to lameness by the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside uhe gentler breathings of April; the nights and ms no longer by their adian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we could now ehe play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it begao be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, a each m brighter traces of her steps. Flowers peeped out amongst the leaves; snow-drops, crocuses, purple auriculas, and golden-eyed pansies. On Thursday afternoons (half-holidays) we now took walks, and found still sweeter flowers opening by the wayside, uhe hedges.
I discovered, too, that a great pleasure, an enjoyment which the horizon only bounded, lay all outside the high and spike-guarded walls of arden: this pleasure sisted in prospect of noble summits girdling a great hill-hollow, ri verdure and shadow; in a bright beck, full of dark stones and sparkling eddies. How different had this se looked when I viewed it laid out beh the iron sky of winter, stiffened in frost, shrouded with snow!— when mists as chill as death wao the impulse of east winds along those purple peaks, and rolled down “ing” and holm till they blended with the frozen fog of the beck! That beck itself was then a torrent, turbid and curbless: it tore asuhe wood, a a raving sound through the air, often thied with wild rain or whirling sleet; and for the forest on its banks, that showed only ranks of skeletons.
April advao May: a bright serene May it was; days of blue sky, placid sunshine, and soft western or southern gales filled up its duration. And now vegetation matured with vigour; Lowood shook loose its tresses; it became all green, all flowery; its great elm, ash, and oak skeletons were restored to majestic life; woodland plants sprang up profusely in its recesses; unnumbered varieties of moss filled its hollows, and it made a strange ground-sunshi of the wealth of its wild primrose plants: I have seen their pale gold gleam in overshadowed spots like scatterings of the sweetest lustre. All this I enjoyed often and fully, free, unwatched, and almost alone: for this unwonted liberty and pleasure there was a cause, to which it now bees my task to advert.
Have I not described a pleasant site for a dwelling, when I speak of it as bosomed in hill and wood, and rising from the verge of a stream? Assuredly, pleasant enough: but whether healthy or not is another question.
That forest-dell, where Lowood lay, was the cradle of fog and fog- bred pestilence; which, quiing with the quiing spring, crept into the Orphan Asylum, breathed typhus through its crowded schoolroom and dormitory, and, ere May arrived, transformed the seminary into an hospital.
Semi-starvation and ed colds had predisposed most of the pupils to receive iion: forty-five out of the eighty girls lay ill at oime. Classes were broken up, rules relaxed. The few who tinued well were allowed almost unlimited lise; because the medical attendant insisted on the y of frequent exercise to keep them ih: and had it been otherwise, no one had leisure to watch or restrain them. Miss Temple’s whole attention was absorbed by the patients: she
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