THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

Crazy Ann.

 

 

Ww MDUN EL Se

 

. ATHER,” said Margaret Standish,
it a merry little girl of my ac-
quaintance, “father, what has

become of crazy Ann? I have

not seen her for a long time. I wish she

would come here again. She used to
make a good deal of fun for us. What

member the last time she was here, how
she made us all laugh? She had a white
dress on, and said she was going to be
married to a spirit, How funny !”

“T remember all about Ann’s lagt visit
here,” said Mr. Standish ; “but I did not
feel at all like laughing at her language.
I felt more like weeping than I did like
laughing. Poor woman! I pitied her
with all my heart.”

“I don’t see why, I am. sure,” said
Margaret.

“T will tell you why, my dear,” replied
her father. “When Ann was in her right
mind, she was as sensible as any body.
She was very good and kind, too. All
the people in the neighborhood loved her.
Don’t you remember having heard your
mother tell about the lady that watched
her so carefully and kindly during that
long sickness of her’s, when we thought
for weeks that she could not get well ?”

“Oh yes, sir. It makes me shudder
now to think how very sick dear mother
was, and how near we came to losing her.
Was it Ann Bristol, was it crazy Ann that
took such good care of her all that time?”

“Yes, it was Ann Bristol, though she
was not crazy then. She did not lose her
reason till several years after that.”

“ Father, how do people lose their rea-
son? what makes them crazy? If they
were good once, what makes them bad ?”

“T can’t answer all these questions in
one breath. They make quite a catechism.
Some people lose their reason from one
cause, and some from another. Sickness
brings on insanity sometimes. Grief, dis-
appointment, sudden fright, also produce
it. You speak as if good people became

a woman she is to talk! Don’t you re-| bad, when they are crazy. It is not so—

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