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"Crazy Ann"

From: The Boy's Story Book
Creator: Francis Channing Woodworth (author)
Date: 1851
Publisher: Clark, Astin & Co.
Source: American Antiquarian Society

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"But, alas! How terrible was their disappointment! A gale arose; the wind blew toward the land. Though every effort was made to get the ship out to sea again, when they found they could not enter the harbor, she struck the beach. The waves dashed furiously over her. She was soon a wreck, and nearly all on board were drowned. John Layton was among the lost.

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"When Ann heard the tidings of the loss of that dear friend, whom she loved more than any one else in the world, she uttered a frightful shriek, and fainted. When she recovered, she was a raving maniac. Her reason had fled.

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"For months after that sad wreck, almost every day, a woman might be seen on the seashore, walking back and forth near the spot where the vessel was dashed against the rocks. People said she seemed to be talking to the waves.

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"Poor woman! You asked what had become of her. When she was here last, at the time you said she talked about her being a spirit, I saw she was so crazy that it would not do to let her walk the streets any more. She was worse then than I had ever seen her before. I had her taken to the alms-house, and told the keeper that he must take good care of her, and be very kind to her. Poor woman! She soon became so much deranged, that it was necessary to confine her in her cell, and to bind her with chains to keep her from taking her life.

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"She did not live long after she went to the alms-house. She died, raving about the cruel ocean that destroyed her sailor-boy. I visited her cell while she was confined there to see if she was as comfortable as anybody could make her; and I saw on the walls of her room the picture of a ship. The keeper said she had drawn this vessel with her own hand, and that she used often to looks at it, and talk as if she saw a man on board of it. Poor Ann! She will suffer no more in this world. She has left us, for a better land!"

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"Dear father," said Margaret after she had heard this story, "I shall never laugh and make fun of a crazy person any more."

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"That's a dear child," said Mr. Standish.

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"And I will go right up stairs, and find Eddy, and tell him how Ann became crazy and he will tell all the boys at school; and I don't think any of them will make sport of crazy folks again."

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"I hope not," said her father. "It is very wrong, as well as foolish, to do so. People who have lost their reason deserve our pity. They cannot help what they say and what they do. It is a dreadful thing to be a maniac."

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