Hester Bliss

At first they said I was in shock, and made much of me, and our honoured benefactress pinched my cheek and gave me sugared almonds. After a while they thought I was simply shy, and ceased to teaze me with questions that I could not answer. But after a month had passed and still I had not spoken, they called me Simple, and left me alone.

I liked that best of all, better even than the sugared almonds, which Mrs Grimble took away anyway, saying it was not good to favour one child so much over the others. The others were not like me. They had lived all their lives in the Foundling Hospital, growing from wriggling babies to sturdy-legged toddling things, and thence to ruddy-cheeked scholars frowning over their horn-books (although not for long - the Hospital guardians prided themselves on turning out Able Bodied Young Persons of Neat and Clean Habits...not over-burdened with knowledge.)