Mary Louise was not far away from Shady Nook in the matter of miles, but she felt as if she were worlds away. Everything was strangely different from anything she had ever known—grotesque and terrible. For the place she was taken to was an asylum for the insane!
Little did she think as she entered the Adams’ farmhouse that afternoon that her freedom was to be snatched from her. That she was to be held in hopeless captivity, without any means of communication with the outside world. A prisoner in a house that was far worse than a jail, enduring a life that was living death!
When no one answered her knock at the Adams’ door that afternoon, she opened the screen and walked in, calling first Hattie and then Rebecca by name. Finally the latter replied.
“I’m up here, sick abed!” called the woman. “Who be you?”
“It’s Mary Louise,” she answered. “May I come up and see you, Rebecca?”
“Yes, yes. Come! Have you found a well of clear water?”
Mary Louise laughed to herself as she ran up the stairs. She wished that she could find some well water for the poor deluded woman, but there was none in the vicinity. She wondered what Rebecca would do if she ever did discover a well.
She entered the bedroom, smiling and shaking her head at the poor eager creature.
“No, Rebecca—not yet. But I’ll find you one some day. How are you feeling?”
“I’m better. I want to get out soon. Will you get me a drink of water, Mary Louise?”