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"Willie, oh! my dear Willie! do, do, come back to me -- oh! Willie! Willie! I do love you!"

It may be that I aroused some antagonistic feeling, and disturbed some pleasant reverie of hers, when I bent forward and with my hands parted the short hair which fell over her fine forehead, and then bestowed upon it a gentle kiss of tender pity.

In an instant the response came, in a blow from her clenched fist upon my left temple, of such stunning force, that for a moment I was lost to consciousness; for the blow seemed more like the kick of a horse, than the hand of a human being. My spectacles were thrown across the room by the blow, but I was not thrown from my seat.

As soon as I realized what had happened, I returned her fiendish gaze with a look of pity, and exclaimed:

"Why Jenny, you have struck me!"

"Yes, and I am going to knock your brains out!" said she, with furious emphasis, and clenched fists.

Without speaking again, I quietly and calmly withdrew into the hall, where I found my kind attendant, Miss Minerva Tenny, whose quick perception read the tale, and without my speaking a word, she exclaimed:

"Oh! Mrs. Packard, what a wound you have got upon your temple! What has happened?"

"Jenny has struck me. Please get me some cold water to bathe it in."

"You will need something more than water, it is a terrible blow! I will go for Dr. Tenny."

After bringing me the water, she went for him, and he, like a tender brother, came and pitied me, and while I rested my throbbing head against his strong manly arm, I wept for joy at the comfort his words of pity brought with them to my forsaken heart.

"Dr. Tenny, can you protect my life?"

"Mrs. Packard, I would protect you if I could, but, like you, I am a subordinate -- my power is limited."

"Will not the State be held responsible for these exposures of my life, to which Dr. McFarland subjects me? I think this appeal ought to be made."

Without answering this question he assured me he would. do all he could to help and protect me. And he did do so. I think Dr. McFarland was restrained by his manly interference. Still, the citadel of his heart was not reached either by Dr. Tenny's or my son's appeals, to remove me to some safer ward.

And never shall I forget the heartless response he made, as the next day, when for the first time, he beheld my swollen face and throbbing temples, as I lay in agony upon my bed, from the effects of this injury, after I had told him all the circumstances, how I simply bestowed upon her forehead a loving kiss as the only provocation, he simply remarked, as he turned away:

"It is no uncommon thing to receive a blow for a kiss!"

These were the only words either of sympathy or regret I got from the Doctor, although the wound was then in such a state of great inflammation that Mrs. McFarland expressed herself:

"You may consider yourself fortunate, Mrs. Packard, if you do not now lose your eye as the result."

For weeks I carried the marks of this blow, by a deep black temple and eyes, so that a stranger would hardly have recognized me during this period.

But instead of shielding me better after this, he not only let Jenny remain in the ward, but he afterwards brought up Mrs. Triplet from the Fifth ward, and from this time she, the most dangerous patient in the whole female wards, was seated by my side at the table. I seldom seated myself at the table after this, without hearing the threat from Mrs. Triplet:

"I shall kill you!"

And I considered myself very fortunate if I left the table without being spit upon by her, or by having her tea, or coffee, or gravy, or sauce thrown upon my dress.

At one time my right hand companion was suddenly aroused to the attitude of self-defence, by having a knife hurled at her temples or eyes, by one of our insane companions opposite.

This aroused others to seize their knives and forks and chairs, in self-defence, and there is no knowing what a scene might have ensued, had not our attendants been on hand to confine the infuriated ones.

There is no knowing at what instant these scenes may occur, for I have often seen them, without the least apparent provocation, suddenly seize the tumblers, salt cellars, plates, bowls, and pitchers, and hurl them about in demoniacal frenzy, so that the broken glass and china would fly about our face and eyes like hail stones.

The defence which maniacs resort to, is, rendering evil for evil, abuse for abuse, so that at the beginning of a scene among twenty-five or thirty of them it is impossible to tell what the end may be.

And yet this institution receives such, and puts them all into one room, while the family plead that one is too dangerous to trust in a family!

What would they think to have twenty-five in one family? For more than two years has Dr. McFarland imperilled my life, by compelling me to occupy a ward among twenty-five of this class, not knowing at what moment my life might be taken away, or I receive some distressing injury.