He wanted his wife to abandon his wretched carcass long ago, as she herself was sound and well, but Luka said that she was content to remain and wait on the man she loved till the spirit should be freed from its burden.
"I myself have known hard cases enough:--of a girl, apparently in full health, decorating the church with me at Easter, who before Christmas is taken away as a confirmed leper; of a mother hiding her child in the mountains for years so that not even her dearest friends knew that she had a child alive, that he might not be taken away; of a respectable white man taken away from his wife and family, and compelled to become a dweller in the Leper Settlement, where he is counted dead, even by the insurance companies." And one great pity of it all is, that these poor sufferers are innocent.
The leprosy does not come of sins which they committed, but of sins committed by their ancestors, who escaped the curse of leprosy! Mr.Gowan has made record of a certain very striking circumstance.

Would you expect to find in that awful Leper Settlement a custom worthy to be transplanted to your own country?
They have one such, and it is inexpressibly touching and beautiful.

When death sets open the prison-door of life there, the band salutes the freed soul with a burst of glad music!.