JACK METCALF: A Blind Boy with Vision
“HEY JACK, WANT to come bird-nesting with us?” his friends would say. Or “Let’s go raid an apple orchard, Jack. Want to climb and shake the tree for us?” And away Jack would go. He was a lively boy, energetic and strong, but Jack was different from the other boys. He was blind.
John Metcalf, called Jack by his friends, was born in the year 1717 in Knaresborough, a small market town that rises on the slope of a rocky gorge above the River Nidd in Yorkshire, England. A sturdy lad, the son of a laborer, he grew and thrived until age six, when he was stricken with smallpox. He recovered, but the disease had left him totally blind.
As he regained his strength, Jack began to adapt to his blindness. In six months he was able to leave his father’s cottage
