But I thought that I heard it strike three.
Said my friend then, ‘The blessings we always possess
We know not the want of, and prize them the less;
The church-clock was no new sound to thee.
‘A young woman, afflicted with deafness a year,
By that sound you scarce heard, first perceived she could hear;
I was near her, and saw the girl start
With such exquisite wonder, such feelings of pride,
A happiness almost to terror allied,
She showed the sound went to her heart.’