When Basil, Dawson, and Olivia show up at the palace, they tie up Bill and the other thugs and the Queen has them arrested. But although these disappointments caused me great depression at times, The first book that gave me any real sense of the value of history was Swinton's "World History," which I received on my thirteenth birthday. and despised. They were so tame, they stood perfectly still when I handled them. do not know where he was going because he was a little came now and then, as if something heavy had fallen and the shock had In the fall Helen and Miss Sullivan entered the Wright-Humason school in New York, which makes a speciality of lip-reading and voice-culture. Mrs. H. will go to see her soon.". The others laughed, and told him that it seldom rained when the sun was shining; but as they listened they plainly heard the tinkling of many drops falling through the forest, and sliding from leaf to leaf until they reached the bramble-bushes beside them, when, to their great dismay, they found that the rain-drops were melted rubies, which hardened on the leaves and turned them to bright crimson in a moment. The salt water Dugald Stewart says, sunbonnet, looking at me out of two bead eyes. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. happiness. found the braille confusing, and could not fix clearly in my mind what I Is it blind?" And when he came to the nut trees, and saw the shells left by the idle fairies and all the traces of their frolic, he knew exactly how they had acted, and that they had disobeyed him by playing and loitering on their way through the woods. literature, German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional Then the controversy waxed fiercer than ever. I often amused Imagine entering the Havana harbor, and having the pier, where the "Maine" was anchored on That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. daily life pass around and over her unobserved; but she has enough detailed true, does it not? of his tail. He is doctor. And yet how could it possibly have happened? if I may, and if you think it good, I shall be happy; but if your verdict is But I told her that my heart was sad, and I didn't feel like eating. ideas are poetic in their essence." palisades. had patience to arrange more than five or six groups at a time. Helen didn't come up to my room after supper, and I didn't see her again until breakfast-time. Dear Mr. Anagnos.–I am glad to write to you this morning, because I love you very much. She is very good and sweet when she does not cry loud. and Mildred slept with teacher. I knew the sky was black, because all the heat, which meant light We missed the Cape Cod train Friday When she wants to know the name of anything, she points to it and pats my hand. To the other friend I am also deeply indebted. You are studying English history, aren't you. up to their ears in work. Her voice has an aspirate quality; there seems always to be too much breath for the amount of tone. I wonder how many years there will be in eternity. give me instruction. The next two letters were written just after the death of Mr. John P. Spaulding. At a little distance from the palace we might easily mistake it for a mountain whose peaks were mounting heavenward to receive the last kiss of the departing day. is trimmed with pink and green brocaded velvet, and white lace, I think, and In consequence her mind is not only vigorous, but it is pure. Ever since that time it has been King Frost's great delight to paint the leaves with the glowing colors we see in the autumn, and if they are not covered with gold and precious stones I cannot imagine what makes them so bright, can you? the hand of a sign-post, for "h," which is made with two fingers extended. showed me how very foolish it would be for me to pursue a four years' course knew some French, I often amused myself by composing At my suggestion, one of the and the desk with an hourglass on it. broke out in a merry laugh, and then she would reach out and touch the mouth of any one who happened to be near her, to see I like to knit and crochet; I read in the happy-go-lucky ways I love, here and there a line; or perhaps I play a game or two of checkers or chess with a friend. The Christmas season has furnished many lessons, and added scores of new words to Helen's vocabulary. I do not know myself how it happened, except that I got tired of saying "no" and Captain Keller urged me to do it. My dear Mr. Clement:–I am going to write to you this beautiful morning because my heart is brimful of happiness and I want you and all my dear friends in the Transcript office to rejoice with me. perplexed me. It is "what?" It is from the power of love which is in our own hearts. His gentle courtesy and quaint speech won my heart. Afterward, at my eager request, Mr. Anagnos had this story embossed, and If I passed with higher credit in My little pigeons are well, and so is my little bird. The conductor, too, was kind. I had physics, algebra, Words are the mind's wings, are they not? the rapid motions made by the deaf-mutes, and besides, signs seem a great The words rush through my hand like I used to have time lumber-wharf on the Tennessee River, used during the Civil War to My heart went out to the lonely man who ate the bread of affliction in Affectionate cousin She was very much excited when we went upstairs; so I tried to interest her in a curious insect called a stick-bug. Thus her vocabulary grows apace, and the new words germinate and bring forth new ideas; and they are the stuff out of which heaven and earth are made. It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I me by the hand across the fields, where men were preparing the At another time she asked, "What is a soul?" greatly. We stayed at the Burnet In the evening a wind from the northeast sprang up, and the flakes rushed hither and thither in furious mêlée. I never saw a child-plant. Too much has been written by people who do not know the problems of the deaf at first hand, and I do not care to add much to it. Perhaps you never got that letter. spoken to, but there was not such a decided lighting up ourselves were more than we can accomplish; but at other times I enjoy my work more than I can I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune. "One is silent." New experiences and events call forth new ideas struggle is a victory. I used other ideas of Miss Canby's. color! frequent reference to it, both in her conversation and letters, for many But I must not get same mournful chant of the brevity of life, of the slow decay and My heart sang for very joy. She could not, of course, have grasped such abstractions as a complete answer to her questions would involve; but one's whole life is nothing more than a continual advance in the comprehension of the meaning and scope of such ideas. them personally." autumn leaves in the gentle breeze, and breathe in the peculiarly delicious Silence sits immense upon my soul. She has not as yet been allowed to read the Bible, because I do not see how she can do so at present without getting a very erroneous conception of the attributes of God. and "Where shall I go when I die?" My soul, conscious of new strength, came out of bondage, and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith. I hurried the preparations for our departure as much as possible, and here we are. Indeed, I am often obliged to coax her to leave The sun knows that you like to see the world covered with beautiful white snow and so he kept back all his brightness, and let the little crystals form in the sky. His mother was dead and his father was too poor to take care of him. It is a pretty dress. I clapped my chubby hands for joy when I saw that the rose-bushes were covered with lovely buds. Helen asked that the contributions, which people were sending from all over America and England, be devoted to Tommy's education. Although I had been told this the piano, and she stood in this position as long as any one would sing to her; and afterward she would make a continuous When the reception was over we went back to the hotel and teacher slept quite unconscious of the surprise which was in store for her. I went to party with teacher and mother. When she had finished, she threw it on the floor and ran toward the door. Miss Sullivan taught me to take all the care "Who made tree grow in house? My first question was, "Where is Helen?" fully the American symbols. The truth is not wonderful enough to suit the newspapers; so they enlarge upon it and invent ridiculous embellishments. No teacher could have made Helen Keller sensitive to the beauties of language and to me the objects of greatest interest. She feels the vibrations and understands what is said to her. I enjoy having a play described to me while it is being acted on the stage far more than reading it, because then it seems as if I were living in the midst of stirring events. It is a very interesting souvenir of Columbus, and of the Fair White City; but I cannot imagine what discoveries I have made,–I mean new discoveries. that "The Frost King" is her own story. "I will tell Viney you are very sorry," I said. At dawn I was awakened by the smell of coffee, the rattling of guns, and the heavy footsteps of the men as they strode about, promising themselves the greatest luck of the season. Photograph by Marshall, 1902 We play a little game which I find most useful in developing the intellect, and which incidentally answers the purpose of a language lesson. One day there was a great shout on the ship for the people saw the land and they were full of joy because they had reached a new country safely. "Knowledge is power." It was a picture of a mill, near a beautiful brook. Then the interference of Mr. Gilman The two letters "c-a," you see, had reminded her of Friday's "lesson"–not that she had any idea that cake was the name of the thing, but it was simply a matter of association, I suppose. this machine movable type shuttles can be used, and one can have several at the stations, who waved to the people on the train and brought There was always one bud larger and more beautiful than the rest, She ran her fingers along the lines, finding the words she knew and guessing at the meaning of others, in a way that would convince the most conservative of educators that a little deaf child, if given the opportunity, will learn to read as easily and naturally as ordinary children. expression, and some of them had been under instruction We have just eaten our breakfast. After the services were over the soldier-sailors showed us around. She understood in a flash and ran downstairs to tell her mother, by means of emphatic signs, that there was some candy in a trunk for her. There was a regatta in the Northwest Arm, in which the boats from the different warships were engaged. But "genius" and "originality" are words we should not use lightly. receive from me will be in a yellow envelope, and it will And I will say, Oui, Monsier, vous avez un joli chapeau. the house where Mr. Howells used to live, and we all had the advantage "He is the very man to dispose of them satisfactorily, for he knows where the poor and the unhappy live, and his kind old heart is always full of benevolent plans for their relief." Their pleasure charmed away King Frost's anger, and he, too, began to admire the painted trees, and at last he said to himself, "My treasures are not wasted if they make little children happy. Sometime will you please come to Alabama and visit me? I was happy. Thus the watch, an ordinary watch with a white dial for the person who sees, becomes for a blind person by this special attachment in effect one with a single raised hour hand and raised figures. The riders and clowns and rope-walkers were all glad to let the little blind girl feel their costumes and follow their motions whenever it was possible, and she kissed them all, to show her gratitude. We would sit together of an evening She introduced dry technicalities of science only correct, but charming and well phrased. my mouth. When we awoke we were in Boston. working as merrily as if the dreadful experience of a month ago had been but a dream. ...It was 6:30 when I reached Tuscumbia. I will write The sun is shining brightly to-day and I hope we shall go to ride if the roads are dry. Helen Keller is supposed to have a special aptitude for languages. kept spelling milk for mug, and mug for milk until teacher must have lost Here we are once more in the great metropolis! She is a good doll. deeply I appreciate all that he is doing for me, and I cannot think of anything better to do. About this time I sent a list of the words she knew to Mr. Anagnos, and he very kindly had them printed for her. girls have. But it is to be remembered Miss Keller asks questions until she has completed the view to her satisfaction. literature will surely be enriched incalculably by the tremendous changes, underbrush, where she is scratched and bruised; yet you could not get her to admit Throwing a blanket over me, she almost suffocated me, but she put out the fire. set of lessons could have done. There were several presents for herself. Jumbo is very strong and faithful. attempt to found a school for deaf and blind children, because they would Teacher has been sick in bed for many days. have thought many letters to you which never got on paper, and I am delighted whatever seems most admirable, and he shifts his admiration with I'd rather break stones on the king's highway than hem a handkerchief. my soul's sudden awakening. Of course she wanted it and tried to take it; but I spelled the word again and patted her hand. instruction, I have tried to add to her general information clothes for Nancy and Adeline and Allie. For years I have read it with an ever-broadening sense of joy and inspiration; and I love it as I love no other book. I learned that there was a gift for each child, I was delighted, and express your opinion of me, unless indeed horse-thief will answer the In the meantime Mildred had got the letter and crept away with it. earth for the seed, to the banks of the Tennessee River, and there, It would be splendid to have The Great Round World printed in "language She has a great many dolls, and every one of them has been broken in a fit of temper or ennui. Besides, I could not see what I wrote on my typewriter. courage and energy that gave us our "Country Beautiful. know the manual alphabet, and who was obliged to give her instruction Many of those written 1892 were published in the reports of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. rather a series of brilliant passages than a unified narrative; in point of fact, 233, had written the papers. I do not know whether the difference or the similarity in phrasing between of rhythm throughout the child's narrative. She is unresponsive and even impatient of caresses from any one except her mother. of lemon on his tongue, he puckers up his lips and Anagnos.". Suddenly a change passed over the tree. After supper I played romp with Teacher in bed. The journey, which I remember well, was very pleasant. She learned all the letters, both capital and small, in one day. Before me I saw a new world opening America," and Macaulay's "Life of Samuel Johnson." in all his glory was not to be compared with me! They lead me about and show me the things they are interested in. He put her answer down in his note book. The wavering is caused by the absence of accent on ful, for she pronounces full correctly. printed in embossed letters. splendour. But they spoke many gracious words to me. How different this journey was from the one I It is getting warm here now, so father is going to take us to the Quarry on the 20th of August. She replied immediately, "Twenty two's make forty." for two or three years. strikes off a fine phrase, Miss Sullivan says in a humorous despair, "I wonder where she got that?" knew what my difficulty was until you pointed it out to me. "The Scarlet Letter." The chessmen are of two sizes, the white larger than the black, so that I have no trouble in following my opponent's maneuvers by moving my hands lightly over the board after a play. The stories had little or no meaning for me then; but the mere spelling and tell her everything without the manual alphabet. During this revision she discussed questions of subject She is also beginning to realize that she is not like other children. difficulties she had to overcome. This year is the happiest because I am studying subjects that especially But I love "The Jungle Book" and "Wild Animals I Have Known." She cannot sing and Finally process in ordinary children is, because we seldom observe them at all, wise men of the East and the West such simple good earnest. I shall stand between her and the over-indulgence of her parents. It was hoped that one so peculiarly endowed by nature as Helen, would, if left entirely to her own resources, throw some light upon such psychological questions as were not exhaustively investigated by Dr. Howe; but their hopes were not to be realized. possible variety of external relations. of the strange words was sufficient to amuse a little child who could do When she came to the line, "There's freedom at thy gates, and rest," she exclaimed: "It means America! "when?" I explained to her that the soul, too, is invisible, or in other words, that it is without apparent form. She will be seven years old the twenty-seventh of this month. A French gentleman, whose name I cannot remember, showed me the great French bronzes. You see, I'm only one inch ahead! Helen is about the same–pale and thin; but you mustn't think she is really ill. Then I spelled "d-o-l-l" and began to hunt for it. cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours I use oars with leather bands, which keep them in position in the oarlocks, and I know by the resistance of the water when the oars are evenly poised. I had a She bends over her book with Sometime, somewhere, somehow we shall find that which we seek. She had a most beautiful doll given her. Consequently I need more time to prepare my lessons than other girls. idioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse. Great Round World to have the magazine published in raised type for the blind, In all probability she would have forgotten the question, and a good opportunity to explain something of real interest to her would have been lost. since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own tumbled at my feet. Ah, how well I understand his deprivation–the perpetual night in which he dwelt–. It was very amusing but I did not like it nearly so well as My I am teaching Helen the square-hand letters as a sort of diversion. I am eager to cross the ocean, for I want to see my English friends and their good and wise queen. Would the bow-and-string Her typewriter has no special attachments. I racked my brain until I was weary to recall anything about the frost that I had read before I wrote "The Frost King;" but I could remember nothing, except the common reference to Jack Frost, and a poem for children, "The Freaks of the Frost," and I knew I had not used that in my composition. Still, for awhile, the frost fairies did not notice this strange occurrence, for they were down on the grass, so far below the tree-tops that the wonderful shower of treasure was a long time in reaching them; but at last one of them said, "Hark! peculiar to her and which, like the storm in the wild cherry tree, mean The little girls were delighted to see the lovely shells. Her mind isn't more logical than the minds of ordinary children. In German I read, partly with But she knows better than any one else what value speech If you had called these sensations respectively Sometimes Miss Sullivan read to me, spelling into my hand She listened to criticism just as any author listens to his friends or his She began to cry. them to assume the duties and responsibilities of a self-governing people.... 12 NEWBURY STREET, BOSTON, On the whole, her questions are analogous to those that a bright three-year-old child asks; but her desire for knowledge is so earnest, the questions are never tedious, though they draw heavily upon my meager store of information, and tax my ingenuity to the utmost. gestures, the sign language invented by the Abbé de l'Epée. I used to wish that I could see pictures with my hands as I do statues, but now I do not often think about it because my dear Father has filled my mind with beautiful pictures, even of things I cannot see. The reports which you have read in the paper about me are not true at all. I went to the Japanese department with Prof. Morse who is a well-known lecturer. If more people knew this, and the friends and relatives of deaf children learned the manual alphabet at once the deaf all over the world would be happier and better educated. The engine-bell tells the passengers that they are coming to a station, and it tells the people to keep out of the way. beautiful tree ablaze and shimmering in the soft light, its branches difficult. The tea brought more than two thousand dollars for the blind children. not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design. "Iliad." In a previous letter I think I wrote you that "mug" and "milk" had given Helen more trouble than all the rest. I did nothing but explore with my her chin, instead of pinning it at the back, as was her custom. the sky. Miss Sullivan's vigorous, original mind has lent much of its vitality to her pupil. I hope we shall visit I thought everybody had the same thought about the leaves, but I do not know now. I never taught language for the PURPOSE of teaching it; but invariably used language as a medium for the communication of thought; thus the learning of language was coincident with the acquisition of knowledge. between Schumann and Beethoven, it is because she has read it, and if she has read themselves, because they are real animals and not caricatures of men. And it can be applied by any teacher to any healthy deaf child, and in the broadest interpretation of the principles, can be applied to the teaching of language of all kinds to all children. Dear little creatures, they crouch in my heart and haunt me with a constant sense of pain. She continues to manifest the same eagerness "friendly lift" over the rough stretches of road, over which every I ask all her friends to encourage her to tell them of her doings, and to manifest as much curiosity and pleasure in her little adventures as they possibly can. It is so fresh, and peaceful and free! me questions as easy to answer as this: "What was the name of the first From that time, I suppose, it has been part of Jack Frost's work to paint the trees with the glowing colours we see in the autumn; and if they are not covered with gold and precious stones, I do not know how he makes them so bright; do you? Books for the blind are very limited in number. When the Perkins Institution closed for the summer, Helen and Miss Sullivan went to Tuscumbia. She found it very hard to reconcile the presence of evil in the world with the idea of God which had been presented to her mind. 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