THE STORY OF MY LIFE
By Helen Keller
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
INTRODUCTION
III: A SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNT OF HELEN KELLER’S
LIFE AND EDUCATION
CHAPTER I. The Writing of the Book
CHAPTER II. PERSONALITY
CHAPTER III. EDUCATION
CHAPTER IV. SPEECH
CHAPTER V. LITERARY STYLE
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
CHAPTER I
It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious
hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an
autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and
fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child’s
experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life;
but “the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest.” Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of
childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education
have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I
shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most
interesting and important.
I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
The family on my father’s side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who
settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote
a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is
no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among
his.
My grandfather, Caspar Keller’s son, “entered” large tracts of land in Alabama and finally settled
there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback to
purchase supplies for the plantation, and my aunt has in her possession many of the letters to his
family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.
My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette’s aides, Alexander Moore, and
granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also
second cousin to Robert E. Lee.
My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate
Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married
Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles
Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil
War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy
Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward
Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house
consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept. It is a custom in the
South to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion. Such a house
my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was
completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an
arbour. The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It
was the favourite haunt of humming-birds and bees.
The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was
called “Ivy Green” because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with
beautiful English ivy. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.
Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges,
and, guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets and lilies. There, too, after a fit of
temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was
to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly
upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which
covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also, were trailing
clematis, drooping jessamine, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile
petals resemble butterflies’ wings. But the roses—they were loveliest of all. Never have I found in the
greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home.
They used to hang in long festoons from our porch, filling the whole air with their fragrance, untainted
by any earthy smell; and in the early morning, washed in the dew, they felt so soft, so pure, I could
not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God’s garden.
The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I
conquered, as the first baby in the family always does. There was the usual amount of discussion as
to a name for me. The first baby in the family was not to be lightly named, every one was emphatic
about that. My father suggested the name of Mildred Campbell, an ancestor whom he highly
esteemed, and he declined to take any further part in the discussion. My mother solved the problem
by giving it as her wish that I should be called after her mother, whose maiden name was Helen
Everett. But in the excitement of carrying me to church my father lost the name on the way, very
naturally, since it was one in which he had declined to have a part. When the minister asked him for
it, he just remembered that it had been decided to call me after my grandmother, and he gave her
name as Helen Adams.
I am told that while I was still in long dresses I showed many signs of an eager, self-asserting
disposition. Everything that I saw other people do I insisted upon imitating. At six months I could
pipe out “How d’ye,” and one day I attracted every one’s attention by saying “Tea, tea, tea” quite
plainly. Even after my illness I remembered one of the words I had learned in these early months. It
was the word “water,” and I continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was
lost. I ceased making the sound “wah-wah” only when I learned to spell the word.
They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub
and was holding me in her lap, when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering shadows of leaves
that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother’s lap and almost ran toward
them. The impulse gone, I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms.
These happy days did not last long. One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mockingbird,
one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts
at the feet of an eager, delighted child. Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which
closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby. They called
it acute congestion of the stomach and brain. The doctor thought I could not live. Early one morning,
however, the fever left me as suddenly and mysteriously as it had come. There was great rejoicing in
the family that morning, but no one, not even the doctor, knew that I should never see or hear again.
I fancy I still have confused recollections of that illness. I especially remember the tenderness with
which my mother tried to soothe me in my waling hours of fret and pain, and the agony and
bewilderment with which I awoke after a tossing half sleep, and turned my eyes, so dry and hot, to
the wall away from the once-loved light, which came to me dim and yet more dim each day. But,
except for these fleeting memories, if, indeed, they be memories, it all seems very unreal, like a
nightmare. Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had
ever been different, until she came—my teacher—who was to set my spirit free. But during the first
nineteen months of my life I had caught glimpses of broad, green fields, a luminous sky, trees and
flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out. If we have once seen, “the day is
ours, and what the day has shown.”
CHAPTER II
I cannot recall what happened during the first months after my illness. I only know that I sat in my
mother’s lap or clung to her dress as she went about her household duties. My hands felt every
object and observed every motion, and in this way I learned to know many things. Soon I felt the
need of some communication with others and began to make crude signs. A shake of the head meant
“No” and a nod, “Yes,” a pull meant “Come” and a push, “Go.” Was it bread that I wanted? Then I
would imitate the acts of cutting the slices and buttering them. If I wanted my mother to make icecream
for dinner I made the sign for working the freezer and shivered, indicating cold. My mother,
moreover, succeeded in making me understand a good deal. I always knew when she wished me to
bring her something, and I would run upstairs or anywhere else she indicated. Indeed, I owe to her
loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night.
I understood a good deal of what was going on about me. At five I learned to fold and put away
the clean clothes when they were brought in from the laundry, and I distinguished my own from the
rest. I knew by the way my mother and aunt dressed when they were going out, and I invariably
begged to go with them. I was always sent for when there was company, and when the guests took
their leave, I waved my hand to them, I think with a vague remembrance of the meaning of the
gesture. One day some gentlemen called on my mother, and I felt the shutting of the front door and
other sounds that indicated their arrival. On a sudden thought I ran upstairs before any one could
stop me, to put on my idea of a company dress. Standing before the mirror, as I had seen others do,
I anointed mine head with oil and covered my face thickly with powder. Then I pinned a veil over my
head so that it covered my face and fell in folds down to my shoulders, and tied an enormous bustle
round my small waist, so that it dangled behind, almost meeting the hem of my skirt. Thus attired I
went down to help entertain the company.
I do not remember when I first realized that I was different from other people; but I knew it before
my teacher came to me. I had noticed that my mother and my friends did not use signs as I did when
they wanted anything done, but talked with their mouths. Sometimes I stood between two persons
who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips
and gesticulated frantically without result. This made me so angry at times that I kicked and
screamed until I was exhausted.
I think I knew when I was naughty, for I knew that it hurt Ella, my nurse, to kick her, and when
my fit of temper was over I had a feeling akin to regret. But I cannot remember any instance in which
this feeling prevented me from repeating the naughtiness when I failed to get what I wanted.
In those days a little coloured girl, Martha Washington, the child of our cook, and Belle, an old
setter, and a great hunter in her day, were my constant companions. Martha Washington understood
my signs, and I seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as I wished. It pleased me to
domineer over her, and she generally submitted to my tyranny rather than risk a hand-to-hand
encounter. I was strong, active, indifferent to consequences. I knew my own mind well enough and
always had my own way, even if I had to fight tooth and nail for it. We spent a great deal of time in
the kitchen, kneading dough balls, helping make ice-cream, grinding coffee, quarreling over the cakebowl,
and feeding the hens and turkeys that swarmed about the kitchen steps. Many of them were so
tame that they would eat from my hand and let me feel them. One big gobbler snatched a tomato
from me one day and ran away with it. Inspired, perhaps, by Master Gobbler’s success, we carried
off to the woodpile a cake which the cook had just frosted, and ate every bit of it. I was quite ill
afterward, and I wonder if retribution also overtook the turkey.
The guinea-fowl likes to hide her nest in out-of-the-way places, and it was one of my greatest
delights to hunt for the eggs in the long grass. I could not tell Martha Washington when I wanted to
go egg-hunting, but I would double my hands and put them on the ground, which meant something
round in the grass, and Martha always understood. When we were fortunate enough to find a nest I
never allowed her to carry the eggs home, making her understand by emphatic signs that she might
fall and break them.
The sheds where the corn was stored, the stable where the horses were kept, and the yard where
the cows were milked morning and evening were unfailing sources of interest to Martha and me. The
milkers would let me keep my hands on the cows while they milked, and I often got well switched by
the cow for my curiosity.
The making ready for Christmas was always a delight to me. Of course I did not know what it
was all about, but I enjoyed the pleasant odours that filled the house and the tidbits that were given
to Martha Washington and me to keep us quiet. We were sadly in the way, but that did not interfere
with our pleasure in the least. They allowed us to grind the spices, pick over the raisins and lick the
stirring spoons. I hung my stocking because the others did; I cannot remember, however, that the
ceremony interested me especially, nor did my curiosity cause me to wake before daylight to look
for my gifts.
Martha Washington had as great a love of mischief as I. Two little children were seated on the
veranda steps one hot July afternoon. One was black as ebony, with little bunches of fuzzy hair tied
with shoestrings sticking out all over her head like corkscrews. The other was white, with long
golden curls. One child was six years old, the other two or three years older. The younger child was
blind—that was I—and the other was Martha Washington. We were busy cutting out paper dolls;
but we soon wearied of this amusement, and after cutting up our shoestrings and clipping all the
leaves off the honeysuckle that were within reach, I turned my attention to Martha’s corkscrews. She
objected at first, but finally submitted. Thinking that turn and turn about is fair play, she seized the
scissors and cut off one of my curls, and would have cut them all off but for my mother’s timely
interference.
Belle, our dog, my other companion, was old and lazy and liked to sleep by the open fire rather
than to romp with me. I tried hard to teach her my sign language, but she was dull and inattentive.
She sometimes started and quivered with excitement, then she became perfectly rigid, as dogs do
when they point a bird. I did not then know why Belle acted in this way; but I knew she was not
doing as I wished. This vexed me and the lesson always ended in a one-sided boxing match. Belle
would get up, stretch herself lazily, give one or two contemptuous sniffs, go to the opposite side of
the hearth and lie down again, and I, wearied and disappointed, went off in search of Martha.
Many incidents of those early years are fixed in my memory, isolated, but clear and distinct,
making the sense of that silent, aimless, dayless life all the more intense.
One day I happened to spill water on my apron, and I spread it out to dry before the fire which
was flickering on the sitting-room hearth. The apron did not dry quickly enough to suit me, so I drew
nearer and threw it right over the hot ashes. The fire leaped into life; the flames encircled me so that
in a moment my clothes were blazing. I made a terrified noise that brought Viny, my old nurse, to the
rescue. Throwing a blanket over me, she almost suffocated me, but she put out the fire. Except for
my hands and hair I was not badly burned.
About this time I found out the use of a key. One morning I locked my mother up in the pantry,
where she was obliged to remain three hours, as the servants were in a detached part of the house.
She kept pounding on the door, while I sat outside on the porch steps and laughed with glee as I felt
the jar of the pounding. This most naughty prank of mine convinced my parents that I must be taught
as soon as possible. After my teacher, Miss Sullivan, came to me, I sought an early opportunity to
lock her in her room. I went upstairs with something which my mother made me understand I was to
give to Miss Sullivan; but no sooner had I given it to her than I slammed the door to, locked it, and
hid the key under the wardrobe in the hall. I could not be induced to tell where the key was. My
father was obliged to get a ladder and take Miss Sullivan out through the window—much to my
delight. Months after I produced the key.
When I was about five years old we moved from the little vine-covered house to a large new one.
The family consisted of my father and mother, two older half-brothers, and, afterward, a little sister,
Mildred. My earliest distinct recollection of my father is making my way through great drifts of
newspapers to his side and finding him alone, holding a sheet of paper before his face. I was greatly
puzzled to know what he was doing. I imitated this action, even wearing his spectacles, thinking they
might help solve the mystery. But I did not find out the secret for several years. Then I learned what
those papers were, and that my father edited one of them.
My father was most loving and indulgent, devoted to his home, seldom leaving us, except in the
hunting season. He was a great hunter, I have been told, and a celebrated shot. Next to his family he
loved his dogs and gun. His hospitality was great, almost to a fault, and he seldom came home
without bringing a guest. His special pride was the big garden where, it was said, he raised the finest
watermelons and strawberries in the county; and to me he brought the first ripe grapes and the
choicest berries. I remember his caressing touch as he led me from tree to tree, from vine to vine,
and his eager delight in whatever pleased me.
He was a famous story-teller; after I had acquired language he used to spell clumsily into my hand
his cleverest anecdotes, and nothing pleased him more than to have me repeat them at an opportune
moment.
I was in the North, enjoying the last beautiful days of the summer of 1896, when I heard the news
of my father’s death. He had had a short illness, there had been a brief time of acute suffering, then all
was over. This was my first great sorrow—my first personal experience with death.
How shall I write of my mother? She is so near to me that it almost seems indelicate to speak of
her.
For a long time I regarded my little sister as an intruder. I knew that I had ceased to be my
mother’s only darling, and the thought filled me with jealousy. She sat in my mother’s lap constantly,
where I used to sit, and seemed to take up all her care and time. One day something happened
which seemed to me to be adding insult to injury.
At that time I had a much-petted, much-abused doll, which I afterward named Nancy. She was,
alas, the helpless victim of my outbursts of temper and of affection, so that she became much the
worse for wear. I had dolls which talked, and cried, and opened and shut their eyes; yet I never
loved one of them as I loved poor Nancy. She had a cradle, and I often spent an hour or more
rocking her. I guarded both doll and cradle with the most jealous care; but once I discovered my
little sister sleeping peacefully in the cradle. At this presumption on the part of one to whom as yet no
tie of love bound me I grew angry. I rushed upon the cradle and over-turned it, and the baby might
have been killed had my mother not caught her as she fell. Thus it is that when we walk in the valley
of twofold solitude we know little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and
actions and companionship. But afterward, when I was restored to my human heritage, Mildred and
I grew into each other’s hearts, so that we were content to go hand-in-hand wherever caprice led us,
although she could not understand my finger language, nor I her childish prattle.
CHAPTER III
Meanwhile the desire to express myself grew. The few signs I used became less and less
adequate, and my failures to make myself understood were invariably followed by outbursts of
passion. I felt as if invisible hands were holding me, and I made frantic efforts to free myself. I
struggled—not that struggling helped matters, but the spirit of resistance was strong within me; I
generally broke down in tears and physical exhaustion. If my mother happened to be near I crept
into her arms, too miserable even to remember the cause of the tempest. After awhile the need of
some means of communication became so urgent that these outbursts occurred daily, sometimes
hourly.
My parents were deeply grieved and perplexed. We lived a long way from any school for the
blind or the deaf, and it seemed unlikely that any one would come to such an out-of-the-way place
as Tuscumbia to teach a child who was both deaf and blind. Indeed, my friends and relatives
sometimes doubted whether I could be taught. My mother’s only ray of hope came from Dickens’s
“American Notes.” She had read his account of Laura Bridgman, and remembered vaguely that she
was deaf and blind, yet had been educated. But she also remembered with a hopeless pang that Dr.
Howe, who had discovered the way to teach the deaf and blind, had been dead many years. His
methods had probably died with him; and if they had not, how was a little girl in a far-off town in
Alabama to receive the benefit of them?
When I was about six years old, my father heard of an eminent oculist in Baltimore, who had been
successful in many cases that had seemed hopeless. My parents at once determined to take me to
Baltimore to see if anything could be done for my eyes.
The journey, which I remember well was very pleasant. I made friends with many people on the
train. One lady gave me a box of shells. My father made holes in these so that I could string them,
and for a long time they kept me happy and contented. The conductor, too, was kind. Often when
he went his rounds I clung to his coat tails while he collected and punched the tickets. His punch,
with which he let me play, was a delightful toy. Curled up in a corner of the seat I amused myself for
hours making funny little holes in bits of cardboard.
My aunt made me a big doll out of towels. It was the most comical shapeless thing, this
improvised doll, with no nose, mouth, ears or eyes—nothing that even the imagination of a child
could convert into a face. Curiously enough, the absence of eyes struck me more than all the other
defects put together. I pointed this out to everybody with provoking persistency, but no one seemed
equal to the task of providing the doll with eyes. A bright idea, however, shot into my mind, and the
problem was solved. I tumbled off the seat and searched under it until I found my aunt’s cape, which
was trimmed with large beads. I pulled two beads off and indicated to her that I wanted her to sew
them on my doll. She raised my hand to her eyes in a questioning way, and I nodded energetically.
The beads were sewed in the right place and I could not contain myself for joy; but immediately I
lost all interest in the doll. During the whole trip I did not have one fit of temper, there were so many
things to keep my mind and fingers busy.
When we arrived in Baltimore, Dr. Chisholm received us kindly: but he could do nothing. He said,
however, that I could be educated, and advised my father to consult Dr. Alexander Graham Bell of
Washington, who would be able to give him information about schools and teachers of deaf or blind
children. Acting on the doctor’s advice, we went immediately to Washington to see Dr. Bell, my
father with a sad heart and many misgivings, I wholly unconscious of his anguish, finding pleasure in
the excitement of moving from place to place. Child as I was, I at once felt the tenderness and
sympathy which endeared Dr. Bell to so many hearts, as his wonderful achievements enlist their
admiration. He held me on his knee while I examined his watch, and he made it strike for me. He
understood my signs, and I knew it and loved him at once. But I did not dream that that interview
would be the door through which I should pass from darkness into light, from isolation to friendship,
companionship, knowledge, love.
Dr. Bell advised my father to write to Mr. Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution in Boston,
the scene of Dr. Howe’s great labours for the blind, and ask him if he had a teacher competent to
begin my education. This my father did at once, and in a few weeks there came a kind letter from
Mr. Anagnos with the comforting assurance that a teacher had been found. This was in the summer
of 1886. But Miss Sullivan did not arrive until the following March.
Thus I came up out of Egypt and stood before Sinai, and a power divine touched my spirit and
gave it sight, so that I beheld many wonders. And from the sacred mountain I heard a voice which
said, “Knowledge is love and light and vision.”
CHAPTER IV
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield
Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between
the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely
from my mother’s signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was
about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the
mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered
almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the
sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and
bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this
passionate struggle.
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you
in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and
sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before
my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how
near the harbour was. “Light! give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love
shone on me in that very hour.
I felt approaching footsteps, I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took
it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me,
and, more than all things else, to love me.
The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind
children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know
this until afterward. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand
the word “d-o-l-l.” I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally
succeeded in making the letters correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running
downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was
spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like
imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many
words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been
with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.
One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap also,
spelled “d-o-l-l” and tried to make me understand that “d-o-l-l” applied to both. Earlier in the day we
had had a tussle over the words “m-u-g” and “w-a-t-e-r.” Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon
me that “m-u-g” is mug and that “w-a-t-e-r” is water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In
despair she had dropped the subject for the time, only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became
impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly
delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed
my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no
strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth, and I
had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat,
and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be
called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with
which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the
spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first
slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly
I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the
mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool
something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope,
joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new
thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That
was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door
I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried
vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the
first time I felt repentance and sorrow.
I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know
that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them—words that were to make the world blossom
for me, “like Aaron’s rod, with flowers.” It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was
as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for
the first time longed for a new day to come.
CHAPTER V
I recall many incidents of the summer of 1887 that followed my soul’s sudden awakening. I did
nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object that I touched; and the more I
handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of
kinship with the rest of the world.
When the time of daisies and buttercups came Miss Sullivan took me by the hand across the
fields, where men were preparing the earth for the seed, to the banks of the Tennessee River, and
there, sitting on the warm grass, I had my first lessons in the beneficence of nature. I learned how the
sun and the rain make to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
food, how birds build their nests and live and thrive from land to land, how the squirrel, the deer, the
lion and every other creature finds food and shelter. As my knowledge of things grew I felt more and
more the delight of the world I was in. Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe
the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every
blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister’s hand. She linked my earliest
thoughts with nature, and made me feel that “birds and flowers and I were happy peers.”
But about this time I had an experience which taught me that nature is not always kind. One day
my teacher and I were returning from a long ramble. The morning had been fine, but it was growing
warm and sultry when at last we turned our faces homeward. Two or three times we stopped to rest
under a tree by the wayside. Our last halt was under a wild cherry tree a short distance from the
house. The shade was grateful, and the tree was so easy to climb that with my teacher’s assistance I
was able to scramble to a seat in the branches. It was so cool up in the tree that Miss Sullivan
proposed that we have our luncheon there. I promised to keep still while she went to the house to
fetch it.
Suddenly a change passed over the tree. All the sun’s warmth left the air. I knew the sky was
black, because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the atmosphere. A strange
odour came up from the earth. I knew it, it was the odour that always precedes a thunderstorm, and
a nameless fear clutched at my heart. I felt absolutely alone, cut off from my friends and the firm
earth. The immense, the unknown, enfolded me. I remained still and expectant; a chilling terror crept
over me. I longed for my teacher’s return; but above all things I wanted to get down from that tree.
There was a moment of sinister silence, then a multitudinous stirring of the leaves. A shiver ran
through the tree, and the wind sent forth a blast that would have knocked me off had I not clung to
the branch with might and main. The tree swayed and strained. The small twigs snapped and fell
about me in showers. A wild impulse to jump seized me, but terror held me fast. I crouched down in
the fork of the tree. The branches lashed about me. I felt the intermittent jarring that came now and
then, as if something heavy had fallen and the shock had traveled up till it reached the limb I sat on. It
worked my suspense up to the highest point, and just as I was thinking the tree and I should fall
together, my teacher seized my hand and helped me down. I clung to her, trembling with joy to feel
the earth under my feet once more. I had learned a new lesson—that nature “wages open war
against her children, and under softest touch hides treacherous claws.”
After this experience it was a long time before I climbed another tree. The mere thought filled me
with terror. It was the sweet allurement of the mimosa tree in full bloom that finally overcame my
fears. One beautiful spring morning when I was alone in the summer-house, reading, I became aware
of a wonderful subtle fragrance in the air. I started up and instinctively stretched out my hands. It
seemed as if the spirit of spring had passed through the summer-house. “What is it?” I asked, and the
next minute I recognized the odour of the mimosa blossoms. I felt my way to the end of the garden,
knowing that the mimosa tree was near the fence, at the turn of the path. Yes, there it was, all
quivering in the warm sunshine, its blossom-laden branches almost touching the long grass. Was
there ever anything so exquisitely beautiful in the world before! Its delicate blossoms shrank from the
slightest earthly touch; it seemed as if a tree of paradise had been transplanted to earth. I made my
way through a shower of petals to the great trunk and for one minute stood irresolute; then, putting
my foot in the broad space between the forked branches, I pulled myself up into the tree. I had some
difficulty in holding on, for the branches were very large and the bark hurt my hands. But I had a
delicious sense that I was doing something unusual and wonderful so I kept on climbing higher and
higher, until I reached a little seat which somebody had built there so long ago that it had grown part
of the tree itself. I sat there for a long, long time, feeling like a fairy on a rosy cloud. After that I spent
many happy hours in my tree of paradise, thinking fair thoughts and dreaming bright dreams.
CHAPTER VI
I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it. Children who hear acquire
language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others’ lips they catch on the wing, as
it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. But
whatever the process, the result is wonderful. Gradually from naming an object we advance step by
step until we have traversed the vast distance between our first stammered syllable and the sweep of
thought in a line of Shakespeare.
At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing I asked very few questions. My ideas were
vague, and my vocabulary was inadequate; but as my knowledge of things grew, and I learned more
and more words, my field of inquiry broadened, and I would return again and again to the same
subject, eager for further information. Sometimes a new word revived an image that some earlier
experience had engraved on my brain.
I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word, “love.” This was before I knew
many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher. She tried
to kiss me: but at that time I did not like to have any one kiss me except my mother. Miss Sullivan
put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, “I love Helen.”
“What is love?” I asked.
She drew me closer to her and said, “It is here,” pointing to my heart, whose beats I was
conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand
anything unless I touched it.
I smelt the violets in her hand and asked, half in words, half in signs, a question which meant, “Is
love the sweetness of flowers?”
“No,” said my teacher.
Again I thought. The warm sun was shining on us.
“Is this not love?” I asked, pointing in the direction from which the heat came. “Is this not love?”
It seemed to me that there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun, whose warmth makes all
things grow. But Miss Sullivan shook her head, and I was greatly puzzled and disappointed. I
thought it strange that my teacher could not show me love.
A day or two afterward I was stringing beads of different sizes in symmetrical groups—two large
beads, three small ones, and so on. I had made many mistakes, and Miss Sullivan had pointed them
out again and again with gentle patience. Finally I noticed a very obvious error in the sequence and
for an instant I concentrated my attention on the lesson and tried to think how I should have arranged
the beads. Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided emphasis, “Think.”
In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This
was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea.
For a long time I was still—I was not thinking of the beads in my lap, but trying to find a meaning
for “love” in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been
brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendour.
Again I asked my teacher, “Is this not love?”
“Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out,” she replied. Then
in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: “You
cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the
thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness
that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.”
The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my
spirit and the spirits of others.
From the beginning of my education Miss Sullivan made it a practice to speak to me as she would
speak to any hearing child; the only difference was that she spelled the sentences into my hand
instead of speaking them. If I did not know the words and idioms necessary to express my thoughts
she supplied them, even suggesting conversation when I was unable to keep up my end of the
dialogue.
This process was continued for several years; for the deaf child does not learn in a month, or even
in two or three years, the numberless idioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse.
The little hearing child learns these from constant repetition and imitation. The conversation he hears
in his home stimulates his mind and suggests topics and calls forth the spontaneous expression of his
own thoughts. This natural exchange of ideas is denied to the deaf child. My teacher, realizing this,
determined to supply the kinds of stimulus I lacked. This she did by repeating to me as far as
possible, verbatim, what she heard, and by showing me how I could take part in the conversation.
But it was a long time before I ventured to take the initiative, and still longer before I could find
something appropriate to say at the right time.
The deaf and the blind find it very difficult to acquire the amenities of conversation. How much
more this difficulty must be augmented in the case of those who are both deaf and blind! They cannot
distinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamut of tones that give
significance to words; nor can they watch the expression of the speaker’s face, and a look is often
the very soul of what one says.
CHAPTER VII
The next important step in my education was
learning to read.
As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were
printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act,
or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put
sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented,
for example, “doll,” “is,” “on,” “bed” and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the
bed with the words is, on, bed arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence of the words, and at
the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves.
One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe.
On the shelf I arranged the words, is, in, wardrobe. Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My
teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged in object
sentences.
From the printed slip it was but a step to the printed book. I took my “Reader for Beginners” and
hunted for the words I knew; when I found them my joy was like that of a game of hide-and-seek.
Thus I began to read. Of the time when I began to read connected stories I shall speak later.
For a long time I had no regular lessons. Even when I studied most earnestly it seemed more like
play than work. Everything Miss Sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem.
Whenever anything delighted or interested me she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl
herself. What many children think of with dread, as a painful plodding through grammar, hard sums
and harder definitions, is to-day one of my most precious memories.
I cannot explain the peculiar sympathy Miss Sullivan had with my pleasures and desires. Perhaps it
was the result of long association with the blind. Added to this she had a wonderful faculty for
description. She went quickly over uninteresting details, and never nagged me with questions to see if
I remembered the day-before-yesterday’s lesson. She introduced dry technicalities of science little by
little, making every subject so real that I could not help remembering what she taught.
We read and studied out of doors, preferring the sunlit woods to the house. All my early lessons
have in them the breath of the woods—the fine, resinous odour of pine needles, blended with the
perfume of wild grapes. Seated in the gracious shade of a wild tulip tree, I learned to think that
everything has a lesson and a suggestion. “The loveliness of things taught me all their use.” Indeed,
everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education-noisy-throated
frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their
reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and
budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt
the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the
indignant snort of my pony, as we caught him in the pasture and put the bit in his mouth—ah me!
how well I remember the spicy, clovery smell of his breath!
Sometimes I rose at dawn and stole into the garden while the heavy dew lay on the grass and
flowers. Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful
motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I
was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror, as the
little creature became aware of a pressure from without.
Another favourite haunt of mine was the orchard, where the fruit ripened early in July. The large,
downy peaches would reach themselves into my hand, and as the joyous breezes flew about the
trees the apples tumbled at my feet. Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pinafore,
pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still warm from the sun, and skipped back
to the house!
Our favourite walk was to Keller’s Landing, an old tumbledown lumber-wharf on the Tennessee
River, used during the Civil War to land soldiers. There we spent many happy hours and played at
learning geography. I built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, and dug river-beds, all for fun,
and never dreamed that I was learning a lesson. I listened with increasing wonder to Miss Sullivan’s
descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice,
and many other things as strange. She made raised maps in clay, so that I could feel the mountain
ridges and valleys, and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers. I liked this, too; but the
division of the earth into zones and poles confused and teased my mind. The illustrative strings and
the orange stick representing the poles seemed so real that even to this day the mere mention of
temperate zone suggests a series of twine circles; and I believe that if any one should set about it he
could convince me that white bears actually climb the North Pole.
Arithmetic seems to have been the only study I did not like. From the first I was not interested in
the science of numbers. Miss Sullivan tried to teach me to count by stringing beads in groups, and by
arranging kintergarten straws I learned to add and subtract. I never had patience to arrange more
than five or six groups at a time. When I had accomplished this my conscience was at rest for the
day, and I went out quickly to find my playmates.
In this same leisurely manner I studied zoology and botany.
Once a gentleman, whose name I have forgotten, sent me a collection of fossils—tiny mollusk
shells beautifully marked, and bits of sandstone with the print of birds’ claws, and a lovely fern in
bas-relief. These were the keys which unlocked the treasures of the antediluvian world for me. With
trembling fingers I listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of the terrible beasts, with uncouth,
unpronounceable names, which once went tramping through the primeval forests, tearing down the
branches of gigantic trees for food, and died in the dismal swamps of an unknown age. For a long
time these strange creatures haunted my dreams, and this gloomy period formed a somber
background to the joyous Now, filled with sunshine and roses and echoing with the gentle beat of my
pony’s hoof.
Another time a beautiful shell was given me, and with a child’s surprise and delight I learned how a
tiny mollusk had built the lustrous coil for his dwelling place, and how on still nights, when there is no
breeze stirring the waves, the Nautilus sails on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean in his “ship of
pearl.” After I had learned a great many interesting things about the life and habits of the children of
the sea—how in the midst of dashing waves the little polyps build the beautiful coral isles of the
Pacific, and the foraminifera have made the chalk-hills of many a land—my teacher read me “The
Chambered Nautilus,” and showed me that the shell-building process of the mollusks is symbolical of
the development of the mind. Just as the wonder-working mantle of the Nautilus changes the material
it absorbs from the water and makes it a part of itself, so the bits of knowledge one gathers undergo
a similar change and become pearls of thought.
Again, it was the growth of a plant that furnished the text for a lesson. We bought a lily and set it in
a sunny window. Very soon the green, pointed buds showed signs of opening. The slender, fingerlike
leaves on the outside opened slowly, reluctant, I thought, to reveal the loveliness they hid; once
having made a start, however, the opening process went on rapidly, but in order and systematically.
There was always one bud larger and more beautiful than the rest, which pushed her outer, covering
back with more pomp, as if the beauty in soft, silky robes knew that she was the lily-queen by right
divine, while her more timid sisters doffed their green hoods shyly, until the whole plant was one
nodding bough of loveliness and fragrance.
Once there were eleven tadpoles in a glass globe set in a window full of plants. I remember the
eagerness with which I made discoveries about them. It was great fun to plunge my hand into the
bowl and feel the tadpoles frisk about, and to let them slip and slide between my fingers. One day a
more ambitious fellow leaped beyond the edge of the bowl and fell on the floor, where I found him to
all appearance more dead than alive. The only sign of life was a slight wriggling of his tail. But no
sooner had he returned to his element than he darted to the bottom, swimming round and round in
joyous activity. He had made his leap, he had seen the great world, and was content to stay in his
pretty glass house under the big fuchsia tree until he attained the dignity of froghood. Then he went to
live in the leafy pool at the end of the garden, where he made the summer nights musical with his
quaint love-song.
Thus I learned from life itself. At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my
teacher who unfolded and developed them. When she came, everything about me breathed of love
and joy and was full of meaning. She has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty
that is in everything, nor has she ceased trying in thought and action and example to make my life
sweet and useful.
It was my teacher’s genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my
education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it
so pleasant and acceptable to me. She realized that a child’s mind is like a shallow brook which
ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education and reflects here a flower, there a
bush, yonder a fleecy cloud; and she attempted to guide my mind on its way, knowing that like a
brook it should be fed by mountain streams and hidden springs, until it broadened out into a deep
river, capable of reflecting in its placid surface, billowy hills, the luminous shadows of trees and the
blue heavens, as well as the sweet face of a little flower.
Any teacher can take a child to the classroom, but not every teacher can make him learn. He will
not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his, whether he is busy or at rest; he must feel the
flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will the tasks
distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks.
My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her. How much of my
delight in all beautiful things is innate, and how much is due to her influence, I can never tell. I feel that
her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me
belongs to her—there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by
her loving touch.
CHAPTER VIII
The first Christmas after Miss Sullivan came to Tuscumbia was a great event. Every one in the
family prepared surprises for me, but what pleased me most, Miss Sullivan and I prepared surprises
for everybody else. The mystery that surrounded the gifts was my greatest delight and amusement.
My friends did all they could to excite my curiosity by hints and half-spelled sentences which they
pretended to break off in the nick of time. Miss Sullivan and I kept up a game of guessing which
taught me more about the use of language than any set lessons could have done. Every evening,
seated round a glowing wood fire, we played our guessing game, which grew more and more
exciting as Christmas approached.
On Christmas Eve the Tuscumbia schoolchildren had their tree, to which they invited me. In the
centre of the schoolroom stood a beautiful tree ablaze and shimmering in the soft light, its branches
loaded with strange, wonderful fruit. It was a moment of supreme happiness. I danced and capered
round the tree in an ecstasy. When I learned that there was a gift for each child, I was delighted, and
the kind people who had prepared the tree permitted me to hand the presents to the children. In the
pleasure of doing this, I did not stop to look at my own gifts; but when I was ready for them, my
impatience for the real Christmas to begin almost got beyond control. I knew the gifts I already had
were not those of which friends had thrown out such tantalizing hints, and my teacher said the
presents I was to have would be even nicer than these. I was persuaded, however, to content myself
with the gifts from the tree and leave the others until morning.
That night, after I had hung my stocking, I lay awake a long time, pretending to be asleep and
keeping alert to see what Santa Claus would do when he came. At last I fell asleep with a new doll
and a white bear in my arms. Next morning it was I who waked the whole family with my first
“Merry Christmas!” I found surprises, not in the stocking only, but on the table, on all the chairs, at
the door, on the very window-sill; indeed, I could hardly walk without stumbling on a bit of
Christmas wrapped up in tissue paper. But when my teacher presented me with a canary, my cup of
happiness overflowed.
Little Tim was so tame that he would hop on my finger and eat candied cherries out of my hand.
Miss Sullivan taught me to take all the care of my new pet. Every morning after breakfast I prepared
his bath, made his cage clean and sweet, filled his cups with fresh seed and water from the wellhouse,
and hung a spray of chickweed in his swing.
One morning I left the cage on the window-seat while I went to fetch water for his bath. When I
returned I felt a big cat brush past me as I opened the door. At first I did not realize what had
happened; but when I put my hand in the cage and Tim’s pretty wings did not meet my touch or his
small pointed claws take hold of my finger, I knew that I should never see my sweet little singer
again.
CHAPTER IX
The next important event in my life was my visit to Boston, in May, 1888. As if it were yesterday I
remember the preparations, the departure with my teacher and my mother, the journey, and finally
the arrival in Boston. How different this journey was from the one I had made to Baltimore two years
before! I was no longer a restless, excitable little creature, requiring the attention of everybody on the
train to keep me amused. I sat quietly beside Miss Sullivan, taking in with eager interest all that she
told me about what she saw out of the car window: the beautiful Tennessee River, the great cottonfields,
the hills and woods, and the crowds of laughing negroes at the stations, who waved to the
people on the train and brought delicious candy and popcorn balls through the car. On the seat
opposite me sat my big rag doll, Nancy, in a new gingham dress and a beruffled sunbonnet, looking
at me out of two bead eyes. Sometimes, when I was not absorbed in Miss Sullivan’s descriptions, I
remembered Nancy’s existence and took her up in my arms, but I generally calmed my conscience
by making myself believe that she was asleep.
As I shall not have occasion to refer to Nancy again, I wish to tell here a sad experience she had
soon after our arrival in Boston. She was covered with dirt—the remains of mud pies I had
compelled her to eat, although she had never shown any special liking for them. The laundress at the
Perkins Institution secretly carried her off to give her a bath. This was too much for poor Nancy.
When I next saw her she was a formless heap of cotton, which I should not have recognized at all
except for the two bead eyes which looked out at me reproachfully.
When the train at last pulled into the station at Boston it was as if a beautiful fairy tale had come
true. The “once upon a time” was now; the “far-away country” was here.
We had scarcely arrived at the Perkins Institution for the Blind when I began to make friends with
the little blind children. It delighted me inexpressibly to find that they knew the manual alphabet.
What joy to talk with other children in my own language! Until then I had been like a foreigner
speaking through an interpreter. In the school where Laura Bridgman was taught I was in my own
country. It took me some time to appreciate the fact that my new friends were blind. I knew I could
not see; but it did not seem possible that all the eager, loving children who gathered round me and
joined heartily in my frolics were also blind. I remember the surprise and the pain I felt as I noticed
that they placed their hands over mine when I talked to them and that they read books with their
fingers. Although I had been told this before, and although I understood my own deprivations, yet I
had thought vaguely that since they could hear, they must have a sort of “second sight,” and I was not
prepared to find one child and another and yet another deprived of the same precious gift. But they
were so happy and contented that I lost all sense of pain in the pleasure of their companionship.
One day spent with the blind children made me feel thoroughly at home in my new environment,
and I looked eagerly from one pleasant experience to another as the days flew swiftly by. I could not
quite convince myself that there was much world left, for I regarded Boston as the beginning and the
end of creation.
While we were in Boston we visited Bunker Hill, and there I had my first lesson in history. The
story of the brave men who had fought on the spot where we stood excited me greatly. I climbed the
monument, counting the steps, and wondering as I went higher and yet higher if the soldiers had
climbed this great stairway and shot at the enemy on the ground below.
The next day we went to Plymouth by water. This was my first trip on the ocean and my first
voyage in a steamboat. How full of life and motion it was! But the rumble of the machinery made me
think it was thundering, and I began to cry, because I feared if it rained we should not be able to
have our picnic out of doors. I was more interested, I think, in the great rock on which the Pilgrims
landed than in anything else in Plymouth. I could touch it, and perhaps that made the coming of the
Pilgrims and their toils and great deeds seem more real to me. I have often held in my hand a little
model of the Plymouth Rock which a kind gentleman gave me at Pilgrim Hall, and I have fingered its
curves, the split in the centre and the embossed figures “1620,” and turned over in my mind all that I
knew about the wonderful story of the Pilgrims.
How my childish imagination glowed with the splendour of their enterprise! I idealized them as the
bravest and most generous men that ever sought a home in a strange land. I thought they desired the
freedom of their fellow men as well as their own. I was keenly surprised and disappointed years later
to learn of their acts of persecution that make us tingle with shame, even while we glory in the
courage and energy that gave us our “Country Beautiful.”
Among the many friends I made in Boston were Mr. William Endicott and his daughter. Their
kindness to me was the seed from which many pleasant memories have since grown. One day we
visited their beautiful home at Beverly Farms. I remember with delight how I went through their rosegarden,
how their dogs, big Leo and little curly-haired Fritz with long ears, came to meet me, and
how Nimrod, the swiftest of the horses, poked his nose into my hands for a pat and a lump of sugar.
I also remember the beach, where for the first time I played in the sand. It was hard, smooth sand,
very different from the loose, sharp sand, mingled with kelp and shells, at Brewster. Mr. Endicott
told me about the great ships that came sailing by from Boston, bound for Europe. I saw him many
times after that, and he was always a good friend to me; indeed, I was thinking of him when I called
Boston “the City of Kind Hearts.”
CHAPTER X
Just before the Perkins Institution closed for the summer, it was arranged that my teacher and I
should spend our vacation at Brewster, on Cape Cod, with our dear friend, Mrs. Hopkins. I was
delighted, for my mind was full of the prospective joys and of the wonderful stories I had heard
about the sea.
My most vivid recollection of that summer is the ocean. I had always lived far inland and had
never had so much as a whiff of salt air; but I had read in a big book called “Our World” a
description of the ocean which filled me with wonder and an intense longing to touch the mighty sea
and feel it roar. So my little heart leaped high with eager excitement when I knew that my wish was
at last to be realized.
No sooner had I been helped into my bathing-suit than I sprang out upon the warm sand and
without thought of fear plunged into the cool water. I felt the great billows rock and sink. The
buoyant motion of the water filled me with an exquisite, quivering joy. Suddenly my ecstasy gave
place to terror; for my foot struck against a rock and the next instant there was a rush of water over
my head. I thrust out my hands to grasp some support, I clutched at the water and at the seaweed
which the waves tossed in my face. But all my frantic efforts were in vain. The waves seemed to be
playing a game with me, and tossed me from one to another in their wild frolic. It was fearful! The
good, firm earth had slipped from my feet, and everything seemed shut out from this strange, allenveloping
element—life, air, warmth and love. At last, however, the sea, as if weary of its new toy,
threw me back on the shore, and in another instant I was clasped in my teacher’s arms. Oh, the
comfort of the long, tender embrace! As soon as I had recovered from my panic sufficiently to say
anything, I demanded: “Who put salt in the water?”
After I had recovered from my first experience in the water, I thought it great fun to sit on a big
rock in my bathing-suit and feel wave after wave dash against the rock, sending up a shower of
spray which quite covered me. I felt the pebbles rattling as the waves threw their ponderous weight
against the shore; the whole beach seemed racked by their terrific onset, and the air throbbed with
their pulsations. The breakers would swoop back to gather themselves for a mightier leap, and I
clung to the rock, tense, fascinated, as I felt the dash and roar of the rushing sea!
I could never stay long enough on the shore. The tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was
like a cool, quieting thought, and the shells and pebbles and the seaweed with tiny living creatures
attached to it never lost their fascination for me. One day Miss Sullivan attracted my attention to a
strange object which she had captured basking in the shallow water. It was a great horseshoe crab
—the first one I had ever seen. I felt of him and thought it very strange that he should carry his house
on his back. It suddenly occurred to me that he might make a delightful pet; so I seized him by the
tail with both hands and carried him home. This feat pleased me highly, as his body was very heavy,
and it took all my strength to drag him half a mile. I would not leave Miss Sullivan in peace until she
had put the crab in a trough near the well where I was confident he would be secure. But next
morning I went to the trough, and lo, he had disappeared! Nobody knew where he had gone, or
how he had escaped. My disappointment was bitter at the time; but little by little I came to realize
that it was not kind or wise to force this poor dumb creature out of his element, and after awhile I felt
happy in the thought that perhaps he had returned to the sea.
CHAPTER XI
In the autumn I returned to my Southern home with a heart full of joyous memories. As I recall
that visit North I am filled with wonder at the richness and variety of the experiences that cluster
about it. It seems to have been the beginning of everything. The treasures of a new, beautiful world
were laid at my feet, and I took in pleasure and information at every turn. I lived myself into all things.
I was never still a moment; my life was as full of motion as those little insects that crowd a whole
existence into one brief day. I met many people who talked with me by spelling into my hand, and
thought in joyous sympathy leaped up to meet thought, and behold, a miracle had been wrought! The
barren places between my mind and the minds of others blossomed like the rose.
I spent the autumn months with my family at our summer cottage, on a mountain about fourteen
miles from Tuscumbia. It was called Fern Quarry, because near it there was a limestone quarry, long
since abandoned. Three frolicsome little streams ran through it from springs in the rocks above,
leaping here and tumbling there in laughing cascades wherever the rocks tried to bar their way. The
opening was filled with ferns which completely covered the beds of limestone and in places hid the
streams. The rest of the mountain was thickly wooded. Here were great oaks and splendid
evergreens with trunks like mossy pillars, from the branches of which hung garlands of ivy and
mistletoe, and persimmon trees, the odour of which pervaded every nook and corner of the wood—
an illusive, fragrant something that made the heart glad. In places the wild muscadine and
scuppernong vines stretched from tree to tree, making arbours which were always full of butterflies
and buzzing insects. It was delightful to lose ourselves in the green hollows of that tangled wood in
the late afternoon, and to smell the cool, delicious odours that came up from the earth at the close of
day.
Our cottage was a sort of rough camp, beautifully situated on the top of the mountain among oaks
and pines. The small rooms were arranged on each side of a long open hall. Round the house was a
wide piazza, where the mountain winds blew, sweet with all wood-scents. We lived on the piazza
most of the time—there we worked, ate and played. At the back door there was a great butternut
tree, round which the steps had been built, and in front the trees stood so close that I could touch
them and feel the wind shake their branches, or the leaves twirl downward in the autumn blast.
Many visitors came to Fern Quarry. In the evening, by the campfire, the men played cards and
whiled away the hours in talk and sport. They told stories of their wonderful feats with fowl, fish and
quadruped—how many wild ducks and turkeys they had shot, what “savage trout” they had caught,
and how they had bagged the craftiest foxes, outwitted the most clever ‘possums and overtaken the
fleetest deer, until I thought that surely the lion, the tiger, the bear and the rest of the wild tribe would
not be able to stand before these wily hunters. “To-morrow to the chase!” was their good-night shout
as the circle of merry friends broke up for the night. The men slept in the hall outside our door, and I
could feel the deep breathing of the dogs and the hunters as they lay on their improvised beds.
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. I could also feel
the stamping of the horses, which they had ridden out from town and hitched under the trees, where
they stood all night, neighing loudly, impatient to be off. At last the men mounted, and, as they say in
the old songs, away went the steeds with bridles ringing and whips cracking and hounds racing
ahead, and away went the champion hunters “with hark and whoop and wild halloo!”
Later in the morning we made preparations for a barbecue. A fire was kindled at the bottom of a
deep hole in the ground, big sticks were laid crosswise at the top, and meat was hung from them and
turned on spits. Around the fire squatted negroes, driving away the flies with long branches. The
savoury odour of the meat made me hungry long before the tables were set.
When the bustle and excitement of preparation was at its height, the hunting party made its
appearance, struggling in by twos and threes, the men hot and weary, the horses covered with foam,
and the jaded hounds panting and dejected—and not a single kill! Every man declared that he had
seen at least one deer, and that the animal had come very close; but however hotly the dogs might
pursue the game, however well the guns might be aimed, at the snap of the trigger there was not a
deer in sight. They had been as fortunate as the little boy who said he came very near seeing a rabbit
—he saw his tracks. The party soon forgot its disappointment, however, and we sat down, not to
venison, but to a tamer feast of veal and roast pig.
One summer I had my pony at Fern Quarry. I called him Black Beauty, as I had just read the
book, and he resembled his namesake in every way, from his glossy black coat to the white star on
his forehead. I spent many of my happiest hours on his back. Occasionally, when it was quite safe,
my teacher would let go the leading-rein, and the pony sauntered on or stopped at his sweet will to
eat grass or nibble the leaves of the trees that grew beside the narrow trail.
On mornings when I did not care for the ride, my teacher and I would start after breakfast for a
ramble in the woods, and allow ourselves to get lost amid the trees and vines, with no road to follow
except the paths made by cows and horses. Frequently we came upon impassable thickets which
forced us to take a round about way. We always returned to the cottage with armfuls of laurel,
goldenrod, ferns and gorgeous swamp-flowers such as grow only in the South.
Sometimes I would go with Mildred and my little cousins to gather persimmons. I did not eat
them; but I loved their fragrance and enjoyed hunting for them in the leaves and grass. We also went
nutting, and I helped them open the chestnut burrs and break the shells of hickory-nuts and walnuts
—the big, sweet walnuts!
At the foot of the mountain there was a railroad, and the children watched the trains whiz by.
Sometimes a terrific whistle brought us to the steps, and Mildred told me in great excitement that a
cow or a horse had strayed on the track. About a mile distant there was a trestle spanning a deep
gorge. It was very difficult to walk over, the ties were wide apart and so narrow that one felt as if
one were walking on knives. I had never crossed it until one day Mildred, Miss Sullivan and I were
lost in the woods, and wandered for hours without finding a path.
Suddenly Mildred pointed with her little hand and exclaimed, “There’s the trestle!” We would have
taken any way rather than this; but it was late and growing dark, and the trestle was a short cut
home. I had to feel for the rails with my toe; but I was not afraid, and got on very well, until all at
once there came a faint “puff, puff” from the distance.
“I see the train!” cried Mildred, and in another minute it would have been upon us had we not
climbed down on the crossbraces while it rushed over our heads. I felt the hot breath from the engine
on my face, and the smoke and ashes almost choked us. As the train rumbled by, the trestle shook
and swayed until I thought we should be dashed to the chasm below. With the utmost difficulty we
regained the track. Long after dark we reached home and found the cottage empty; the family were
all out hunting for us.
CHAPTER XII
After my first visit to Boston, I spent almost every winter in the North. Once I went on a visit to a
New England village with its frozen lakes and vast snow fields. It was then that I had opportunities
such as had never been mine to enter into the treasures of the snow.
I recall my surprise on discovering that a mysterious hand had stripped the trees and bushes,
leaving only here and there a wrinkled leaf. The birds had flown, and their empty nests in the bare
trees were filled with snow. Winter was on hill and field. The earth seemed benumbed by his icy
touch, and the very spirits of the trees had withdrawn to their roots, and there, curled up in the dark,
lay fast asleep. All life seemed to have ebbed away, and even when the sun shone the day was
Shrunk and cold,
As if her veins were sapless and old,
And she rose up
decrepitly For a last dim look at earth and sea.
The withered grass and the bushes were transformed into a forest of icicles.
Then came a day when the chill air portended a snowstorm. We rushed out-of-doors to feel the
first few tiny flakes descending. Hour by hour the flakes dropped silently, softly from their airy height
to the earth, and the country became more and more level. A snowy night closed upon the world,
and in the morning one could scarcely recognize a feature of the landscape. All the roads were
hidden, not a single landmark was visible, only a waste of snow with trees rising out of it.
In the evening a wind from the northeast sprang up, and the flakes rushed hither and thither in
furious melee. Around the great fire we sat and told merry tales, and frolicked, and quite forgot that
we were in the midst of a desolate solitude, shut in from all communication with the outside world.
But during the night the fury of the wind increased to such a degree that it thrilled us with a vague
terror. The rafters creaked and strained, and the branches of the trees surrounding the house rattled
and beat against the windows, as the winds rioted up and down the country.
On the third day after the beginning of the storm the snow ceased. The sun broke through the
clouds and shone upon a vast, undulating white plain. High mounds, pyramids heaped in fantastic
shapes, and impenetrable drifts lay scattered in every direction.
Narrow paths were shoveled through the drifts. I put on my cloak and hood and went out. The air
stung my cheeks like fire. Half walking in the paths, half working our way through the lesser drifts,
we succeeded in reaching a pine grove just outside a broad pasture. The trees stood motionless and
white like figures in a marble frieze. There was no odour of pine-needles. The rays of the sun fell
upon the trees, so that the twigs sparkled like diamonds and dropped in showers when we touched
them. So dazzling was the light, it penetrated even the darkness that veils my eyes.
As the days wore on, the drifts gradually shrunk, but before they were wholly gone another storm
came, so that I scarcely felt the earth under my feet once all winter. At intervals the trees lost their icy
covering, and the bulrushes and underbrush were bare; but the lake lay frozen and hard beneath the
sun.
Our favourite amusement during that winter was tobogganing. In places the shore of the lake rises
abruptly from the water’s edge. Down these steep slopes we used to coast. We would get on our
toboggan, a boy would give us a shove, and off we went! Plunging through drifts, leaping hollows,
swooping down upon the lake, we would shoot across its gleaming surface to the opposite bank.
What joy! What exhilarating madness! For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds
us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine!
CHAPTER XIII
It was in the spring of 1890 that I learned to speak. The impulse to utter audible sounds had
always been strong within me. I used to make noises, keeping one hand on my throat while the other
hand felt the movements of my lips. I was pleased with anything that made a noise and liked to feel
the cat purr and the dog bark. I also liked to keep my hand on a singer’s throat, or on a piano when
it was being played. Before I lost my sight and hearing, I was fast learning to talk, but after my illness
it was found that I had ceased to speak because I could not hear. I used to sit in my mother’s lap all
day long and keep my hands on her face because it amused me to feel the motions of her lips; and I
moved my lips, too, although I had forgotten what talking was. My friends say that I laughed and
cried naturally, and for awhile I made many sounds and word-elements, not because they were a
means of communication, but because the need of exercising my vocal organs was imperative. There
was, however, one word the meaning of which I still remembered, WATER. I pronounced it “wawa.”
Even this became less and less intelligible until the time when Miss Sullivan began to teach me. I
stopped using it only after I had learned to spell the word on my fingers.
I had known for a long time that the people about me used a method of communication different
from mine; and even before I knew that a deaf child could be taught to speak, I was conscious of
dissatisfaction with the means of communication I already possessed. One who is entirely dependent
upon the manual alphabet has always a sense of restraint, of narrowness. This feeling began to agitate
me with a vexing, forward-reaching sense of a lack that should be filled. My thoughts would often
rise and beat up like birds against the wind, and I persisted in using my lips and voice. Friends tried
to discourage this tendency, fearing lest it would lead to disappointment. But I persisted, and an
accident soon occurred which resulted in the breaking down of this great barrier—I heard the story
of Ragnhild Kaata.
In 1890 Mrs. Lamson, who had been one of Laura Bridgman’s teachers, and who had just
returned from a visit to Norway and Sweden, came to see me, and told me of Ragnhild Kaata, a
deaf and blind girl in Norway who had actually been taught to speak. Mrs. Lamson had scarcely
finished telling me about this girl’s success before I was on fire with eagerness. I resolved that I, too,
would learn to speak. I would not rest satisfied until my teacher took me, for advice and assistance,
to Miss Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann School. This lovely, sweet-natured lady offered
to teach me herself, and we began the twenty-sixth of March, 1890.
Miss Fuller’s method was this: she passed my hand lightly over her face, and let me feel the
position of her tongue and lips when she made a sound. I was eager to imitate every motion and in an
hour had learned six elements of speech: M, P, A, S, T, I. Miss Fuller gave me eleven lessons in all. I
shall never forget the surprise and delight I felt when I uttered my first connected sentence, “It is
warm.” True, they were broken and stammering syllables; but they were human speech. 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.
No deaf child who has earnestly tried to speak the words which he has never heard—to come out
of the prison of silence, where no tone of love, no song of bird, no strain of music ever pierces the
stillness—can forget the thrill of surprise, the joy of discovery which came over him when he uttered
his first word. Only such a one can appreciate the eagerness with which I talked to my toys, to
stones, trees, birds and dumb animals, or the delight I felt when at my call Mildred ran to me or my
dogs obeyed my commands. It is an unspeakable boon to me to be able to speak in winged words
that need no interpretation. As I talked, happy thoughts fluttered up out of my words that might
perhaps have struggled in vain to escape my fingers.
But it must not be supposed that I could really talk in this short time. I had learned only the
elements of speech. Miss Fuller and Miss Sullivan could understand me, but most people would not
have understood one word in a hundred. Nor is it true that, after I had learned these elements, I did
the rest of the work myself. But for Miss Sullivan’s genius, untiring perseverance and devotion, I
could not have progressed as far as I have toward natural speech. In the first place, I laboured night
and day before I could be understood even by my most intimate friends; in the second place, I
needed Miss Sullivan’s assistance constantly in my efforts to articulate each sound clearly and to
combine all sounds in a thousand ways. Even now she calls my attention every day to
mispronounced words.
All teachers of the deaf know what this means, and only they can at all appreciate the peculiar
difficulties with which I had to contend. In reading my teacher’s lips I was wholly dependent on my
fingers: I had to use the sense of touch in catching the vibrations of the throat, the movements of the
mouth and the expression of the face; and often this sense was at fault. In such cases I was forced to
repeat the words or sentences, sometimes for hours, until I felt the proper ring in my own voice. My
work was practice, practice, practice. Discouragement and weariness cast me down frequently; but
the next moment the thought that I should soon be at home and show my loved ones what I had
accomplished, spurred me on, and I eagerly looked forward to their pleasure in my achievement.
“My little sister will understand me now,” was a thought stronger than all obstacles. I used to
repeat ecstatically, “I am not dumb now.” I could not be despondent while I anticipated the delight of
talking to my mother and reading her responses from her lips. It astonished me to find how much
easier it is to talk than to spell with the fingers, and I discarded the manual alphabet as a medium of
communication on my part; but Miss Sullivan and a few friends still use it in speaking to me, for it is
more convenient and more rapid than lip-reading.
Just here, perhaps, I had better explain our use of the manual alphabet, which seems to puzzle
people who do not know us. One who reads or talks to me spells with his hand, using the singlehand
manual alphabet generally employed by the deaf. I place my hand on the hand of the speaker
so lightly as not to impede its movements. The position of the hand is as easy to feel as it is to see. I
do not feel each letter any more than you see each letter separately when you read. Constant
practice makes the fingers very flexible, and some of my friends spell rapidly—about as fast as an
expert writes on a typewriter. The mere spelling is, of course, no more a conscious act than it is in
writing.
When I had made speech my own, I could not wait to go home. At last the happiest of happy
moments arrived. I had made my homeward journey, talking constantly to Miss Sullivan, not for the
sake of talking, but determined to improve to the last minute. Almost before I knew it, the train
stopped at the Tuscumbia station, and there on the platform stood the whole family. My eyes fill with
tears now as I think how my mother pressed me close to her, speechless and trembling with delight,
taking in every syllable that I spoke, while little Mildred seized my free hand and kissed it and
danced, and my father expressed his pride and affection in a big silence. It was as if Isaiah’s
prophecy had been fulfilled in me, “The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands!”
CHAPTER XIV
The winter of 1892 was darkened by the one cloud in my childhood’s bright sky. Joy deserted my
heart, and for a long, long time I lived in doubt, anxiety and fear. Books lost their charm for me, and
even now the thought of those dreadful days chills my heart. A little story called “The Frost King,”
which I wrote and sent to Mr. Anagnos, of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was at the root of the
trouble. In order to make the matter clear, I must set forth the facts connected with this episode,
which justice to my teacher and to myself compels me to relate.
I wrote the story when I was at home, the autumn after I had learned to speak. We had stayed up
at Fern Quarry later than usual. While we were there, Miss Sullivan had described to me the beauties
of the late foliage, and it seems that her descriptions revived the memory of a story, which must have
been read to me, and which I must have unconsciously retained. I thought then that I was “making up
a story,” as children say, and I eagerly sat down to write it before the ideas should slip from me. My
thoughts flowed easily; I felt a sense of joy in the composition. Words and images came tripping to
my finger ends, and as I thought out sentence after sentence, I wrote them on my braille slate. Now,
if words and images come to me without effort, it is a pretty sure sign that they are not the offspring
of my own mind, but stray waifs that I regretfully dismiss. At that time I eagerly absorbed everything
I read without a thought of authorship, and even now I cannot be quite sure of the boundary line
between my ideas and those I find in books. I suppose that is because so many of my impressions
come to me through the medium of others’ eyes and ears.
When the story was finished, I read it to my teacher, and I recall now vividly the pleasure I felt in
the more beautiful passages, and my annoyance at being interrupted to have the pronunciation of a
word corrected. At dinner it was read to the assembled family, who were surprised that I could write
so well. Some one asked me if I had read it in a book.
This question surprised me very much; for I had not the faintest recollection of having had it read
to me. I spoke up and said, “Oh, no, it is my story, and I have written it for Mr. Anagnos.”
Accordingly I copied the story and sent it to him for his birthday. It was suggested that I should
change the title from “Autumn Leaves” to “The Frost King,” which I did. I carried the little story to
the post-office myself, feeling as if I were walking on air. I little dreamed how cruelly I should pay for
that birthday gift.
Mr. Anagnos was delighted with “The Frost King,” and published it in one of the Perkins
Institution reports. This was the pinnacle of my happiness, from which I was in a little while dashed to
earth. I had been in Boston only a short time when it was discovered that a story similar to “The
Frost King,” called “The Frost Fairies” by Miss Margaret T. Canby, had appeared before I was
born in a book called “Birdie and His Friends.” The two stories were so much alike in thought and
language that it was evident Miss Canby’s story had been read to me, and that mine was—a
plagiarism. It was difficult to make me understand this; but when I did understand I was astonished
and grieved. No child ever drank deeper of the cup of bitterness than I did. I had disgraced myself; I
had brought suspicion upon those I loved best. And yet how could it possibly have happened? 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.
At first Mr. Anagnos, though deeply troubled, seemed to believe me. He was unusually tender and
kind to me, and for a brief space the shadow lifted. To please him I tried not to be unhappy, and to
make myself as pretty as possible for the celebration of Washington’s birthday, which took place
very soon after I received the sad news.
I was to be Ceres in a kind of masque given by the blind girls. How well I remember the graceful
draperies that enfolded me, the bright autumn leaves that wreathed my head, and the fruit and grain
at my feet and in my hands, and beneath all the piety of the masque the oppressive sense of coming ill
that made my heart heavy.
The night before the celebration, one of the teachers of the Institution had asked me a question
connected with “The Frost King,” and I was telling her that Miss Sullivan had talked to me about
Jack Frost and his wonderful works. Something I said made her think she detected in my words a
confession that I did remember Miss Canby’s story of “The Frost Fairies,” and she laid her
conclusions before Mr. Anagnos, although I had told her most emphatically that she was mistaken.
Mr. Anagnos, who loved me tenderly, thinking that he had been deceived, turned a deaf ear to the
pleadings of love and innocence. He believed, or at least suspected, that Miss Sullivan and I had
deliberately stolen the bright thoughts of another and imposed them on him to win his admiration. I
was brought before a court of investigation composed of the teachers and officers of the Institution,
and Miss Sullivan was asked to leave me. Then I was questioned and cross-questioned with what
seemed to me a determination on the part of my judges to force me to acknowledge that I
remembered having had “The Frost Fairies” read to me. I felt in every question the doubt and
suspicion that was in their minds, and I felt, too, that a loved friend was looking at me reproachfully,
although I could not have put all this into words. The blood pressed about my thumping heart, and I
could scarcely speak, except in monosyllables. Even the consciousness that it was only a dreadful
mistake did not lessen my suffering, and when at last I was allowed to leave the room, I was dazed
and did not notice my teacher’s caresses, or the tender words of my friends, who said I was a brave
little girl and they were proud of me.
As I lay in my bed that night, I wept as I hope few children have wept. I felt so cold, I imagined I
should die before morning, and the thought comforted me. I think if this sorrow had come to me
when I was older, it would have broken my spirit beyond repairing. But the angel of forgetfulness has
gathered up and carried away much of the misery and all the bitterness of those sad days.
Miss Sullivan had never heard of “The Frost Fairies” or of the book in which it was published.
With the assistance of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, she investigated the matter carefully, and at last it
came out that Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins had a copy of Miss Canby’s “Birdie and His Friends” in
1888, the year that we spent the summer with her at Brewster. Mrs. Hopkins was unable to find her
copy; but she has told me that at that time, while Miss Sullivan was away on a vacation, she tried to
amuse me by reading from various books, and although she could not remember reading “The Frost
Fairies” any more than I, yet she felt sure that “Birdie and His Friends” was one of them. She
explained the disappearance of the book by the fact that she had a short time before sold her house
and disposed of many juvenile books, such as old schoolbooks and fairy tales, and that “Birdie and
His Friends” was probably among them.
The stories had little or no meaning for me then; but the mere spelling of the strange words was
sufficient to amuse a little child who could do almost nothing to amuse herself; and although I do not
recall a single circumstance connected with the reading of the stories, yet I cannot help thinking that I
made a great effort to remember the words, with the intention of having my teacher explain them
when she returned. One thing is certain, the language was ineffaceably stamped upon my brain,
though for a long time no one knew it, least of all myself.
When Miss Sullivan came back, I did not speak to her about “The Frost Fairies,” probably
because she began at once to read “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” which filled my mind to the exclusion of everything else. But the fact remains that Miss Canby’s story was read to me once, and that long
after I had forgotten it, it came back to me so naturally that I never suspected that it was the child of
another mind.
In my trouble I received many messages of love and sympathy. All the friends I loved best, except
one, have remained my own to the present time.
Miss Canby herself wrote kindly, “Some day you will write a great story out of your own head,
that will be a comfort and help to many.” But this kind prophecy has never been fulfilled. I have never
played with words again for the mere pleasure of the game. Indeed, I have ever since been tortured
by the fear that what I write is not my own. For a long time, when I wrote a letter, even to my
mother, I was seized with a sudden feeling of terror, and I would spell the sentences over and over,
to make sure that I had not read them in a book. Had it not been for the persistent encouragement of
Miss Sullivan, I think I should have given up trying to write altogether.
I have read “The Frost Fairies” since, also the letters I wrote in which I used other ideas of Miss
Canby’s. I find in one of them, a letter to Mr. Anagnos, dated September 29, 1891, words and
sentiments exactly like those of the book. At the time I was writing “The Frost King,” and this letter,
like many others, contains phrases which show that my mind was saturated with the story. I
represent my teacher as saying to me of the golden autumn leaves, “Yes, they are beautiful enough to
comfort us for the flight of summer”—an idea direct from Miss Canby’s story.
This habit of assimilating what pleased me and giving it out again as my own appears in much of
my early correspondence and my first attempts at writing. In a composition which I wrote about the
old cities of Greece and Italy, I borrowed my glowing descriptions, with variations, from sources I
have forgotten. I knew Mr. Anagnos’s great love of antiquity and his enthusiastic appreciation of all
beautiful sentiments about Italy and Greece. I therefore gathered from all the books I read every bit
of poetry or of history that I thought would give him pleasure. Mr. Anagnos, in speaking of my
composition on the cities, has said, “These ideas are poetic in their essence.” But I do not understand
how he ever thought a blind and deaf child of eleven could have invented them. Yet I cannot think
that because I did not originate the ideas, my little composition is therefore quite devoid of interest. It
shows me that I could express my appreciation of beautiful and poetic ideas in clear and animated
language.
Those early compositions were mental gymnastics. I was learning, as all young and inexperienced
persons learn, by assimilation and imitation, to put ideas into words. Everything I found in books that
pleased me I retained in my memory, consciously or unconsciously, and adapted it. The young
writer, as Stevenson has said, instinctively tries to copy whatever seems most admirable, and he
shifts his admiration with astonishing versatility. It is only after years of this sort of practice that even
great men have learned to marshal the legion of words which come thronging through every byway of
the mind.
I am afraid I have not yet completed this process. It is certain that I cannot always distinguish my
own thoughts from those I read, because what I read becomes the very substance and texture of my
mind. Consequently, in nearly all that I write, I produce something which very much resembles the
crazy patchwork I used to make when I first learned to sew. This patchwork was made of all sorts
of odds and ends—pretty bits of silk and velvet; but the coarse pieces that were not pleasant to
touch always predominated. Likewise my compositions are made up of crude notions of my own,
inlaid with the brighter thoughts and riper opinions of the authors I have read. It seems to me that the
great difficulty of writing is to make the language of the educated mind express our confused ideas,
half feelings, half thoughts, when we are little more than bundles of instinctive tendencies. Trying to
write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we
wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the
design. But we keep on trying because we know that others have succeeded, and we are not willing
to acknowledge defeat.
“There is no way to become original, except to be born so,” says Stevenson, and although I may
not be original, I hope sometime to outgrow my artificial, periwigged compositions. Then, perhaps,
my own thoughts and experiences will come to the surface. Meanwhile I trust and hope and
persevere, and try not to let the bitter memory of “The Frost King” trammel my efforts.
So this sad experience may have done me good and set me thinking on some of the problems of
composition. My only regret is that it resulted in the loss of one of my dearest friends, Mr. Anagnos.
Since the publication of “The Story of My Life” in the Ladies’ Home Journal, Mr. Anagnos has
made a statement, in a letter to Mr. Macy, that at the time of the “Frost King” matter, he believed I
was innocent. He says, the court of investigation before which I was brought consisted of eight
people: four blind, four seeing persons. Four of them, he says, thought I knew that Miss Canby’s
story had been read to me, and the others did not hold this view. Mr. Anagnos states that he cast his
vote with those who were favourable to me.
But, however the case may have been, with whichever side he may have cast his vote, when I
went into the room where Mr. Anagnos had so often held me on his knee and, forgetting his many
cares, had shared in my frolics, and found there persons who seemed to doubt me, I felt that there
was something hostile and menacing in the very atmosphere, and subsequent events have borne out
this impression. For two years he seems to have held the belief that Miss Sullivan and I were
innocent. Then he evidently retracted his favourable judgment, why I do not know. Nor did I know
the details of the investigation. I never knew even the names of the members of the “court” who did
not speak to me. I was too excited to notice anything, too frightened to ask questions. Indeed, I
could scarcely think what I was saying, or what was being said to me.
I have given this account of the “Frost King” affair because it was important in my life and
education; and, in order that there might be no misunderstanding, I have set forth all the facts as they
appear to me, without a thought of defending myself or of laying blame on any one.
CHAPTER XV
The summer and winter following the “Frost King” incident I spent with my family in Alabama. I
recall with delight that home-going. Everything had budded and blossomed. I was happy. “The Frost
King” was forgotten.
When the ground was strewn with the crimson and golden leaves of autumn, and the muskscented
grapes that covered the arbour at the end of the garden were turning golden brown in the
sunshine, I began to write a sketch of my life—a year after I had written “The Frost King.”
I was still excessively scrupulous about everything I wrote. The thought that what I wrote might
not be absolutely my own tormented me. No one knew of these fears except my teacher. A strange
sensitiveness prevented me from referring to the “Frost King”; and often when an idea flashed out in
the course of conversation I would spell softly to her, “I am not sure it is mine.” At other times, in the
midst of a paragraph I was writing, I said to myself, “Suppose it should be found that all this was
written by some one long ago!” An impish fear clutched my hand, so that I could not write any more
that day. And even now I sometimes feel the same uneasiness and disquietude. Miss Sullivan
consoled and helped me in every way she could think of; but the terrible experience I had passed
through left a lasting impression on my mind, the significance of which I am only just beginning to
understand. It was with the hope of restoring my self-confidence that she persuaded me to write for
the Youth’s Companion a brief account of my life. I was then twelve years old. As I look back on
my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the
good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.
I wrote timidly, fearfully, but resolutely, urged on by my teacher, who knew that if I persevered, I
should find my mental foothold again and get a grip on my faculties. Up to the time of the “Frost
King” episode, I had lived the unconscious life of a little child; now my thoughts were turned inward,
and I beheld things invisible. Gradually I emerged from the penumbra of that experience with a mind
made clearer by trial and with a truer knowledge of life.
The chief events of the year 1893 were my trip to Washington during the inauguration of President
Cleveland, and visits to Niagara and the World’s Fair. Under such circumstances my studies were
constantly interrupted and often put aside for many weeks, so that it is impossible for me to give a
connected account of them.
We went to Niagara in March, 1893. It is difficult to describe my emotions when I stood on the
point which overhangs the American Falls and felt the air vibrate and the earth tremble.
It seems strange to many people that I should be impressed by the wonders and beauties of
Niagara. They are always asking: “What does this beauty or that music mean to you? You cannot
see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?” In the most
evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can
fathom or define love or religion or goodness.
During the summer of 1893, Miss Sullivan and I visited the World’s Fair with Dr. Alexander
Graham Bell. I recall with unmixed delight those days when a thousand childish fancies became
beautiful realities. Every day in imagination I made a trip round the world, and I saw many wonders
from the uttermost parts of the earth—marvels of invention, treasuries of industry and skill and all the
activities of human life actually passed under my finger tips.
I liked to visit the Midway Plaisance. It seemed like the “Arabian Nights,” it was crammed so full
of novelty and interest. Here was the India of my books in the curious bazaar with its Shivas and
elephant-gods; there was the land of the Pyramids concentrated in a model Cairo with its mosques
and its long processions of camels; yonder were the lagoons of Venice, where we sailed every
evening when the city and the fountains were illuminated. I also went on board a Viking ship which
lay a short distance from the little craft. I had been on a man-of-war before, in Boston, and it
interested me to see, on this Viking ship, how the seaman was once all in all—how he sailed and
took storm and calm alike with undaunted heart, and gave chase to whosoever reechoed his cry,
“We are of the sea!” and fought with brains and sinews, self-reliant, self-sufficient, instead of being
thrust into the background by unintelligent machinery, as Jack is to-day. So it always is—”man only
is interesting to man.”
At a little distance from this ship there was a model of the Santa Maria, which I also examined.
The captain showed me Columbus’s cabin and the desk with an hour-glass on it. This small
instrument impressed me most because it made me think how weary the heroic navigator must have
felt as he saw the sand dropping grain by grain while desperate men were plotting against his life.
Mr. Higinbotham, President of the World’s Fair, kindly gave me permission to touch the exhibits,
and with an eagerness as insatiable as that with which Pizarro seized the treasures of Peru, I took in
the glories of the Fair with my fingers. It was a sort of tangible kaleidoscope, this white city of the
West. Everything fascinated me, especially the French bronzes. They were so lifelike, I thought they
were angel visions which the artist had caught and bound in earthly forms.
At the Cape of Good Hope exhibit, I learned much about the processes of mining diamonds.
Whenever it was possible, I touched the machinery while it was in motion, so as to get a clearer idea
how the stones were weighed, cut, and polished. I searched in the washings for a diamond and found
it myself—the only true diamond, they said, that was ever found in the United States.
Dr. Bell went everywhere with us and in his own delightful way described to me the objects of
greatest interest. In the electrical building we examined the telephones, autophones, phonographs,
and other inventions, and he made me understand how it is possible to send a message on wires that
mock space and outrun time, and, like Prometheus, to draw fire from the sky. We also visited the
anthropological department, and I was much interested in the relics of ancient Mexico, in the rude
stone implements that are so often the only record of an age—the simple monuments of nature’s
unlettered children (so I thought as I fingered them) that seem bound to last while the memorials of
kings and sages crumble in dust away—and in the Egyptian mummies, which I shrank from touching.
From these relics I learned more about the progress of man than I have heard or read since.
All these experiences added a great many new terms to my vocabulary, and in the three weeks I
spent at the Fair I took a long leap from the little child’s interest in fairy tales and toys to the
appreciation of the real and the earnest in the workaday world.
CHAPTER XVI
Before October, 1893, I had studied various subjects by myself in a more or less desultory
manner. I read the histories of Greece, Rome and the United States. I had a French grammar in
raised print, and as I already knew some French, I often amused myself by composing in my head
short exercises, using the new words as I came across them, and ignoring rules and other
technicalities as much as possible. I even tried, without aid, to master the French pronunciation, as I
found all the letters and sounds described in the book. Of course this was tasking slender powers for
great ends; but it gave me something to do on a rainy day, and I acquired a sufficient knowledge of
French to read with pleasure La Fontaine’s “Fables,” “Le Medecin Malgre Lui” and passages from
“Athalie.”
I also gave considerable time to the improvement of my speech. I read aloud to Miss Sullivan and
recited passages from my favourite poets, which I had committed to memory; she corrected my
pronunciation and helped me to phrase and inflect. It was not, however, until October, 1893, after I
had recovered from the fatigue and excitement of my visit to the World’s Fair, that I began to have
lessons in special subjects at fixed hours.
Miss Sullivan and I were at that time in Hulton, Pennsylvania, visiting the family of Mr. William
Wade. Mr. Irons, a neighbour of theirs, was a good Latin scholar; it was arranged that I should
study under him. I remember him as a man of rare, sweet nature and of wide experience. He taught
me Latin grammar principally; but he often helped me in arithmetic, which I found as troublesome as
it was uninteresting. Mr. Irons also read with me Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.” I had read many books
before, but never from a critical point of view. I learned for the first time to know an author, to
recognize his style as I recognize the clasp of a friend’s hand.
At first I was rather unwilling to study Latin grammar. It seemed absurd to waste time analyzing,
every word I came across—noun, genitive, singular, feminine—when its meaning was quite plain. I
thought I might just as well describe my pet in order to know it—order, vertebrate; division,
quadruped; class, mammalia; genus, felinus; species, cat; individual, Tabby. But as I got deeper into
the subject, I became more interested, and the beauty of the language delighted me. I often amused
myself by reading Latin passages, picking up words I understood and trying to make sense. I have
never ceased to enjoy this pastime.
There is nothing more beautiful, I think, than the evanescent fleeting images and sentiments
presented by a language one is just becoming familiar with—ideas that flit across the mental sky,
shaped and tinted by capricious fancy. Miss Sullivan sat beside me at my lessons, spelling into my
hand whatever Mr. Irons said, and looking up new words for me. I was just beginning to read
Caesar’s “Gallic War” when I went to my home in Alabama.
CHAPTER XVII
In the summer of 1894, I attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to
Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. There it was arranged that I should go to the Wright-
Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. I went there in October, 1894, accompanied by
Miss Sullivan. This school was chosen especially for the purpose of obtaining the highest advantages
in vocal culture and training in lip-reading. In addition to my work in these subjects, I studied, during
the two years I was in the school, arithmetic, physical geography, French and German.
Miss Reamy, my German teacher, could use the manual alphabet, and after I had acquired a small
vocabulary, we talked together in German whenever we had a chance, and in a few months I could
understand almost everything she said. Before the end of the first year I read “Wilhelm Tell” with the
greatest delight. Indeed, I think I made more progress in German than in any of my other studies. I
found French much more difficult. I studied it with Madame Olivier, a French lady who did not know
the manual alphabet, and who was obliged to give her instruction orally. I could not read her lips
easily; so my progress was much slower than in German. I managed, however, to read “Le Medecin
Malgre Lui” again. It was very amusing but I did not like it nearly so well as “Wilhelm Tell.”
My progress in lip-reading and speech was not what my teachers and I had hoped and expected
it would be. It was my ambition to speak like other people, and my teachers believed that this could
be accomplished; but, although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did not quite reach our goal. I
suppose we aimed too high, and disappointment was therefore inevitable. I still regarded arithmetic
as a system of pitfalls. I hung about the dangerous frontier of “guess,” avoiding with infinite trouble to
myself and others the broad valley of reason. When I was not guessing, I was jumping at
conclusions, and this fault, in addition to my dullness, aggravated my difficulties more than was right
or necessary.
But although these disappointments caused me great depression at times, I pursued my other
studies with unflagging interest, especially physical geography. It was a joy to learn the secrets of
nature: how—in the picturesque language of the Old Testament—the winds are made to blow from
the four corners of the heavens, how the vapours ascend from the ends of the earth, how rivers are
cut out among the rocks, and mountains overturned by the roots, and in what ways man may
overcome many forces mightier than himself. The two years in New York were happy ones, and I
look back to them with genuine pleasure.
I remember especially the walks we all took together every day in Central Park, the only part of
the city that was congenial to me. I never lost a jot of my delight in this great park. I loved to have it
described every time I entered it; for it was beautiful in all its aspects, and these aspects were so
many that it was beautiful in a different way each day of the nine months I spent in New York.
In the spring we made excursions to various places of interest. We sailed on the Hudson River and wandered about on its green banks, of which Bryant loved to sing. I liked the simple, wild
grandeur of the palisades. Among the places I visited were West Point, Tarrytown, the home of
Washington Irving, where I walked through “Sleepy Hollow.”
The teachers at the Wright-Humason School were always planning how they might give the pupils
every advantage that those who hear enjoy—how they might make much of few tendencies and
passive memories in the cases of the little ones—and lead them out of the cramping circumstances in
which their lives were set.
Before I left New York, these bright days were darkened by the greatest sorrow that I have ever
borne, except the death of my father. Mr. John P. Spaulding, of Boston, died in February, 1896.
Only those who knew and loved him best can understand what his friendship meant to me. He, who
made every one happy in a beautiful, unobtrusive way, was most kind and tender to Miss Sullivan
and me. So long as we felt his loving presence and knew that he took a watchful interest in our work,
fraught with so many difficulties, we could not be discouraged. His going away left a vacancy in our
lives that has never been filled.
CHAPTER XVIII
In October, 1896, I entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, to be prepared for
Radcliffe.
When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the announcement, “Some
day I shall go to college—but I shall go to Harvard!” When asked why I would not go to Wellesley,
I replied that there were only girls there. The thought of going to college took root in my heart and
became an earnest desire, which impelled me to enter into competition for a degree with seeing and
hearing girls, in the face of the strong opposition of many true and wise friends. When I left New
York the idea had become a fixed purpose; and it was decided that I should go to Cambridge. This
was the nearest approach I could get to Harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration.
At the Cambridge School the plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with me and
interpret to me the instruction given.
Of course my instructors had had no experience in teaching any but normal pupils, and my only
means of conversing with them was reading their lips. My studies for the first year were English
history, English literature, German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional themes. Until
then I had never taken a course of study with the idea of preparing for college; but I had been well
drilled in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident to my teachers that I needed no
special instruction in this subject beyond a critical study of the books prescribed by the college. I had
had, moreover, a good start in French, and received six months’ instruction in Latin; but German was
the subject with which I was most familiar.
In spite, however, of these advantages, there were serious drawbacks to my progress. Miss
Sullivan could not spell out in my hand all that the books required, and it was very difficult to have
textbooks embossed in time to be of use to me, although my friends in London and Philadelphia
were willing to hasten the work. For a while, indeed, I had to copy my Latin in braille, so that I could
recite with the other girls. My instructors soon became sufficiently familiar with my imperfect speech
to answer my questions readily and correct mistakes. I could not make notes in class or write
exercises; but I wrote all my compositions and translations at home on my typewriter.
Each day Miss Sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled into my hand with infinite patience
all that the teachers said. In study hours she had to look up new words for me and read and reread
notes and books I did not have in raised print. The tedium of that work is hard to conceive. Frau
Grote, my German teacher, and Mr. Gilman, the principal, were the only teachers in the school who
learned the finger alphabet to give me instruction. No one realized more fully than dear Frau Grote
how slow and inadequate her spelling was. Nevertheless, in the goodness of her heart she laboriously
spelled out her instructions to me in special lessons twice a week, to give Miss Sullivan a little rest.
But, though everybody was kind and ready to help us, there was only one hand that could turn
drudgery into pleasure.
That year I finished arithmetic, reviewed my Latin grammar, and read three chapters of Caesar’s
“Gallic War.” In German I read, partly with my fingers and partly with Miss Sullivan’s assistance,
Schiller’s “Lied von der Glocke” and “Taucher,” Heine’s “Harzreise,” Freytag’s “Aus dem Staat
Friedrichs des Grossen,” Riehl’s “Fluch Der Schonheit,” Lessing’s “Minna von Barnhelm,” and
Goethe’s “Aus meinem Leben.” I took the greatest delight in these German books, especially
Schiller’s wonderful lyrics, the history of Frederick the Great’s magnificent achievements and the
account of Goethe’s life. I was sorry to finish “Die Harzreise,” so full of happy witticisms and
charming descriptions of vine-clad hills, streams that sing and ripple in the sunshine, and wild regions,
sacred to tradition and legend, the gray sisters of a long-vanished, imaginative age—descriptions
such as can be given only by those to whom nature is “a feeling, a love and an appetite.”
Mr. Gilman instructed me part of the year in English literature. We read together, “As You Like
It,” Burke’s “Speech on Conciliation with America,” and Macaulay’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” Mr.
Gilman’s broad views of history and literature and his clever explanations made my work easier and
pleasanter than it could have been had I only read notes mechanically with the necessarily brief
explanations given in the classes.
Burke’s speech was more instructive than any other book on a political subject that I had ever
read. My mind stirred with the stirring times, and the characters round which the life of two
contending nations centred seemed to move right before me. I wondered more and more, while
Burke’s masterly speech rolled on in mighty surges of eloquence, how it was that King George and
his ministers could have turned a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory and their
humiliation. Then I entered into the melancholy details of the relation in which the great statesman
stood to his party and to the representatives of the people. I thought how strange it was that such
precious seeds of truth and wisdom should have fallen among the tares of ignorance and corruption.
In a different way Macaulay’s “Life of Samuel Johnson” was interesting. My heart went out to the
lonely man who ate the bread of affliction in Grub Street, and yet, in the midst of toil and cruel
suffering of body and soul, always had a kind word, and lent a helping hand to the poor and
despised. I rejoiced over all his successes, I shut my eyes to his faults, and wondered, not that he
had them, but that they had not crushed or dwarfed his soul. But in spite of Macaulay’s brilliancy and
his admirable faculty of making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness
wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude
very unlike the attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the Demosthenes of Great Britain.
At the Cambridge school, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed the companionship of seeing and
hearing girls of my own age. I lived with several others in one of the pleasant houses connected with
the school, the house where Mr. Howells used to live, and we all had the advantage of home life. I
joined them in many of their games, even blind man’s buff and frolics in the snow; I took long walks
with them; we discussed our studies and read aloud the things that interested us. Some of the girls
learned to speak to me, so that Miss Sullivan did not have to repeat their conversation.
At Christmas, my mother and little sister spent the holidays with me, and Mr. Gilman kindly offered to let Mildred study in his school. So Mildred stayed with me in Cambridge, and for six
happy months we were hardly ever apart. It makes me most happy to remember the hours we spent
helping each other in study and sharing our recreation together.
I took my preliminary examinations for Radcliffe from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July in 1897.
The subjects I offered were Elementary and Advanced German, French, Latin, English, and Greek
and Roman history, making nine hours in all. I passed in everything, and received “honours” in
German and English.
Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use when I took my examinations will not be
amiss here. The student was required to pass in sixteen hours—twelve hours being called elementary
and four advanced. He had to pass five hours at a time to have them counted. The examination
papers were given out at nine o’clock at Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a special messenger.
Each candidate was known, not by his name, but by a number. I was No. 233, but, as I had to use a
typewriter, my identity could not be concealed.
It was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself, because the noise
of the typewriter might disturb the other girls. Mr. Gilman read all the papers to me by means of the
manual alphabet. A man was placed on guard at the door to prevent interruption.
The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first, then
sentence by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud, to make sure that I understood him
perfectly. The papers were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote out my answers on the
typewriter. Mr. Gilman spelled to me what I had written, and I made such changes as I thought
necessary, and he inserted them. I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage since in any of
my examinations. At Radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after they are written, and I have no
opportunity to correct errors unless I finish before the time is up. In that case I correct only such
mistakes as I can recall in the few minutes allowed, and make notes of these corrections at the end of
my paper. If I passed with higher credit in the preliminaries than in the finals, there are two reasons.
In the finals, no one read my work over to me, and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some
of which I was in a measure familiar before my work in the Cambridge school; for at the beginning of
the year I had passed examinations in English, History, French and German, which Mr. Gilman gave
me from previous Harvard papers.
Mr. Gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a certificate that I, candidate No. 233,
had written the papers.
All the other preliminary examinations were conducted in the same manner. None of them was so
difficult as the first. I remember that the day the Latin paper was brought to us, Professor Schilling
came in and informed me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This encouraged me greatly, and I
sped on to the end of the ordeal with a light heart and a steady hand.
CHAPTER XIX
When I began my second year at the Gilman school, I was full of hope and determination to
succeed. But during the first few weeks I was confronted with unforeseen difficulties. Mr. Gilman
had agreed that that year I should study mathematics principally. I had physics, algebra, geometry,
astronomy, Greek and Latin. Unfortunately, many of the books I needed had not been embossed in
time for me to begin with the classes, and I lacked important apparatus for some of my studies. The
classes I was in were very large, and it was impossible for the teachers to give me special instruction.
Miss Sullivan was obliged to read all the books to me, and interpret for the instructors, and for the
first time in eleven years it seemed as if her dear hand would not be equal to the task.
It was necessary for me to write algebra and geometry in class and solve problems in physics, and
this I could not do until we bought a braille writer, by means of which I could put down the steps and
processes of my work. I could not follow with my eyes the geometrical figures drawn on the
blackboard, and my only means of getting a clear idea of them was to make them on a cushion with
straight and curved wires, which had bent and pointed ends. I had to carry in my mind, as Mr. Keith
says in his report, the lettering of the figures, the hypothesis and conclusion, the construction and the
process of the proof. In a word, every study had its obstacles. Sometimes I lost all courage and
betrayed my feelings in a way I am ashamed to remember, especially as the signs of my trouble were
afterward used against Miss Sullivan, the only person of all the kind friends I had there, who could
make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth.
Little by little, however, my difficulties began to disappear. The embossed books and other
apparatus arrived, and I threw myself into the work with renewed confidence. Algebra and geometry
were the only studies that continued to defy my efforts to comprehend them. As I have said before, I
had no aptitude for mathematics; the different points were not explained to me as fully as I wished.
The geometrical diagrams were particularly vexing because I could not see the relation of the
different parts to one another, even on the cushion. It was not until Mr. Keith taught me that I had a
clear idea of mathematics.
I was beginning to overcome these difficulties when an event occurred which changed everything.
Just before the books came, Mr. Gilman had begun to remonstrate with Miss Sullivan on the
ground that I was working too hard, and in spite of my earnest protestations, he reduced the number
of my recitations. At the beginning we had agreed that I should, if necessary, take five years to
prepare for college, but at the end of the first year the success of my examinations showed Miss
Sullivan, Miss Harbaugh (Mr. Gilman’s head teacher), and one other, that I could without too much
effort complete my preparation in two years more. Mr. Gilman at first agreed to this; but when my
tasks had become somewhat perplexing, he insisted that I was overworked, and that I should remain
at his school three years longer. I did not like his plan, for I wished to enter college with my class.
On the seventeenth of November I was not very well, and did not go to school. Although Miss
Sullivan knew that my indisposition was not serious, yet Mr. Gilman, on hearing of it, declared that I
was breaking down and made changes in my studies which would have rendered it impossible for me
to take my final examinations with my class. In the end the difference of opinion between Mr. Gilman
and Miss Sullivan resulted in my mother’s withdrawing my sister Mildred and me from the
Cambridge school.
After some delay it was arranged that I should continue my studies under a tutor, Mr. Merton S.
Keith, of Cambridge. Miss Sullivan and I spent the rest of the winter with our friends, the
Chamberlins in Wrentham, twenty-five miles from Boston.
From February to July, 1898, Mr. Keith came out to Wrentham twice a week, and taught me
algebra, geometry, Greek and Latin. Miss Sullivan interpreted his instruction.
In October, 1898, we returned to Boston. For eight months Mr. Keith gave me lessons five times
a week, in periods of about an hour. He explained each time what I did not understand in the
previous lesson, assigned new work, and took home with him the Greek exercises which I had
written during the week on my typewriter, corrected them fully, and returned them to me.
In this way my preparation for college went on without interruption. I found it much easier and
pleasanter to be taught by myself than to receive instruction in class. There was no hurry, no
confusion. My tutor had plenty of time to explain what I did not understand, so I got on faster and
did better work than I ever did in school. I still found more difficulty in mastering problems in
mathematics than I did in any other of my studies. I wish algebra and geometry had been half as easy
as the languages and literature. But even mathematics Mr. Keith made interesting; he succeeded in
whittling problems small enough to get through my brain. He kept my mind alert and eager, and
trained it to reason clearly, and to seek conclusions calmly and logically, instead of jumping wildly
into space and arriving nowhere. He was always gentle and forbearing, no matter how dull I might
be, and believe me, my stupidity would often have exhausted the patience of Job.
On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, I took my final examinations for Radcliffe College. The first
day I had Elementary Greek and Advanced Latin, and the second day Geometry, Algebra and
Advanced Greek.
The college authorities did not allow Miss Sullivan to read the examination papers to me; so Mr.
Eugene C. Vining, one of the instructors at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was employed to
copy the papers for me in American braille. Mr. Vining was a stranger to me, and could not
communicate with me, except by writing braille. The proctor was also a stranger, and did not attempt
to communicate with me in any way.
The braille worked well enough in the languages, but when it came to geometry and algebra,
difficulties arose. I was sorely perplexed, and felt discouraged wasting much precious time, especially
in algebra. It is true that I was familiar with all literary braille in common use in this country—English,
American, and New York Point; but the various signs and symbols in geometry and algebra in the
three systems are very different, and I had used only the English braille in my algebra.
Two days before the examinations, Mr. Vining sent me a braille copy of one of the old Harvard
papers in algebra. To my dismay I found that it was in the American notation. I sat down immediately
and wrote to Mr. Vining, asking him to explain the signs. I received another paper and a table of
signs by return mail, and I set to work to learn the notation. But on the night before the algebra
examination, while I was struggling over some very complicated examples, I could not tell the
combinations of bracket, brace and radical. Both Mr. Keith and I were distressed and full of
forebodings for the morrow; but we went over to the college a little before the examination began,
and had Mr. Vining explain more fully the American symbols.
In geometry my chief difficulty was that I had always been accustomed to read the propositions in
line print, or to have them spelled into my hand; and somehow, although the propositions were right
before me, I found the braille confusing, and could not fix clearly in my mind what I was reading. But
when I took up algebra I had a harder time still. The signs, which I had so lately learned, and which I
thought I knew, perplexed me. Besides, I could not see what I wrote on my typewriter. I had always
done my work in braille or in my head. Mr. Keith had relied too much on my ability to solve
problems mentally, and had not trained me to write examination papers. Consequently my work was
painfully slow, and I had to read the examples over and over before I could form any idea of what I
was required to do. Indeed, I am not sure now that I read all the signs correctly. I found it very hard
to keep my wits about me.
But I do not blame any one. The administrative board of Radcliffe did not realize how difficult they
were making my examinations, nor did they understand the peculiar difficulties I had to surmount. But
if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame
them all.
CHAPTER XX
The struggle for admission to college was ended, and I could now enter Radcliffe whenever I
pleased. Before I entered college, however, it was thought best that I should study another year
under Mr. Keith. It was not, therefore, until the fall of 1900 that my dream of going to college was
realized.
I remember my first day at Radcliffe. It was a day full of interest for me. I had looked forward to it
for years. A potent force within me, stronger than the persuasion of my friends, stronger even than
the pleadings of my heart, had impelled me to try my strength by the standards of those who see and
hear. I knew that there were obstacles in the way; but I was eager to overcome them. I had taken to
heart the words of the wise Roman who said, “To be banished from Rome is but to live outside of
Rome.” Debarred from the great highways of knowledge, I was compelled to make the journey
across country by unfrequented roads—that was all; and I knew that in college there were many
bypaths where I could touch hands with girls who were thinking, loving and struggling like me.
I began my studies with eagerness. Before me I saw a new world opening in beauty and light, and
I felt within me the capacity to know all things. In the wonderland of Mind I should be as free as
another. Its people, scenery, manners, joys, tragedies should be living, tangible interpreters of the
real world. The lecture-halls seemed filled with the spirit of the great and the wise, and I thought the
professors were the embodiment of wisdom. If I have since learned differently, I am not going to tell
anybody.
But I soon discovered that college was not quite the romantic lyceum I had imagined. Many of the
dreams that had delighted my young inexperience became beautifully less and “faded into the light of
common day.” Gradually I began to find that there were disadvantages in going to college.
The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind
and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, which one
hears only in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the
soul that until then had been silent. But in college there is no time to commune with one’s thoughts.
One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one
leaves the dearest pleasures—solitude, books and imagination—outside with the whispering pines. I
suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future
enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.
My studies the first year were French, German, history, English composition and English literature.
In the French course I read some of the works of Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Alfred de Musset and
Sainte-Beuve, and in the German those of Goethe and Schiller. I reviewed rapidly the whole period
of history from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eighteenth century, and in English literature
studied critically Milton’s poems and “Areopagitica.”
I am frequently asked how I overcome the peculiar conditions under which I work in college. In
the classroom I am of course practically alone. The professor is as remote as if he were speaking
through a telephone. The lectures are spelled into my hand as rapidly as possible, and much of the
individuality of the lecturer is lost to me in the effort to keep in the race. The words rush through my
hand like hounds in pursuit of a hare which they often miss. But in this respect I do not think I am
much worse off than the girls who take notes. If the mind is occupied with the mechanical process of
hearing and putting words on paper at pell-mell speed, I should not think one could pay much
attention to the subject under consideration or the manner in which it is presented. I cannot make
notes during the lectures, because my hands are busy listening. Usually I jot down what I can
remember of them when I get home. I write the exercises, daily themes, criticisms and hour-tests, the
mid-year and final examinations, on my typewriter, so that the professors have no difficulty in finding
out how little I know. When I began the study of Latin prosody, I devised and explained to my
professor a system of signs indicating the different meters and quantities.
I use the Hammond typewriter. I have tried many machines, and I find the Hammond is the best
adapted to the peculiar needs of my work. With this machine movable type shuttles can be used, and
one can have several shuttles, each with a different set of characters—Greek, French, or
mathematical, according to the kind of writing one wishes to do on the typewriter. Without it, I doubt
if I could go to college.
Very few of the books required in the various courses are printed for the blind, and I am obliged
to have them spelled into my hand. Consequently I need more time to prepare my lessons than other
girls. The manual part takes longer, and I have perplexities which they have not. There are days
when the close attention I must give to details chafes my spirit, and the thought that I must spend
hours reading a few chapters, while in the world without other girls are laughing and singing and
dancing, makes me rebellious; but I soon recover my buoyancy and laugh the discontent out of my
heart. For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone,
and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many
times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again
and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher
and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the
luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire. I am not always alone,
however, in these struggles. Mr. William Wade and Mr. E. E. Allen, Principal of the Pennsylvania
Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, get for me many of the books I need in raised print. Their
thoughtfulness has been more of a help and encouragement to me than they can ever know.
Last year, my second year at Radcliffe, I studied English composition, the Bible as English
composition, the governments of America and Europe, the Odes of Horace, and Latin comedy. The
class in composition was the pleasantest. It was very lively. The lectures were always interesting,
vivacious, witty; for the instructor, Mr. Charles Townsend Copeland, more than any one else I have
had until this year, brings before you literature in all its original freshness and power. For one short
hour you are permitted to drink in the eternal beauty of the old masters without needless
interpretation or exposition. You revel in their fine thoughts. You enjoy with all your soul the sweet
thunder of the Old Testament, forgetting the existence of Jahweh and Elohim; and you go home
feeling that you have had “a glimpse of that perfection in which spirit and form dwell in immortal
harmony; truth and beauty bearing a new growth on the ancient stem of time.”
This year is the happiest because I am studying subjects that especially interest me, economics,
Elizabethan literature, Shakespeare under Professor George L. Kittredge, and the History of
Philosophy under Professor Josiah Royce. Through philosophy one enters with sympathy of
comprehension into the traditions of remote ages and other modes of thought, which erewhile
seemed alien and without reason.
But college is not the universal Athens I thought it was. There one does not meet the great and the
wise face to face; one does not even feel their living touch. They are there, it is true; but they seem
mummified. We must extract them from the crannied wall of learning and dissect and analyze them
before we can be sure that we have a Milton or an Isaiah, and not merely a clever imitation. Many
scholars forget, it seems to me, that our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more
upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding. The trouble is that very few of their
laborious explanations stick in the memory. The mind drops them as a branch drops its overripe fruit.
It is possible to know a flower, root and stem and all, and all the processes of growth, and yet to
have no appreciation of the flower fresh bathed in heaven’s dew. Again and again I ask impatiently,
“Why concern myself with these explanations and hypotheses?” They fly hither and thither in my
thought like blind birds beating the air with ineffectual wings. I do not mean to object to a thorough
knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and
bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many opinions as there are men. But
when a great scholar like Professor Kittredge interprets what the master said, it is “as if new sight
were given the blind.” He brings back Shakespeare, the poet.
There are, however, times when I long to sweep away half the things I am expected to learn; for
the overtaxed mind cannot enjoy the treasure it has secured at the greatest cost. It is impossible, I
think, to read in one day four or five different books in different languages and treating of widely
different subjects, and not lose sight of the very ends for which one reads. When one reads hurriedly
and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one’s brain becomes encumbered with
a lot of choice bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use. At the present time my mind is so
full of heterogeneous matter that I almost despair of ever being able to put it in order. Whenever I
enter the region that was the kingdom of my mind I feel like the proverbial bull in the china shop. A
thousand odds and ends of knowledge come crashing about my head like hailstones, and when I try
to escape them, theme-goblins and college nixies of all sorts pursue me, until I wish—oh, may I be
forgiven the wicked wish!—that I might smash the idols I came to worship.
But the examinations are the chief bugbears of my college life. Although I have faced them many
times and cast them down and made them bite the dust, yet they rise again and menace me with pale
looks, until like Bob Acres I feel my courage oozing out at my finger ends. The days before these
ordeals take place are spent in cramming your mind with mystic formula and indigestible dates—
unpalatable diets, until you wish that books and science and you were buried in the depths of the sea.
At last the dreaded hour arrives, and you are a favoured being indeed if you feel prepared, and
are able at the right time to call to your standard thoughts that will aid you in that supreme effort. It
happens too often that your trumpet call is unheeded. It is most perplexing and exasperating that just
at the moment when you need your memory and a nice sense of discrimination, these faculties take to
themselves wings and fly away. The facts you have garnered with such infinite trouble invariably fail
you at a pinch.
“Give a brief account of Huss and his work.” Huss? Who was he and what did he do? The name
looks strangely familiar. You ransack your budget of historic facts much as you would hunt for a bit
of silk in a rag-bag. You are sure it is somewhere in your mind near the top—you saw it there the
other day when you were looking up the beginnings of the Reformation. But where is it now? You
fish out all manner of odds and ends of knowledge—revolutions, schisms, massacres, systems of
government; but Huss—where is he? You are amazed at all the things you know which are not on
the examination paper. In desperation you seize the budget and dump everything out, and there in a
corner is your man, serenely brooding on his own private thought, unconscious of the catastrophe
which he has brought upon you.
Just then the proctor informs you that the time is up. With a feeling of intense disgust you kick the
mass of rubbish into a corner and go home, your head full of revolutionary schemes to abolish the
divine right of professors to ask questions without the consent of the questioned.
It comes over me that in the last two or three pages of this chapter I have used figures which will
turn the laugh against me. Ah, here they are—the mixed metaphors mocking and strutting about
before me, pointing to the bull in the china shop assailed by hailstones and the bugbears with pale
looks, an unanalyzed species! Let them mock on. The words describe so exactly the atmosphere of
jostling, tumbling ideas I live in that I will wink at them for once, and put on a deliberate air to say
that my ideas of college have changed.
While my days at Radcliffe were still in the future, they were encircled with a halo of romance,
which they have lost; but in the transition from romantic to actual I have learned many things I should
never have known had I not tried the experiment. One of them is the precious science of patience,
which teaches us that we should take our education as we would take a walk in the country,
leisurely, our minds hospitably open to impressions of every sort. Such knowledge floods the soul
unseen with a soundless tidal wave of deepening thought. “Knowledge is power.” Rather, knowledge
is happiness, because to have knowledge—broad, deep knowledge—is to know true ends from
false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is
to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these
pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life.
CHAPTER XXI
I have thus far sketched the events of my life, but I have not shown how much I have depended
on books not only for pleasure and for the wisdom they bring to all who read, but also for that
knowledge which comes to others through their eyes and their ears. Indeed, books have meant so
much more in my education than in that of others, that I shall go back to the time when I began to
read.
I read my first connected story in May, 1887, when I was seven years old, and from that day to
this I have devoured everything in the shape of a printed page that has come within the reach of my
hungry finger tips. As I have said, I did not study regularly during the early years of my education;
nor did I read according to rule.
At first I had only a few books in raised print—”readers” for beginners, a collection of stories for
children, and a book about the earth called “Our World.” I think that was all; but I read them over
and over, until the words were so worn and pressed I could scarcely make them out. Sometimes
Miss Sullivan read to me, spelling into my hand little stories and poems that she knew I should
understand; but I preferred reading myself to being read to, because I liked to read again and again
the things that pleased me.
It was during my first visit to Boston that I really began to read in good earnest. I was permitted to
spend a part of each day in the Institution library, and to wander from bookcase to bookcase, and
take down whatever book my fingers lighted upon. And read I did, whether I understood one word
in ten or two words on a page. The words themselves fascinated me; but I took no conscious
account of what I read. My mind must, however, have been very impressionable at that period, for it
retained many words and whole sentences, to the meaning of which I had not the faintest clue; and
afterward, when I began to talk and write, these words and sentences would flash out quite naturally,
so that my friends wondered at the richness of my vocabulary. I must have read parts of many books
(in those early days I think I never read any one book through) and a great deal of poetry in this
uncomprehending way, until I discovered “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” which was the first book of any
consequence I read understandingly.
One day my teacher found me in a corner of the library poring over the pages of “The Scarlet
Letter.” I was then about eight years old. I remember she asked me if I liked little Pearl, and
explained some of the words that had puzzled me. Then she told me that she had a beautiful story
about a little boy which she was sure I should like better than “The Scarlet Letter.” The name of the
story was “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” and she promised to read it to me the following summer. But we
did not begin the story until August; the first few weeks of my stay at the seashore were so full of
discoveries and excitement that I forgot the very existence of books. Then my teacher went to visit
some friends in Boston, leaving me for a short time.
When she returned almost the first thing we did was to begin the story of “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
I recall distinctly the time and place when we read the first chapters of the fascinating child’s story. It
was a warm afternoon in August. We were sitting together in a hammock which swung from two
solemn pines at a short distance from the house. We had hurried through the dish-washing after
luncheon, in order that we might have as long an afternoon as possible for the story. As we hastened
through the long grass toward the hammock, the grasshoppers swarmed about us and fastened
themselves on our clothes, and I remember that my teacher insisted upon picking them all off before
we sat down, which seemed to me an unnecessary waste of time. The hammock was covered with
pine needles, for it had not been used while my teacher was away. The warm sun shone on the pine
trees and drew out all their fragrance. The air was balmy, with a tang of the sea in it. Before we
began the story Miss Sullivan explained to me the things that she knew I should not understand, and
as we read on she explained the unfamiliar words. At first there were many words I did not know,
and the reading was constantly interrupted; but as soon as I thoroughly comprehended the situation, I
became too eagerly absorbed in the story to notice mere words, and I am afraid I listened
impatiently to the explanations that Miss Sullivan felt to be necessary. When her fingers were too
tired to spell another word, I had for the first time a keen sense of my deprivations. I took the book
in my hands and tried to feel the letters with an intensity of longing that I can never forget.
Afterward, at my eager request, Mr. Anagnos had this story embossed, and I read it again and
again, until I almost knew it by heart; and all through my childhood “Little Lord Fauntleroy” was my
sweet and gentle companion. I have given these details at the risk of being tedious, because they are
in such vivid contrast with my vague, mutable and confused memories of earlier reading.
From “Little Lord Fauntleroy” I date the beginning of my true interest in books. During the next
two years I read many books at my home and on my visits to Boston. I cannot remember what they
all were, or in what order I read them; but I know that among them were “Greek Heroes,” La
Fontaine’s “Fables,” Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book,” “Bible Stories,” Lamb’s “Tales from
Shakespeare,” “A Child’s History of England” by Dickens, “The Arabian Nights,” “The Swiss Family
Robinson,” “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Robinson Crusoe,” “Little Women,” and “Heidi,” a beautiful
little story which I afterward read in German. I read them in the intervals between study and play
with an ever-deepening sense of pleasure. I did not study nor analyze them—I did not know whether
they were well written or not; I never thought about style or authorship. They laid their treasures at
my feet, and I accepted them as we accept the sunshine and the love of our friends. I loved “Little
Women” because it gave me a sense of kinship with girls and boys who could see and hear.
Circumscribed as my life was in so many ways, I had to look between the covers of books for news
of the world that lay outside my own.
I did not care especially for “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” which I think I did not finish, or for the
“Fables.” I read La Fontaine’s “Fables” first in an English translation, and enjoyed them only after a
half-hearted fashion. Later I read the book again in French, and I found that, in spite of the vivid
word-pictures, and the wonderful mastery of language, I liked it no better. I do not know why it is,
but stories in which animals are made to talk and act like human beings have never appealed to me
very strongly. The ludicrous caricatures of the animals occupy my mind to the exclusion of the moral.
Then, again, La Fontaine seldom, if ever, appeals to our highest moral sense. The highest chords
he strikes are those of reason and self-love. Through all the fables runs the thought that man’s
morality springs wholly from self-love, and that if that self-love is directed and restrained by reason,
happiness must follow. Now, so far as I can judge, self-love is the root of all evil; but, of course, I
may be wrong, for La Fontaine had greater opportunities of observing men than I am likely ever to
have. I do not object so much to the cynical and satirical fables as to those in which momentous
truths are taught by monkeys and foxes.
But I love “The Jungle Book” and “Wild Animals I Have Known.” I feel a genuine interest in the
animals themselves, because they are real animals and not caricatures of men. One sympathizes with
their loves and hatreds, laughs over their comedies, and weeps over their tragedies. And if they point
a moral, it is so subtle that we are not conscious of it.
My mind opened naturally and joyously to a conception of antiquity. Greece, ancient Greece,
exercised a mysterious fascination over me. In my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked
on earth and talked face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those I loved
best. I knew and loved the whole tribe of nymphs and heroes and demigods—no, not quite all, for
the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason were too monstrous to be forgiven, and I used to wonder
why the gods permitted them to do wrong and then punished them for their wickedness. And the
mystery is still unsolved. I often wonder how
God can dumbness keep While Sin creeps grinning through His house of Time.
It was the Iliad that made Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the story of Troy before I read
it in the original, and consequently I had little difficulty in making the Greek words surrender their
treasures after I had passed the borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in
English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make
the great works of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might
learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word and give it its
principal parts and its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and appreciate a
fine poem. I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find;
but I am not avaricious. I am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and
comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic, nor can I.
When I read the finest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the
narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten—my world lies
upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!
My admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real. I read it as much as
possible without the help of notes or dictionary, and I always like to translate the episodes that
please me especially. The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men
move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like the graceful figures in an
Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they give three leaps and go on singing. Virgil is serene and
lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight
with the wind in his hair.
How easy it is to fly on paper wings! From “Greek Heroes” to the Iliad was no day’s journey, nor
was it altogether pleasant. One could have traveled round the word many times while I trudged my
weary way through the labyrinthine mazes of grammars and dictionaries, or fell into those dreadful
pitfalls called examinations, set by schools and colleges for the confusion of those who seek after
knowledge. I suppose this sort of Pilgrim’s Progress was justified by the end; but it seemed
interminable to me, in spite of the pleasant surprises that met me now and then at a turn in the road.
I began to read the Bible long before I could understand it. Now it seems strange to me that there
should have been a time when my spirit was deaf to its wondrous harmonies; but I remember well a
rainy Sunday morning when, having nothing else to do, I begged my cousin to read me a story out of
the Bible. Although she did not think I should understand, she began to spell into my hand the story
of Joseph and his brothers. Somehow it failed to interest me. The unusual language and repetition
made the story seem unreal and far away in the land of Canaan, and I fell asleep and wandered off to
the land of Nod, before the brothers came with the coat of many colours unto the tent of Jacob and
told their wicked lie! I cannot understand why the stories of the Greeks should have been so full of
charm for me, and those of the Bible so devoid of interest, unless it was that I had made the
acquaintance of several Greeks in Boston and been inspired by their enthusiasm for the stories of
their country; whereas I had not met a single Hebrew or Egyptian, and therefore concluded that they
were nothing more than barbarians, and the stories about them were probably all made up, which
hypothesis explained the repetitions and the queer names. Curiously enough, it never occurred to me
to call Greek patronymics “queer.”
But how shall I speak of the glories I have since discovered in the Bible? 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. Still there
is much in the Bible against which every instinct of my being rebels, so much that I regret the
necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end. I do not think that the
knowledge which I have gained of its history and sources compensates me for the unpleasant details
it has forced upon my attention. For my part, I wish, with Mr. Howells, that the literature of the past
might be purged of all that is ugly and barbarous in it, although I should object as much as any one to
having these great works weakened or falsified.
There is something impressive, awful, in the simplicity and terrible directness of the book of
Esther. Could there be anything more dramatic than the scene in which Esther stands before her
wicked lord? She knows her life is in his hands; there is no one to protect her from his wrath. Yet,
conquering her woman’s fear, she approaches him, animated by the noblest patriotism, having but
one thought: “If I perish, I perish; but if I live, my people shall live.”
The story of Ruth, too—how Oriental it is! Yet how different is the life of these simple country
folks from that of the Persian capital! Ruth is so loyal and gentle-hearted, we cannot help loving her,
as she stands with the reapers amid the waving corn. Her beautiful, unselfish spirit shines out like a
bright star in the night of a dark and cruel age. Love like Ruth’s, love which can rise above conflicting
creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices, is hard to find in all the world.
The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that “things seen are temporal, and things unseen are
eternal.”
I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books that I have not loved
Shakespeare. I cannot tell exactly when I began Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare”; but I know that I
read them at first with a child’s understanding and a child’s wonder. “Macbeth” seems to have
impressed me most. One reading was sufficient to stamp every detail of the story upon my memory
forever. For a long time the ghosts and witches pursued me even into Dreamland. I could see,
absolutely see, the dagger and Lady Macbeth’s little white hand—the dreadful stain was as real to
me as to the grief-stricken queen.
I read “King Lear” soon after “Macbeth,” and I shall never forget the feeling of horror when I
came to the scene in which Gloster’s eyes are put out. Anger seized me, my fingers refused to move,
I sat rigid for one long moment, the blood throbbing in my temples, and all the hatred that a child can
feel concentrated in my heart.
I must have made the acquaintance of Shylock and Satan about the same time, for the two
characters were long associated in my mind. I remember that I was sorry for them. I felt vaguely that
they could not be good even if they wished to, because no one seemed willing to help them or to give
them a fair chance. Even now I cannot find it in my heart to condemn them utterly. There are
moments when I feel that the Shylocks, the Judases, and even the Devil, are broken spokes in the
great wheel of good which shall in due time be made whole.
It seems strange that my first reading of Shakespeare should have left me so many unpleasant
memories. The bright, gentle, fanciful plays—the ones I like best now—appear not to have
impressed me at first, perhaps because they reflected the habitual sunshine and gaiety of a child’s life.
But “there is nothing more capricious than the memory of a child: what it will hold, and what it will
lose.”
I have since read Shakespeare’s plays many times and know parts of them by heart, but I cannot
tell which of them I like best. My delight in them is as varied as my moods. The little songs and the
sonnets have a meaning for me as fresh and wonderful as the dramas. But, with all my love for
Shakespeare, it is often weary work to read all the meanings into his lines which critics and
commentators have given them. I used to try to remember their interpretations, but they discouraged
and vexed me; so I made a secret compact with myself not to try any more. This compact I have
only just broken in my study of Shakespeare under Professor Kittredge. I know there are many
things in Shakespeare, and in the world, that I do not understand; and I am glad to see veil after veil
lift gradually, revealing new realms of thought and beauty.
Next to poetry I love history. I have read every historical work that I have been able to lay my
hands on, from a catalogue of dry facts and dryer dates to Green’s impartial, picturesque “History of
the English People”; from Freeman’s “History of Europe” to Emerton’s “Middle Ages.” 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. Though I believe it is no longer considered valid, yet I have kept it ever
since as one of my treasures. From it I learned how the races of men spread from land to land and
built great cities, how a few great rulers, earthly Titans, put everything under their feet, and with a
decisive word opened the gates of happiness for millions and closed them upon millions more: how
different nations pioneered in art and knowledge and broke ground for the mightier growths of
coming ages; how civilization underwent as it were, the holocaust of a degenerate age, and rose
again, like the Phoenix, among the nobler sons of the North; and how by liberty, tolerance and
education the great and the wise have opened the way for the salvation of the whole world.
In my college reading I have become somewhat familiar with French and German literature. The
German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature. There
is a vehement, sledge-hammer vigour about everything that he does. When he speaks, it is not to
impress others, but because his heart would burst if he did not find an outlet for the thoughts that
burn in his soul.
Then, too, there is in German literature a fine reserve which I like; but its chief glory is the
recognition I find in it of the redeeming potency of woman’s self-sacrificing love. This thought
pervades all German literature and is mystically expressed in Goethe’s “Faust”:
All things transitory But as symbols are sent. Earth’s insufficiency Here grows to event. The
indescribable Here it is done. The Woman Soul leads us upward and on!
Of all the French writers that I have read, I like Moliere and Racine best. There are fine things in
Balzac and passages in Merimee which strike one like a keen blast of sea air. Alfred de Musset is
impossible! I admire Victor Hugo—I appreciate his genius, his brilliancy, his romanticism; though he
is not one of my literary passions. But Hugo and Goethe and Schiller and all great poets of all great
nations are interpreters of eternal things, and my spirit reverently follows them into the regions where
Beauty and Truth and Goodness are one.
I am afraid I have written too much about my book-friends, and yet I have mentioned only the
authors I love most; and from this fact one might easily suppose that my circle of friends was very
limited and undemocratic, which would be a very wrong impression. I like many writers for many
reasons—Carlyle for his ruggedness and scorn of shams; Wordsworth, who teaches the oneness of
man and nature; I find an exquisite pleasure in the oddities and surprises of Hood, in Herrick’s
quaintness and the palpable scent of lily and rose in his verses; I like Whittier for his enthusiasms and
moral rectitude. I knew him, and the gentle remembrance of our friendship doubles the pleasure I
have in reading his poems. I love Mark Twain—who does not? The gods, too, loved him and put
into his heart all manner of wisdom; then, fearing lest he should become a pessimist, they spanned his
mind with a rainbow of love and faith. I like Scott for his freshness, dash and large honesty. I love all
writers whose minds, like Lowell’s, bubble up in the sunshine of optimism—fountains of joy and
good will, with occasionally a splash of anger and here and there a healing spray of sympathy and
pity.
In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me
out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment
or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously
little importance compared with their “large loves and heavenly charities.”
CHAPTER XXII
I trust that my readers have not concluded from the preceding chapter on books that reading is my
only pleasure; my pleasures and amusements are many and varied.
More than once in the course of my story I have referred to my love of the country and out-ofdoor
sports. When I was quite a little girl, I learned to row and swim, and during the summer, when I
am at Wrentham, Massachusetts, I almost live in my boat. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to
take my friends out rowing when they visit me. Of course, I cannot guide the boat very well. Some
one usually sits in the stern and manages the rudder while I row. Sometimes, however, I go rowing
without the rudder. It is fun to try to steer by the scent of watergrasses and lilies, and of bushes that
grow on the shore. 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. In the same manner I can also
tell when I am pulling against the current. I like to contend with wind and wave. What is more
exhilarating than to make your staunch little boat, obedient to your will and muscle, go skimming
lightly over glistening, tilting waves, and to feel the steady, imperious surge of the water!
I also enjoy canoeing, and I suppose you will smile when I say that I especially like it on moonlight
nights. I cannot, it is true, see the moon climb up the sky behind the pines and steal softly across the
heavens, making a shining path for us to follow; but I know she is there, and as I lie back among the
pillows and put my hand in the water, I fancy that I feel the shimmer of her garments as she passes.
Sometimes a daring little fish slips between my fingers, and often a pond-lily presses shyly against my
hand. Frequently, as we emerge from the shelter of a cove or inlet, I am suddenly conscious of the
spaciousness of the air about me. A luminous warmth seems to enfold me. Whether it comes from
the trees which have been heated by the sun, or from the water, I can never discover. I have had the
same strange sensation even in the heart of the city. I have felt it on cold, stormy days and at night. It
is like the kiss of warm lips on my face.
My favourite amusement is sailing. In the summer of 1901 I visited Nova Scotia, and had
opportunities such as I had not enjoyed before to make the acquaintance of the ocean. After
spending a few days in Evangeline’s country, about which Longfellow’s beautiful poem has woven a
spell of enchantment, Miss Sullivan and I went to Halifax, where we remained the greater part of the
summer. The harbour was our joy, our paradise. What glorious sails we had to Bedford Basin, to
McNabb’s Island, to York Redoubt, and to the Northwest Arm! And at night what soothing,
wondrous hours we spent in the shadow of the great, silent men-of-war. Oh, it was all so interesting,
so beautiful! The memory of it is a joy forever.
One day we had a thrilling experience. There was a regatta in the Northwest Arm, in which the
boats from the different warships were engaged. We went in a sail-boat along with many others to
watch the races. Hundreds of little sail-boats swung to and fro close by, and the sea was calm.
When the races were over, and we turned our faces homeward, one of the party noticed a black
cloud drifting in from the sea, which grew and spread and thickened until it covered the whole sky.
The wind rose, and the waves chopped angrily at unseen barriers. Our little boat confronted the gale
fearlessly; with sails spread and ropes taut, she seemed to sit upon the wind. Now she swirled in the
billows, now she spring upward on a gigantic wave, only to be driven down with angry howl and
hiss. Down came the mainsail. Tacking and jibbing, we wrestled with opposing winds that drove us
from side to side with impetuous fury. Our hearts beat fast, and our hands trembled with excitement,
not fear, for we had the hearts of vikings, and we knew that our skipper was master of the situation.
He had steered through many a storm with firm hand and sea-wise eye. As they passed us, the large
craft and the gunboats in the harbour saluted and the seamen shouted applause for the master of the
only little sail-boat that ventured out into the storm. At last, cold, hungry and weary, we reached our
pier.
Last summer I spent in one of the loveliest nooks of one of the most charming villages in New
England. Wrentham, Massachusetts, is associated with nearly all of my joys and sorrows. For many
years Red Farm, by King Philip’s Pond, the home of Mr. J. E. Chamberlin and his family, was my
home. I remember with deepest gratitude the kindness of these dear friends and the happy days I
spent with them. The sweet companionship of their children meant much to me. I joined in all their
sports and rambles through the woods and frolics in the water. The prattle of the little ones and their
pleasure in the stories I told them of elf and gnome, of hero and wily bear, are pleasant things to
remember. Mr. Chamberlin initiated me into the mysteries of tree and wild-flower, until with the little
ear of love I heard the flow of sap in the oak, and saw the sun glint from leaf to leaf.
Thus it is that
Even as the roots, shut in the darksome earth,
Share in the tree-top’s joyance, and conceive
Of sunshine and wide air and winged things,
By sympathy of nature, so do
I gave evidence of things unseen.
It seems to me that there is in each of us a capacity to comprehend the impressions and emotions
which have been experienced by mankind from the beginning. Each individual has a subconscious
memory of the green earth and murmuring waters, and blindness and deafness cannot rob him of this
gift from past generations. This inherited capacity is a sort of sixth sense—a soul-sense which sees,
hears, feels, all in one.
I have many tree friends in Wrentham. One of them, a splendid oak, is the special pride of my
heart. I take all my other friends to see this king-tree. It stands on a bluff overlooking King Philip’s
Pond, and those who are wise in tree lore say it must have stood there eight hundred or a thousand
years. There is a tradition that under this tree King Philip, the heroic Indian chief, gazed his last on
earth and sky.
I had another tree friend, gentle and more approachable than the great oak—a linden that grew in
the dooryard at Red Farm. One afternoon, during a terrible thunderstorm, I felt a tremendous crash
against the side of the house and knew, even before they told me, that the linden had fallen. We went
out to see the hero that had withstood so many tempests, and it wrung my heart to see him prostrate
who had mightily striven and was now mightily fallen.
But I must not forget that I was going to write about last summer in particular. As soon as my
examinations were over, Miss Sullivan and I hastened to this green nook, where we have a little
cottage on one of the three lakes for which Wrentham is famous. Here the long, sunny days were
mine, and all thoughts of work and college and the noisy city were thrust into the background. In
Wrentham we caught echoes of what was happening in the world—war, alliance, social conflict. We
heard of the cruel, unnecessary fighting in the far-away Pacific, and learned of the struggles going on
between capital and labour. We knew that beyond the border of our Eden men were making history
by the sweat of their brows when they might better make a holiday. But we little heeded these things.
These things would pass away; here were lakes and woods and broad daisy-starred fields and
sweet-breathed meadows, and they shall endure forever.
People who think that all sensations reach us through the eye and the ear have expressed surprise
that I should notice any difference, except possibly the absence of pavements, between walking in
city streets and in country roads. They forget that my whole body is alive to the conditions about me.
The rumble and roar of the city smite the nerves of my face, and I feel the ceaseless tramp of an
unseen multitude, and the dissonant tumult frets my spirit. The grinding of heavy wagons on hard
pavements and the monotonous clangour of machinery are all the more torturing to the nerves if one’s
attention is not diverted by the panorama that is always present in the noisy streets to people who
can see.
In the country one sees only Nature’s fair works, and one’s soul is not saddened by the cruel
struggle for mere existence that goes on in the crowded city. Several times I have visited the narrow,
dirty streets where the poor live, and I grow hot and indignant to think that good people should be
content to live in fine houses and become strong and beautiful, while others are condemned to live in
hideous, sunless tenements and grow ugly, withered and cringing. The children who crowd these
grimy alleys, half-clad and underfed, shrink away from your outstretched hand as if from a blow.
Dear little creatures, they crouch in my heart and haunt me with a constant sense of pain. There are
men and women, too, all gnarled and bent out of shape. I have felt their hard, rough hands and
realized what an endless struggle their existence must be—no more than a series of scrimmages,
thwarted attempts to do something. Their life seems an immense disparity between effort and
opportunity. The sun and the air are God’s free gifts to all we say, but are they so? In yonder city’s
dingy alleys the sun shines not, and the air is foul. Oh, man, how dost thou forget and obstruct thy
brother man, and say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” when he has none! Oh, would that men
would leave the city, its splendour and its tumult and its gold, and return to wood and field and
simple, honest living! Then would their children grow stately as noble trees, and their thoughts sweet
and pure as wayside flowers. It is impossible not to think of all this when I return to the country after
a year of work in town.
What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that
lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over
a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!
Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a “spin” on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind
blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a
delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulses dance and my heart
sing.
Whenever it is possible, my dog accompanies me on a walk or ride or sail. I have had many dog
friends—huge mastiffs, soft-eyed spaniels, wood-wise setters and honest, homely bull terriers. At
present the lord of my affections is one of these bull terriers. He has a long pedigree, a crooked tail
and the drollest “phiz” in dogdom. My dog friends seem to understand my limitations, and always
keep close beside me when I am alone. I love their affectionate ways and the eloquent wag of their
tails.
When a rainy day keeps me indoors, I amuse myself after the manner of other girls. I like to knit
and crochet; I read in the happy-go-lucky way I love, here and there a line; or perhaps I play a game
or two of checkers or chess with a friend. I have a special board on which I play these games. The
squares are cut out, so that the men stand in them firmly. The black checkers are flat and the white
ones curved on top. Each checker has a hole in the middle in which a brass knob can be placed to
distinguish the king from the commons. 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 jar made by shifting the men from one hole to another tells me when
it is my turn.
If I happen to be all alone and in an idle mood, I play a game of solitaire, of which I am very fond.
I use playing cards marked in the upper right-hand corner with braille symbols which indicate the
value of the card.
If there are children around, nothing pleases me so much as to frolic with them. I find even the
smallest child excellent company, and I am glad to say that children usually like me. They lead me
about and show me the things they are interested in. Of course the little ones cannot spell on their
fingers; but I manage to read their lips. If I do not succeed they resort to dumb show. Sometimes I
make a mistake and do the wrong thing. A burst of childish laughter greets my blunder, and the
pantomime begins all over again. I often tell them stories or teach them a game, and the winged hours
depart and leave us good and happy.
Museums and art stores are also sources of pleasure and inspiration. Doubtless it will seem
strange to many that the hand unaided by sight can feel action, sentiment, beauty in the cold marble;
and yet it is true that I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my finger tips
trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed. I can feel
in the faces of gods and heroes hate, courage and love, just as I can detect them in living faces I am
permitted to touch. I feel in Diana’s posture the grace and freedom of the forest and the spirit that
tames the mountain lion and subdues the fiercest passions. My soul delights in the repose and
gracious curves of the Venus; and in Barre’s bronzes the secrets of the jungle are revealed to me.
A medallion of Homer hangs on the wall of my study, conveniently low, so that I can easily reach
it and touch the beautiful, sad face with loving reverence. How well I know each line in that majestic
brow—tracks of life and bitter evidences of struggle and sorrow; those sightless eyes seeking, even
in the cold plaster, for the light and the blue skies of his beloved Hellas, but seeking in vain; that
beautiful mouth, firm and true and tender. It is the face of a poet, and of a man acquainted with
sorrow. Ah, how well I understand his deprivation—the perpetual night in which he dwelt—
O dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse Without all hope of day!
In imagination I can hear Homer singing, as with unsteady, hesitating steps he gropes his way from
camp to camp—singing of life, of love, of war, of the splendid achievements of a noble race. It was a
wonderful, glorious song, and it won the blind poet an immortal crown, the admiration of all ages.
I sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. I
should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be
this as it may, I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and
goddesses.
Another pleasure, which comes more rarely than the others, is going to the theatre. 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 has been my privilege to meet a few great
actors and actresses who have the power of so bewitching you that you forget time and place and
live again in the romantic past. I have been permitted to touch the face and costume of Miss Ellen
Terry as she impersonated our ideal of a queen; and there was about her that divinity that hedges
sublimest woe. Beside her stood Sir Henry Irving, wearing the symbols of kingship; and there was
majesty of intellect in his every gesture and attitude and the royalty that subdues and overcomes in
every line of his sensitive face. In the king’s face, which he wore as a mask, there was a remoteness
and inaccessibility of grief which I shall never forget.
I also know Mr. Jefferson. I am proud to count him among my friends. I go to see him whenever I
happen to be where he is acting. The first time I saw him act was while at school in New York. He
played “Rip Van Winkle.” I had often read the story, but I had never felt the charm of Rip’s slow,
quaint, kind ways as I did in the play. Mr. Jefferson’s, beautiful, pathetic representation quite carried
me away with delight. I have a picture of old Rip in my fingers which they will never lose. After the
play Miss Sullivan took me to see him behind the scenes, and I felt of his curious garb and his flowing
hair and beard. Mr. Jefferson let me touch his face so that I could imagine how he looked on waking
from that strange sleep of twenty years, and he showed me how poor old Rip staggered to his feet.
I have also seen him in “The Rivals.” Once while I was calling on him in Boston he acted the most
striking parts of “The Rivals” for me. The reception-room where we sat served for a stage. He and
his son seated themselves at the big table, and Bob Acres wrote his challenge. I followed all his
movements with my hands, and caught the drollery of his blunders and gestures in a way that would
have been impossible had it all been spelled to me. Then they rose to fight the duel, and I followed
the swift thrusts and parries of the swords and the waverings of poor Bob as his courage oozed out
at his finger ends. Then the great actor gave his coat a hitch and his mouth a twitch, and in an instant I
was in the village of Falling Water and felt Schneider’s shaggy head against my knee. Mr. Jefferson
recited the best dialogues of “Rip Van Winkle,” in which the tear came close upon the smile. He
asked me to indicate as far as I could the gestures and action that should go with the lines. Of
course, I have no sense whatever of dramatic action, and could make only random guesses; but with
masterful art he suited the action to the word. The sigh of Rip as he murmurs, “Is a man so soon
forgotten when he is gone?” the dismay with which he searches for dog and gun after his long sleep,
and his comical irresolution over signing the contract with Derrick—all these seem to be right out of
life itself; that is, the ideal life, where things happen as we think they should.
I remember well the first time I went to the theatre. It was twelve years ago. Elsie Leslie, the little
actress, was in Boston, and Miss Sullivan took me to see her in “The Prince and the Pauper.” I shall
never forget the ripple of alternating joy and woe that ran through that beautiful little play, or the
wonderful child who acted it. After the play I was permitted to go behind the scenes and meet her in
her royal costume. It would have been hard to find a lovelier or more lovable child than Elsie, as she
stood with a cloud of golden hair floating over her shoulders, smiling brightly, showing no signs of
shyness or fatigue, though she had been playing to an immense audience. I was only just learning to
speak, and had previously repeated her name until I could say it perfectly. Imagine my delight when
she understood the few words I spoke to her and without hesitation stretched her hand to greet me.
Is it not true, then, that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the life of the World
Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may
be in, therein to be content.
Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s
shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate,
silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question his imperious decree, for my heart is still
undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips,
and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes
hope with a smile and whispers, “There is joy in self-forgetfulness.” So I try to make the light in
others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.
CHAPTER XXIII
Would that I could enrich this sketch with the names of all those who have ministered to my
happiness! Some of them would be found written in our literature and dear to the hearts of many,
while others would be wholly unknown to most of my readers. But their influence, though it escape fame, shall live immortal in the lives that have been sweetened and ennobled by it. Those are redletter
days in our lives when we meet people who thrill us like a fine poem, people whose handshake
is brimful of unspoken sympathy, and whose sweet, rich natures impart to our eager, impatient spirits
a wonderful restfulness which, in its essence, is divine. The perplexities, irritations and worries that
have absorbed us pass like unpleasant dreams, and we wake to see with new eyes and hear with
new ears the beauty and harmony of God’s real world. The solemn nothings that fill our everyday life
blossom suddenly into bright possibilities. In a word, while such friends are near us we feel that all is
well. Perhaps we never saw them before, and they may never cross our life’s path again; but the
influence of their calm, mellow natures is a libation poured upon our discontent, and we feel its
healing touch, as the ocean feels the mountain stream freshening its brine.
I have often been asked, “Do not people bore you?” I do not understand quite what that means. I
suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always
inopportune. I also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. They are like people
who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours; the hypocrisy in both cases is
equally exasperating.
The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some hands is an
impertinence. I have met people so empty of joy, that when I clasped their frosty finger tips, it
seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have
sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child’s
hand; but there is as much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for others. A
hearty handshake or a friendly letter gives me genuine pleasure.
I have many far-off friends whom I have never seen. Indeed they are so many that I have often
been unable to reply to their letters; but I wish to say here that I am always grateful for their kind
words, however insufficiently I acknowledge them.
I count it one of the sweetest privileges of my life to have known and conversed with many men of
genius. Only those who knew Bishop Brooks can appreciate the joy his friendship was to those who
possessed it. As a child I loved to sit on his knee and clasp his great hand with one of mine, while
Miss Sullivan spelled into the other his beautiful words about God and the spiritual world. I heard
him with a child’s wonder and delight. My spirit could not reach up to his, but he gave me a real
sense of joy in life, and I never left him without carrying away a fine thought that grew in beauty and
depth of meaning as I grew. Once, when I was puzzled to know why there were so many religions,
he said: “There is one universal religion, Helen—the religion of love. Love your Heavenly Father with
your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much as ever you can, and remember that the
possibilities of good are greater than the possibilities of evil; and you have the key to Heaven.” And
his life was a happy illustration of this great truth. In his noble soul love and widest knowledge were
blended with faith that had become insight. He saw
God in all that liberates and lifts,
In all that humbles, sweetens and consoles.
Bishop Brooks taught me no special creed or dogma; but he impressed upon my mind two great
ideas—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and made me feel that these truths
underlie all creeds and forms of worship. God is love, God is our Father, we are His children;
therefore the darkest clouds will break and though right be worsted, wrong shall not triumph.
I am too happy in this world to think much about the future, except to remember that I have
cherished friends awaiting me there in God’s beautiful Somewhere. In spite of the lapse of years, they
seem so close to me that I should not think it strange if at any moment they should clasp my hand and
speak words of endearment as they used to before they went away.
Since Bishop Brooks died I have read the Bible through; also some philosophical works on
religion, among them Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell” and Drummond’s “Ascent of Man,” and I
have found no creed or system more soul-satisfying than Bishop Brooks’s creed of love. I knew Mr.
Henry Drummond, and the memory of his strong, warm hand-clasp is like a benediction. He was the
most sympathetic of companions. He knew so much and was so genial that it was impossible to feel
dull in his presence.
I remember well the first time I saw Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had invited Miss Sullivan and
me to call on him one Sunday afternoon. It was early in the spring, just after I had learned to speak.
We were shown at once to his library where we found him seated in a big armchair by an open fire
which glowed and crackled on the hearth, thinking, he said, of other days.
“And listening to the murmur of the River Charles,” I suggested.
“Yes,” he replied, “the Charles has many dear associations for me.” There was an odour of print
and leather in the room which told me that it was full of books, and I stretched out my hand
instinctively to find them. My fingers lighted upon a beautiful volume of Tennyson’s poems, and when
Miss Sullivan told me what it was I began to recite:
Break, break, break On thy cold gray stones, O sea!
But I stopped suddenly. I felt tears on my hand. I had made my beloved poet weep, and I was
greatly distressed. He made me sit in his armchair, while he brought different interesting things for me
to examine, and at his request I recited “The Chambered Nautilus,” which was then my favorite
poem. After that I saw Dr. Holmes many times and learned to love the man as well as the poet.
One beautiful summer day, not long after my meeting with Dr. Holmes, Miss Sullivan and I visited
Whittier in his quiet home on the Merrimac. His gentle courtesy and quaint speech won my heart. He
had a book of his poems in raised print from which I read “In School Days.” He was delighted that I
could pronounce the words so well, and said that he had no difficulty in understanding me. Then I
asked many questions about the poem, and read his answers by placing my fingers on his lips. He
said he was the little boy in the poem, and that the girl’s name was Sally, and more which I have
forgotten. I also recited “Laus Deo,” and as I spoke the concluding verses, he placed in my hands a
statue of a slave from whose crouching figure the fetters were falling, even as they fell from Peter’s
limbs when the angel led him forth out of prison. Afterward we went into his study, and he wrote his
autograph for my teacher [“With great admiration of thy noble work in releasing from bondage the
mind of thy dear pupil, I am truly thy friend. john J. Whittier.”] and expressed his admiration of her
work, saying to me, “She is thy spiritual liberator.” Then he led me to the gate and kissed me tenderly
on my forehead. I promised to visit him again the following summer, but he died before the promise
was fulfilled.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale is one of my very oldest friends. I have known him since I was eight,
and my love for him has increased with my years. His wise, tender sympathy has been the support of
Miss Sullivan and me in times of trial and sorrow, and his strong hand has helped us over many rough
places; and what he has done for us he has done for thousands of those who have difficult tasks to
accomplish. He has filled the old skins of dogma with the new wine of love, and shown men what it is
to believe, live and be free. What he has taught we have seen beautifully expressed in his own life—
love of country, kindness to the least of his brethren, and a sincere desire to live upward and
onward. He has been a prophet and an inspirer of men, and a mighty doer of the Word, the friend of
all his race—God bless him!
I have already written of my first meeting with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Since then I have spent
many happy days with him at Washington and at his beautiful home in the heart of Cape Breton
Island, near Baddeck, the village made famous by Charles Dudley Warner’s book. Here in Dr. Bell’s
laboratory, or in the fields on the shore of the great Bras d’Or, I have spent many delightful hours
listening to what he had to tell me about his experiments, and helping him fly kites by means of which
he expects to discover the laws that shall govern the future air-ship. Dr. Bell is proficient in many
fields of science, and has the art of making every subject he touches interesting, even the most
abstruse theories. He makes you feel that if you only had a little more time, you, too, might be an
inventor. He has a humorous and poetic side, too. His dominating passion is his love for children. He
is never quite so happy as when he has a little deaf child in his arms. His labours in behalf of the deaf
will live on and bless generations of children yet to come; and we love him alike for what he himself
has achieved and for what he has evoked from others.
During the two years I spent in New York I had many opportunities to talk with distinguished
people whose names I had often heard, but whom I had never expected to meet. Most of them I met
first in the house of my good friend, Mr. Laurence Hutton. It was a great privilege to visit him and
dear Mrs. Hutton in their lovely home, and see their library and read the beautiful sentiments and
bright thoughts gifted friends had written for them. It has been truly said that Mr. Hutton has the
faculty of bringing out in every one the best thoughts and kindest sentiments. One does not need to
read “A Boy I Knew” to understand him—the most generous, sweet-natured boy I ever knew, a
good friend in all sorts of weather, who traces the footprints of love in the life of dogs as well as in
that of his fellowmen.
Mrs. Hutton is a true and tried friend. Much that I hold sweetest, much that I hold most precious,
I owe to her. She has oftenest advised and helped me in my progress through college. When I find
my work particularly difficult and discouraging, she writes me letters that make me feel glad and
brave; for she is one of those from whom we learn that one painful duty fulfilled makes the next
plainer and easier.
Mr. Hutton introduced me to many of his literary friends, greatest of whom are Mr. William Dean
Howells and Mark Twain. I also met Mr. Richard Watson Gilder and Mr. Edmund Clarence
Stedman. I also knew Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, the most delightful of story-tellers and the most
beloved friend, whose sympathy was so broad that it may be truly said of him, he loved all living
things and his neighbour as himself. Once Mr. Warner brought to see me the dear poet of the
woodlands—Mr. John Burroughs. They were all gentle and sympathetic and I felt the charm of their
manner as much as I had felt the brilliancy of their essays and poems. I could not keep pace with all
these literary folk as they glanced from subject to subject and entered into deep dispute, or made
conversation sparkle with epigrams and happy witticisms. I was like little Ascanius, who followed
with unequal steps the heroic strides of Aeneas on his march toward mighty destinies. But they spoke
many gracious words to me. Mr. Gilder told me about his moonlight journeys across the vast desert
to the Pyramids, and in a letter he wrote me he made his mark under his signature deep in the paper
so that I could feel it. This reminds me that Dr. Hale used to give a personal touch to his letters to me
by pricking his signature in braille. I read from Mark Twain’s lips one or two of his good stories. He
has his own way of thinking, saying and doing everything. I feel the twinkle of his eye in his
handshake. Even while he utters his cynical wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he makes you
feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human sympathy.
There are a host of other interesting people I met in New York: Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, the
beloved editor of St. Nicholas, and Mrs. Riggs (Kate Douglas Wiggin), the sweet author of “Patsy.”
I received from them gifts that have the gentle concurrence of the heart, books containing their own
thoughts, soul-illumined letters, and photographs that I love to have described again and again. But
there is not space to mention all my friends, and indeed there are things about them hidden behind the
wings of cherubim, things too sacred to set forth in cold print. It is with hesitancy that I have spoken
even of Mrs. Laurence Hutton.
I shall mention only two other friends. One is Mrs. William Thaw, of Pittsburgh, whom I have
often visited in her home, Lyndhurst. She is always doing something to make some one happy, and
her generosity and wise counsel have never failed my teacher and me in all the years we have known
her.
To the other friend I am also deeply indebted. He is well known for the powerful hand with which
he guides vast enterprises, and his wonderful abilities have gained for him the respect of all. Kind to
every one, he goes about doing good, silent and unseen. Again I touch upon the circle of honoured
names I must not mention; but I would fain acknowledge his generosity and affectionate interest
which make it possible for me to go to college.
Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my
limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by
my deprivation.
INTRODUCTION
Helen Keller’s letters are important, not only as a supplementary story of her life, but as a
demonstration of her growth in thought and expression—the growth which in itself has made her
distinguished.
These letters are, however, not merely remarkable as the productions of a deaf and blind girl, to
be read with wonder and curiosity; they are good letters almost from the first. The best passages are
those in which she talks about herself, and gives her world in terms of her experience of it. Her views
on the precession of the equinoxes are not important, but most important are her accounts of what
speech meant to her, of how she felt the statues, the dogs, the chickens at the poultry show, and how
she stood in the aisle of St. Bartholomew’s and felt the organ rumble. Those are passages of which
one would ask for more. The reason they are comparatively few is that all her life she has been trying
to be “like other people,” and so she too often describes things not as they appear to her, but as they
appear to one with eyes and ears.
One cause for the excellence of her letters is the great number of them. They are the exercises
which have trained her to write. She has lived at different times in different parts of the country, and
so has been separated from most of her friends and relatives. Of her friends, many have been
distinguished people, to whom—not often, I think, at the sacrifice of spontaneity—she has felt it
necessary to write well. To them and to a few friends with whom she is in closest sympathy she
writes with intimate frankness whatever she is thinking about. Her naive retelling of a child’s tale she
has heard, like the story of “Little Jakey,” which she rehearses for Dr. Holmes and Bishop Brooks, is
charming and her grave paraphrase of the day’s lesson in geography or botany, her parrot-like
repetition of what she has heard, and her conscious display of new words, are delightful and
instructive; for they show not only what she was learning, but how, by putting it all into letters, she
made the new knowledge and the new words her own.
So these selections from Miss Keller’s correspondence are made with two purposes—to show
her development and to preserve the most entertaining and significant passages from several hundred
letters. Many of those written before 1892 were published in the reports of the Perkins Institution for
the Blind. All letters up to that year are printed intact, for it is legitimate to be interested in the degree
of skill the child showed in writing, even to details of punctuation; so it is well to preserve a literal
integrity of reproduction. From the letters after the year 1892 I have culled in the spirit of one making
an anthology, choosing the passages best in style and most important from the point of view of
biography. Where I have been able to collate the original letters I have preserved everything as Miss
Keller wrote it, punctuation, spelling, and all. I have done nothing but select and cut.
The letters are arranged in chronological order. One or two letters from Bishop Brooks, Dr.
Holmes, and Whittier are put immediately after the letters to which they are replies. Except for two
or three important letters of 1901, these selections cease with the year 1900. In that year Miss
Keller entered college. Now that she is a grown woman, her mature letters should be judged like
those of any other person, and it seems best that no more of her correspondence be published unless
she should become distinguished beyond the fact that she is the only well-educated deaf and blind
person in the world.
LETTERS (1887-1901)
Miss Sullivan began to teach Helen Keller on March 3rd, 1887.
Three months and a half after the first word was spelled into her
hand, she wrote in pencil this letter
TO HER COUSIN ANNA, MRS. GEORGE T. TURNER
[Tuscumbia, Alabama, June 17, 1887.]
helen write anna george will give helen apple simpson will shoot
bird jack will give helen stick of candy doctor will give mildred
medicine mother will make mildred new dress
[No signature]
Twenty-five days later, while she was on a short visit away from
home, she wrote to her mother. Two words are almost illegible,
and the angular print slants in every direction.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
[Huntsville, Alabama, July 12, 1887.]
Helen will write mother letter papa did give helen medicine
mildred will sit in swing mildred did kiss helen teacher did give
helen peach george is sick in bed george arm is hurt anna did
give helen lemonade dog did stand up.
conductor did punch ticket papa did give helen drink of water in
car
carlotta did give helen flowers anna will buy helen pretty new
hat helen will hug and kiss mother helen will come home
grandmother does love helen
good-by
[No signature.]
By the following September Helen shows improvement in fulness of
construction and more extended relations of thought.
TO THE BLIND GIRLS AT THE PERKINS INSTITUTION IN SOUTH BOSTON
[Tuscumbia, September, 1887.]
Helen will write little blind girls a letter Helen and teacher
will come to see little blind girls Helen and teacher will go in
steam car to boston Helen and blind girls will have fun blind
girls can talk on fingers Helen will see Mr anagnos Mr anagnos
will love and kiss Helen Helen will go to school with blind girls
Helen can read and count and spell and write like blind girls
mildred will not go to boston Mildred does cry prince and jumbo
will go to boston papa does shoot ducks with gun and ducks do
fall in water and jumbo and mamie do swim in water and bring
ducks out in mouth to papa Helen does play with dogs Helen does
ride on horseback with teacher Helen does give handee grass in
hand teacher does whip handee to go fast Helen is blind Helen
will put letter in envelope for blind girls good-by
HELEN KELLER
A few weeks later her style is more nearly correct and freer in
movement. She improves in idiom, although she still omits
articles and uses the “did” construction for the simple past.
This is an idiom common among children.
TO THE BLIND GIRLS AT THE PERKINS INSTITUTION
[Tuscumbia, October 24, 1887.]
dear little blind girls
I will write you a letter I thank you for pretty desk I did write
to mother in memphis on it mother and mildred came home wednesday
mother brought me a pretty new dress and hat papa did go to
huntsville he brought me apples and candy I and teacher will come
to boston and see you nancy is my doll she does cry I do rock
nancy to sleep mildred is sick doctor will give her medicine to
make her well. I and teacher did go to church sunday mr. lane did
read in book and talk Lady did play organ. I did give man money
in basket. I will be good girl and teacher will curl my hair
lovely. I will hug and kiss little blind girls mr. anagnos will
come to see me.
good-by
HELEN KELLER
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS, DIRECTOR OF THE PERKINS INSTITUTION
[Tuscumbia, November, 1887.]
dear mr. anagnos I will write you a letter. I and teacher did
have pictures. teacher will send it to you. photographer does
make pictures. carpenter does build new houses. gardener does dig
and hoe ground and plant vegetables. my doll nancy is sleeping.
she is sick. mildred is well uncle frank has gone hunting deer.
we will have venison for breakfast when he comes home. I did ride
in wheel barrow and teacher did push it. simpson did give me
popcorn and walnuts. cousin rosa has gone to see her mother.
people do go to church sunday. I did read in my book about fox
and box. fox can sit in the box. I do like to read in my book.
you do love me. I do love you.
good-by
HELEN KELLER.
TO DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
[Tuscumbia, November, 1887.]
Dear Mr. Bell.
I am glad to write you a letter, Father will send you picture. I
and Father and aunt did go to see you in Washington. I did play
with your watch. I do love you. I saw doctor in Washington. He
looked at my eyes. I can read stories in my book. I can write and
spell and count. good girl. My sister can walk and run. We do
have fun with Jumbo. Prince is not good dog. He can not get
birds. Rat did kill baby pigeons. I am sorry. Rat does not know
wrong. I and mother and teacher will go to Boston in June. I will
see little blind girls. Nancy will go with me. She is a good
doll. Father will buy me lovely new watch. Cousin Anna gave me a
pretty doll. Her name is Allie.
Good-by,
HELEN KELLER.
By the beginning of the next year her idioms are firmer. More
adjectives appear, including adjectives of colour. Although she
can have no sensuous knowledge of colour, she can use the words,
as we use most of our vocabulary, intellectually, with truth, not
to impression, but to fact. This letter is to a school-mate at
the Perkins Institution.
TO MISS SARAH TOMLINSON
Tuscumbia, Ala. Jan. 2nd 1888.
Dear Sarah
I am happy to write to you this morning. I hope Mr. Anagnos is
coming to see me soon. I will go to Boston in June and I will buy
father gloves, and James nice collar, and Simpson cuffs. I saw
Miss Betty and her scholars. They had a pretty Christmas-tree,
and there were many pretty presents on it for little children. I
had a mug, and little bird and candy. I had many lovely things
for Christmas. Aunt gave me a trunk for Nancy and clothes. I went
to party with teacher and mother. We did dance and play and eat
nuts and candy and cakes and oranges and I did have fun with
little boys and girls. Mrs. Hopkins did send me lovely ring, I do
love her and little blind girls.
Men and boys do make carpets in mills. Wool grows on sheep. Men
do cut sheep’s wool off with large shears, and send it to the
mill. Men and women do make wool cloth in mills.
Cotton grows on large stalks in fields. Men and boys and girls
and women do pick cotton. We do make thread and cotton dresses of
cotton. Cotton has pretty white and red flowers on it. Teacher
did tear her dress. Mildred does cry. I will nurse Nancy. Mother
will buy me lovely new aprons and dress to take to Boston. I went
to Knoxville with father and aunt. Bessie is weak and little.
Mrs. Thompson’s chickens killed Leila’s chickens. Eva does sleep
in my bed. I do love good girls.
Good-by
HELEN KELLER.
The next two letters mention her visit in January to her
relatives in Memphis, Tennessee. She was taken to the cotton
exchange. When she felt the maps and blackboards she asked, “Do
men go to school?” She wrote on the blackboard the names of all
the gentlemen present. While at Memphis she went over one of the
large Mississippi steamers.
TO DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE
Tuscumbia, Alabama, February 15th 1888.
Dear Mr. Hale,
I am happy to write you a letter this morning. Teacher told me
about kind gentleman I shall be glad to read pretty story I do
read stories in my book about tigers and lions and sheep.
I am coming to Boston in June to see little blind girls and I
will come to see you. I went to Memphis to see grandmother and
Aunt Nannie. Teacher bought me lovely new dress and cap and
aprons. Little Natalie is a very weak and small baby. Father took
us to see steamboat. It was on a large river. Boat is like house.
Mildred is a good baby. I do love to play with little sister.
Nancy was not a good child when I went to Memphis. She did cry
loud. I will not write more to-day. I am tired.
Good-by
HELEN KELLER.
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS
Tuscumbia, Ala., Feb. 24th, 1888.
My dear Mr. Anagnos,—I am glad to write you a letter in Braille.
This morning Lucien Thompson sent me a beautiful bouquet of
violets and crocuses and jonquils. Sunday Adeline Moses brought
me a lovely doll. It came from New York. Her name is Adeline
Keller. She can shut her eyes and bend her arms and sit down and
stand up straight. She has on a pretty red dress. She is Nancy’s
sister and I am their mother. Allie is their cousin. Nancy was a
bad child when I went to Memphis she cried loud, I whipped her
with a stick.
Mildred does feed little chickens with crumbs. I love to play
with little sister.
Teacher and I went to Memphis to see aunt Nannie and grandmother.
Louise is aunt Nannie’s child. Teacher bought me a lovely new
dress and gloves and stockings and collars and grandmother made
me warm flannels, and aunt Nannie made me aprons. Lady made me a
pretty cap. I went to see Robert and Mr. Graves and Mrs. Graves
and little Natalie, and Mr. Farris and Mr. Mayo and Mary and
everyone. I do love Robert and teacher. She does not want me to
write more today. I feel tired.
I found box of candy in Mr. Grave’s pocket. Father took us to see
steam boat it is like house. Boat was on very large river. Yates
plowed yard today to plant grass. Mule pulled plow. Mother will
make garden of vegetables. Father will plant melons and peas and
beans.
Cousin Bell will come to see us Saturday. Mother will make
ice-cream for dinner, we will have ice-cream and cake for dinner.
Lucien Thompson is sick. I am sorry for him.
Teacher and I went to walk in the yard, and I learned about how
flowers and trees grow. Sun rises in the east and sets in the
west. Sheffield is north and Tuscumbia is south. We will go to
Boston in June. I will have fun with little blind girls.
Good bye
HELEN KELLER.
“Uncle Morrie” of the next letter is Mr. Morrison Heady, of
Normandy, Kentucky, who lost his sight and hearing when he was a
boy. He is the author of some commendable verses.
TO MR. MORRISON HEADY
Tuscumbia, Ala., March 1st 1888.
My dear uncle Morrie,—I am happy to write you a letter, I do
love you, and I will hug and kiss you when I see you.
Mr. Anagnos is coming to see me Monday. I do love to run and hop
and skip with Robert in bright warm sun. I do know little girl in
Lexington Ky. her name is Katherine Hobson.
I am going to Boston in June with mother and teacher, I will have
fun with little blind girls, and Mr. Hale will send me pretty
story. I do read stories in my book about lions and tigers and
bears.
Mildred will not go to Boston, she does cry. I love to play with
little sister, she is weak and small baby. Eva is better.
Yates killed ants, ants stung Yates. Yates is digging in garden.
Mr. Anagnos did see oranges, they look like golden apples.
Robert will come to see me Sunday when sun shines and I will have
fun with him. My cousin Frank lives in Louisville. I will come to
Memphis again to see Mr. Farris and Mrs. Graves and Mr. Mayo and
Mr. Graves. Natalie is a good girl and does not cry, and she will
be big and Mrs. Graves is making short dresses for her. Natalie
has a little carriage. Mr. Mayo has been to Duck Hill and he
brought sweet flowers home.
With much love and a kiss
HELEN A. KELLER.
In this account of the picnic we get an illuminating glimpse of
Miss Sullivan’s skill in teaching her pupil during play hours.
This was a day when the child’s vocabulary grew.
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS
Tuscumbia, Ala., May 3rd 1888.
Dear Mr. Anagnos.—I am glad to write to you this morning,
because I love you very much. I was very happy to receive pretty
book and nice candy and two letters from you. I will come to see
you soon and will ask you many questions about countries and you
will love good child.
Mother is making me pretty new dresses to wear in Boston and I
will look lovely to see little girls and boys and you. Friday
teacher and I went to a picnic with little children. We played
games and ate dinner under the trees, and we found ferns and wild
flowers. I walked in the woods and learned names of many trees.
There are poplar and cedar and pine and oak and ash and hickory
and maple trees. They make a pleasant shade and the little birds
love to swing to and fro and sing sweetly up in the trees.
Rabbits hop and squirrels run and ugly snakes do crawl in the
woods. Geraniums and roses jasamines and japonicas are cultivated
flowers. I help mother and teacher water them every night before
supper.
Cousin Arthur made me a swing in the ash tree. Aunt Ev. has gone
to Memphis. Uncle Frank is here. He is picking strawberries for
dinner. Nancy is sick again, new teeth do make her ill. Adeline
is well and she can go to Cincinnati Monday with me. Aunt Ev.
will send me a boy doll, Harry will be Nancy’s and Adeline’s
brother. Wee sister is a good girl. I am tired now and I do want
to go down stairs. I send many kisses and hugs with letter.
Your darling child
HELEN KELLER.
Toward the end of May Mrs. Keller, Helen, and Miss Sullivan
started for Boston. On the way they spent a few days in
Washington, where they saw Dr. Alexander Graham Bell and called
on President Cleveland. On May 26th they arrived in Boston and
went to the Perkins Institution; here Helen met the little blind
girls with whom she had corresponded the year before.
Early in July she went to Brewster, Massachusetts, and spent the
rest of the summer. Here occurred her first encounter with the
sea, of which she has since written.
TO MISS MARY C. MOORE
So. Boston, Mass. Sept. 1888
My dear Miss Moore
Are you very glad to receive a nice letter from your darling
little friend? I love you very dearly because you are my friend.
My precious little sister is quite well now. She likes to sit in
my little rocking-chair and put her kitty to sleep. Would you
like to see darling little Mildred? She is a very pretty baby.
Her eyes are very big and blue, and her cheeks are soft and round
and rosy and her hair is very bright and golden. She is very good
and sweet when she does not cry loud. Next summer Mildred will go
out in the garden with me and pick the big sweet strawberries and
then she will be very happy. I hope she will not eat too many of
the delicious fruit for they will make her very ill.
Sometime will you please come to Alabama and visit me? My uncle
James is going to buy me a very gentle pony and a pretty cart and
I shall be very happy to take you and Harry to ride. I hope Harry
will not be afraid of my pony. I think my father will buy me a
beautiful little brother some day. I shall be very gentle and
patient to my new little brother. When I visit many strange
countries my brother and Mildred will stay with grandmother
because they will be too small to see a great many people and I
think they would cry loud on the great rough ocean.
When Capt. Baker gets well he will take me in his big ship to
Africa. Then I shall see lions and tigers and monkeys. I will get
a baby lion and a white monkey and a mild bear to bring home. I
had a very pleasant time at Brewster. I went in bathing almost
every day and Carrie and Frank and little Helen and I had fun. We
splashed and jumped and waded in the deep water. I am not afraid
to float now. Can Harry float and swim? We came to Boston last
Thursday, and Mr. Anagnos was delighted to see me, and he hugged
and kissed me. The little girls are coming back to school next
Wednesday.
Will you please tell Harry to write me a very long letter soon?
When you come to Tuscumbia to see me I hope my father will have
many sweet apples and juicy peaches and fine pears and delicious
grapes and large water melons.
I hope you think about me and love me because I am a good little
child.
With much love and two kisses
From your little friend
HELEN A. KELLER.
In this account of a visit to some friends, Helen’s thought is
much what one would expect from an ordinary child of eight,
except perhaps her naive satisfaction in the boldness of the
young gentlemen.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
So. Boston, Mass, Sept. 24th 1888.
My dear Mother,
I think you will be very glad to know all about my visit to West
Newton. Teacher and I had a lovely time with many kind friends.
West Newton is not far from Boston and we went there in the steam
cars very quickly.
Mrs. Freeman and Carrie and Ethel and Frank and Helen came to
station to meet us in a huge carriage. I was delighted to see my
dear little friends and I hugged and kissed them. Then we rode
for a long time to see all the beautiful things in West Newton.
Many very handsome houses and large soft green lawns around them
and trees and bright flowers and fountains. The horse’s name was
Prince and he was gentle and liked to trot very fast. When we
went home we saw eight rabbits and two fat puppies, and a nice
little white pony, and two wee kittens and a pretty curly dog
named Don. Pony’s name was Mollie and I had a nice ride on her
back; I was not afraid, I hope my uncle will get me a dear little
pony and a little cart very soon.
Clifton did not kiss me because he does not like to kiss little
girls. He is shy. I am very glad that Frank and Clarence and
Robbie and Eddie and Charles and George were not very shy. I
played with many little girls and we had fun. I rode on Carrie’s
tricicle and picked flowers and ate fruit and hopped and skipped
and danced and went to ride. Many ladies and gentlemen came to
see us. Lucy and Dora and Charles were born in China. I was born
in America, and Mr. Anagnos was born in Greece. Mr. Drew says
little girls in China cannot talk on their fingers but I think
when I go to China I will teach them. Chinese nurse came to see
me, her name was Asu. She showed me a tiny atze that very rich
ladies in China wear because their feet never grow large. Amah
means a nurse. We came home in horse cars because it was Sunday
and steam cars do not go often on Sunday. Conductors and
engineers do get very tired and go home to rest. I saw little
Willie Swan in the car and he gave me a juicy pear. He was six
years old. What did I do when I was six years old? Will you
please ask my father to come to train to meet teacher and me? I
am very sorry that Eva and Bessie are sick. I hope I can have a
nice party my birthday, and I do want Carrie and Ethel and Frank
and Helen to come to Alabama to visit me. Will Mildred sleep with
me when I come home.
With much love and thousand kisses.
From your dear little daughter.
HELEN A. KELLER.
Her visit to Plymouth was in July. This letter, written three
months later, shows how well she remembered her first lesson in
history.
TO MR. MORRISON HEADY
South Boston, Mass. October 1st, 1888.
My dear uncle Morrie,—I think you will be very glad to receive a
letter from your dear little friend Helen. I am very happy to
write to you because I think of you and love you. I read pretty
stories in the book you sent me, about Charles and his boat, and
Arthur and his dream, and Rosa and the sheep.
I have been in a large boat. It was like a ship. Mother and
teacher and Mrs. Hopkins and Mr. Anagnos and Mr. Rodocanachi and
many other friends went to Plymouth to see many old things. I
will tell you a little story about Plymouth.
Many years ago there lived in England many good people, but the
king and his friends were not kind and gentle and patient with
good people, because the king did not like to have the people
disobey him. People did not like to go to church with the king;
but they did like to build very nice little churches for
themselves.
The king was very angry with the people and they were sorry and
they said, we will go away to a strange country to live and leave
very dear home and friends and naughty king. So, they put all
their things into big boxes, and said, Good-bye. I am sorry for
them because they cried much. When they went to Holland they did
not know anyone; and they could not know what the people were
talking about because they did not know Dutch. But soon they
learned some Dutch words; but they loved their own language and
they did not want little boys and girls to forget it and learn to
talk funny Dutch. So they said, We must go to a new country far
away and build schools and houses and churches and make new
cities. So they put all their things in boxes and said, Good-bye
to their new friends and sailed away in a large boat to find a
new country. Poor people were not happy for their hearts were
full of sad thoughts because they did not know much about
America. I think little children must have been afraid of a great
ocean for it is very strong and it makes a large boat rock and
then the little children would fall down and hurt their heads.
After they had been many weeks on the deep ocean where they could
not see trees or flowers or grass, but just water and the
beautiful sky, for ships could not sail quickly then because men
did not know about engines and steam. One day a dear little
baby-boy was born. His name was Peregrine White. I am very sorry
that poor little Peregrine is dead now. Every day the people went
upon deck to look out for land. 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. Little girls and
boys jumped and clapped their hands. They were all glad when they
stepped upon a huge rock. I did see the rock in Plymouth and a
little ship like the Mayflower and the cradle that dear little
Peregrine slept in and many old things that came in the
Mayflower. Would you like to visit Plymouth some time and see
many old things.
Now I am very tired and I will rest.
With much love and many kisses, from your little friend.
HELEN A. KELLER.
The foreign words in these two letters, the first of which was
written during a visit to the kindergarten for the blind, she had
been told months before, and had stowed them away in her memory.
She assimilated words and practised with them, sometimes using
them intelligently, sometimes repeating them in a parrot-like
fashion. Even when she did not fully understand words or ideas,
she liked to set them down as though she did. It was in this way
that she learned to use correctly words of sound and vision which
express ideas outside of her experience. “Edith” is Edith Thomas.
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS
Roxbury, Mass. Oct. 17th, 1888.
Mon cher Monsieur Anagnos,
I am sitting by the window and the beautiful sun is shining on me
Teacher and I came to the kindergarten yesterday. There are
twenty seven little children here and they are all blind. I am
sorry because they cannot see much. Sometime will they have very
well eyes? Poor Edith is blind and deaf and dumb. Are you very
sad for Edith and me? Soon I shall go home to see my mother and
my father and my dear good and sweet little sister. I hope you
will come to Alabama to visit me and I will take you to ride in
my little cart and I think you will like to see me on my dear
little pony’s back. I shall wear my lovely cap and my new riding
dress. If the sun shines brightly I will take you to see Leila
and Eva and Bessie. When I am thirteen years old I am going to
travel in many strange and beautiful countries. I shall climb
very high mountains in Norway and see much ice and snow. I hope I
will not fall and hurt my head I shall visit little Lord
Fauntleroy in England and he will be glad to show me his grand
and very ancient castle. And we will run with the deer and feed
the rabbits and catch the squirrels. I shall not be afraid of
Fauntleroy’s great dog Dougal. I hope Fauntleroy take me to see a
very kind queen. When I go to France I will take French. A little
French boy will say, Parlez-vous Francais? and I will say, Oui,
Monsieur, vous avez un joli chapeau. Donnez moi un baiser. I hope
you will go with me to Athens to see the maid of Athens. She was
very lovely lady and I will talk Greek to her. I will say, se
agapo and, pos echete and I think she will say, kalos, and then I
will say chaere. Will you please come to see me soon and take me
to the theater? When you come I will say, Kale emera, and when
you go home I will say, Kale nykta. Now I am too tired to write
more. Je vous aime. Au revoir
From your darling little friend
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MISS EVELINA H. KELLER
[So. Boston, Mass. October 29, 1888.]
My dearest Aunt,—I am coming home very soon and I think you and
every one will be very glad to see my teacher and me. I am very
happy because I have learned much about many things. I am
studying French and German and Latin and Greek. Se agapo is
Greek, and it means I love thee. J’ai une bonne petite soeur is
French, and it means I have a good little sister. Nous avons un
bon pere et une bonne mere means, we have a good father and a
good mother. Puer is boy in Latin, and Mutter is mother in
German. I will teach Mildred many languages when I come home.
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MRS. SOPHIA C. HOPKINS
Tuscumbia, Ala. Dec. 11th, 1888.
My dear Mrs. Hopkins:—
I have just fed my dear little pigeon. My brother Simpson gave it
to me last Sunday. I named it Annie, for my teacher. My puppy has
had his supper and gone to bed. My rabbits are sleeping, too; and
very soon I shall go to bed. Teacher is writing letters to her
friends. Mother and father and their friends have gone to see a
huge furnace. The furnace is to make iron. The iron ore is found
in the ground; but it cannot be used until it has been brought to
the furnace and melted, and all the dirt taken out, and just the
pure iron left. Then it is all ready to be manufactured into
engines, stoves, kettles and many other things.
Coal is found in the ground, too. Many years ago, before people
came to live on the earth, great trees and tall grasses and huge
ferns and all the beautiful flowers cover the earth. When the
leaves and the trees fell, the water and the soil covered them;
and then more trees grew and fell also, and were buried under
water and soil. After they had all been pressed together for many
thousands of years, the wood grew very hard, like rock, and then
it was all ready for people to burn. Can you see leaves and ferns
and bark on the coal? Men go down into the ground and dig out the
coal, and steam-cars take it to the large cities, and sell it to
people to burn, to make them warm and happy when it is cold out
of doors.
Are you very lonely and sad now? I hope you will come to see me
soon, and stay a long time.
With much love from your little friend
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MISS DELLA BENNETT
Tuscumbia, Ala., Jan. 29, 1889.
My dear Miss Bennett:—I am delighted to write to you this
morning. We have just eaten our breakfast. Mildred is running
about downstairs. I have been reading in my book about
astronomers. Astronomer comes from the Latin word astra, which
means stars; and astronomers are men who study the stars, and
tell us about them. When we are sleeping quietly in our beds,
they are watching the beautiful sky through the telescope. A
telescope is like a very strong eye. The stars are so far away
that people cannot tell much about them, without very excellent
instruments. Do you like to look out of your window, and see
little stars? Teacher says she can see Venus from our window, and
it is a large and beautiful star. The stars are called the
earth’s brothers and sisters.
There are a great many instruments besides those which the
astronomers use. A knife is an instrument to cut with. I think
the bell is an instrument, too. I will tell you what I know about
bells.
Some bells are musical and others are unmusical. Some are very
tiny and some are very large. I saw a very large bell at
Wellesley. It came from Japan. Bells are used for many purposes.
They tell us when breakfast is ready, when to go to school, when
it is time for church, and when there is a fire. They tell people
when to go to work, and when to go home and rest. The engine-bell
tells the passengers that they are coming to a station, and it
tells the people to keep out of the way. Sometimes very terrible
accidents happen, and many people are burned and drowned and
injured. The other day I broke my doll’s head off; but that was
not a dreadful accident, because dolls do not live and feel, like
people. My little pigeons are well, and so is my little bird. I
would like to have some clay. Teacher says it is time for me to
study now. Good-bye.
With much love, and many kisses,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE
Tuscumbia, Alabama, February 21st, 1889.
My dear Mr. Hale,
I am very much afraid that you are thinking in your mind that
little Helen has forgotten all about you and her dear cousins.
But I think you will be delighted to receive this letter because
then you will know that I of[ten] think about you and I love you
dearly for you are my dear cousin. I have been at home a great
many weeks now. It made me feel very sad to leave Boston and I
missed all of my friends greatly, but of course I was glad to get
back to my lovely home once more. My darling little sister is
growing very fast. Sometimes she tries to spell very short words
on her small [fingers] but she is too young to remember hard
words. When she is older I will teach her many things if she is
patient and obedient. My teacher says, if children learn to be
patient and gentle while they are little, that when they grow to
be young ladies and gentlemen they will not forget to be kind and
loving and brave. I hope I shall be courageous always. A little
girl in a story was not courageous. She thought she saw little
elves with tall pointed [hats] peeping from between the bushes
and dancing down the long alleys, and the poor little girl was
terrified. Did you have a pleasant Christmas? I had many lovely
presents given to me. The other day I had a fine party. All of my
dear little friends came to see me. We played games, and ate
ice-cream and cake and fruit. Then we had great fun. The sun is
shining brightly to-day and I hope we shall go to ride if the
roads are dry. In a few days the beautiful spring will be here. I
am very glad because I love the warm sunshine and the fragrant
flowers. I think Flowers grow to make people happy and good. I
have four dolls now. Cedric is my little boy, he is named for
Lord Fauntleroy. He has big brown eyes and long golden hair and
pretty round cheeks. Ida is my baby. A lady brought her to me
from Paris. She can drink milk like a real baby. Lucy is a fine
young lady. She has on a dainty lace dress and satin slippers.
Poor old Nancy is growing old and very feeble. She is almost an
invalid. I have two tame pigeons and a tiny canary bird. Jumbo is
very strong and faithful. He will not let anything harm us at
night. I go to school every day I am studying reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography and language. My Mother and teacher send
you and Mrs. Hale their kind greetings and Mildred sends you a
kiss.
With much love and kisses, from your
Affectionate cousin
HELEN A. KELLER.
During the winter Miss Sullivan and her pupil were working at
Helen’s home in Tuscumbia, and to good purpose, for by spring
Helen had learned to write idiomatic English. After May, 1889, I
find almost no inaccuracies, except some evident slips of the
pencil. She uses words precisely and makes easy, fluent
sentences.
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS
Tuscumbia, Ala., May 18, 1889.
My Dear Mr. Anagnos:—You cannot imagine how delighted I was to
receive a letter from you last evening. I am very sorry that you
are going so far away. We shall miss you very, very much. I would
love to visit many beautiful cities with you. When I was in
Huntsville I saw Dr. Bryson, and he told me that he had been to
Rome and Athens and Paris and London. He had climbed the high
mountains in Switzerland and visited beautiful churches in Italy
and France, and he saw a great many ancient castles. I hope you
will please write to me from all the cities you visit. When you
go to Holland please give my love to the lovely princess
Wilhelmina. She is a dear little girl, and when she is old enough
she will be the queen of Holland. If you go to Roumania please
ask the good queen Elizabeth about her little invalid brother,
and tell her that I am very sorry that her darling little girl
died. I should like to send a kiss to Vittorio, the little prince
of Naples, but teacher says she is afraid you will not remember
so many messages. When I am thirteen years old I shall visit them
all myself.
I thank you very much for the beautiful story about Lord
Fauntleroy, and so does teacher.
I am so glad that Eva is coming to stay with me this summer. We
will have fine times together. Give Howard my love, and tell him
to answer my letter. Thursday we had a picnic. It was very
pleasant out in the shady woods, and we all enjoyed the picnic
very much.
Mildred is out in the yard playing, and mother is picking the
delicious strawberries. Father and Uncle Frank are down town.
Simpson is coming home soon. Mildred and I had our pictures taken
while we were in Huntsville. I will send you one.
The roses have been beautiful. Mother has a great many fine
roses. The La France and the Lamarque are the most fragrant; but
the Marechal Neil, Solfaterre, Jacqueminot, Nipheots, Etoile de
Lyon, Papa Gontier, Gabrielle Drevet and the Perle des Jardines
are all lovely roses.
Please give the little boys and girls my love. I think of them
every day and I love them dearly in my heart. When you come home
from Europe I hope you will be all well and very happy to get
home again. Do not forget to give my love to Miss Calliope
Kehayia and Mr. Francis Demetrios Kalopothakes.
Lovingly, your little friend,
HELEN ADAMS KELLER.
Like a good many of Helen Keller’s early letters, this to her
French teacher is her re-phrasing of a story. It shows how much
the gift of writing is, in the early stages of its development,
the gift of mimicry.
TO MISS FANNIE S. MARRETT
Tuscumbia, Ala., May 17, 1889.
My Dear Miss Marrett—I am thinking about a dear little girl, who
wept very hard. She wept because her brother teased her very
much. I will tell you what he did, and I think you will feel very
sorry for the little child. She had a most beautiful doll given
her. Oh, it was a lovely and delicate doll! but the little girl’s
brother, a tall lad, had taken the doll, and set it up in a high
tree in the garden, and had run away. The little girl could not
reach the doll, and could not help it down, and therefore she
cried. The doll cried, too, and stretched out its arms from among
the green branches, and looked distressed. Soon the dismal night
would come—and was the doll to sit up in the tree all night, and
by herself? The little girl could not endure that thought. “I
will stay with you,” said she to the doll, although she was not
at all courageous. Already she began to see quite plainly the
little elves in their tall pointed hats, dancing down the dusky
alleys, and peeping from between the bushes, and they seemed to
come nearer and nearer; and she stretched her hands up towards
the tree in which the doll sat and they laughed, and pointed
their fingers at her. How terrified was the little girl; but if
one has not done anything wrong, these strange little elves
cannot harm one. “Have I done anything wrong? Ah, yes!” said the
little girl. “I have laughed at the poor duck, with the red rag
tied round its leg. It hobbled, and that made me laugh; but it is
wrong to laugh at the poor animals!”
Is it not a pitiful story? I hope the father punished the naughty
little boy. Shall you be very glad to see my teacher next
Thursday? She is going home to rest, but she will come back to me
next autumn.
Lovingly, your little friend,
HELEN ADAMS KELLER.
TO MISS MARY E. RILEY
Tuscumbia, Ala., May 27, 1889.
My Dear Miss Riley:—I wish you were here in the warm, sunny
south today. Little sister and I would take you out into the
garden, and pick the delicious raspberries and a few strawberries
for you. How would you like that? The strawberries are nearly all
gone. In the evening, when it is cool and pleasant, we would walk
in the yard, and catch the grasshoppers and butterflies. We would
talk about the birds and flowers and grass and Jumbo and Pearl.
If you liked, we would run and jump and hop and dance, and be
very happy. I think you would enjoy hearing the mocking-birds
sing. One sits on the twig of a tree, just beneath our window,
and he fills the air with his glad songs. But I am afraid you
cannot come to Tuscumbia; so I will write to you, and send you a
sweet kiss and my love. How is Dick? Daisy is happy, but she
would be happy ever if she had a little mate. My little children
are all well except Nancy, and she is quite feeble. My
grandmother and aunt Corinne are here. Grandmother is going to
make me two new dresses. Give my love to all the little girls,
and tell them that Helen loves them very, very much. Eva sends
love to all.
With much love and many kisses, from your affectionate little
friend,
HELEN ADAMS KELLER.
During the summer Miss Sullivan was away from Helen for three
months and a half, the first separation of teacher and pupil.
Only once afterward in fifteen years was their constant
companionship broken for more than a few days at a time.
TO MISS ANNE MANSFIELD SULLIVAN
Tuscumbia, Ala., August 7, 1889.
Dearest Teacher—I am very glad to write to you this evening, for
I have been thinking much about you all day. I am sitting on the
piazza, and my little white pigeon is perched on the back of my
chair, watching me write. Her little brown mate has flown away
with the other birds; but Annie is not sad, for she likes to stay
with me. Fauntleroy is asleep upstairs, and Nancy is putting Lucy
to bed. Perhaps the mocking bird is singing them to sleep. All
the beautiful flowers are in bloom now. The air is sweet with the
perfume of jasmines, heliotropes and roses. It is getting warm
here now, so father is going to take us to the Quarry on the 20th
of August. I think we shall have a beautiful time out in the
cool, pleasant woods. I will write and tell you all the pleasant
things we do. I am so glad that Lester and Henry are good little
infants. Give them many sweet kisses for me.
What was the name of the little boy who fell in love with the
beautiful star? Eva has been telling me a story about a lovely
little girl named Heidi. Will you please send it to me? I shall
be delighted to have a typewriter.
Little Arthur is growing very fast. He has on short dresses now.
Cousin Leila thinks he will walk in a little while. Then I will
take his soft chubby hand in mine, and go out in the bright
sunshine with him. He will pull the largest roses, and chase the
gayest butterflies. I will take very good care of him, and not
let him fall and hurt himself. Father and some other gentlemen
went hunting yesterday. Father killed thirty-eight birds. We had
some of them for supper, and they were very nice. Last Monday
Simpson shot a pretty crane. The crane is a large and strong
bird. His wings are as long as my arm, and his bill is as long as
my foot. He eats little fishes, and other small animals. Father
says he can fly nearly all day without stopping.
Mildred is the dearest and sweetest little maiden in the world.
She is very roguish, too. Sometimes, when mother does not know
it, she goes out into the vineyard, and gets her apron full of
delicious grapes. I think she would like to put her two soft arms
around your neck and hug you.
Sunday I went to church. I love to go to church, because I like
to see my friends.
A gentleman gave me a beautiful card. It was a picture of a mill,
near a beautiful brook. There was a boat floating on the water,
and the fragrant lilies were growing all around the boat. Not far
from the mill there was an old house, with many trees growing
close to it. There were eight pigeons on the roof of the house,
and a great dog on the step. Pearl is a very proud mother-dog
now. She has eight puppies, and she thinks there never were such
fine puppies as hers.
I read in my books every day. I love them very, very, very much.
I do want you to come back to me soon. I miss you so very, very
much. I cannot know about many things, when my dear teacher is
not here. I send you five thousand kisses, and more love than I
can tell. I send Mrs. H. much love and a kiss.
From your affectionate little pupil,
HELEN A. KELLER.
In the fall Helen and Miss Sullivan returned to Perkins
Institution at South Boston.
TO MISS MILDRED KELLER
South Boston, Oct. 24, 1889.
My Precious Little Sister:—Good morning. I am going to send you
a birthday gift with this letter. I hope it will please you very
much, because it makes me happy to send it. The dress is blue
like your eyes, and candy is sweet just like your dear little
self. I think mother will be glad to make the dress for you, and
when you wear it you will look as pretty as a rose. The
picture-book will tell you all about many strange and wild
animals. You must not be afraid of them. They cannot come out of
the picture to harm you.
I go to school every day, and I learn many new things. At eight I
study arithmetic. I like that. At nine I go to the gymnasium with
the little girls and we have great fun. I wish you could be here
to play three little squirrels, and two gentle doves, and to make
a pretty nest for a dear little robin. The mocking bird does not
live in the cold north. At ten I study about the earth on which
we all live. At eleven I talk with teacher and at twelve I study
zoology. I do not know what I shall do in the afternoon yet.
Now, my darling little Mildred, good bye. Give father and mother
a great deal of love and many hugs and kisses for me. Teacher
sends her love too.
From your loving sister,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
South Boston, Mass., Nov. 20, 1889.
My Dear Mr. Wade:—I have just received a letter from my mother,
telling me that the beautiful mastiff puppy you sent me had
arrived in Tuscumbia safely. Thank you very much for the nice
gift. I am very sorry that I was not at home to welcome her; but
my mother and my baby sister will be very kind to her while her
mistress is away. I hope she is not lonely and unhappy. I think
puppies can feel very home-sick, as well as little girls. I
should like to call her Lioness, for your dog. May I? I hope she
will be very faithful,—and brave, too.
I am studying in Boston, with my dear teacher. I learn a great
many new and wonderful things. I study about the earth, and the
animals, and I like arithmetic exceedingly. I learn many new
words, too. EXCEEDINGLY is one that I learned yesterday. When I
see Lioness I will tell her many things which will surprise her
greatly. I think she will laugh when I tell her she is a
vertebrate, a mammal, a quadruped; and I shall be very sorry to
tell her that she belongs to the order Carnivora. I study French,
too. When I talk French to Lioness I will call her mon beau
chien. Please tell Lion that I will take good care of Lioness. I
shall be happy to have a letter from you when you like to write
to me.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
P.S. I am studying at the Institution for the Blind.
This letter is indorsed in Whittier’s hand, “Helen A.
Keller—deaf dumb and blind—aged nine years.” “Browns” is a
lapse of the pencil for “brown eyes.”
TO JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
Inst. for the Blind, So. Boston, Mass.,
Nov. 27, 1889.
Dear Poet,
I think you will be surprised to receive a letter from a little
girl whom you do not know, but I thought you would be glad to
hear that your beautiful poems make me very happy. Yesterday I
read “In School Days” and “My Playmate,” and I enjoyed them
greatly. I was very sorry that the poor little girl with the
browns and the “tangled golden curls” died. It is very pleasant
to live here in our beautiful world. I cannot see the lovely
things with my eyes, but my mind can see them all, and so I am
joyful all the day long.
When I walk out in my garden I cannot see the beautiful flowers
but I know that they are all around me; for is not the air sweet
with their fragrance? I know too that the tiny lily-bells are
whispering pretty secrets to their companions else they would not
look so happy. I love you very dearly, because you have taught me
so many lovely things about flowers, and birds, and people. Now I
must say, good-bye. I hope [you] will enjoy the Thanksgiving very
much.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
To Mr. John Greenleaf Whittier.
Whittier’s reply, to which there is a reference in the following
letter, has been lost.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
South Boston, Mass., Dec. 3, 1889.
My Dear Mother:—Your little daughter is very happy to write to
you this beautiful morning. It is cold and rainy here to-day.
Yesterday the Countess of Meath came again to see me. She gave me
a beautiful bunch of violets. Her little girls are named Violet
and May. The Earl said he should be delighted to visit Tuscumbia
the next time he comes to America. Lady Meath said she would like
to see your flowers, and hear the mocking-birds sing. When I
visit England they want me to come to see them, and stay a few
weeks. They will take me to see the Queen.
I had a lovely letter from the poet Whittier. He loves me. Mr.
Wade wants teacher and me to come and see him next spring. May we
go? He said you must feed Lioness from your hand, because she
will be more gentle if she does not eat with other dogs.
Mr. Wilson came to call on us one Thursday. I was delighted to
receive the flowers from home. They came while we were eating
breakfast, and my friends enjoyed them with me. We had a very
nice dinner on Thanksgiving day,—turkey and plum-pudding. Last
week I visited a beautiful art store. I saw a great many statues,
and the gentleman gave me an angel.
Sunday I went to church on board a great warship. After the
services were over the soldier-sailors showed us around. There
were four hundred and sixty sailors. They were very kind to me.
One carried me in his arms so that my feet would not touch the
water. They wore blue uniforms and queer little caps. There was a
terrible fire Thursday. Many stores were burned, and four men
were killed. I am very sorry for them. Tell father, please, to
write to me. How is dear little sister? Give her many kisses for
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
So. Boston, Mass., Dec. 24, 1889
My dear Mother,
Yesterday I sent you a little Christmas box. I am very sorry that
I could not send it before so that you would receive it tomorrow,
but I could not finish the watch-case any sooner. I made all of
the gifts myself, excepting father’s handkerchief. I wish I could
have made father a gift too, but I did not have sufficient time.
I hope you will like your watch-case, for it made me very happy
to make it for you. You must keep your lovely new montre in it.
If it is too warm in Tuscumbia for little sister to wear her
pretty mittens, she can keep them because her sister made them
for her. I imagine she will have fun with the little toy man.
Tell her to shake him, and then he will blow his trumpet. I thank
my dear kind father for sending me some money, to buy gifts for
my friends. I love to make everybody happy. I should like to be
at home on Christmas day. We would be very happy together. I
think of my beautiful home every day. Please do not forget to
send me some pretty presents to hang on my tree. I am going to
have a Christmas tree, in the parlor and teacher will hang all of
my gifts upon it. It will be a funny tree. All of the girls have
gone home to spend Christmas. Teacher and I are the only babies
left for Mrs. Hopkins to care for. Teacher has been sick in bed
for many days. Her throat was very sore and the doctor thought
she would have to go away to the hospital, but she is better now.
I have not been sick at all. The little girls are well too.
Friday I am going to spend the day with my little friends Carrie,
Ethel, Frank and Helen Freeman. We will have great fun I am sure.
Mr. and Miss Endicott came to see me, and I went to ride in the
carriage. They are going to give me a lovely present, but I
cannot guess what it will be. Sammy has a dear new brother. He is
very soft and delicate yet. Mr. Anagnos is in Athens now. He is
delighted because I am here. Now I must say, good-bye. I hope I
have written my letter nicely, but it is very difficult to write
on this paper and teacher is not here to give me better. Give
many kisses to little sister and much love to all. Lovingly
HELEN.
TO DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE
South Boston, Jan. 8, 1890.
My dear Mr. Hale:
The beautiful shells came last night. I thank you very much for
them. I shall always keep them, and it will make me very happy to
think that you found them, on that far away island, from which
Columbus sailed to discover our dear country. When I am eleven
years old it will be four hundred years since he started with the
three small ships to cross the great strange ocean. He was very
brave. The little girls were delighted to see the lovely shells.
I told them all I knew about them. Are you very glad that you
could make so many happy? I am. I should be very happy to come
and teach you the Braille sometime, if you have time to learn,
but I am afraid you are too busy. A few days ago I received a
little box of English violets from Lady Meath. The flowers were
wilted, but the kind thought which came with them was as sweet
and as fresh as newly pulled violets.
With loving greeting to the little cousins, and Mrs. Hale and a
sweet kiss for yourself,
From your little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
This, the first of Helen’s letters to Dr. Holmes, written soon
after a visit to him, he published in “Over the Teacups.”
[Atlantic Monthly, May, 1890]
TO DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
South Boston, Mass., March 1, 1890.
Dear, Kind Poet:—I have thought of you many times since that
bright Sunday when I bade you good-bye; and I am going to write
you a letter, because I love you. I am sorry that you have no
little children to play with you sometimes; but I think you are
very happy with your books, and your many, many friends. On
Washington’s birthday a great many people came here to see the
blind children; and I read for them from your poems, and showed
them some beautiful shells, which came from a little island near
Palos.
I am reading a very sad story, called “Little Jakey.” Jakey was
the sweetest little fellow you can imagine, but he was poor and
blind. I used to think—when I was small, and before I could
read—that everybody was always happy, and at first it made me
very sad to know about pain and great sorrow; but now I know that
we could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only
joy in the world.
I am studying about insects in zoology, and I have learned many
things about butterflies. They do not make honey for us, like the
bees, but many of them are as beautiful as the flowers they light
upon, and they always delight the hearts of little children. They
live a gay life, flitting from flower to flower, sipping the
drops of honeydew, without a thought for the morrow. They are
just like little boys and girls when they forget books and
studies, and run away to the woods and the fields, to gather wild
flowers, or wade in the ponds for fragrant lilies, happy in the
bright sunshine.
If my little sister comes to Boston next June, will you let me
bring her to see you? She is a lovely baby, and I am sure you
will love her.
Now I must tell my gentle poet good-bye, for I have a letter to
write home before I go to bed.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO MISS SARAH FULLER [Miss Fuller gave Helen Keller her first
lesson in articulation. See Chapter IV, Speech.]
South Boston, Mass., April 3, 1890.
My dear Miss Fuller,
My heart is full of joy this beautiful morning, because I have
learned to speak many new words, and I can make a few sentences.
Last evening I went out in the yard and spoke to the moon. I
said, “O! moon come to me!” Do you think the lovely moon was glad
that I could speak to her? How glad my mother will be. I can
hardly wait for June to come I am so eager to speak to her and to
my precious little sister. Mildred could not understand me when I
spelled with my fingers, but now she will sit in my lap and I
will tell her many things to please her, and we shall be so happy
together. Are you very, very happy because you can make so many
people happy? I think you are very kind and patient, and I love
you very dearly. My teacher told me Tuesday that you wanted to
know how I came to wish to talk with my mouth. I will tell you
all about it, for I remember my thoughts perfectly. When I was a
very little child I used to sit in my mother’s lap all the time,
because I was very timid, and did not like to be left by myself.
And I would keep my little hand on her face all the while,
because it amused me to feel her face and lips move when she
talked with people. I did not know then what she was doing, for I
was quite ignorant of all things. Then when I was older I learned
to play with my nurse and the little negro children and I noticed
that they kept moving their lips just like my mother, so I moved
mine too, but sometimes it made me angry and I would hold my
playmates’ mouths very hard. I did not know then that it was very
naughty to do so. After a long time my dear teacher came to me,
and taught me to communicate with my fingers and I was satisfied
and happy. But when I came to school in Boston I met some deaf
people who talked with their mouths like all other people, and
one day a lady who had been to Norway came to see me, and told me
of a blind and deaf girl [Ragnhild Kaata] she had seen in that
far away land who had been taught to speak and understand others
when they spoke to her. This good and happy news delighted me
exceedingly, for then I was sure that I should learn also. I
tried to make sounds like my little playmates, but teacher told
me that the voice was very delicate and sensitive and that it
would injure it to make incorrect sounds, and promised to take me
to see a kind and wise lady who would teach me rightly. That lady
was yourself. Now I am as happy as the little birds, because I
can speak and perhaps I shall sing too. All of my friends will be
so surprised and glad.
Your loving little pupil,
HELEN A. KELLER.
When the Perkins Institution closed for the summer, Helen and
Miss Sullivan went to Tuscumbia. This was the first home-going
after she had learned to “talk with her mouth.”
TO REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS
Tuscumbia, Alabama, July 14, 1890.
My dear Mr. Brooks, I am very glad to write to you this beautiful
day because you are my kind friend and I love you, and because I
wish to know many things. I have been at home three weeks, and
Oh, how happy I have been with dear mother and father and
precious little sister. I was very, very sad to part with all of
my friends in Boston, but I was so eager to see my baby sister I
could hardly wait for the train to take me home. But I tried very
hard to be patient for teacher’s sake. Mildred has grown much
taller and stronger than she was when I went to Boston, and she
is the sweetest and dearest little child in the world. My parents
were delighted to hear me speak, and I was overjoyed to give them
such a happy surprise. I think it is so pleasant to make
everybody happy. Why does the dear Father in heaven think it best
for us to have very great sorrow sometimes? I am always happy and
so was Little Lord Fauntleroy, but dear Little Jakey’s life was
full of sadness. God did not put the light in Jakey’s eyes and he
was blind, and his father was not gentle and loving. Do you think
poor Jakey loved his Father in heaven more because his other
father was unkind to him? How did God tell people that his home
was in heaven? When people do very wrong and hurt animals and
treat children unkindly God is grieved, but what will he do to
them to teach them to be pitiful and loving? I think he will tell
them how dearly He loves them and that He wants them to be good
and happy, and they will not wish to grieve their father who
loves them so much, and they will want to please him in
everything they do, so they will love each other and do good to
everyone, and be kind to animals.
Please tell me something that you know about God. It makes me
happy to know much about my loving Father, who is good and wise.
I hope you will write to your little friend when you have time. I
should like very much to see you to-day Is the sun very hot in
Boston now? this afternoon if it is cool enough I shall take
Mildred for a ride on my donkey. Mr. Wade sent Neddy to me, and
he is the prettiest donkey you can imagine. My great dog Lioness
goes with us when we ride to protect us. Simpson, that is my
brother, brought me some beautiful pond lilies yesterday—he is a
very brother to me.
Teacher sends you her kind remembrances, and father and mother
also send their regards.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
London, August 3, 1890.
My Dear Helen—I was very glad indeed to get your letter. It has
followed me across the ocean and found me in this magnificent
great city which I should like to tell you all about if I could
take time for it and make my letter long enough. Some time when
you come and see me in my study in Boston I shall be glad to talk
to you about it all if you care to hear.
But now I want to tell you how glad I am that you are so happy
and enjoying your home so very much. I can almost think I see you
with your father and mother and little sister, with all the
brightness of the beautiful country about you, and it makes me
very glad to know how glad you are.
I am glad also to know, from the questions which you ask me, what
you are thinking about. I do not see how we can help thinking
about God when He is so good to us all the time. Let me tell you
how it seems to me that we come to know about our heavenly
Father. It is from the power of love which is in our own hearts.
Love is at the soul of everything. Whatever has not the power of
loving must have a very dreary life indeed. We like to think that
the sunshine and the winds and the trees are able to love in some
way of their own, for it would make us know that they were happy
if we knew that they could love. And so God who is the greatest
and happiest of all beings is the most loving too. All the love
that is in our hearts comes from him, as all the light which is
in the flowers comes from the sun. And the more we love the more
near we are to God and His Love.
I told you that I was very happy because of your happiness.
Indeed I am. So are your Father and your Mother and your Teacher
and all your friends. But do you not think that God is happy too
because you are happy? I am sure He is. And He is happier than
any of us because He is greater than any of us, and also because
He not merely SEES your happiness as we do, but He also MADE it.
He gives it to you as the sun gives light and color to the rose.
And we are always most glad of what we not merely see our friends
enjoy, but of what we give them to enjoy. Are we not?
But God does not only want us to be HAPPY; He wants us to be
good. He wants that most of all. He knows that we can be really
happy only when we are good. A great deal of the trouble that is
in the world is medicine which is very bad to take, but which it
is good to take because it makes us better. We see how good
people may be in great trouble when we think of Jesus who was the
greatest sufferer that ever lived and yet was the best Being and
so, I am sure, the happiest Being that the world has ever seen.
I love to tell you about God. But He will tell you Himself by the
love which He will put into your heart if you ask Him. And Jesus,
who is His Son, but is nearer to Him than all of us His other
Children, came into the world on purpose to tell us all about our
Father’s Love. If you read His words, you will see how full His
heart is of the love of God. “We KNOW that He loves us,” He says.
And so He loved men Himself and though they were very cruel to
Him and at last killed Him, He was willing to die for them
because He loved them so. And, Helen, He loves men still, and He
loves us, and He tells us that we may love Him.
And so love is everything. And if anybody asks you, or if you ask
yourself what God is, answer, “God is Love.” That is the
beautiful answer which the Bible gives.
All this is what you are to think of and to understand more and
more as you grow older. Think of it now, and let it make every
blessing brighter because your dear Father sends it to you.
You will come back to Boston I hope soon after I do. I shall be
there by the middle of September. I shall want you to tell me all
about everything, and not forget the Donkey.
I send my kind remembrance to your father and mother, and to your
teacher. I wish I could see your little sister.
Good Bye, dear Helen. Do write to me soon again, directing your
letter to Boston.
Your affectionate friend
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
To a letter which has been lost.
Beverly Farms, Mass., August 1, 1890.
My Dear Little Friend Helen:
I received your welcome letter several days ago, but I have so
much writing to do that I am apt to make my letters wait a good
while before they get answered.
It gratifies me very much to find that you remember me so kindly.
Your letter is charming, and I am greatly pleased with it. I
rejoice to know that you are well and happy. I am very much
delighted to hear of your new acquisition—that you “talk with
your mouth” as well as with your fingers. What a curious thing
SPEECH is! The tongue is so serviceable a member (taking all
sorts of shapes, just as is wanted),—the teeth, the lips, the
roof of the mouth, all ready to help, and so heap up the sound of
the voice into the solid bits which we call consonants, and make
room for the curiously shaped breathings which we call vowels!
You have studied all this, I don’t doubt, since you have
practised vocal speaking.
I am surprised at the mastery of language which your letter
shows. It almost makes me think the world would get along as well
without seeing and hearing as with them. Perhaps people would be
better in a great many ways, for they could not fight as they do
now. Just think of an army of blind people, with guns and cannon!
Think of the poor drummers! Of what use would they and their
drumsticks be? You are spared the pain of many sights and sounds,
which you are only too happy in escaping. Then think how much
kindness you are sure of as long as you live. Everybody will feel
an interest in dear little Helen; everybody will want to do
something for her; and, if she becomes an ancient, gray-haired
woman, she is still sure of being thoughtfully cared for.
Your parents and friends must take great satisfaction in your
progress. It does great credit, not only to you, but to your
instructors, who have so broken down the walls that seemed to
shut you in that now your outlook seems more bright and cheerful
than that of many seeing and hearing children.
Good-bye, dear little Helen! With every kind wish from your
friend,
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
This letter was written to some gentlemen in Gardiner, Maine, who
named a lumber vessel after her.
TO MESSRS. BRADSTREET
Tuscumbia, Ala., July 14, 1890.
My Dear, Kind Friends:—I thank you very, very much for name your beautiful new ship for me. It makes me very happy to know
that I have kind and loving friends in the far-away State of
Maine. I did not imagine, when I studied about the forests of
Maine, that a strong and beautiful ship would go sailing all over
the world, carrying wood from those rich forests, to build
pleasant homes and schools and churches in distant countries. I
hope the great ocean will love the new Helen, and let her sail
over its blue waves peacefully. Please tell the brave sailors,
who have charge of the HELEN KELLER, that little Helen who stays
at home will often think of them with loving thoughts. I hope I
shall see you and my beautiful namesake some time.
With much love, from your little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
To the Messrs. Bradstreet.
Helen and Miss Sullivan returned to the Perkins Institution early
in November.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
South Boston, Nov. 10, 1890.
My Dearest Mother:—My heart has been full of thoughts of you and
my beautiful home ever since we parted so sadly on Wednesday
night. How I wish I could see you this lovely morning, and tell
you all that has happened since I left home! And my darling
little sister, how I wish I could give her a hundred kisses! And
my dear father, how he would like to hear about our journey! But
I cannot see you and talk to you, so I will write and tell you
all that I can think of.
We did not reach Boston until Saturday morning. I am sorry to say
that our train was delayed in several places, which made us late
in reaching New York. When we got to Jersey City at six o’clock
Friday evening we were obliged to cross the Harlem River in a
ferry-boat. We found the boat and the transfer carriage with much
less difficulty than teacher expected. When we arrived at the
station they told us that the train did not leave for Boston
until eleven o’clock, but that we could take the sleeper at nine,
which we did. We went to bed and slept until morning. When we
awoke we were in Boston. I was delighted to get there, though I
was much disappointed because we did not arrive on Mr. Anagnos’
birthday. We surprised our dear friends, however, for they did
not expect us Saturday; but when the bell rung Miss Marrett
guessed who was at the door, and Mrs. Hopkins jumped up from the
breakfast table and ran to the door to meet us; she was indeed
much astonished to see us. After we had had some breakfast we
went up to see Mr. Anagnos. I was overjoyed to see my dearest and
kindest friend once more. He gave me a beautiful watch. I have it
pinned to my dress. I tell everybody the time when they ask me. I
have only seen Mr. Anagnos twice. I have many questions to ask
him about the countries he has been travelling in. But I suppose
he is very busy now.
The hills in Virginia were very lovely. Jack Frost had dressed
them in gold and crimson. The view was most charmingly
picturesque. Pennsylvania is a very beautiful State. The grass
was as green as though it was springtime, and the golden ears of
corn gathered together in heaps in the great fields looked very
pretty. In Harrisburg we saw a donkey like Neddy. How I wish I
could see my own donkey and my dear Lioness! Do they miss their
mistress very much? Tell Mildred she must be kind to them for my
sake.
Our room is pleasant and comfortable.
My typewriter was much injured coming. The case was broken and
the keys are nearly all out. Teacher is going to see if it can be
fixed.
There are many new books in the library. What a nice time I shall
have reading them! I have already read Sara Crewe. It is a very
pretty story, and I will tell it to you some time. Now, sweet
mother, your little girl must say good-bye.
With much love to father, Mildred, you and all the dear friends,
lovingly your little daughter,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
South Boston, Dec. 17, 1890.
Dear Kind Poet,
This is your birthday; that was the first thought which came into
my mind when I awoke this morning; and it made me glad to think I
could write you a letter and tell you how much your little
friends love their sweet poet and his birthday. This evening they
are going to entertain their friends with readings from your
poems and music. I hope the swift winged messengers of love will
be here to carry some of the sweet melody to you, in your little
study by the Merrimac. At first I was very sorry when I found
that the sun had hidden his shining face behind dull clouds, but
afterwards I thought why he did it, and then I was happy. 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. When they are ready, they will softly
fall and tenderly cover every object. Then the sun will appear in
all his radiance and fill the world with light. If I were with
you to-day I would give you eighty-three kisses, one for each
year you have lived. Eighty-three years seems very long to me.
Does it seem long to you? I wonder how many years there will be
in eternity. I am afraid I cannot think about so much time. I
received the letter which you wrote to me last summer, and I
thank you for it. I am staying in Boston now at the Institution
for the Blind, but I have not commenced my studies yet, because
my dearest friend, Mr. Anagnos wants me to rest and play a great
deal.
Teacher is well and sends her kind remembrance to you. The happy
Christmas time is almost here! I can hardly wait for the fun to
begin! I hope your Christmas Day will be a very happy one and
that the New Year will be full of brightness and joy for you and
every one.
From your little friend
HELEN A. KELLER.
WHITTIER’S REPLY
My Dear Young Friend—I was very glad to have such a pleasant
letter on my birthday. I had two or three hundred others and
thine was one of the most welcome of all. I must tell thee about
how the day passed at Oak Knoll. Of course the sun did not shine,
but we had great open wood fires in the rooms, which were all
very sweet with roses and other flowers, which were sent to me
from distant friends; and fruits of all kinds from California and
other places. Some relatives and dear old friends were with me
through the day. I do not wonder thee thinks eighty three years a
long time, but to me it seems but a very little while since I was
a boy no older than thee, playing on the old farm at Haverhill. I
thank thee for all thy good wishes, and wish thee as many. I am
glad thee is at the Institution; it is an excellent place. Give
my best regards to Miss Sullivan, and with a great deal of love I
am
Thy old friend,
JOHN G. WHITTIER.
Tommy Stringer, who appears in several of the following letters,
became blind and deaf when he was four years old. His mother was
dead and his father was too poor to take care of him. For a while
he was kept in the general hospital at Allegheny. From here he
was to be sent to an almshouse, for at that time there was no
other place for him in Pennsylvania. Helen heard of him through
Mr. J. G. Brown of Pittsburgh, who wrote her that he had failed
to secure a tutor for Tommy. She wanted him brought to Boston,
and when she was told that money would be needed to get him a
teacher, she answered, “We will raise it.” She began to solicit
contributions from her friends, and saved her pennies.
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell advised Tommy’s friends to send him to
Boston, and the trustees of the Perkins Institution agreed to
admit him to the kindergarten for the blind.
Meanwhile opportunity came to Helen to make a considerable
contribution to Tommy’s education. The winter before, her dog
Lioness had been killed, and friends set to work to raise money
to buy Helen another dog. Helen asked that the contributions,
which people were sending from all over America and England, be
devoted to Tommy’s education. Turned to this new use, the fund
grew fast, and Tommy was provided for. He was admitted to the
kindergarten on the sixth of April.
Miss Keller wrote lately, “I shall never forget the pennies sent
by many a poor child who could ill spare them, ‘for little
Tommy,’ or the swift sympathy with which people from far and
near, whom I had never seen, responded to the dumb cry of a
little captive soul for aid.”
TO MR. GEORGE R. KREHL
Institution for the Blind,
South Boston, Mass., March 20, 1891.
My Dear Friend, Mr. Krehl:—I have just heard, through Mr. Wade,
of your kind offer to buy me a gentle dog, and I want to thank
you for the kind thought. It makes me very happy indeed to know
that I have such dear friends in other lands. It makes me think
that all people are good and loving. I have read that the English
and Americans are cousins; but I am sure it would be much truer
to say that we are brothers and sisters. My friends have told me
about your great and magnificent city, and I have read a great
deal that wise Englishmen have written. I have begun to read
“Enoch Arden,” and I know several of the great poet’s poems by
heart. I am eager to cross the ocean, for I want to see my
English friends and their good and wise queen. Once the Earl of
Meath came to see me, and he told me that the queen was much
beloved by her people, because of her gentleness and wisdom. Some
day you will be surprised to see a little strange girl coming
into your office; but when you know it is the little girl who
loves dogs and all other animals, you will laugh, and I hope you
will give her a kiss, just as Mr. Wade does. He has another dog
for me, and he thinks she will be as brave and faithful as my
beautiful Lioness. And now I want to tell you what the dog lovers
in America are going to do. They are going to send me some money
for a poor little deaf and dumb and blind child. His name is
Tommy, and he is five years old. His parents are too poor to pay
to have the little fellow sent to school; so, instead of giving
me a dog, the gentlemen are going to help make Tommy’s life as
bright and joyous as mine. Is it not a beautiful plan? Education
will bring light and music into Tommy’s soul, and then he cannot
help being happy.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
[South Boston, Mass., April, 1891.]
Dear Dr. Holmes:—Your beautiful words about spring have been
making music in my heart, these bright April days. I love every
word of “Spring” and “Spring Has Come.” I think you will be glad
to hear that these poems have taught me to enjoy and love the
beautiful springtime, even though I cannot see the fair, frail
blossoms which proclaim its approach, or hear the joyous warbling
of the home-coming birds. But when I read “Spring Has Come,” lo!
I am not blind any longer, for I see with your eyes and hear with
your ears. Sweet Mother Nature can have no secrets from me when
my poet is near. I have chosen this paper because I want the
spray of violets in the corner to tell you of my grateful love. I
want you to see baby Tom, the little blind and deaf and dumb
child who has just come to our pretty garden. He is poor and
helpless and lonely now, but before another April education will
have brought light and gladness into Tommy’s life. If you do
come, you will want to ask the kind people of Boston to help
brighten Tommy’s whole life. Your loving friend,
HELEN KELLER.
TO SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Perkins Institution for the Blind,
South Boston, Mass., April 30, 1891.
My Dear Mr. Millais:—Your little American sister is going to
write you a letter, because she wants you to know how pleased she
was to hear you were interested in our poor little Tommy, and had
sent some money to help educate him. It is very beautiful to
think that people far away in England feel sorry for a little
helpless child in America. I used to think, when I read in my
books about your great city, that when I visited it the people
would be strangers to me, but now I feel differently. It seems to
me that all people who have loving, pitying hearts, are not
strangers to each other. I can hardly wait patiently for the time
to come when I shall see my dear English friends, and their
beautiful island home. My favourite poet has written some lines
about England which I love very much. I think you will like them
too, so I will try to write them for you.
“Hugged in the clinging billow’s clasp,
From seaweed fringe to mountain heather,
The British oak with rooted grasp
Her slender handful holds together,
With cliffs of white and bowers of green,
And ocean narrowing to caress her,
And hills and threaded streams between,
Our little mother isle, God bless her!”
You will be glad to hear that Tommy has a kind lady to teach him,
and that he is a pretty, active little fellow. He loves to climb
much better than to spell, but that is because he does not know
yet what a wonderful thing language is. He cannot imagine how
very, very happy he will be when he can tell us his thoughts, and
we can tell him how we have loved him so long.
Tomorrow April will hide her tears and blushes beneath the
flowers of lovely May. I wonder if the May-days in England are as
beautiful as they are here.
Now I must say good-bye. Please think of me always as your loving
little sister,
HELEN KELLER.
TO REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS
So. Boston, May 1, 1891.
My Dear Mr. Brooks:
Helen sends you a loving greeting this bright May-day. My teacher
has just told me that you have been made a bishop, and that your
friends everywhere are rejoicing because one whom they love has
been greatly honored. I do not understand very well what a
bishop’s work is, but I am sure it must be good and helpful, and
I am glad that my dear friend is brave, and wise, and loving
enough to do it. It is very beautiful to think that you can tell
so many people of the heavenly Father’s tender love for all His
children even when they are not gentle and noble as He wishes
them to be. I hope the glad news which you will tell them will
make their hearts beat fast with joy and love. I hope too, that
Bishop Brooks’ whole life will be as rich in happiness as the
month of May is full of blossoms and singing birds.
From your loving little friend,
HELEN KELLER.
Before a teacher was found for Tommy and while he was still in
the care of Helen and Miss Sullivan, a reception was held for him
at the kindergarten. At Helen’s request Bishop Brooks made an
address. Helen wrote letters to the newspapers which brought many
generous replies. All of these she answered herself, and she made
public acknowledgment in letters to the newspapers. This letter
is to the editor of the Boston Herald, enclosing a complete list
of the subscribers. The contributions amounted to more than
sixteen hundred dollars.
TO MR. JOHN H. HOLMES
South Boston, May 13, 1891.
Editor of the Boston Herald:
My Dear Mr. Holmes:—Will you kindly print in the Herald, the
enclosed list? I think the readers of your paper will be glad to
know that so much has been done for dear little Tommy, and that
they will all wish to share in the pleasure of helping him. He is
very happy indeed at the kindergarten, and is learning something
every day. He has found out that doors have locks, and that
little sticks and bits of paper can be got into the key-hole
quite easily; but he does not seem very eager to get them out
after they are in. He loves to climb the bed-posts and unscrew
the steam valves much better than to spell, but that is because
he does not understand that words would help him to make new and
interesting discoveries. I hope that good people will continue to
work for Tommy until his fund is completed, and education has
brought light and music into his little life.
From your little friend,
HELEN KELLER.
TO DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
South Boston, May 27, 1891.
Dear, Gentle Poet:—I fear that you will think Helen a very
troublesome little girl if she writes to you too often; but how
is she to help sending you loving and grateful messages, when you
do so much to make her glad? I cannot begin to tell you how
delighted I was when Mr. Anagnos told me that you had sent him
some money to help educate “Baby Tom.” Then I knew that you had
not forgotten the dear little child, for the gift brought with it
the thought of tender sympathy. I am very sorry to say that Tommy
has not learned any words yet. He is the same restless little
creature he was when you saw him. But it is pleasant to think
that he is happy and playful in his bright new home, and by and
by that strange, wonderful thing teacher calls MIND, will begin
to spread its beautiful wings and fly away in search of
knowledge-land. Words are the mind’s wings, are they not?
I have been to Andover since I saw you, and I was greatly
interested in all that my friends told me about Phillips Academy,
because I knew you had been there, and I felt it was a place dear
to you. I tried to imagine my gentle poet when he was a
school-boy, and I wondered if it was in Andover he learned the
songs of the birds and the secrets of the shy little woodland
children. I am sure his heart was always full of music, and in
God’s beautiful world he must have heard love’s sweet replying.
When I came home teacher read to me “The School-boy,” for it is
not in our print.
Did you know that the blind children are going to have their
commencement exercises in Tremont Temple, next Tuesday afternoon?
I enclose a ticket, hoping that you will come. We shall all be
proud and happy to welcome our poet friend. I shall recite about
the beautiful cities of sunny Italy. I hope our kind friend Dr.
Ellis will come too, and take Tom in his arms.
With much love and a kiss, from your little friend,
HELEN A. KELLER.
TO REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS
South Boston, June 8, 1891.
My dear Mr. Brooks,
I send you my picture as I promised, and I hope when you look at
it this summer your thoughts will fly southward to your happy
little friend. 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. If the light were not in
your eyes, dear Mr. Brooks, you would understand better how happy
your little Helen was when her teacher explained to her that the
best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor
even touched, but just felt in the heart. Every day I find out
something which makes me glad. Yesterday I thought for the first
time what a beautiful thing motion was, and it seemed to me that
everything was trying to get near to God, does it seem that way
to you? It is Sunday morning, and while I sit here in the library
writing this letter you are teaching hundreds of people some of
the grand and beautiful things about their heavenly Father. Are
you not very, very happy? and when you are a Bishop you will
preach to more people and more and more will be made glad.
Teacher sends her kind remembrances, and I send you with my
picture my dear love.
From your little friend
HELEN KELLER.
When the Perkins Institution closed in June, Helen and her
teacher went south to Tuscumbia, where they remained until
December. There is a hiatus of several months in the letters,
caused by the depressing effect on Helen and Miss Sullivan of the
“Frost King” episode. At the time this trouble seemed very grave
and brought them much unhappiness. An analysis of the case has
been made elsewhere, and Miss Keller has written her account of
it.
TO MR. ALBERT H. MUNSELL
Brewster, Mar. 10, 1892.
My dear Mr. Munsell,
Surely I need not tell you that your letter was very welcome. I
enjoyed every word of it and wished that it was longer. I laughed
when you spoke of old Neptune’s wild moods. He has, in truth,
behaved very strangely ever since we came to Brewster. It is
evident that something has displeased his Majesty but I cannot
imagine what it can be. His expression has been so turbulent that
I have feared to give him your kind message. Who knows! Perhaps
the Old Sea God as he lay asleep upon the shore, heard the soft
music of growing things—the stir of life in the earth’s bosom,
and his stormy heart was angry, because he knew that his and
Winter’s reign was almost at an end. So together the unhappy
monarch[s] fought most despairingly, thinking that gentle Spring
would turn and fly at the very sight of the havoc caused by their
forces. But lo! the lovely maiden only smiles more sweetly, and
breathes upon the icy battlements of her enemies, and in a moment
they vanish, and the glad Earth gives her a royal welcome. But I
must put away these idle fancies until we meet again. Please give
your dear mother my love. Teacher wishes me to say that she liked
the photograph very much and she will see about having some when
we return. Now, dear friend, Please accept these few words
because of the love that is linked with them.
Lovingly yours
HELEN KELLER.
This letter was reproduced in facsimile in St. Nicholas, June,
months before it was published.
To St. Nicholas
Dear St. Nicholas:
It gives me very great pleasure to send you my autograph because
I want the boys and girls who read St. Nicholas to know how blind
children write. I suppose some of them wonder how we keep the
lines so straight so I will try to tell them how it is done. We
have a grooved board which we put between the pages when we wish
to write. The parallel grooves correspond to lines and when we
have pressed the paper into them by means of the blunt end of the
pencil it is very easy to keep the words even. The small letters
are all made in the grooves, while the long ones extend above and
below them. We guide the pencil with the right hand, and feel
carefully with the forefinger of the left hand to see that we
shape and space the letters correctly. It is very difficult at
first to form them plainly, but if we keep on trying it gradually
becomes easier, and after a great deal of practice we can write
legible letters to our friends. Then we are very, very happy.
Sometime they may visit a school for the blind. If they do, I am
sure they will wish to see the pupils write.
Very sincerely your little friend
HELEN KELLER.
In May, 1892, Helen gave a tea in aid of the kindergarten for the
blind. It was quite her own idea, and was given in the house of
Mrs. Mahlon D. Spaulding, sister of Mr. John P. Spaulding, one of
Helen’s kindest and most liberal friends. The tea brought more
than two thousand dollars for the blind children.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
South Boston, May 9, 1892.
My dear Miss Carrie:—I was much pleased to receive your kind
letter. Need I tell you that I was more than delighted to hear
that you are really interested in the “tea”? Of course we must
not give it up. Very soon I am going far away, to my own dear
home, in the sunny south, and it would always make me happy to
think that the last thing which my dear friends in Boston did for
my pleasure was to help make the lives of many little sightless
children good and happy. I know that kind people cannot help
feeling a tender sympathy for the little ones, who cannot see the
beautiful light, or any of the wonderful things which give them
pleasure; and it seems to me that all loving sympathy must
express itself in acts of kindness; and when the friends of
little helpless blind children understand that we are working for
their happiness, they will come and make our “tea” a success, and
I am sure I shall be the happiest little girl in all the world.
Please let Bishop Brooks know our plans, so that he may arrange
to be with us. I am glad Miss Eleanor is interested. Please give
her my love. I will see you to-morrow and then we can make the
rest of our plans. Please give your dear aunt teacher’s and my
love and tell her that we enjoyed our little visit very much
indeed.
Lovingly yours,
HELEN KELLER.
TO MR. JOHN P. SPAULDING
South Boston, May 11th, 1892.
My dear Mr. Spaulding:—I am afraid you will think your little
friend, Helen, very troublesome when you read this letter; but I
am sure you will not blame me when I tell you that I am very
anxious about something. You remember teacher and I told you
Sunday that I wanted to have a little tea in aid of the
kindergarten. We thought everything was arranged: but we found
Monday that Mrs. Elliott would not be willing to let us invite
more than fifty people, because Mrs. Howe’s house is quite small.
I am sure that a great many people would like to come to the tea,
and help me do something to brighten the lives of little blind
children; but some of my friends say that I shall have to give up
the idea of having a tea unless we can find another house.
Teacher said yesterday, that perhaps Mrs. Spaulding would be
willing to let us have her beautiful house, and [I] thought I
would ask you about it. Do you think Mrs. Spaulding would help
me, if I wrote to her? I shall be so disappointed if my little
plans fail, because I have wanted for a long time to do something
for the poor little ones who are waiting to enter the
kindergarten. Please let me know what you think about the house,
and try to forgive me for troubling you so much.
Lovingly your little friend,
HELEN KELLER.
TO MR. EDWARD H. CLEMENT
South Boston, May 18th, 1892.
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
looking forward joyfully to the event. I know I shall not fail.
Kind people will not disappoint me, when they know that I plead
for helpless little children who live in darkness and ignorance.
They will come to my tea and buy light,—the beautiful light of
knowledge and love for many little ones who are blind and
friendless. I remember perfectly when my dear teacher came to me.
Then I was like the little blind children who are waiting to
enter the kindergarten. There was no light in my soul. This
wonderful world with all its sunlight and beauty was hidden from
me, and I had never dreamed of its loveliness. But teacher came
to me and taught my little fingers to use the beautiful key that
has unlocked the door of my dark prison and set my spirit free.
It is my earnest wish to share my happiness with others, and I
ask the kind people of Boston to help me make the lives of little
blind children brighter and happier.
Lovingly your little friend,
HELEN KELLER.
At the end of June Miss Sullivan and Helen went home to
Tuscumbia.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
Tuscumbia, Alabama, July 9th 1892.
My dear Carrie—You are to look upon it as a most positive proof
of my love that I write to you to-day. For a whole week it has
been “cold and dark and dreary” in Tuscumbia, and I must confess
the continuous rain and dismalness of the weather fills me with
gloomy thoughts and makes the writing of letters, or any pleasant
employment, seem quite impossible. Nevertheless, I must tell you
that we are alive,—that we reached home safely, and that we
speak of you daily, and enjoy your interesting letters very much.
I had a beautiful visit at Hulton. Everything was fresh and
spring-like, and we stayed out of doors all day. We even ate our
breakfast out on the piazza. Sometimes we sat in the hammock, and
teacher read to me. I rode horseback nearly every evening and
once I rode five miles at a fast gallop. O, it was great fun! Do
you like to ride? I have a very pretty little cart now, and if it
ever stops raining teacher and I are going to drive every
evening. And I have another beautiful Mastiff—the largest one I
ever saw—and he will go along to protect us. His name is Eumer.
A queer name, is it not? I think it is Saxon. We expect to go to
the mountains next week. My little brother, Phillips, is not
well, and we think the clear mountain air will benefit him.
Mildred is a sweet little sister and I am sure you would love
her. I thank you very much for your photograph. I like to have my
friends’ pictures even though I cannot see them. I was greatly
amused at the idea of your writing the square hand. I do not
write on a Braille tablet, as you suppose, but on a grooved board
like the piece which I enclose. You could not read Braille; for
it is written in dots, not at all like ordinary letters. Please
give my love to Miss Derby and tell her that I hope she gave my
sweetest love to Baby Ruth. What was the book you sent me for my
birthday? I received several, and I do not know which was from
you. I had one gift which especially pleased me. It was a lovely
cape crocheted, for me, by an old gentleman, seventy-five years
of age. And every stitch, he writes, represents a kind wish for
my health and happiness. Tell your little cousins I think they
had better get upon the fence with me until after the election;
for there are so many parties and candidates that I doubt if such
youthful politicians would make a wise selection. Please give my
love to Rosy when you write, and believe me,
Your loving friend
HELEN KELLER.
P.S. How do you like this type-written letter?
TO MRS. GROVER CLEVELAND
My dear Mrs. Cleveland,
I am going to write you a little letter this beautiful morning
because I love you and dear little Ruth very much indeed, and
also because I wish to thank you for the loving message which you
sent me through Miss Derby. I am glad, very glad that such a
kind, beautiful lady loves me. I have loved you for a long time,
but I did not think you had ever heard of me until your sweet
message came. Please kiss your dear little baby for me, and tell
her I have a little brother nearly sixteen months old. His name
is Phillips Brooks. I named him myself after my dear friend
Phillips Brooks. I send you with this letter a pretty book which
my teacher thinks will interest you, and my picture. Please
accept them with the love and good wishes of your friend,
HELEN KELLER.
Tuscumbia, Alabama.
November fourth. [1892.]
Hitherto the letters have been given in full; from this point on
passages are omitted and the omissions are indicated.
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
Tuscumbia, Alabama, Dec. 19, 1892.
My Dear Mr. Hitz,
I hardly know how to begin a letter to you, it has been such a
long time since your kind letter reached me, and there is so much
that I would like to write if I could. You must have wondered why
your letter has not had an answer, and perhaps you have thought
Teacher and me very naughty indeed. If so, you will be very sorry
when I tell you something. Teacher’s eyes have been hurting her
so that she could not write to any one, and I have been trying to
fulfil a promise which I made last summer. Before I left Boston,
I was asked to write a sketch of my life for the Youth’s
Companion. I had intended to write the sketch during my vacation:
but I was not well, and I did not feel able to write even to my
friends. But when the bright, pleasant autumn days came, and I
felt strong again I began to think about the sketch. It was some
time before I could plan it to suit me. You see, it is not very
pleasant to write all about one’s self. At last, however, I got
something bit by bit that Teacher thought would do, and I set
about putting the scraps together, which was not an easy task:
for, although I worked some on it every day, I did not finish it
until a week ago Saturday. I sent the sketch to the Companion as
soon as it was finished; but I do not know that they will accept
keep very quiet, and rest; but to-day I am better, and to-morrow
I shall be well again, I hope.
The reports which you have read in the paper about me are not
true at all. We received the Silent Worker which you sent, and I
wrote right away to the editor to tell him that it was a mistake.
Sometimes I am not well; but I am not a “wreck,” and there is
nothing “distressing” about my condition.
I enjoyed your dear letter so much! I am always delighted when
anyone writes me a beautiful thought which I can treasure in my
memory forever. It is because my books are full of the riches of
which Mr. Ruskin speaks that I love them so dearly. I did not
realize until I began to write the sketch for the Companion, what
precious companions books have been to me, and how blessed even
my life has been: and now I am happier than ever because I do
realize the happiness that has come to me. I hope you will write
to me as often as you can. Teacher and I are always delighted to
hear from you. I want to write to Mr. Bell and send him my
picture. I suppose he has been too busy to write to his little
friend. I often think of the pleasant time we had all together in
Boston last spring.
Now I am going to tell you a secret. I think we, Teacher, and my
father and little sister, and myself, will visit Washington next
March!!! Then I shall see you, and dear Mr. Bell, and Elsie and
Daisy again! Would not it be lovely if Mrs. Pratt could meet us
there? I think I will write to her and tell her the secret
too….
Lovingly your little friend,
HELEN KELLER.
P.S. Teacher says you want to know what kind of a pet I would
like to have. I love all living things,—I suppose everyone does;
but of course I cannot have a menagerie. I have a beautiful pony,
and a large dog. And I would like a little dog to hold in my lap,
or a big pussy (there are no fine cats in Tuscumbia) or a parrot.
I would like to feel a parrot talk, it would be so much fun! but
I would be pleased with, and love any little creature you send
me.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
Tuscumbia, Alabama, February 18, 1893.
…You have often been in my thoughts during these sad days,
while my heart has been grieving over the loss of my beloved
friend [Phillips Brooks died January 23, 1893], and I have wished
many times that I was in Boston with those who knew and loved him
as I did… he was so much of a friend to me! so tender and
loving always! I do try not to mourn his death too sadly. I do
try to think that he is still near, very near; but sometimes the
thought that he is not here, that I shall not see him when I go
to Boston,—that he is gone,—rushes over my soul like a great
wave of sorrow. But at other times, when I am happier, I do feel
his beautiful presence, and his loving hand leading me in
pleasant ways. Do you remember the happy hour we spent with him
last June when he held my hand, as he always did, and talked to
us about his friend Tennyson, and our own dear poet Dr. Holmes,
and I tried to teach him the manual alphabet, and he laughed so
gaily over his mistakes, and afterward I told him about my tea,
and he promised to come? I can hear him now, saying in his
cheerful, decided way, in reply to my wish that my tea might be a
success, “Of course it will, Helen. Put your whole heart in the
good work, my child, and it cannot fail.” I am glad the people
are going to raise a monument to his memory….
In March Helen and Miss Sullivan went North, and spent the next
few months traveling and visiting friends.
In reading this letter about Niagara one should remember that
Miss Keller knows distance and shape, and that the size of
Niagara is within her experience after she has explored it,
crossed the bridge and gone down in the elevator. Especially
important are such details as her feeling the rush of the water
by putting her hand on the window. Dr. Bell gave her a down
pillow, which she held against her to increase the vibrations.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
South Boston, April 13, 1893.
…Teacher, Mrs. Pratt and I very unexpectedly decided to take a
journey with dear Dr. Bell Mr. Westervelt, a gentleman whom
father met in Washington, has a school for the deaf in Rochester.
We went there first….
Mr. Westervelt gave us a reception one afternoon. A great many
people came. Some of them asked odd questions. A lady seemed
surprised that I loved flowers when I could not see their
beautiful colors, and when I assured her I did love them, she
said, “no doubt you feel the colors with your fingers.” But of
course, it is not alone for their bright colors that we love the
flowers…. A gentleman asked me what BEAUTY meant to my mind. I
must confess I was puzzled at first. But after a minute I
answered that beauty was a form of goodness—and he went away.
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. Mr. Bell and I planned it together, and Mr. Bell made all
the arrangements before we told teacher anything about it. This
was the surprise—I was to have the pleasure of taking my dear
teacher to see Niagara Falls!…
The hotel was so near the river that I could feel it rushing past
by putting my hand on the window. The next morning the sun rose
bright and warm, and we got up quickly for our hearts were full
of pleasant expectation…. You can never imagine how I felt when
I stood in the presence of Niagara until you have the same
mysterious sensations yourself. I could hardly realize that it
was water that I felt rushing and plunging with impetuous fury at
my feet. It seemed as if it were some living thing rushing on to
some terrible fate. I wish I could describe the cataract as it
is, its beauty and awful grandeur, and the fearful and
irresistible plunge of its waters over the brow of the precipice.
One feels helpless and overwhelmed in the presence of such a vast
force. I had the same feeling once before when I first stood by
the great ocean and felt its waves beating against the shore. I
suppose you feel so, too, when you gaze up to the stars in the
stillness of the night, do you not?… We went down a hundred and
twenty feet in an elevator that we might see the violent eddies
and whirlpools in the deep gorge below the Falls. Within two
miles of the Falls is a wonderful suspension bridge. It is thrown
across the gorge at a height of two hundred and fifty-eight feet
above the water and is supported on each bank by towers of solid
rock, which are eight hundred feet apart. When we crossed over to
the Canadian side, I cried, “God save the Queen!” Teacher said I
was a little traitor. But I do not think so. I was only doing as
the Canadians do, while I was in their country, and besides I
honor England’s good queen.
You will be pleased, dear Mother, to hear that a kind lady whose
name is Miss Hooker is endeavoring to improve my speech. Oh, I do
so hope and pray that I shall speak well some day!…
Mr. Munsell spent last Sunday evening with us. How you would have
enjoyed hearing him tell about Venice! His beautiful
word-pictures made us feel as if we were sitting in the shadow of
San Marco, dreaming, or sailing upon the moonlit canal…. I hope
when I visit Venice, as I surely shall some day, that Mr. Munsell
will go with me. That is my castle in the air. You see, none of
my friends describe things to me so vividly and so beautifully as
he does….
Her visit to the World’s Fair she described in a letter to Mr.
John P. Spaulding, which was published in St. Nicholas, and is
much like the following letter. In a prefatory note which Miss
Sullivan wrote for St. Nicholas, she says that people frequently
said to her, “Helen sees more with her fingers than we do with
our eyes.” The President of the Exposition gave her this letter:
TO THE CHIEFS OF THE DEPARTMENTS AND OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF
BUILDINGS AND EXHIBITS
GENTLEMEN—The bearer, Miss Helen Keller, accompanied by Miss
Sullivan, is desirous of making a complete inspection of the
Exposition in all Departments. She is blind and deaf, but is able
to converse, and is introduced to me as one having a wonderful
ability to understand the objects she visits, and as being
possessed of a high order of intelligence and of culture beyond
her years. Please favour her with every facility to examine the
exhibits in the several Departments, and extend to her such other
courtesies as may be possible.
Thanking you in advance for the same, I am, with respect,
Very truly yours,
(signed) H. N. HIGINBOTHAM,
President.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
Hulton, Penn., August 17, 1893.
…Every one at the Fair was very kind to me… Nearly all of the
exhibitors seemed perfectly willing to let me touch the most
delicate things, and they were very nice about explaining
everything to me. A French gentleman, whose name I cannot
remember, showed me the great French bronzes. I believe they gave
me more pleasure than anything else at the Fair: they were so
lifelike and wonderful to my touch. Dr. Bell went with us himself
to the electrical building, and showed us some of the historical
telephones. I saw the one through which Emperor Dom Pedro
listened to the words, “To be, or not to be,” at the Centennial.
Dr. Gillett of Illinois took us to the Liberal Arts and Woman’s
buildings. In the former I visited Tiffany’s exhibit, and held
the beautiful Tiffany diamond, which is valued at one hundred
thousand dollars, and touched many other rare and costly things.
I sat in King Ludwig’s armchair and felt like a queen when Dr.
Gillett remarked that I had many loyal subjects. At the Woman’s
building we met the Princess Maria Schaovskoy of Russia, and a
beautiful Syrian lady. I liked them both very much. I went to the
Japanese department with Prof. Morse who is a well-known
lecturer. I never realized what a wonderful people the Japanese
are until I saw their most interesting exhibit. Japan must indeed
be a paradise for children to judge from the great number of
playthings which are manufactured there. The queer-looking
Japanese musical instruments, and their beautiful works of art
were interesting. The Japanese books are very odd. There are
forty-seven letters in their alphabets. Prof. Morse knows a great
deal about Japan, and is very kind and wise. He invited me to
visit his museum in Salem the next time I go to Boston. But I
think I enjoyed the sails on the tranquil lagoon, and the lovely
scenes, as my friends described them to me, more than anything
else at the Fair. Once, while we were out on the water, the sun
went down over the rim of the earth, and threw a soft, rosy light
over the White City, making it look more than ever like
Dreamland….
Of course, we visited the Midway Plaisance. It was a bewildering
and fascinating place. I went into the streets of Cairo, and rode
on the camel. That was fine fun. We also rode in the Ferris
wheel, and on the ice-railway, and had a sail in the
Whale-back….
In the spring of 1893 a club was started in Tuscumbia, of which
Mrs. Keller was president, to establish a public library. Miss
Keller says:
“I wrote to my friends about the work and enlisted their
sympathy. Several hundred books, including many fine ones, were
sent to me in a short time, as well as money and encouragement.
This generous assistance encouraged the ladies, and they have
gone on collecting and buying books ever since, until now they
have a very respectable public library in the town.”
TO MRS. CHARLES E. INCHES
Hulton, Penn., Oct. 21, 1893.
…We spent September at home in Tuscumbia… and were all very
happy together…. Our quiet mountain home was especially
attractive and restful after the excitement and fatigue of our
visit to the World’s Fair. We enjoyed the beauty and solitude of
the hills more than ever.
And now we are in Hulton, Penn. again where I am going to study
this winter with a tutor assisted by my dear teacher. I study
Arithmetic, Latin and literature. I enjoy my lessons very much.
It is so pleasant to learn about new things. Every day I find how
little I know, but I do not feel discouraged since God has given
me an eternity in which to learn more. In literature I am
studying Longfellow’s poetry. I know a great deal of it by heart,
for I loved it long before I knew a metaphor from a synecdoche. I
used to say I did not like arithmetic very well, but now I have
changed my mind. I see what a good and useful study it is, though
I must confess my mind wanders from it sometimes! for, nice and
useful as arithmetic is, it is not as interesting as a beautiful
poem or a lovely story. But bless me, how time does fly. I have
only a few moments left in which to answer your questions about
the “Helen Keller” Public Library.
perhaps half of them are colored people. 2. At present there is
no library of any sort in the town. That is why I thought about
starting one. My mother and several of my lady friends said they
would help me, and they formed a club, the object of which is to
work for the establishment of a free public library in Tuscumbia.
They have now about 100 books and about $55 in money, and a kind
gentleman has given us land on which to erect a library building.
But in the meantime the club has rented a little room in a
central part of the town, and the books which we already have are
free to all. 3. Only a few of my kind friends in Boston know
anything about the library. I did not like to trouble them while
I was trying to get money for poor little Tommy, for of course it
was more important that he should be educated than that my people
should have books to read. 4. I do not know what books we have,
but I think it is a miscellaneous (I think that is the word)
collection….
P.S. My teacher thinks it would be more businesslike to say that
a list of the contributors toward the building fund will be kept
and published in my father’s paper, the “North Alabamian.”
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
Hulton, Penn., December 28, 1893.
…Please thank dear Miss Derby for me for the pretty shield
which she sent me. 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. We are all discoverers in
one sense, being born quite ignorant of all things; but I hardly
think that is what she meant. Tell her she must explain why I am
a discoverer….
TO DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE
Hulton, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1894
My dear Cousin: I had thought to write to you long before this in
answer to your kind letter which I was so glad to receive, and to
thank you for the beautiful little book which you sent me; but I
have been very busy since the beginning of the New Year. The
publication of my little story in the Youth’s Companion has
brought me a large number of letters,—last week I received
sixty-one!—and besides replying to some of these letters, I have
many lessons to learn, among them Arithmetic and Latin; and, you
know, Caesar is Caesar still, imperious and tyrannical, and if a
little girl would understand so great a man, and the wars and
conquests of which he tells in his beautiful Latin language, she
must study much and think much, and study and thought require
time.
I shall prize the little book always, not only for its own value;
but because of its associations with you. It is a delight to
think of you as the giver of one of your books into which, I am
sure, you have wrought your own thoughts and feelings, and I
thank you very much for remembering me in such a very beautiful
way….
In February Helen and Miss Sullivan returned to Tuscumbia. They
spent the rest of the spring reading and studying. In the summer
they attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American
Association for the Promotion of the Teaching of Speech to the
Deaf, where Miss Sullivan read a paper on Helen Keller’s
education.
In the fall Helen and Miss Sullivan entered the Wright-Humason
School in New York, which makes a special of lip-reading and
voice-culture. The “singing lessons” were to strengthen her
voice. She had taken a few piano lessons at the Perkins
Institution. The experiment was interesting, but of course came
to little.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
The Wright-Humason School.
42 West 76th St.
New York. Oct. 23, 1894.
…The school is very pleasant, and bless you! it is quite
fashionable…. I study Arithmetic, English Literature and United
States History as I did last winter. I also keep a diary. I enjoy
my singing lessons with Dr. Humason more than I can say. I expect
to take piano lessons sometime….
Last Saturday our kind teachers planned a delightful trip to
Bedloe’s Island to see Bartholdi’s great statue of Liberty
enlightening the world…. The ancient cannon, which look
seaward, wear a very menacing expression; but I doubt if there is
any unkindness in their rusty old hearts.
Liberty is a gigantic figure of a woman in Greek draperies,
holding in her right hand a torch…. A spiral stairway leads
from the base of this pedestal to the torch. We climbed up to the
head which will hold forty persons, and viewed the scene on which
Liberty gazes day and night, and O, how wonderful it was! We did
not wonder that the great French artist thought the place worthy
to be the home of his grand ideal. The glorious bay lay calm and
beautiful in the October sunshine, and the ships came and went
like idle dreams; those seaward going slowly disappeared like
clouds that change from gold to gray; those homeward coming sped
more quickly like birds that seek their mother’s nest….
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
The Wright-Humason School.
New York, March 15, 1895.
…I think I have improved a little in lip-reading, though I
still find it very difficult to read rapid speech; but I am sure
I shall succeed some day if I only persevere. Dr. Humason is
still trying to improve my speech. Oh, Carrie, how I should like
to speak like other people! I should be willing to work night and
day if it could only be accomplished. Think what a joy it would
be to all of my friends to hear me speak naturally!! I wonder why
it is so difficult and perplexing for a deaf child to learn to
speak when it is so easy for other people; but I am sure I shall
speak perfectly some time if I am only patient….
Although I have been so busy, I have found time to read a good
deal…. I have lately read “Wilhelm Tell” by Schiller, and “The
Lost Vestal.”… Now I am reading “Nathan the Wise” by Lessing
and “King Arthur” by Miss Mulock.
…You know our kind teachers take us to see everything which
they think will interest us, and we learn a great deal in that
delightful way. On George Washington’s birthday we all went to
the Dog Show, and although there was a great crowd in the Madison
Square Garden, and despite the bewilderment caused by the variety
of sounds made by the dog-orchestra, which was very confusing to
those who could hear them, we enjoyed the afternoon very much.
Among the dogs which received the most attention were the
bulldogs. They permitted themselves startling liberties when any
one caressed them, crowding themselves almost into one’s arms and
helping themselves without ceremony to kisses, apparently
unconscious of the impropriety of their conduct. Dear me, what
unbeautiful little beasts they are! But they are so good natured
and friendly, one cannot help liking them.
Dr. Humason, Teacher, and I left the others at the Dog Show and
went to a reception given by the “Metropolitan Club.”… It is
sometimes called the “Millionaires’ Club.” The building is
magnificent, being built of white marble; the rooms are large and
splendidly furnished; but I must confess, so much splendor is
rather oppressive to me; and I didn’t envy the millionaires in
the least all the happiness their gorgeous surroundings are
supposed to bring them….
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
New York, March 31, 1895.
…Teacher and I spent the afternoon at Mr. Hutton’s, and had a
most delightful time!… We met Mr. Clemens and Mr. Howells
there! I had known about them for a long time; but I had never
thought that I should see them, and talk to them; and I can
scarcely realize now that this great pleasure has been mine! But,
much as I wonder that I, only a little girl of fourteen, should
come in contact with so many distinguished people, I do realize
that I am a very happy child, and very grateful for the many
beautiful privileges I have enjoyed. The two distinguished
authors were very gentle and kind, and I could not tell which of
them I loved best. Mr. Clemens told us many entertaining stories,
and made us laugh till we cried. I only wish you could have seen
and heard him! He told us that he would go to Europe in a few
days to bring his wife and his daughter, Jeanne, back to America,
because Jeanne, who is studying in Paris, has learned so much in
three years and a half that if he did not bring her home, she
would soon know more than he did. I think Mark Twain is a very
appropriate nom de plume for Mr. Clemens because it has a funny
and quaint sound, and goes well with his amusing writings, and
its nautical significance suggests the deep and beautiful things
that he has written. I think he is very handsome indeed….
Teacher said she thought he looked something like Paradeuski. (If
that is the way to spell the name.) Mr. Howells told me a little
about Venice, which is one of his favorite cities, and spoke very
tenderly of his dear little girl, Winnifred, who is now with God.
He has another daughter, named Mildred, who knows Carrie. I might
have seen Mrs. Wiggin, the sweet author of “Birds’ Christmas
Carol,” but she had a dangerous cough and could not come. I was
much disappointed not to see her, but I hope I shall have that
pleasure some other time. Mr. Hutton gave me a lovely little
glass, shaped like a thistle, which belonged to his dear mother,
as a souvenir of my delightful visit. We also met Mr. Rogers…
who kindly left his carriage to bring us home.
When the Wright-Humason School closed for the summer, Miss
Sullivan and Helen went South.
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
Tuscumbia, Alabama, July 29, 1895.
…I am spending my vacation very quietly and pleasantly at my
beautiful, sunny home, with my loving parents, my darling little
sister and my small brother, Phillips My precious teacher is
with me too, and so of course I am happy I read a little, walk a
little, write a little and play with the children a great deal,
and the days slip by delightfully!…
My friends are so pleased with the improvement which I made in
speech and lip-reading last year, that it has been decided best
for me to continue my studies in New York another year I am
delighted at the prospect, of spending another year in your great
city I used to think that I should never feel “at home” in New
York, but since I have made the acquaintance of so many people,
and can look back to such a bright and successful winter there, I
find myself looking forward to next year, and anticipating still
brighter and better times in the Metropolis
Please give my kindest love to Mr Hutton, and Mrs Riggs and Mr
Warner too, although I have never had the pleasure of knowing him
personally As I listen Venicewards, I hear Mr Hutton’s pen
dancing over the pages of his new book It is a pleasant sound
because it is full of promise How much I shall enjoy reading it!
Please pardon me, my dear Mrs Hutton, for sending you a
typewritten letter across the ocean I have tried several times
to write with a pencil on my little writing machine since I came
home; but I have found it very difficult to do so on account of
the heat The moisture of my hand soils and blurs the paper so
dreadfully, that I am compelled to use my typewriter altogether
And it is not my “Remington” either, but a naughty little thing
that gets out of order on the slightest provocation, and cannot
be induced to make a period…
TO MRS. WILLIAM THAW
New York, October 16, 1895.
Here we are once more in the great metropolis! We left Hulton
Friday night and arrived here Saturday morning. Our friends were
greatly surprised to see us, as they had not expected us before
the last of this month. I rested Saturday afternoon, for I was
very tired, and Sunday I visited with my schoolmates, and now
that I feel quite rested, I am going to write to you; for I know
you will want to hear that we reached New York safely. We had to
change cars at Philadelphia; but we did not mind it much. After
we had had our breakfast, Teacher asked one of the train-men in
the station if the New York train was made up. He said no, it
would not be called for about fifteen minutes; so we sat down to
wait; but in a moment the man came back and asked Teacher if we
would like to go to the train at once. She said we would, and he
took us way out on the track and put us on board our train. Thus
we avoided the rush and had a nice quiet visit before the train
started. Was that not very kind? So it always is. Some one is
ever ready to scatter little acts of kindness along our pathway,
making it smooth and pleasant…
We had a quiet but very pleasant time in Hulton. Mr. Wade is just
as dear and good as ever! He has lately had several books printed
in England for me, “Old Mortality,” “The Castle of Otranto” and
“King of No-land.”…
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
New York, December 29, 1895.
…Teacher and I have been very gay of late. We have seen our
kind friends, Mrs. Dodge, Mr. and Mrs. Hutton, Mrs. Riggs and her
husband, and met many distinguished people, among whom were Miss
Ellen Terry, Sir Henry Irving and Mr. Stockton! Weren’t we very
fortunate? Miss Terry was lovely. She kissed Teacher and said, “I
do not know whether I am glad to see you or not; for I feel so
ashamed of myself when I think of how much you have done for the
little girl.” We also met Mr. and Mrs. Terry, Miss Terry’s
brother and his wife. I thought her beauty angellic, and oh, what
a clear, beautiful voice she had! We saw Miss Terry again with
Sir Henry in “King Charles the First,” a week ago last Friday,
and after the play they kindly let me feel of them and get an
idea of how they looked. How noble and kingly the King was,
especially in his misfortunes! And how pretty and faithful the
poor Queen was! The play seemed so real, we almost forgot where
we were, and believed we were watching the genuine scenes as they
were acted so long ago. The last act affected us most deeply, and
we all wept, wondering how the executioner could have the heart
to tear the King from his loving wife’s arms.
I have just finished reading “Ivanhoe.” It was very exciting; but
I must say I did not enjoy it very much. Sweet Rebecca, with her
strong, brave spirit, and her pure, generous nature, was the only
character which thoroughly won my admiration. Now I am reading
“Stories from Scottish History,” and they are very thrilling and
absorbing!…
The next two letters were written just after the death of Mr.
John P. Spaulding.
TO MRS. GEORGE H. BRADFORD
New York, February 4, 1896.
What can I say which will make you understand how much Teacher
and I appreciate your thoughtful kindness in sending us those
little souvenirs of the dear room where we first met the best and
kindest of friends? Indeed, you can never know all the comfort
you have given us. We have put the dear picture on the
mantel-piece in our room where we can see it every day, and I
often go and touch it, and somehow I cannot help feeling that our
beloved friend is very near to me…. It was very hard to take up
our school work again, as if nothing had happened; but I am sure
it is well that we have duties which must be done, and which take
our minds away for a time at least from our sorrow….
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
New York, March 2nd, 1896.
…We miss dear King John sadly. It was so hard to lose him, he
was the best and kindest of friends, and I do not know what we
shall do without him….
We went to a poultry-show… and the man there kindly permitted
us to feel of the birds. They were so tame, they stood perfectly
still when I handled them. I saw great big turkeys, geese,
guineas, ducks and many others.
Almost two weeks ago we called at Mr. Hutton’s and had a
delightful time. We always do! We met Mr. Warner, the writer, Mr.
Mabie, the editor of the Outlook and other pleasant people. I am
sure you would like to know Mr. and Mrs. Hutton, they are so kind
and interesting. I can never tell you how much pleasure they have
given us.
Mr. Warner and Mr. Burroughs, the great lover of nature, came to
see us a few days after, and we had a delightful talk with them.
They were both very, very dear! Mr. Burroughs told me about his
home near the Hudson, and what a happy place it must be! I hope
we shall visit it some day. Teacher has read me his lively
stories about his boyhood, and I enjoyed them greatly. Have you
read the beautiful poem, “Waiting”? I know it, and it makes me
feel so happy, it has such sweet thoughts. Mr. Warner showed me a
scarf-pin with a beetle on it which was made in Egypt fifteen
hundred years before Christ, and told me that the beetle meant
immortality to the Egyptians because it wrapped itself up and
went to sleep and came out again in a new form, thus renewing
itself.
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
New York, April 25, 1896.
…My studies are the same as they were when I saw you, except
that I have taken up French with a French teacher who comes three
times a week. I read her lips almost exclusively, (she does not
know the manual alphabet) and we get on quite well. I have read
“Le Medecin Malgre Lui,” a very good French comedy by Moliere,
with pleasure; and they say I speak French pretty well now, and
German also. Anyway, French and German people understand what I
am trying to say, and that is very encouraging. In voice-training
I have still the same old difficulties to contend against; and
the fulfilment of my wish to speak well seems O, so far away!
Sometimes I feel sure that I catch a faint glimpse of the goal I
am striving for, but in another minute a bend in the road hides
it from my view, and I am again left wandering in the dark! But I
try hard not to be discouraged. Surely we shall all find at last
the ideals we are seeking….
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
Brewster, Mass. July 15, 1896.
…As to the book, I am sure I shall enjoy it very much when I am
admitted, by the magic of Teacher’s dear fingers, into the
companionship of the two sisters who went to the Immortal
Fountain.
As I sit by the window writing to you, it is so lovely to have
the soft, cool breezes fan my cheek and to feel that the hard
work of last year is over! Teacher seems to feel benefitted by
the change too; for she is already beginning to look like her
dear old self. We only need you, dear Mr. Hitz, to complete our
happiness. Teacher and Mrs. Hopkins both say you must come as
soon as you can! We will try to make you comfortable.
Teacher and I spent nine days at Philadelphia. Have you ever been
at Dr. Crouter’s Institution? Mr. Howes has probably given you a
full account of our doings. We were busy all the time; we
attended the meetings and talked with hundreds of people, among
whom were dear Dr. Bell, Mr. Banerji of Calcutta, Monsieur Magnat
of Paris with whom I conversed in French exclusively, and many
other distinguished persons. We had looked forward to seeing you
there, and so we were greatly disappointed that you did not come.
We think of you so, so often! and our hearts go out to you in
tenderest sympathy; and you know better than this poor letter can
tell you how happy we always are to have you with us! I made a
“speech” on July eighth, telling the members of the Association
what an unspeakable blessing speech has been to me, and urging
them to give every little deaf child an opportunity to learn to
speak. Every one said I spoke very well and intelligibly. After
my little “speech,” we attended a reception at which over six
hundred people were present. I must confess I do not like such
large receptions; the people crowd so, and we have to do so much
talking; and yet it is at receptions like the one in Philadelphia
that we often meet friends whom we learn to love afterwards. We
left the city last Thursday night, and arrived in Brewster Friday
afternoon. We missed the Cape Cod train Friday morning, and so we
came down to Provincetown in the steamer Longfellow. I am glad we
did so; for it was lovely and cool on the water, and Boston
Harbor is always interesting.
We spent about three weeks in Boston, after leaving New York, and
I need not tell you we had a most delightful time. We visited our
good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlin, at Wrentham, out in the
country, where they have a lovely home. Their house stands near a
charming lake where we went boating and canoeing, which was great
fun. We also went in bathing several times. Mr. and Mrs.
Chamberlin celebrated the 17th of June by giving a picnic to
their literary friends. There were about forty persons present,
all of whom were writers and publishers. Our friend, Mr. Alden,
the editor of Harper’s was there, and of course we enjoyed his
society very much….
TO CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
Brewster, Mass., September 3, 1896.
…I have been meaning to write to you all summer; there were
many things I wanted to tell you, and I thought perhaps you would
like to hear about our vacation by the seaside, and our plans for
next year; but the happy, idle days slipped away so quickly, and
there were so many pleasant things to do every moment, that I
never found time to clothe my thought in words, and send them to
you. I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities. Perhaps our
guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them, and will give
them back to us in the beautiful sometime when we have grown
wiser, and learned how to use them rightly. But, however this may
be, I cannot now write the letter which has lain in my thought
for you so long. My heart is too full of sadness to dwell upon
the happiness the summer has brought me. My father is dead. He
died last Saturday at my home in Tuscumbia, and I was not there.
My own dear loving father! Oh, dear friend, how shall I ever bear
it!…
On the first of October Miss Keller entered the Cambridge School
for Young Ladies, of which Mr. Arthur Gilman is Principal. The
“examinations” mentioned in this letter were merely tests given
in the school, but as they were old Harvard papers, it is evident
that in some subjects Miss Keller was already fairly well
prepared for Radcliffe.
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
37 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, Mass.
October 8, 1896.
…I got up early this morning, so that I could write you a few
lines. I know you want to hear how I like my school. I do wish
you could come and see for yourself what a beautiful school it
is! There are about a hundred girls, and they are all so bright
and happy; it is a joy to be with them.
You will be glad to hear that I passed my examinations
successfully. I have been examined in English, German, French,
and Greek and Roman history. They were the entrance examinations
for Harvard College; so I feel pleased to think I could pass
them. This year is going to be a very busy one for Teacher and
myself. I am studying Arithmetic, English Literature, English
History, German, Latin, and advanced geography; there is a great
deal of preparatory reading required, and, as few of the books
are in raised print, poor Teacher has to spell them all out to
me; and that means hard work.
You must tell Mr. Howells when you see him, that we are living in
his house….
TO MRS. WILLIAM THAW
37 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, Mass.,
December 2, 1896.
…It takes me a long time to prepare my lessons, because I have
to have every word of them spelled out in my hand. Not one of the
textbooks which I am obliged to use is in raised print; so of
course my work is harder than it would be if I could read my
lessons over by myself. But it is harder for Teacher than it is
for me because the strain on her poor eyes is so great, and I
cannot help worrying about them. Sometimes it really seems as if
the task which we have set ourselves were more than we can
accomplish; but at other times I enjoy my work more than I can
say.
It is such a delight to be with the other girls, and do
everything that they do. I study Latin, German, Arithmetic and
English History, all of which I enjoy except Arithmetic. I am
afraid I have not a mathematical mind; for my figures always
manage to get into the wrong places!…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
Cambridge, Mass., May 3, 1897.
…You know I am trying very hard to get through with the reading
for the examinations in June, and this, in addition to my regular
schoolwork keeps me awfully busy. But Johnson, and “The Plague”
and everything else must wait a few minutes this afternoon, while
I say, thank you, my dear Mrs. Hutton….
…What a splendid time we had at the “Players’ Club.” I always
thought clubs were dull, smoky places, where men talked politics,
and told endless stories, all about themselves and their
wonderful exploits: but now I see, I must have been quite
wrong….
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
Wrentham, Mass. July 9, 1897.
…Teacher and I are going to spend the summer at Wrentham, Mass.
with our friends, the Chamberlins. I think you remember Mr.
Chamberlin, the “Listener” in the Boston Transcript. They are
dear, kind people….
But I know you want to hear about my examinations. I know that
you will be glad to hear that I passed all of them successfully.
The subjects I offered were elementary and advanced German,
French, Latin, English, and Greek and Roman History. It seems
almost too good to be true, does it not? All the time I was
preparing for the great ordeal, I could not suppress an inward
fear and trembling lest I should fail, and now it is an
unspeakable relief to know that I have passed the examinations
with credit. But what I consider my crown of success is the
happiness and pleasure that my victory has brought dear Teacher.
Indeed, I feel that the success is hers more than mine; for she
is my constant inspiration….
At the end of September Miss Sullivan and Miss Keller returned to
the Cambridge School, where they remained until early in
December. Then the interference of Mr. Gilman resulted in Mrs.
Keller’s withdrawing Miss Helen and her sister, Miss Mildred,
from the school. Miss Sullivan and her pupil went to Wrentham,
where they worked under Mr. Merton S. Keith, an enthusiastic and
skilful teacher.
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
Wrentham, February 20, 1898.
…I resumed my studies soon after your departure, and in a very
little while we were working as merrily as if the dreadful
experience of a month ago had been but a dream. I cannot tell you
how much I enjoy the country. It is so fresh, and peaceful and
free! I do think I could work all day long without feeling tired
if they would let me. There are so many pleasant things to
do—not always very easy things,—much of my work in Algebra and
Geometry is hard: but I love it all, especially Greek. Just
think, I shall soon finish my grammar! Then comes the “Iliad.”
What an inexpressible joy it will be to read about Achilles, and
Ulysses, and Andromache and Athene, and the rest of my old
friends in their own glorious language! I think Greek is the
loveliest language that I know anything about. If it is true that
the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek
is the violin of human thought.
We have had some splendid toboganning this month. Every morning,
before lesson-time, we all go out to the steep hill on the
northern shore of the lake near the house, and coast for an hour
or so. Some one balances the toboggan on the very crest of the
hill, while we get on, and when we are ready, off we dash down
the side of the hill in a headlong rush, and, leaping a
projection, plunge into a snow-drift and go swimming far across
the pond at a tremendous rate!…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
[Wrentham] April 12, 1898.
…I am glad Mr. Keith is so well pleased with my progress. It is
true that Algebra and Geometry are growing easier all the time,
especially algebra; and I have just received books in raised
print which will greatly facilitate my work….
I find I get on faster, and do better work with Mr. Keith than I
did in the classes at the Cambridge School, and I think it was
well that I gave up that kind of work. At any rate, I have not
been idle since I left school; I have accomplished more, and been
happier than I could have been there….
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
[Wrentham] May 29, 1898.
…My work goes on bravely. Each day is filled to the brim with
hard study; for I am anxious to accomplish as much as possible
before I put away my books for the summer vacation. You will be
pleased to hear that I did three problems in Geometry yesterday
without assistance. Mr. Keith and Teacher were quite enthusiastic
over the achievement, and I must confess, I felt somewhat elated
myself. Now I feel as if I should succeed in doing something in
mathematics, although I cannot see why it is so very important to
know that the lines drawn from the extremities of the base of an
isosceles triangle to the middle points of the opposite sides are
equal! The knowledge doesn’t make life any sweeter or happier,
does it? On the other hand, when we learn a new word, it is the
key to untold treasures….
TO CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
Wrentham, Mass., June 7, 1898.
I am afraid you will conclude that I am not very anxious for a
tandem after all, since I have let nearly a week pass without
answering your letter in regard to the kind of wheel I should
like. But really, I have been so constantly occupied with my
studies since we returned from New York, that I have not had time
even to think of the fun it would be to have a bicycle! You see,
I am anxious to accomplish as much as possible before the long
summer vacation begins. I am glad, though, that it is nearly time
to put away my books; for the sunshine and flowers, and the
lovely lake in front of our house are doing their best to tempt
me away from my Greek and Mathematics, especially from the
latter! I am sure the daisies and buttercups have as little use
for the science of Geometry as I, in spite of the fact that they
so beautifully illustrate its principles.
But bless me, I mustn’t forget the tandem! The truth is, I know
very little about bicycles. I have only ridden a “sociable,”
which is very different from the ordinary tandem. The “sociable”
is safer, perhaps, than the tandem; but it is very heavy and
awkward, and has a way of taking up the greater part of the road.
Besides, I have been told that “sociables” cost more than other
kinds of bicycles. My teacher and other friends think I could
ride a Columbia tandem in the country with perfect safety. They
also think your suggestion about a fixed handlebar a good one. I
ride with a divided skirt, and so does my teacher; but it would
be easier for her to mount a man’s wheel than for me; so, if it
could be arranged to have the ladies’ seat behind, I think it
would be better….
TO MISS CAROLINE DERBY
Wrentham, September 11, 1898.
…I am out of doors all the time, rowing, swimming, riding and
doing a multitude of other pleasant things. This morning I rode
over twelve miles on my tandem! I rode on a rough road, and fell
off three or four times, and am now awfully lame! But the weather
and the scenery were so beautiful, and it was such fun to go
scooting over the smoother part of the road, I didn’t mind the
mishaps in the least.
I have really learned to swim and dive—after a fashion! I can
swim a little under water, and do almost anything I like, without
fear of getting drowned! Isn’t that fine? It is almost no effort
for me to row around the lake, no matter how heavy the load may
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
October 23, 1898.
This is the first opportunity I have had to write to you since we
came here last Monday. We have been in such a whirl ever since we
decided to come to Boston; it seemed as if we should never get
settled. Poor Teacher has had her hands full, attending to
movers, and express-men, and all sorts of people. I wish it were
not such a bother to move, especially as we have to do it so
often!…
…Mr. Keith comes here at half past three every day except
Saturday. He says he prefers to come here for the present. I am
reading the “Iliad,” and the “Aeneid” and Cicero, besides doing a
lot in Geometry and Algebra. The “Iliad” is beautiful with all
the truth, and grace and simplicity of a wonderfully childlike
people while the “Aeneid” is more stately and reserved. It is
like a beautiful maiden, who always lived in a palace, surrounded
by a magnificent court; while the “Iliad” is like a splendid
youth, who has had the earth for his playground.
The weather has been awfully dismal all the week; but to-day is
beautiful, and our room floor is flooded with sunlight. By and by
we shall take a little walk in the Public Gardens. I wish the
Wrentham woods were round the corner! But alas! they are not, and
I shall have to content myself with a stroll in the Gardens.
Somehow, after the great fields and pastures and lofty
pine-groves of the country, they seem shut-in and conventional.
Even the trees seem citified and self-conscious. Indeed, I doubt
if they are on speaking terms with their country cousins! Do you
know, I cannot help feeling sorry for these trees with all their
fashionable airs? They are like the people whom they see every
day, who prefer the crowded, noisy city to the quiet and freedom
of the country. They do not even suspect how circumscribed their
lives are. They look down pityingly on the country-folk, who have
never had an opportunity “to see the great world.” Oh my! if they
only realized their limitations, they would flee for their lives
to the woods and fields. But what nonsense is this! You will
think I’m pining away for my beloved Wrentham, which is true in
one sense and not in another. I do miss Red Farm and the dear
ones there dreadfully; but I am not unhappy. I have Teacher and
my books, and I have the certainty that something sweet and good
will come to me in this great city, where human beings struggle
so bravely all their lives to wring happiness from cruel
circumstances. Anyway, I am glad to have my share in life,
whether it be bright or sad….
TO MRS. WILLIAM THAW
Boston, December 6th, 1898.
My teacher and I had a good laugh over the girls’ frolic. How
funny they must have looked in their “rough-rider” costumes,
mounted upon their fiery steeds! “Slim” would describe them, if
they were anything like the saw-horses I have seen. What jolly
times they must have at—! I cannot help wishing sometimes that
I could have some of the fun that other girls have. How quickly I
should lock up all these mighty warriors, and hoary sages, and
impossible heroes, who are now almost my only companions; and
dance and sing and frolic like other girls! But I must not waste
my time wishing idle wishes; and after all my ancient friends are
very wise and interesting, and I usually enjoy their society very
much indeed. It is only once in a great while that I feel
discontented, and allow myself to wish for things I cannot hope
for in this life. But, as you know, my heart is usually brimful
of happiness. The thought that my dear Heavenly Father is always
near, giving me abundantly of all those things, which truly
enrich life and make it sweet and beautiful, makes every
deprivation seem of little moment compared with the countless
blessings I enjoy.
TO MRS. WILLIAM THAW
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
December 19th, 1898.
…I realize now what a selfish, greedy girl I was to ask that my
cup of happiness should be filled to overflowing, without
stopping to think how many other people’s cups were quite empty.
I feel heartily ashamed of my thoughtlessness. One of the
childish illusions, which it has been hardest for me to get rid
of, is that we have only to make our wishes known in order to
have them granted. But I am slowly learning that there is not
happiness enough in the world for everyone to have all that he
wants; and it grieves me to think that I should have forgotten,
even for a moment, that I already have more than my share, and
that like poor little Oliver Twist I should have asked for
“more.”…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
12 Newberry Street, Boston.
December 22, 1898
…I suppose Mr. Keith writes you the work-a-day news. If so, you
know that I have finished all the geometry, and nearly all the
Algebra required for the Harvard examinations, and after
Christmas I shall begin a very careful review of both subjects.
You will be glad to hear that I enjoy Mathematics now. Why, I can
do long, complicated quadratic equations in my head quite easily,
and it is great fun! I think Mr. Keith is a wonderful teacher,
and I feel very grateful to him for having made me see the beauty
of Mathematics. Next to my own dear teacher, he has done more
than any one else to enrich and broaden my mind.
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
January 17, 1899.
…Have you seen Kipling’s “Dreaming True,” or “Kitchener’s
School?” It is a very strong poem and set me dreaming too. Of
course you have read about the “Gordon Memorial College,” which
the English people are to erect at Khartoum. While I was thinking
over the blessings that would come to the people of Egypt through
this college, and eventually to England herself, there came into
my heart the strong desire that my own dear country should in a
similar way convert the terrible loss of her brave sons on the
“Maine” into a like blessing to the people of Cuba. Would a
college at Havana not be the noblest and most enduring monument
that could be raised to the brave men of the “Maine,” as well as
a source of infinite good to all concerned? Imagine entering the
Havana harbor, and having the pier, where the “Maine” was
anchored on that dreadful night, when she was so mysteriously
destroyed, pointed out to you, and being told that the great,
beautiful building overlooking the spot was the “Maine Memorial
College,” erected by the American people, and having for its
object the education both of Cubans and Spaniards! What a
glorious triumph such a monument would be of the best and highest
instincts of a Christian nation! In it there would be no
suggestion of hatred or revenge, nor a trace of the old-time
belief that might makes right. On the other hand, it would be a
pledge to the world that we intend to stand by our declaration of
war, and give Cuba to the Cubans, as soon as we have fitted them
to assume the duties and responsibilities of a self-governing
people….
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
February 3, 1899.
…I had an exceedingly interesting experience last Monday. A
kind friend took me over in the morning to the Boston Art Museum.
She had previously obtained permission from General Loring, Supt.
of the Museum, for me to touch the statues, especially those
which represented my old friends in the “Iliad” and “Aeneid.” Was
that not lovely? While I was there, General Loring himself came
in, and showed me some of the most beautiful statues, among which
were the Venus of Medici, the Minerva of the Parthenon, Diana, in
her hunting costume, with her hand on the quiver and a doe by her
side, and the unfortunate Laocoon and his two little sons,
struggling in the fearful coils of two huge serpents, and
stretching their arms to the skies with heart-rending cries. I
also saw Apollo Belvidere. He had just slain the Python and was
standing by a great pillar of rock, extending his graceful hand
in triumph over the terrible snake. Oh, he was simply beautiful!
Venus entranced me. She looked as if she had just risen from the
foam of the sea, and her loveliness was like a strain of heavenly
music. I also saw poor Niobe with her youngest child clinging
close to her while she implored the cruel goddess not to kill her
last darling. I almost cried, it was all so real and tragic.
General Loring kindly showed me a copy of one of the wonderful
bronze doors of the Baptistry of Florence, and I felt of the
graceful pillars, resting on the backs of fierce lions. So you
see, I had a foretaste of the pleasure which I hope some day to
have of visiting Florence. My friend said, she would sometime
show me the copies of the marbles brought away by Lord Elgin from
the Parthenon. But somehow, I should prefer to see the originals
in the place where Genius meant them to remain, not only as a
hymn of praise to the gods, but also as a monument of the glory
of Greece. It really seems wrong to snatch such sacred things
away from the sanctuary of the Past where they belong….
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
Boston, February 19th, 1899.
Why, bless you, I thought I wrote to you the day after the
“Eclogues” arrived, and told you how glad I was to have them!
Perhaps you never got that letter. At any rate, I thank you, dear
friend, for taking such a world of trouble for me. You will be
glad to hear that the books from England are coming now. I
already have the seventh and eighth books of the “Aeneid” and one
book of the “Iliad,” all of which is most fortunate, as I have
come almost to the end of my embossed text-books.
It gives me great pleasure to hear how much is being done for the
deaf-blind. The more I learn of them, the more kindness I find.
Why, only a little while ago people thought it quite impossible
to teach the deaf-blind anything; but no sooner was it proved
possible than hundreds of kind, sympathetic hearts were fired
with the desire to help them, and now we see how many of those
poor, unfortunate persons are being taught to see the beauty and
reality of life. Love always finds its way to an imprisoned soul,
and leads it out into the world of freedom and intelligence!
As to the two-handed alphabet, I think it is much easier for
those who have sight than the manual alphabet; for most of the
letters look like the large capitals in books; but I think when
it comes to teaching a deaf-blind person to spell, the manual
alphabet is much more convenient, and less conspicuous….
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
March 5, 1899.
…I am now sure that I shall be ready for my examinations in
June. There is but one cloud in my sky at present; but that is
one which casts a dark shadow over my life, and makes me very
anxious at times. My teacher’s eyes are no better: indeed, I
think they grow more troublesome, though she is very brave and
patient, and will not give up. But it is most distressing to me
to feel that she is sacrificing her sight for me. I feel as if I
ought to give up the idea of going to college altogether: for not
all the knowledge in the world could make me happy, if obtained
at such a cost. I do wish, Mrs. Hutton, you would try to persuade
Teacher to take a rest, and have her eyes treated. She will not
listen to me.
I have just had some pictures taken, and if they are good, I
would like to send one to Mr. Rogers, if you think he would like
to have it. I would like so much to show him in some way how
deeply I appreciate all that he is doing for me, and I cannot
think of anything better to do.
Every one here is talking about the Sargent pictures. It is a
wonderful exhibition of portraits, they say. How I wish I had
eyes to see them! How I should delight in their beauty and color!
However, I am glad that I am not debarred from all pleasure in
the pictures. I have at least the satisfaction of seeing them
through the eyes of my friends, which is a real pleasure. I am so
thankful that I can rejoice in the beauties, which my friends
gather and put into my hands!
We are all so glad and thankful that Mr. Kipling did not die! I
have his “Jungle-Book” in raised print, and what a splendid,
refreshing book it is! I cannot help feeling as if I knew its
gifted author. What a real, manly, lovable nature his must be!…
TO DR. DAVID H. GREER
12 Newbury Street, Boston,
May 8, 1899.
…Each day brings me all that I can possibly accomplish, and
each night brings me rest, and the sweet thought that I am a
little nearer to my goal than ever before. My Greek progresses
finely. I have finished the ninth book of the “Iliad” and am just
beginning the “Odyssey.” I am also reading the “Aeneid” and the
“Eclogues.” Some of my friends tell me that I am very foolish to
give so much time to Greek and Latin; but I am sure they would
not think so, if they realized what a wonderful world of
experience and thought Homer and Virgil have opened up to me. I
think I shall enjoy the “Odyssey” most of all. The “Iliad” tells
of almost nothing but war, and one sometimes wearies of the clash
of spears and the din of battle; but the “Odyssey” tells of
nobler courage—the courage of a soul sore tried, but steadfast
to the end. I often wonder, as I read these splendid poems why,
at the same time that Homer’s songs of war fired the Greeks with
valor, his songs of manly virtue did not have a stronger
influence upon the spiritual life of the people. Perhaps the
reason is, that thoughts truly great are like seeds cast into the
human mind, and either lie there unnoticed, or are tossed about
and played with, like toys, until, grown wise through suffering
and experience, a race discovers and cultivates them. Then the
world has advanced one step in its heavenward march.
I am working very hard just now. I intend to take my examinations
in June, and there is a great deal to be done, before I shall
feel ready to meet the ordeal….
You will be glad to hear that my mother, and little sister and
brother are coming north to spend this summer with me. We shall
all live together in a small cottage on one of the lakes at
Wrentham, while my dear teacher takes a much needed rest. She has
not had a vacation for twelve years, think of it, and all that
time she has been the sunshine of my life. Now her eyes are
troubling her a great deal, and we all think she ought to be
relieved, for a while, of every care and responsibility. But we
shall not be quite separated; we shall see each other every day,
I hope. And, when July comes, you can think of me as rowing my
dear ones around the lovely lake in the little boat you gave me,
the happiest girl in the world!…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
[Boston] May 28th 1899.
…We have had a hard day. Mr. Keith was here for three hours
this afternoon, pouring a torrent of Latin and Greek into my poor
bewildered brain. I really believe he knows more Latin and Greek
Grammar than Cicero or Homer ever dreamed of! Cicero is splendid,
but his orations are very difficult to translate. I feel ashamed
sometimes, when I make that eloquent man say what sounds absurd
or insipid; but how is a school-girl to interpret such genius?
Why, I should have to be a Cicero to talk like a Cicero!…
Linnie Haguewood is a deaf-blind girl, one of the many whom Mr.
William Wade has helped. She is being educated by Miss Dora
Donald who, at the beginning of her work with her pupil, was
supplied by Mr. Hitz, Superintendent of the Volta Bureau, with
copies of all documents relating to Miss Sullivan’s work with
Miss Keller.
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
Wrentham, Mass., June 5, 1899.
…Linnie Haguewood’s letter, which you sent me some weeks ago,
interested me very much. It seemed to show spontaneity and great
sweetness of character. I was a good deal amused by what she said
about history. I am sorry she does not enjoy it; but I too feel
sometimes how dark, and mysterious and even fearful the history
of old peoples, old religions and old forms of government really
is.
Well, I must confess, I do not like the sign-language, and I do
not think it would be of much use to the deaf-blind. I find it
very difficult to follow the rapid motions made by the
deaf-mutes, and besides, signs seem a great hindrance to them in
acquiring the power of using language easily and freely. Why, I
find it hard to understand them sometimes when they spell on
their fingers. On the whole, if they cannot be taught
articulation, the manual alphabet seems the best and most
convenient means of communication. At any rate, I am sure the
deaf-blind cannot learn to use signs with any degree of facility.
The other day, I met a deaf Norwegian gentleman, who knows
Ragnhild Kaata and her teacher very well, and we had a very
interesting conversation about her. He said she was very
industrious and happy. She spins, and does a great deal of fancy
work, and reads, and leads a pleasant, useful life. Just think,
she cannot use the manual alphabet! She reads the lips well, and
if she cannot understand a phrase, her friends write it in her
hand, and in this way she converses with strangers. I cannot make
out anything written in my hand, so you see, Ragnhild has got
ahead of me in some things. I do hope I shall see her sometime…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
Wrentham, July 29, 1899.
…I passed in all the subjects I offered, and with credit in
advanced Latin…. But I must confess, I had a hard time on the
second day of my examinations. They would not allow Teacher to
read any of the papers to me; so the papers were copied for me in
braille. This arrangement worked very well in the languages, but
not nearly so well in the Mathematics. Consequently, I did not do
so well as I should have done, if Teacher had been allowed to
read the Algebra and Geometry to me. But you must not think I
blame any one. Of course they did not realize how difficult and
perplexing they were making the examinations for me. How could
they—they can see and hear, and I suppose they could not
understand matters from my point of view….
Thus far my summer has been sweeter than anything I can remember.
My mother, and sister and little brother have been here five
weeks, and our happiness knows no bounds. Not only do we enjoy
being together; but we also find our little home most delightful.
I do wish you could see the view of the beautiful lake from our
piazza, the islands looking like little emerald peaks in the
golden sunlight, and the canoes flitting here and there, like
autumn leaves in the gentle breeze, and breathe in the peculiarly
delicious fragrance of the woods, which comes like a murmur from
an unknown clime. I cannot help wondering if it is the same
fragrance that greeted the Norsemen long ago, when, according to
tradition, they visited our shores—an odorous echo of many
centuries of silent growth and decay in flower and tree….
TO MRS. SAMUEL RICHARD FULLER
Wrentham, October 20, 1899.
…I suppose it is time for me to tell you something about our
plans for the winter. You know it has long been my ambition to go
to Radcliffe, and receive a degree, as many other girls have
done; but Dean Irwin of Radcliffe, has persuaded me to take a
special course for the present. She said I had already shown the
world that I could do the college work, by passing all my
examinations successfully, in spite of many obstacles. She showed
me how very foolish it would be for me to pursue a four years’
course of study at Radcliffe, simply to be like other girls, when
I might better be cultivating whatever ability I had for writing.
She said she did not consider a degree of any real value, but
thought it was much more desirable to do something original than
to waste one’s energies only for a degree. Her arguments seemed
so wise and practical, that I could not but yield. I found it
hard, very hard, to give up the idea of going to college; it had
been in my mind ever since I was a little girl; but there is no
use doing a foolish thing, because one has wanted to do it a long
time, is there?
But, while we were discussing plans for the winter, a suggestion
which Dr. Hale had made long ago flashed across Teacher’s
mind—that I might take courses somewhat like those offered at
Radcliffe, under the instruction of the professors in these
courses. Miss Irwin seemed to have no objection to this proposal,
and kindly offered to see the professors and find out if they
would give me lessons. If they will be so good as to teach me and
if we have money enough to do as we have planned, my studies this
year will be English, English Literature of the Elizabethan
period, Latin and German….
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
138 Brattle St., Cambridge,
Nov. 11, 1899.
…As to the braille question, I cannot tell how deeply it
distresses me to hear that my statement with regard to the
examinations has been doubted. Ignorance seems to be at the
bottom of all these contradictions. Why, you yourself seem to
think that I taught you American braille, when you do not know a
single letter in the system! I could not help laughing when you
said you had been writing to me in American braille—and there
you were writing your letter in English braille!
The facts about the braille examinations are as follows:
How I passed my Entrance Examinations for Radcliffe College.
On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, I took my examinations for
Radcliffe College. The first day I had elementary Greek and
advanced Latin, and the second day Geometry, Algebra and advanced
Greek.
The college authorities would not permit Miss Sullivan to read
the examination papers to me; so Mr. Eugene C. Vining, one of the
instructors at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was
employed to copy the papers for me in braille. Mr. Vining was a
perfect stranger to me, and could not communicate with me except
by writing in braille. The Proctor also was a stranger, and did
not attempt to communicate with me in any way; and, as they were
both unfamiliar with my speech, they could not readily understand
what I said to them.
However, the braille worked well enough in the languages; but
when it came to Geometry and Algebra, it was different. I was
sorely perplexed, and felt quite discouraged, and wasted much
precious time, especially in Algebra. It is true that I am
perfectly familiar with all literary braille—English, American,
and New York Point; but the method of writing the various signs
used in Geometry and Algebra in the three systems is very
different, and two days before the examinations I knew only the
English method. I had used it all through my school work, and
never any other system.
In Geometry, my chief difficulty was, that I had always been
accustomed to reading the propositions in Line Print, or having
them spelled into my hand; and somehow, although the propositions
were right before me, yet the braille confused me, and I could
not fix in my mind clearly what I was reading. But, when I took
up Algebra, I had a harder time still—I was terribly handicapped
by my imperfect knowledge of the notation. The signs, which I had
learned the day before, and which I thought I knew perfectly,
confused me. Consequently my work was painfully slow, and I was
obliged to read the examples over and over before I could form a
clear idea what I was required to do. Indeed, I am not sure now
that I read all the signs correctly, especially as I was much
distressed, and found it very hard to keep my wits about me….
Now there is one more fact, which I wish to state very plainly,
in regard to what Mr. Gilman wrote to you. I never received any
direct instruction in the Gilman School. Miss Sullivan always sat
beside me, and told me what the teachers said. I did teach Miss
Hall, my teacher in Physics, how to write the American braille,
but she never gave me any instruction by means of it, unless a
few problems written for practice, which made me waste much
precious time deciphering them, can be called instruction. Dear
Frau Grote learned the manual alphabet, and used to teach me
herself; but this was in private lessons, which were paid for by
my friends. In the German class Miss Sullivan interpreted to me
as well as she could what the teacher said.
Perhaps, if you would send a copy of this to the head of the
Cambridge School, it might enlighten his mind on a few subjects,
on which he seems to be in total darkness just now….
TO MISS MILDRED KELLER
138 Brattle Street, Cambridge,
November 26, 1899.
…At last we are settled for the winter, and our work is going
smoothly. Mr. Keith comes every afternoon at four o’clock, and
gives me a “friendly lift” over the rough stretches of road, over
which every student must go. I am studying English history,
English literature, French and Latin, and by and by I shall take
up German and English composition—let us groan! You know, I
detest grammar as much as you do; but I suppose I must go through
it if I am to write, just as we had to get ducked in the lake
hundreds of times before we could swim! In French Teacher is
reading “Columba” to me. It is a delightful novel, full of
piquant expressions and thrilling adventures, (don’t dare to
blame me for using big words, since you do the same!) and, if you
ever read it, I think you will enjoy it immensely. You are
studying English history, aren’t you. O but it’s exceedingly
interesting! I’m making quite a thorough study of the Elizabethan
period—of the Reformation, and the Acts of Supremacy and
Conformity, and the maritime discoveries, and all the big things,
which the “deuce” seems to have invented to plague innocent
youngsters like yourself!…
Now we have a swell winter outfit—coats, hats, gowns, flannels
and all. We’ve just had four lovely dresses made by a French
dressmaker. I have two, of which one has a black silk skirt, with
a black lace net over it, and a waist of white poplin, with
turquoise velvet and chiffon, and cream lace over a satin yoke.
The other is woollen, and of a very pretty green. The waist is
trimmed with pink and green brocaded velvet, and white lace, I
think, and has double reefers on the front, tucked and trimmed
with velvet, and also a row of tiny white buttons. Teacher too
has a silk dress. The skirt is black, while the waist is mostly
yellow, trimmed with delicate lavender chiffon, and black velvet
bows and lace. Her other dress is purple, trimmed with purple
velvet, and the waist has a collar of cream lace. So you may
imagine that we look quite like peacocks, only we’ve no
trains….
A week ago yesterday there was [a] great football game between
Harvard and Yale, and there was tremendous excitement here. We
could hear the yells of the boys and the cheers of the lookers-on
as plainly in our room as if we had been on the field. Colonel
Roosevelt was there, on Harvard’s side; but bless you, he wore a
white sweater, and no crimson that we know of! There were about
twenty-five thousand people at the game, and, when we went out,
the noise was so terrific, we nearly jumped out of our skins,
thinking it was the din of war, and not of a football game that
we heard. But, in spite of all their wild efforts, neither side
was scored, and we all laughed and said, “Oh, well now the pot
can’t call the kettle black!”…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
559 Madison Avenue, New York,
January 2, 1900.
…We have been here a week now, and are going to stay with Miss
Rhoades until Saturday. We are enjoying every moment of our
visit, every one is so good to us. We have seen many of our old
friends, and made some new ones. We dined with the Rogers last
Friday, and oh, they were so kind to us! The thought of their
gentle courtesy and genuine kindness brings a warm glow of joy
and gratitude to my heart. I have seen Dr. Greer too. He has such
a kind heart! I love him more than ever. We went to St.
Bartholomew’s Sunday, and I have not felt so much at home in a
church since dear Bishop Brooks died. Dr. Greer read so slowly,
that my teacher could tell me every word. His people must have
wondered at his unusual deliberation. After the service he asked
Mr. Warren, the organist to play for me. I stood in the middle of
the church, where the vibrations from the great organ were
strongest, and I felt the mighty waves of sound beat against me,
as the great billows beat against a little ship at sea.
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
138 Brattle Street, Cambridge,
Feb. 3, 1900.
…My studies are more interesting than ever. In Latin, I am
reading Horace’s odes. Although I find them difficult to
translate, yet I think they are the loveliest pieces of Latin
poetry I have read or shall ever read. In French we have finished
“Colomba,” and I am reading “Horace” by Corneille and La
Fontaine’s fables, both of which are in braille. I have not gone
far in either; but I know I shall enjoy the fables, they are so
delightfully written, and give such good lessons in a simple and
yet attractive way. I do not think I have told you that my dear
teacher is reading “The Faery Queen” to me. I am afraid I find
fault with the poem as much as I enjoy it. I do not care much for
the allegories, indeed I often find them tiresome, and I cannot
help thinking that Spenser’s world of knights, paynims, fairies,
dragons and all sorts of strange creatures is a somewhat
grotesque and amusing world; but the poem itself is lovely and as
musical as a running brook.
I am now the proud owner of about fifteen new books, which we
ordered from Louisville. Among them are “Henry Esmond,” “Bacon’s
Essays” and extracts from “English Literature.” Perhaps next week
I shall have some more books, “The Tempest,” “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” and possibly some selections from Green’s history of
England. Am I not very fortunate?
I am afraid this letter savors too much of books—but really they
make up my whole life these days, and I scarcely see or hear of
anything else! I do believe I sleep on books every night! You
know a student’s life is of necessity somewhat circumscribed and
narrow and crowds out almost everything that is not in books….
TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ACADEMIC BOARD OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE
138 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
May 5, 1900.
Dear Sir:
As an aid to me in determining my plans for study the coming
year, I apply to you for information as to the possibility of my
taking the regular courses in Radcliffe College.
Since receiving my certificate of admission to Radcliffe last
July, I have been studying with a private tutor, Horace,
Aeschylus, French, German, Rhetoric, English History, English
Literature and Criticism, and English composition.
In college I should wish to continue most, if not all of these
subjects. The conditions under which I work require the presence
of Miss Sullivan, who has been my teacher and companion for
thirteen years, as an interpreter of oral speech and as a reader
of examination papers. In college she, or possibly in some
subjects some one else, would of necessity be with me in the
lecture-room and at recitations. I should do all my written work
on a typewriter, and if a Professor could not understand my
speech, I could write out my answers to his questions and hand
them to him after the recitation.
Is it possible for the College to accommodate itself to these
unprecedented conditions, so as to enable me to pursue my studies
at Radcliffe? I realize that the obstacles in the way of my
receiving a college education are very great—to others they may
seem insurmountable; but, dear Sir, a true soldier does not
acknowledge defeat before the battle.
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
38 Brattle Street, Cambridge,
June 9, 1900.
…I have not yet heard from the Academic Board in reply to my
letter; but I sincerely hope they will answer favorably. My
friends think it very strange that they should hesitate so long,
especially when I have not asked them to simplify my work in the
least, but only to modify it so as to meet the existing
circumstances. Cornell has offered to make arrangements suited to
the conditions under which I work, if I should decide to go to
that college, and the University of Chicago has made a similar
offer, but I am afraid if I went to any other college, it would
be thought that I did not pass my examinations for Radcliffe
satisfactorily….
In the fall Miss Keller entered Radcliffe College.
TO MR. JOHN HITZ
14 Coolidge Ave., Cambridge,
Nov. 26, 1900.
…—has already communicated with you in regard to her and my
plan of establishing an institution for deaf and blind children.
At first I was most enthusiastic in its support, and I never
dreamed that any grave objections could be raised except indeed
by those who are hostile to Teacher, but now, after thinking most
SERIOUSLY and consulting my friends, I have decided that—’s
plan is by no means feasible. In my eagerness to make it possible
for deaf and blind children to have the same advantages that I
have had, I quite forgot that there might be many obstacles in
the way of my accomplishing anything like what—proposed.
My friends thought we might have one or two pupils in our own
home, thereby securing to me the advantage of being helpful to
others without any of the disadvantages of a large school. They
were very kind; but I could not help feeling that they spoke more
from a business than a humanitarian point of view. I am sure they
did not quite understand how passionately I desire that all who
are afflicted like myself shall receive their rightful
inheritance of thought, knowledge and love. Still I could not
shut my eyes to the force and weight of their arguments, and I
saw plainly that I must abandon—’s scheme as impracticable.
They also said that I ought to appoint an advisory committee to
control my affairs while I am at Radcliffe. I considered this
suggestion carefully, then I told Mr. Rhoades that I should be
proud and glad to have wise friends to whom I could always turn
for advice in all important matters. For this committee I chose
six, my mother, Teacher, because she is like a mother to me, Mrs.
Hutton, Mr. Rhoades, Dr. Greer and Mr. Rogers, because it is they
who have supported me all these years and made it possible for me
to enter college. Mrs. Hutton had already written to mother,
asking her to telegraph if she was willing for me to have other
advisers besides herself and Teacher. This morning we received
word that mother had given her consent to this arrangement. Now
it remains for me to write to Dr. Greer and Mr. Rogers….
We had a long talk with Dr. Bell. Finally he proposed a plan
which delighted us all beyond words. He said that it was a
gigantic blunder to attempt to found a school for deaf and blind
children, because then they would lose the most precious
opportunities of entering into the fuller, richer, freer life of
seeing and hearing children. I had had misgivings on this point;
but I could not see how we were to help it. However Mr. Bell
suggested that—and all her friends who are interested in her
scheme should organize an association for the promotion of the
education of the deaf and blind, Teacher and myself being
included of course. Under his plan they were to appoint Teacher
to train others to instruct deaf and blind children in their own
homes, just as she had taught me. Funds were to be raised for the
teachers’ lodgings and also for their salaries. At the same time
Dr. Bell added that I could rest content and fight my way through
Radcliffe in competition with seeing and hearing girls, while the
great desire of my heart was being fulfilled. We clapped our
hands and shouted;—went away beaming with pleasure, and
Teacher and I felt more light of heart than we had for sometime.
Of course we can do nothing just now; but the painful anxiety
about my college work and the future welfare of the deaf and
blind has been lifted from our minds. Do tell me what you think
about Dr. Bell’s suggestion. It seems most practical and wise to
me; but I must know all that there is to be known about it before
I speak or act in the matter….
TO MR. JOHN D. WRIGHT
Cambridge, December 9, 1900.
Do you think me a villain and—I can’t think of a word bad enough
to express your opinion of me, unless indeed horse-thief will
answer the purpose. Tell me truly, do you think me as bad as
that? I hope not; for I have thought many letters to you which
never got on paper, and I am delighted to get your good letter,
yes, I really was, and I intended to answer it immediately, but
the days slip by unnoticed when one is busy, and I have been VERY
busy this fall. You must believe that. Radcliffe girls are always
up to their ears in work. If you doubt it, you’d better come and
see for yourself.
Yes, I am taking the regular college course for a degree. When I
am a B.A., I suppose you will not dare call me a villain! I am
studying English—Sophomore English, if you please, (though I
can’t see that it is different from just plain English) German,
French and History. I’m enjoying my work even more than I
expected to, which is another way of saying that I’m glad I came.
It is hard, very hard at times; but it hasn’t swamped me yet. No,
I am not studying Mathematics, or Greek or Latin either. The
courses at Radcliffe are elective, only certain courses in
English are prescribed. I passed off my English and advanced
French before I entered college, and I choose the courses I like
best. I don’t however intend to give up Latin and Greek entirely.
Perhaps I shall take up these studies later; but I’ve said
goodbye to Mathematics forever, and I assure you, I was delighted
to see the last of those horrid goblins! I hope to obtain my
degree in four years; but I’m not very particular about that.
There’s no great hurry, and I want to get as much as possible out
of my studies. Many of my friends would be well pleased if I
would take two or even one course a year, but I rather object to
spending the rest of my life in college….
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
14 Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge,
December 9, 1900.
…Since you are so much interested in the deaf and blind, I will
begin by telling you of several cases I have come across lately.
Last October I heard of an unusually bright little girl in Texas.
Her name is Ruby Rice, and she is thirteen years old, I think.
She has never been taught; but they say she can sew and likes to
help others in this sort of work. Her sense of smell is
wonderful. Why, when she enters a store, she will go straight to
the showcases, and she can also distinguish her own things. Her
parents are very anxious indeed to find a teacher for her. They
have also written to Mr. Hitz about her.
I also know a child at the Institution for the Deaf in
Mississippi. Her name is Maud Scott, and she is six years old.
Miss Watkins, the lady who has charge of her wrote me a most
interesting letter. She said that Maud was born deaf and lost her
sight when she was only three months old, and that when she went
to the Institution a few weeks ago, she was quite helpless. She
could not even walk and had very little use of her hands. When
they tried to teach her to string beads, her little hands fell to
her side. Evidently her sense of touch has not been developed,
and as yet she can walk only when she holds some one’s hand; but
she seems to be an exceedingly bright child. Miss Watkins adds
that she is very pretty. I have written to her that when Maud
learns to read, I shall have many stories to send her. The dear,
sweet little girl, it makes my heart ache to think how utterly
she is cut off from all that is good and desirable in life. But
Miss Watkins seems to be just the kind of teacher she needs.
I was in New York not long ago and I saw Miss Rhoades, who told
me that she had seen Katie McGirr. She said the poor young girl
talked and acted exactly like a little child. Katie played with
Miss Rhoades’s rings and took them away, saying with a merry
laugh, “You shall not have them again!” She could only understand
Miss Rhoades when she talked about the simplest things. The
latter wished to send her some books; but she could not find
anything simple enough for her! She said Katie was very sweet
indeed, but sadly in need of proper instruction. I was much
surprised to hear all this; for I judged from your letters that
Katie was a very precocious girl….
A few days ago I met Tommy Stringer in the railroad station at
Wrentham. He is a great, strong boy now, and he will soon need a
man to take care of him; he is really too big for a lady to
manage. He goes to the public school, I hear, and his progress is
astonishing, they say; but it doesn’t show as yet in his
conversation, which is limited to “Yes” and “No.”…
TO MR. CHARLES T. COPELAND
December 20, 1900.
My dear Mr. Copeland;
I venture to write to you because I am afraid that if I do not
explain why I have stopped writing themes, you will think I have
become discouraged, or perhaps that to escape criticism I have
beat a cowardly retreat from your class. Please do not think
either of these very unpleasant thoughts. I am not discouraged,
nor am I afraid. I am confident that I could go on writing themes
like those I have written, and I suppose I should get through the
course with fairly good marks; but this sort of literary
patch-work has lost all interest for me. I have never been
satisfied with my work; but I never knew what my difficulty was
until you pointed it out to me. When I came to your class last
October, I was trying with all my might to be like everybody
else, to forget as entirely as possible my limitations and
peculiar environment. Now, however, I see the folly of attempting
to hitch one’s wagon to a star with harness that does not belong
to it.
I have always accepted other peoples experiences and observations
as a matter of course. It never occurred to me that it might be
worth while to make my own observations and describe the
experiences peculiarly my own. Henceforth I am resolved to be
myself, to live my own life and write my own thoughts when I have
any. When I have written something that seems to be fresh and
spontaneous and worthy of your criticisms, I will bring it to
you, if I may, and if you think it good, I shall be happy; but if
your verdict is unfavorable, I shall try again and yet again
until I have succeeded in pleasing you…
TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON
14 Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge,
December 27, 1900.
…So you read about our class luncheon in the papers? How in the
world do the papers find out everything, I wonder. I am sure no reporter was present. I had a splendid time; the toasts and
speeches were great fun. I only spoke a few words, as I did not
know I was expected to speak until a few minutes before I was
called upon. I think I wrote you that I had been elected
Vice-President of the Freshman Class of Radcliffe.
Did I tell you in my last letter that I had a new dress, a real
party dress with low neck and short sleeves and quite a train? It
is pale blue, trimmed with chiffon of the same color. I have worn
it only once, but then I felt that Solomon in all his glory was
not to be compared with me! Anyway, he certainly never had a
dress like mine!…
A gentleman in Philadelphia has just written to my teacher about
a deaf and blind child in Paris, whose parents are Poles. The
mother is a physician and a brilliant woman, he says. This little
boy could speak two or three languages before he lost his hearing
through sickness, and he is now only about five years old. Poor
little fellow, I wish I could do something for him; but he is so
young, my teacher thinks it would be too bad to separate him from
his mother. I have had a letter from Mrs. Thaw with regard to the
possibility of doing something for these children. Dr. Bell
thinks the present census will show that there are more than a
thousand in the United States alone [The number of deaf-blind
young enough to be benefited by education is not so large as
this; but the education of this class of defectives has been
neglected.]; and Mrs. Thaw thinks if all my friends were to unite
their efforts, “it would be an easy matter to establish at the
beginning of this new century a new line upon which mercy might
travel,” and the rescue of these unfortunate children could be
accomplished….
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
Cambridge, February 2, 1901.
…By the way, have you any specimens of English braille
especially printed for those who have lost their sight late in
life or have fingers hardened by long toil, so that their touch
is less sensitive than that of other blind people? I read an
account of such a system in one of my English magazines, and I am
anxious to know more about it. If it is as efficient as they say,
I see no reason why English braille should not be adopted by the
blind of all countries. Why, it is the print that can be most
readily adapted to many different languages. Even Greek can be
embossed in it, as you know. Then, too, it will be rendered still
more efficient by the “interpointing system,” which will save an
immense amount of space and paper. There is nothing more absurd,
I think, than to have five or six different prints for the
blind….
This letter was written in response to a tentative offer from the
editor of The Great Round World to have the magazine published in
raised type for the blind, if enough were willing to subscribe.
It is evident that the blind should have a good magazine, not a
special magazine for the blind, but one of our best monthlies,
printed in embossed letters. The blind alone could not support
it, but it would not take very much money to make up the
additional expense.
To THE GREAT ROUND WORLD
Cambridge, Feb. 16, 1901.
The Great Round World,
New York City.
Gentlemen: I have only to-day found time to reply to your
interesting letter. A little bird had already sung the good news
in my ear; but it was doubly pleasant to have it straight from
you.
It would be splendid to have The Great Round World printed in
“language that can be felt.” I doubt if any one who enjoys the
wondrous privilege of seeing can have any conception of the boon
such a publication as you contemplate would be to the sightless.
To be able to read for one’s self what is being willed, thought
and done in the world—the world in whose joys and sorrows,
failures and successes one feels the keenest interest—that would
indeed be a happiness too deep for words. I trust that the effort
of The Great Round World to bring light to those who sit in
darkness will receive the encouragement and support it so richly
deserves.
I doubt, however, if the number of subscribers to an embossed
edition of The Great Round World would ever be large; for I am
told that the blind as a class are poor. But why should not the
friends of the blind assist The Great Round World, if necessary?
Surely there are hearts and hands ever ready to make it possible
for generous intentions to be wrought into noble deeds.
Wishing you godspeed in an undertaking that is very dear to my
heart, I am, etc.
TO MISS NINA RHOADES
Cambridge, Sept. 25, 1901.
…We remained in Halifax until about the middle of August….
Day after day the Harbor, the warships, and the park kept us busy
thinking and feeling and enjoying…. When the Indiana visited
Halifax, we were invited to go on board, and she sent her own
launch for us. I touched the immense cannon, read with my fingers
several of the names of the Spanish ships that were captured at
Santiago, and felt the places where she had been pierced with
shells. The Indiana was the largest and finest ship in the
Harbor, and we felt very proud of her.
After we left Halifax, we visited Dr. Bell at Cape Breton. He has
a charming, romantic house on a mountain called Beinn Bhreagh,
which overlooks the Bras d’Or Lake….
Dr. Bell told me many interesting things about his work. He had
just constructed a boat that could be propelled by a kite with
the wind in its favor, and one day he tried experiments to see if
he could steer the kite against the wind. I was there and really
helped him fly the kites. On one of them I noticed that the
strings were of wire, and having had some experience in bead
work, I said I thought they would break. Dr. Bell said “No!” with
great confidence, and the kite was sent up. It began to pull and
tug, and lo, the wires broke, and off went the great red dragon,
and poor Dr. Bell stood looking forlornly after it. After that he
asked me if the strings were all right and changed them at once
when I answered in the negative. Altogether we had great fun….
TO DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE [Read by Dr. Hale at the celebration
of the centenary of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, at Tremont Temple,
Boston, Nov. 11, 1901.]
Cambridge, Nov. 10, 1901.
My teacher and I expect to be present at the meeting tomorrow in
commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of Dr. Howe’s
birth; but I very much doubt if we shall have an opportunity to
speak with you; so I am writing now to tell you how delighted I
am that you are to speak at the meeting, because I feel that you,
better than any one I know will express the heartfelt gratitude
of those who owe their education, their opportunities, their
happiness to him who opened the eyes of the blind and gave the
dumb lip language.
Sitting here in my study, surrounded by my books, enjoying the
sweet and intimate companionship of the great and the wise, I am
trying to realize what my life might have been, if Dr. Howe had
failed in the great task God gave him to perform. If he had not
taken upon himself the responsibility of Laura Bridgman’s
education and led her out of the pit of Acheron back to her human
inheritance, should I be a sophomore at Radcliffe College
to-day—who can say? But it is idle to speculate about what might
have been in connection with Dr. Howe’s great achievement.
I think only those who have escaped that death-in-life existence,
from which Laura Bridgman was rescued, can realize how isolated,
how shrouded in darkness, how cramped by its own impotence is a
soul without thought or faith or hope. Words are powerless to
describe the desolation of that prison-house, or the joy of the
soul that is delivered out of its captivity. When we compare the
needs and helplessness of the blind before Dr. Howe began his
work, with their present usefulness and independence, we realize
that great things have been done in our midst. What if physical
conditions have built up high walls about us? Thanks to our
friend and helper, our world lies upward; the length and breadth
and sweep of the heavens are ours!
It is pleasant to think that Dr. Howe’s noble deeds will receive
their due tribute of affection and gratitude, in the city, which
was the scene of his great labors and splendid victories for
humanity.
With kind greetings, in which my teacher joins me, I am
Affectionately your friend,
HELEN KELLER.
TO THE HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR
Cambridge, Mass., November 25, 1901.
My Dear Senator Hoar:—
I am glad you liked my letter about Dr. Howe. It was written out
of my heart, and perhaps that is why it met a sympathetic
response in other hearts. I will ask Dr. Hale to lend me the
letter, so that I can make a copy of it for you.
You see, I use a typewriter—it is my right hand man, so to
speak. Without it I do not see how I could go to college. I write
all my themes and examinations on it, even Greek. Indeed, it has
only one drawback, and that probably is regarded as an advantage
by the professors; it is that one’s mistakes may be detected at a
glance; for there is no chance to hide them in illegible writing.
I know you will be amused when I tell you that I am deeply
interested in politics. I like to have the papers read to me, and
I try to understand the great questions of the day; but I am
afraid my knowledge is very unstable; for I change my opinions
with every new book I read. I used to think that when I studied
Civil Government and Economics, all my difficulties and
perplexities would blossom into beautiful certainties; but alas,
I find that there are more tares than wheat in these fertile
fields of knowledge….
III: A SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNT
OF HELEN KELLER’S LIFE AND
EDUCATION
CHAPTER I.
The Writing of the Book
It is fitting that Miss Keller’s “Story of My Life” should appear at this time. What is remarkable in
her career is already accomplished, and whatever she may do in the future will be but a relatively
slight addition to the success which distinguishes her now. That success has just been assured, for it
is her work at Radcliffe during the last two years which has shown that she can carry her education
as far as if she were studying under normal conditions. Whatever doubts Miss Keller herself may
have had are now at rest.
Several passages of her autobiography, as it appeared in serial form, have been made the subject
of a grave editorial in a Boston newspaper, in which the writer regretted Miss Keller’s apparent
disillusionment in regard to the value of her college life. He quoted the passages in which she explains
that college is not the “universal Athens” she had hoped to find, and cited the cases of other
remarkable persons whose college life had proved disappointing. But it is to be remembered that
Miss Keller has written many things in her autobiography for the fun of writing them, and the
disillusion, which the writer of the editorial took seriously, is in great part humorous. Miss Keller
does not suppose her views to be of great importance, and when she utters her opinions on
important matters she takes it for granted that her reader will receive them as the opinions of a junior
in college, not of one who writes with the wisdom of maturity. For instance, it surprised her that
some people were annoyed at what she said about the Bible, and she was amused that they did not
see, what was plain enough, that she had been obliged to read the whole Bible in a course in English
literature, not as a religious duty put upon her by her teacher or her parents.
I ought to apologize to the reader and to Miss Keller for presuming to say what her subject matter
is worth, but one more explanation is necessary. In her account of her early education Miss Keller is
not giving a scientifically accurate record of her life, nor even of the important events. She cannot
know in detail how she was taught, and her memory of her childhood is in some cases an idealized
memory of what she has learned later from her teacher and others. She is less able to recall events of
fifteen years ago than most of us are to recollect our childhood. That is why her teacher’s records
may be found to differ in some particulars from Miss Keller’s account.
The way in which Miss Keller wrote her story shows, as nothing else can show, the difficulties she
had to overcome. When we write, we can go back over our work, shuffle the pages, interline,
rearrange, see how the paragraphs look in proof, and so construct the whole work before the eye,
as an architect constructs his plans. When Miss Keller puts her work in typewritten form, she cannot
refer to it again unless some one reads it to her by means of the manual alphabet.
This difficulty is in part obviated by the use of her braille machine, which makes a manuscript that
she can read; but as her work must be put ultimately in typewritten form, and as a braille machine is
somewhat cumbersome, she has got into the habit of writing directly on her typewriter. She depends
so little on her braille manuscript, that, when she began to write her story more than a year ago and
had put in braille a hundred pages of material and notes, she made the mistake of destroying these
notes before she had finished her manuscript. Thus she composed much of her story on the
typewriter, and in constructing it as a whole depended on her memory to guide her in putting together
the detached episodes, which Miss Sullivan read over to her.
Last July, when she had finished under great pressure of work her final chapter, she set to work to
rewrite the whole story. Her good friend, Mr. William Wade, had a complete braille copy made for
her from the magazine proofs. Then for the first time she had her whole manuscript under her finger
at once. She saw imperfections in the arrangement of paragraphs and the repetition of phrases. She
saw, too, that her story properly fell into short chapters and redivided it.
Partly from temperament, partly from the conditions of her work, she has written rather a series of
brilliant passages than a unified narrative; in point of fact, several paragraphs of her story are short
themes written in her English courses, and the small unit sometimes shows its original limits.
In rewriting the story, Miss Keller made corrections on separate pages on her braille machine.
Long corrections she wrote out on her typewriter, with catch-words to indicate where they
belonged. Then she read from her braille copy the entire story, making corrections as she read,
which were taken down on the manuscript that went to the printer. During this revision she discussed
questions of subject matter and phrasing. She sat running her finger over the braille manuscript,
stopping now and then to refer to the braille notes on which she had indicated her corrections, all the
time reading aloud to verify the manuscript.
She listened to criticism just as any author listens to his friends or his editor. Miss Sullivan, who is
an excellent critic, made suggestions at many points in the course of composition and revision. One
newspaper suggested that Miss Keller had been led into writing the book and had been influenced to
put certain things into it by zealous friends. As a matter of fact, most of the advice she has received
and heeded has led to excisions rather than to additions. The book is Miss Keller’s and is final proof
of her independent power.
CHAPTER II.
PERSONALITY
Mark Twain has said that the two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century are
Napoleon and Helen Keller. The admiration with which the world has regarded her is more than
justified by what she has done. No one can tell any great truth about her which has not already been
written, and all that I can do is to give a few more facts about Miss Keller’s work and add a little to
what is known of her personality.
Miss Keller is tall and strongly built, and has always had good health. She seems to be more
nervous than she really is, because she expresses more with her hands than do most Englishspeaking
people. One reason for this habit of gesture is that her hands have been so long her
instruments of communication that they have taken to themselves the quick shiftings of the eye, and express some of the things that we say in a glance. All deaf people naturally gesticulate. Indeed, at
one time it was believed that the best way for them to communicate was through systematized
gestures, the sign language invented by the Abbe de l’Epee.
When Miss Keller speaks, her face is animated and expresses all the modes of her thought—the
expressions that make the features eloquent and give speech half its meaning. On the other hand she
does not know another’s expression. When she is talking with an intimate friend, however, her hand
goes quickly to her friend’s face to see, as she says, “the twist of the mouth.” In this way she is able
to get the meaning of those half sentences which we complete unconsciously from the tone of the
voice or the twinkle of the eye.
Her memory of people is remarkable. She remembers the grasp of fingers she has held before, all
the characteristic tightening of the muscles that makes one person’s handshake different from that of
another.
The trait most characteristic, perhaps, of Miss Keller (and also of Miss Sullivan) is humour. Skill in
the use of words and her habit of playing with them make her ready with mots and epigrams.
Some one asked her if she liked to study.
“Yes,” she replied, “but I like to play also, and I feel sometimes as if I were a music box with all
the play shut up inside me.”
When she met Dr. Furness, the Shakespearean scholar, he warned her not to let the college
professors tell her too many assumed facts about the life of Shakespeare; all we know, he said, is
that Shakespeare was baptized, married, and died.
“Well,” she replied, “he seems to have done all the essential things.”
Once a friend who was learning the manual alphabet kept making “g,” which is like the hand of a
sign-post, for “h,” which is made with two fingers extended. Finally Miss Keller told him to “fire both
barrels.”
Mr. Joseph Jefferson was once explaining to Miss Keller what the bumps on her head meant.
“That,” he said, “is your prize-fighting bump.”
“I never fight,” she replied, “except against difficulties.”
Miss Keller’s humour is that deeper kind of humour which is courage.
Thirteen years ago she made up her mind to learn to speak, and she gave her teacher no rest until
she was allowed to take lessons, although wise people, even Miss Sullivan, the wisest of them all,
regarded it as an experiment unlikely to succeed and almost sure to make her unhappy. It was this
same perseverance that made her go to college. After she had passed her examinations and received
her certificate of admission, she was advised by the Dean of Radcliffe and others not to go on. She
accordingly delayed a year. But she was not satisfied until she had carried out her purpose and
entered college.
Her life has been a series of attempts to do whatever other people do, and to do it as well. Her
success has been complete, for in trying to be like other people she has come most fully to be
herself. Her unwillingness to be beaten has developed her courage. Where another can go, she can
cries, with a touch of young bravado in it. She takes tramps in the woods, plunging through the
underbrush, where she is scratched and bruised; yet you could not get her to admit that she is hurt,
and you certainly could not persuade her to stay at home next time.
So when people try experiments with her, she displays a sportsmanlike determination to win in any
test, however unreasonable, that one may wish to put her to.
If she does not know the answer to a question, she guesses with mischievous assurance. Ask her the colour of your coat (no blind person can tell colour), she will feel it and say “black.” If it happens
to be blue, and you tell her so triumphantly, she is likely to answer, “Thank you. I am glad you know.
Why did you ask me?”
Her whimsical and adventuresome spirit puts her so much on her mettle that she makes rather a
poor subject for the psychological experimenter. Moreover, Miss Sullivan does not see why Miss
Keller should be subjected to the investigation of the scientist, and has not herself made many
experiments. When a psychologist asked her if Miss Keller spelled on her fingers in her sleep, Miss
Sullivan replied that she did not think it worth while to sit up and watch, such matters were of so little
consequence.
Miss Keller likes to be part of the company. If any one whom she is touching laughs at a joke, she
laughs, too, just as if she had heard it. If others are aglow with music, a responding glow, caught
sympathetically, shines in her face. Indeed, she feels the movements of Miss Sullivan so minutely that
she responds to her moods, and so she seems to know what is going on, even though the
conversation has not been spelled to her for some time. In the same way her response to music is in
part sympathetic, although she enjoys it for its own sake.
Music probably can mean little to her but beat and pulsation. She cannot sing and she cannot play
the piano, although, as some early experiments show, she could learn mechanically to beat out a tune
on the keys. Her enjoyment of music, however, is very genuine, for she has a tactile recognition of
sound when the waves of air beat against her. Part of her experience of the rhythm of music comes,
no doubt, from the vibration of solid objects which she is touching: the floor, or, what is more
evident, the case of the piano, on which her hand rests. But she seems to feel the pulsation of the air
itself. When the organ was played for her in St. Bartholomew’s, the whole building shook with the
great pedal notes, but that does not altogether account for what she felt and enjoyed. The vibration
of the air as the organ notes swelled made her sway in answer. Sometimes she puts her hand on a
singer’s throat to feel the muscular thrill and contraction, and from this she gets genuine pleasure. No
one knows, however, just what her sensations are. It is amusing to read in one of the magazines of
1895 that Miss Keller “has a just and intelligent appreciation of different composers from having
literally felt their music, Schumann being her favourite.” If she knows the difference between
Schumann and Beethoven, it is because she has read it, and if she has read it, she remembers it and
can tell any one who asks her.
Miss Keller’s effort to reach out and meet other people on their own intellectual ground has kept
her informed of daily affairs. When her education became more systematic and she was busy with
books, it would have been very easy for Miss Sullivan to let her draw into herself, if she had been so
inclined. But every one who has met her has given his best ideas to her and she has taken them. If, in
the course of a conversation, the friend next to her has ceased for some moments to spell into her
hand, the question comes inevitably, “What are you talking about?” Thus she picks up the fragments
of the daily intercourse of normal people, so that her detailed information is singularly full and
accurate. She is a good talker on the little occasional affairs of life.
Much of her knowledge comes to her directly. When she is out walking she often stops suddenly,
attracted by the odour of a bit of shrubbery. She reaches out and touches the leaves, and the world
of growing things is hers, as truly as it is ours, to enjoy while she holds the leaves in her fingers and
smells the blossoms, and to remember when the walk is done.
When she is in a new place, especially an interesting place like Niagara, whoever accompanies her
—usually, of course, Miss Sullivan—is kept busy giving her an idea of visible details. Miss Sullivan,
who knows her pupil’s mind, selects from the passing landscape essential elements, which give a
certain clearness to Miss Keller’s imagined view of an outer world that to our eyes is confused and
overloaded with particulars. If her companion does not give her enough details, Miss Keller asks questions until she has completed the view to her satisfaction.
She does not see with her eyes, but through the inner faculty to serve which eyes were given to us.
When she returns from a walk and tells some one about it, her descriptions are accurate and vivid. A
comparative experience drawn from written descriptions and from her teacher’s words has kept her
free from errors in her use of terms of sound and vision. True, her view of life is highly coloured and
full of poetic exaggeration; the universe, as she sees it, is no doubt a little better than it really is. But
her knowledge of it is not so incomplete as one might suppose. Occasionally she astonishes you by
ignorance of some fact which no one happens to have told her; for instance, she did not know, until
her first plunge into the sea, that it is salt. Many of the detached incidents and facts of our daily life
pass around and over her unobserved; but she has enough detailed acquaintance with the world to
keep her view of it from being essentially defective.
Most that she knows at first hand comes from her sense of touch. This sense is not, however, so
finely developed as in some other blind people. Laura Bridgman could tell minute shades of
difference in the size of thread, and made beautiful lace. Miss Keller used to knit and crochet, but
she has had better things to do. With her varied powers and accomplishments, her sense of touch
has not been used enough to develop it very far beyond normal acuteness. A friend tried Miss Keller
one day with several coins. She was slower than he expected her to be in identifying them by their
relative weight and size. But it should be said she almost never handles money—one of the many
sordid and petty details of life, by the way, which she has been spared.
She recognizes the subject and general intention of a statuette six inches high. Anything shallower
than a half-inch bas-relief is a blank to her, so far as it expresses an idea of beauty. Large statues, of
which she can feel the sweep of line with her whole hand, she knows in their higher esthetic value.
She suggests herself that she can know them better than we do, because she can get the true
dimensions and appreciate more immediately the solid nature of a sculptured figure. When she was at
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston she stood on a step-ladder and let both hands play over the
statues. When she felt a bas-relief of dancing girls she asked, “Where are the singers?” When she
found them she said, “One is silent.” The lips of the singer were closed.
It is, however, in her daily life that one can best measure the delicacy of her senses and her manual
skill. She seems to have very little sense of direction. She gropes her way without much certainty in
rooms where she is quite familiar. Most blind people are aided by the sense of sound, so that a fair
comparison is hard to make, except with other deaf-blind persons. Her dexterity is not notable either
in comparison with the normal person, whose movements are guided by the eye, or, I am told, with
other blind people. She has practised no single constructive craft which would call for the use of her
hands. When she was twelve, her friend Mr. Albert H. Munsell, the artist, let her experiment with a
wax tablet and a stylus. He says that she did pretty well and managed to make, after models, some
conventional designs of the outlines of leaves and rosettes. The only thing she does which requires
skill with the hands is her work on the typewriter. Although she has used the typewriter since she
was eleven years old, she is rather careful than rapid. She writes with fair speed and absolute
sureness. Her manuscripts seldom contain typographical errors when she hands them to Miss
Sullivan to read. Her typewriter has no special attachments. She keeps the relative position of the
keys by an occasional touch of the little finger on the outer edge of the board.
Miss Keller’s reading of the manual alphabet by her sense of touch seems to cause some
perplexity. Even people who know her fairly well have written in the magazines about Miss Sullivan’s
“mysterious telegraphic communications” with her pupil. The manual alphabet is that in use among all
educated deaf people. Most dictionaries contain an engraving of the manual letters. The deaf person
with sight looks at the fingers of his companion, but it is also possible to feel them. Miss Keller puts
her fingers lightly over the hand of one who is talking to her and gets the words as rapidly as they can
be spelled. As she explains, she is not conscious of the single letters or of separate words. Miss Sullivan and others who live constantly with the deaf can spell very rapidly—fast enough to get a
slow lecture, not fast enough to get every word of a rapid speaker.
Anybody can learn the manual letters in a few minutes, use them slowly in a day, and in thirty days
of constant use talk to Miss Keller or any other deaf person without realizing what his fingers are
doing. 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.
Miss Keller reads by means of embossed print or the various kinds of braille. The ordinary
embossed book is made with roman letters, both small letters and capitals. These letters are of
simple, square, angular design. The small letters are about three-sixteenths of an inch high, and are
raised from the page the thickness of the thumbnail. The books are large, about the size of a volume
of an encyclopedia. Green’s “Short History of the English People” is in six large volumes. The books
are not heavy, because the leaves with the raised type do not lie close. The time that one of Miss
Keller’s friends realizes most strongly that she is blind is when he comes on her suddenly in the dark
and hears the rustle of her fingers across the page.
The most convenient print for the blind is braille, which has several variations, too many, indeed—
English, American, New York Point. Miss Keller reads them all. Most educated blind people know
several, but it would save trouble if, as Miss Keller suggests, English braille were universally
adopted. The facsimile on page xv [omitted from etext] gives an idea of how the raised dots look.
Each character (either a letter or a special braille contraction) is a combination made by varying in
place and number points in six possible positions. Miss Keller has a braille writer on which she keeps
notes and writes letters to her blind friends. There are six keys, and by pressing different
combinations at a stroke (as one plays a chord on the piano) the operator makes a character at a
time in a sheet of thick paper, and can write about half as rapidly as on a typewriter. Braille is
especially useful in making single manuscript copies of books.
Books for the blind are very limited in number. They cost a great deal to publish and they have not
a large enough sale to make them profitable to the publisher; but there are several institutions with
special funds to pay for embossed books. Miss Keller is more fortunate than most blind people in
the kindness of her friends who have books made especially for her, and in the willingness of
gentlemen, like Mr. E. E. Allen of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Blind, to print,
as he has on several occasions, editions of books that she has needed.
Miss Keller does not as a rule read very fast, but she reads deliberately, not so much because she
feels the words less quickly than we see then, as because it is one of her habits of mind to do things
thoroughly and well. When a passage interests her, or she needs to remember it for some future use,
she flutters it off swiftly on the fingers of her right hand. Sometimes this finger-play is unconscious.
Miss Keller talks to herself absent-mindedly in the manual alphabet. When she is walking up or
down the hall or along the veranda, her hands go flying along beside her like a confusion of birds’
wings.
There is, I am told, tactile memory as well as visual and aural memory. Miss Sullivan says that
both she and Miss Keller remember “in their fingers” what they have said. For Miss Keller to spell a
sentence in the manual alphabet impresses it on her mind just as we learn a thing from having heard it
many times and can call back the memory of its sound.
Like every deaf or blind person, Miss Keller depends on her sense of smell to an unusual degree.
When she was a little girl she smelled everything and knew where she was, what neighbour’s house
she was passing, by the distinctive odours. As her intellect grew she became less dependent on this
sense. To what extent she now identifies objects by their odour is hard to determine. The sense of
smell has fallen into disrepute, and a deaf person is reluctant to speak of it. Miss Keller’s acute sense
of smell may account, however, in some part for that recognition of persons and things which it has been customary to attribute to a special sense, or to an unusual development of the power that we all
seem to have of telling when some one is near.
The question of a special “sixth sense,” such as people have ascribed. to Miss Keller, is a delicate
one. This much is certain, she cannot have any sense that other people may not have, and the
existence of a special sense is not evident to her or to any one who knows her. Miss Keller is
distinctly not a singular proof of occult and mysterious theories, and any attempt to explain her in that
way fails to reckon with her normality. She is no more mysterious and complex than any other
person. All that she is, all that she has done, can be explained directly, except such things in every
human being as never can be explained. She does not, it would seem, prove the existence of spirit
without matter, or of innate ideas, or of immortality, or anything else that any other human being does
not prove. Philosophers have tried to find out what was her conception of abstract ideas before she
learned language. If she had any conception, there is no way of discovering it now; for she cannot
remember, and obviously there was no record at the time. She had no conception of God before she
heard the word “God,” as her comments very clearly show.
Her sense of time is excellent, but whether it would have developed as a special faculty cannot be
known, for she has had a watch since she was seven years old.
Miss Keller has two watches, which have been given her. They are, I think, the only ones of their
kind in America. The watch has on the back cover a flat gold indicator which can be pushed freely
around from left to right until, by means of a pin inside the case, it locks with the hour hand and takes
a corresponding position. The point of this gold indicator bends over the edge of the case, round
which are set eleven raised points—the stem forms the twelfth. 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. Though there is less than half an inch
between the points—a space which represents sixty minutes—Miss Keller tells the time almost
exactly. It should be said that any double-case watch with the crystal removed serves well enough
for a blind person whose touch is sufficiently delicate to feel the position of the hands and not disturb
or injure them.
The finer traits of Miss Keller’s character are so well known that one needs not say much about
them. Good sense, good humour, and imagination keep her scheme of things sane and beautiful. No
attempt is made by those around her either to preserve or to break her illusions. When she was a
little girl, a good many unwise and tactless things that were said for her benefit were not repeated to
her, thanks to the wise watchfulness of Miss Sullivan. Now that she has grown up, nobody thinks of
being less frank with her than with any other intelligent young woman. What her good friend, Charles
Dudley Warner, wrote about her in Harper’s Magazine in 1896 was true then, and it remains true
now:
“I believe she is the purest-minded human ever in existence…. The world to her is what her own
mind is. She has not even learned that exhibition on which so many pride themselves, of ‘righteous
indignation.’
“Some time ago, when a policeman shot dead her dog, a dearly loved daily companion, she found
in her forgiving heart no condemnation for the man; she only said, ‘If he had only known what a good
dog she was, he wouldn’t have shot her.’ It was said of old time, ‘Lord forgive them, they know not
what they do!’
“Of course the question will arise whether, if Helen Keller had not been guarded from the
knowledge of evil, she would have been what she is to-day…. Her mind has neither been made
effeminate by the weak and silly literature, nor has it been vitiated by that which is suggestive of
baseness. In consequence her mind is not only vigorous, but it is pure. She is in love with noble
things, with noble thoughts, and with the characters of noble men and women.” She still has a childlike aversion to tragedies. Her imagination is so vital that she falls completely
under the illusion of a story, and lives in its world. Miss Sullivan writes in a letter of 1891:
“Yesterday I read to her the story of ‘Macbeth,’ as told by Charles and Mary Lamb. She was
very greatly excited by it, and said: ‘It is terrible! It makes me tremble!’ After thinking a little while,
she added, ‘I think Shakespeare made it very terrible so that people would see how fearful it is to do
wrong.'”
Of the real world she knows more of the good and less of the evil than most people seem to
know. Her teacher does not harass her with the little unhappy things; but of the important difficulties
they have been through, Miss Keller was fully informed, took her share of the suffering, and put her
mind to the problems. She is logical and tolerant, most trustful of a world that has treated her kindly.
Once when some one asked her to define “love,” she replied, “Why, bless you, that is easy; it is
what everybody feels for everybody else.”
“Toleration,” she said once, when she was visiting her friend Mrs. Laurence Hutton, “is the
greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a
bicycle.”
She has a large, generous sympathy and absolute fairness of temper. So far as she is noticeably
different from other people she is less bound by convention. She has the courage of her metaphors
and lets them take her skyward when we poor self-conscious folk would think them rather too
bookish for ordinary conversation. She always says exactly what she thinks, without fear of the plain
truth; yet no one is more tactful and adroit than she in turning an unpleasant truth so that it will do the
least possible hurt to the feelings of others. Not all the attention that has been paid her since she was
a child has made her take herself too seriously. Sometimes she gets started on a very solemn
preachment. Then her teacher calls her an incorrigible little sermonizer, and she laughs at herself.
Often, however, her sober ideas are not to be laughed at, for her earnestness carries her listeners
with her. There is never the least false sententiousness in what she says. She means everything so
thoroughly that her very quotations, her echoes from what she has read, are in truth original.
Her logic and her sympathy are in excellent balance. Her sympathy is of the swift and ministering
sort which, fortunately, she has found so often in other people. And her sympathies go further and
shape her opinions on political and national movements. She was intensely pro-Boer and wrote a
strong argument in favour of Boer independence. When she was told of the surrender of the brave
little people, her face clouded and she was silent a few minutes. Then she asked clear, penetrating
questions about the terms of the surrender, and began to discuss them.
Both Mr. Gilman and Mr. Keith, the teachers who prepared her for college, were struck by her
power of constructive reasoning; and she was excellent in pure mathematics, though she seems never
to have enjoyed it much. Some of the best of her writing, apart from her fanciful and imaginative
work, is her exposition in examinations and technical themes, and in some letters which she found it
necessary to write to clear up misunderstandings, and which are models of close thinking enforced
with sweet vehemence.
She is an optimist and an idealist.
“I hope,” she writes in a letter, “that L—— isn’t too practical, for if she is, I’m afraid she’ll miss a
great deal of pleasure.”
In the diary that she kept at the Wright-Humason School in New York she wrote on October 18,
1894, “I find that I have four things to learn in my school life here, and indeed, in life—to think clearly
without hurry or confusion, to love everybody sincerely, to act in everything with the highest motives,
and to trust in dear God unhesitatingly.”
CHAPTER III.
EDUCATION
It is now sixty-five years since Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe knew that he had made his way through
Laura Bridgman’s fingers to her intelligence. The names of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller will
always be linked together, and it is necessary to understand what Dr. Howe did for his pupil before
one comes to an account of Miss Sullivan’s work. For Dr. Howe is the great pioneer on whose work
that of Miss Sullivan and other teachers of the deaf-blind immediately depends.
Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe was born in Boston, November 10, 1801, and died in Boston, January
9, 1876. He was a great philanthropist, interested especially in the education of all defectives, the
feeble-minded, the blind, and the deaf. Far in advance of his time he advocated many public
measures for the relief of the poor and the diseased, for which he was laughed at then, but which
have since been put into practice. As head of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, he heard
of Laura Bridgman and had her brought to the Institution on October 4, 1837.
Laura Bridgman was born at Hanover, New Hampshire, December 21, 1829; so she was almost
eight years old when Dr. Howe began his experiments with her. At the age of twenty-six months
scarlet fever left her without sight or hearing. She also lost her sense of smell and taste. Dr. Howe
was an experimental scientist and had in him the spirit of New England transcendentalism with its
large faith and large charities. Science and faith together led him to try to make his way into the soul
which he believed was born in Laura Bridgman as in every other human being. His plan was to teach
Laura by means of raised types. He pasted raised labels on objects and made her fit the labels to the
objects and the objects to the labels. When she had learned in this way to associate raised words
with things, in much the same manner, he says, as a dog learns tricks, he began to resolve the words
into their letter elements and to teach her to put together “k-e-y,” “c-a-p.” His success convinced him
that language can be conveyed through type to the mind of the blind-deaf child, who, before
education, is in the state of the baby who has not learned to prattle; indeed, is in a much worse state,
for the brain has grown in years without natural nourishment.
After Laura’s education had progressed for two months with the use only of raised letters, Dr.
Howe sent one of his teachers to learn the manual alphabet from a deaf-mute. She taught it to Laura,
and from that time on the manual alphabet was the means of communicating with her.
After the first year or two Dr. Howe did not teach Laura Bridgman himself, but gave her over to
other teachers, who under his direction carried on the work of teaching her language.
Too much cannot be said in praise of Dr. Howe’s work. As an investigator he kept always the
scientist’s attitude. He never forgot to keep his records of Laura Bridgman in the fashion of one who
works in a laboratory. The result is, his records of her are systematic and careful. From a scientific
standpoint it is unfortunate that it was impossible to keep such a complete record of Helen Keller’s
development. This in itself is a great comment on the difference between Laura Bridgman and Helen
Keller. Laura always remained an object of curious study. Helen Keller became so rapidly a
distinctive personality that she kept her teacher in a breathless race to meet the needs of her pupil,
with no time or strength to make a scientific study.
In some ways this is unfortunate. Miss Sullivan knew at the beginning that Helen Keller would be
more interesting and successful than Laura Bridgman, and she expresses in one of her letters the
need of keeping notes. But neither temperament nor training allowed her to make her pupil the object
of any experiment or observation which did not help in the child’s development. As soon as a thing
was done, a definite goal passed, the teacher did not always look back and describe the way she
had come. The explanation of the fact was unimportant compared to the fact itself and the need of
hurrying on. There are two other reasons why Miss Sullivan’s records are incomplete. It has always
been a severe tax on her eyes to write, and she was early discouraged from publishing data by the
inaccurate use made of what she at first supplied.
When she first wrote from Tuscumbia to Mr. Michael Anagnos, Dr. Howes son-in-law and his
successor as Director of the Perkins Institution, about her work with her pupil, the Boston papers
began at once to publish exaggerated accounts of Helen Keller. Miss Sullivan protested. In a letter
dated April 10, 1887, only five weeks after she went to Helen Keller, she wrote to a friend:
“—sent me a Boston Herald containing a stupid article about Helen. How perfectly absurd to say
that Helen is ‘already talking fluently!’ Why, one might just as well say that a two-year-old child
converses fluently when he says ‘apple give,’ or ‘baby walk go.’ I suppose if you included his
screaming, crowing, whimpering, grunting, squalling, with occasional kicks, in his conversation, it
might be regarded as fluent—even eloquent. Then it is amusing to read of the elaborate preparation I
underwent to fit me for the great task my friends entrusted to me. I am sorry that preparation didn’t
include spelling, it would have saved me such a lot of trouble.”
On March 4, 1888, she writes in a letter:
“Indeed, I am heartily glad that I don’t know all that is being said and written about Helen and
myself. I assure you I know quite enough. Nearly every mail brings some absurd statement, printed
or written. The truth is not wonderful enough to suit the newspapers; so they enlarge upon it and
invent ridiculous embellishments. One paper has Helen demonstrating problems in geometry by
means of her playing blocks. I expect to hear next that she has written a treatise on the origin and
future of the planets!”
In December, 1887, appeared the first report of the Director of the Perkins Institution, which
deals with Helen Keller. For this report Miss Sullivan prepared, in reluctant compliance with the
request of Mr. Anagnos, an account of her work. This with the extracts from her letters, scattered
through the report, is the first valid source of information about Helen Keller. Of this report Miss
Sullivan wrote in a letter dated October 30, 1887:
“Have you seen the paper I wrote for the ‘report’? Mr. Anagnos was delighted with it. He says
Helen’s progress has been ‘a triumphal march from the beginning,’ and he has many flattering things to
say about her teacher. I think he is inclined to exaggerate; at all events, his language is too glowing,
and simple facts are set forth in such a manner that they bewilder one. Doubtless the work of the
past few months does seem like a triumphal march to him; but then people seldom see the halting and
painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved.”
As Mr. Anagnos was the head of a great institution, what he said had much more effect than the
facts in Miss Sullivan’s account on which he based his statements. The newspapers caught Mr.
Anagnos’s spirit and exaggerated a hundred-fold. In a year after she first went to Helen Keller, Miss
Sullivan found herself and her pupil the centre of a stupendous fiction. Then the educators all over the
world said their say and for the most part did not help matters. There grew up a mass of
controversial matter which it is amusing to read now. Teachers of the deaf proved a priori that what
Miss Sullivan had done could not be, and some discredit was reflected on her statements, because
they were surrounded by the vague eloquence of Mr. Anagnos. Thus the story of Helen Keller,
incredible when told with moderation, had the misfortune to be heralded by exaggerated
announcements, and naturally met either an ignorant credulity or an incredulous hostility.
In November, 1888, another report of the Perkins Institution appeared with a second paper by
Miss Sullivan, and then nothing official was published until November, 1891, when Mr. Anagnos
issued the last Perkins Institution report containing anything about Helen Keller. For this report Miss
Sullivan wrote the fullest and largest account she has ever written; and in this report appeared the
“Frost King,” which is discussed fully in a later chapter. Then the controversy waxed fiercer than ever.
Finding that other people seemed to know so much more about Helen Keller than she did, Miss
Sullivan kept silent and has been silent for ten years, except for her paper in the first volta Bureau
Souvenir of Helen Keller and the paper which, at Dr. Bell’s request, she prepared in 1894 for the
meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.
When Dr. Bell and others tell her, what is certainly true from an impersonal point of view, that she
owes it to the cause of education to write what she knows, she answers very properly that she owes
all her time and all her energies to her pupil.
Although Miss Sullivan is still rather amused than distressed when some one, even one of her
friends, makes mistakes in published articles about her and Miss Keller, still she sees that Miss
Keller’s book should include all the information that the teacher could at present furnish. So she
consented to the publication of extracts from letters which she wrote during the first year of her work
with her pupil. These letters were written to Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins, the only person to whom Miss
Sullivan ever wrote freely. Mrs. Hopkins has been a matron at the Perkins Institution for twenty
years, and during the time that Miss Sullivan was a pupil there she was like a mother to her. In these
letters we have an almost weekly record of Miss Sullivan’s work. Some of the details she had
forgotten, as she grew more and more to generalize. Many people have thought that any attempt to
find the principles in her method would be nothing but a later theory superimposed on Miss Sullivan’s
work. But it is evident that in these letters she was making a clear analysis of what she was doing.
She was her own critic, and in spite of her later declaration, made with her modest carelessness, that
she followed no particular method, she was very clearly learning from her task and phrasing at the
time principles of education of unique value not only in the teaching of the deaf but in the teaching of
all children. The extracts from her letters and reports form an important contribution to pedagogy,
and more than justify the opinion of Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, who wrote in 1893, when he was
President of Johns Hopkins University:
“I have just read… your most interesting account of the various steps you have taken in the
education of your wonderful pupil, and I hope you will allow me to express my admiration for the
wisdom that has guided your methods and the affection which has inspired your labours.”
Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan was born at Springfield, Massachusetts. Very early in her life she
became almost totally blind, and she entered the Perkins Institution October 7, 1880, when she was
fourteen years old. Later her sight was partially restored.
Mr. Anagnos says in his report of 1887: “She was obliged to begin her education at the lowest
and most elementary point; but she showed from the very start that she had in herself the force and
capacity which insure success…. She has finally reached the goal for which she strove so bravely.
The golden words that Dr. Howe uttered and the example that he left passed into her thoughts and
heart and helped her on the road to usefulness; and now she stands by his side as his worthy
successor in one of the most cherished branches of his work…. Miss Sullivan’s talents are of the
highest order.”
In 1886 she graduated from the Perkins Institution. When Captain Keller applied to the director
for a teacher, Mr. Anagnos recommended her. The only time she had to prepare herself for the work
with her pupil was from August, 1886, when Captain Keller wrote, to February, 1887. During this
time she read Dr. Howe’s reports. She was further aided by the fact that during the six years of her
school life she had lived in the house with Laura Bridgman. It was Dr. Howe who, by his work with
Laura Bridgman, made Miss Sullivan’s work possible: but it was Miss Sullivan who discovered the
way to teach language to the deaf-blind.
It must be remembered that Miss Sullivan had to solve her problems unaided by previous
experience or the assistance of any other teacher. During the first year of her work with Helen Keller, in which she taught her pupil language, they were in Tuscumbia; and when they came North
and visited the Perkins Institution, Helen Keller was never a regular student there or subject to the
discipline of the Institution. The impression that Miss Sullivan educated Helen Keller “under the
direction of Mr. Anagnos” is erroneous. In the three years during which at various times Miss Keller
and Miss Sullivan were guests of the Perkins Institution, the teachers there did not help Miss Sullivan,
and Mr. Anagnos did not even use the manual alphabet with facility as a means of communication.
Mr. Anagnos wrote in the report of the Perkins Institution, dated November 27, 1888: “At my
urgent request, Helen, accompanied by her mother and her teacher, came to the North in the last
week of May, and spent several months with us as our guests…. We gladly allowed her to use freely
our library of embossed books, our collection of stuffed animals, sea-shells, models of flowers and
plants, and the rest of our apparatus for instructing the blind through the sense of touch. I do not
doubt that she derived from them much pleasure and not a little profit. But whether Helen stays at
home or makes visits in other parts of the country, her education is always under the immediate
direction and exclusive control of her teacher. No one interferes with Miss Sullivan’s plans, or shares
in her tasks. She has been allowed entire freedom in the choice of means and methods for carrying
on her great work; and, as we can judge by the results, she has made a most judicious and discreet
use of this privilege. What the little pupil has thus far accomplished is widely known, and her
wonderful attainments command general admiration; but only those who are familiar with the
particulars of the grand achievement know that the credit is largely due to the intelligence, wisdom,
sagacity, unremitting perseverance and unbending will of the instructress, who rescued the child from
the depths of everlasting night and stillness, and watched over the different phases of her mental and
moral development with maternal solicitude and enthusiastic devotion.”
Here follow in order Miss Sullivan’s letters and the most important passages from the reports. I
have omitted from each succeeding report what has already been explained and does not need to be
repeated. For the ease of the reader I have, with Miss Sullivan’s consent, made the extracts run
together continuously and supplied words of connection and the resulting necessary changes in
syntax, and Miss Sullivan has made slight changes in the phrasing of her reports and also of her
letters, which were carelessly written. I have also italicized a few important passages. Some of her
opinions Miss Sullivan would like to enlarge and revise. That remains for her to do at another time.
At present we have here the fullest record that has been published. The first letter is dated March 6,
1887, three days after her arrival in Tuscumbia.
…It was 6.30 when I reached Tuscumbia. I found Mrs. Keller and Mr. James Keller waiting for
distance of one mile, was very lovely and restful. I was surprised to find Mrs. Keller a very younglooking
woman, not much older than myself, I should think. Captain Keller met us in the yard and
gave me a cheery welcome and a hearty handshake. My first question was, “Where is Helen?” I tried
with all my might to control the eagerness that made me tremble so that I could hardly walk. As we
approached the house I saw a child standing in the doorway, and Captain Keller said, “There she is.
She has known all day that some one was expected, and she has been wild ever since her mother
went to the station for you.” I had scarcely put my foot on the steps, when she rushed toward me
with such force that she would have thrown me backward if Captain Keller had not been behind me.
She felt my face and dress and my bag, which she took out of my hand and tried to open. It did not
open easily, and she felt carefully to see if there was a keyhole. Finding that there was, she turned to
me, making the sign of turning a key and pointing to the bag. Her mother interfered at this point and
showed Helen by signs that she must not touch the bag. Her face flushed, and when her mother
attempted to take the bag from her, she grew very angry. I attracted her attention by showing her my
watch and letting her hold it in her hand. Instantly the tempest subsided, and we went upstairs
together. Here I opened the bag, and she went through it eagerly, probably expecting to find something to eat. Friends had probably brought her candy in their bags, and she expected to find
some in mine. I made her understand, by pointing to a trunk in the hall and to myself and nodding my
head, that I had a trunk, and then made the sign that she had used for eating, and nodded again. 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. She returned in a few minutes and helped me put away my things.
It was too comical to see her put on my bonnet and cock her head first on one side, then on the
other, and look in the mirror, just as if she could see. Somehow I had expected to see a pale,
delicate child—I suppose I got the idea from Dr. Howe’s description of Laura Bridgman when she
came to the Institution. But there’s nothing pale or delicate about Helen. She is large, strong, and
ruddy, and as unrestrained in her movements as a young colt. She has none of those nervous habits
that are so noticeable and so distressing in blind children. Her body is well formed and vigorous, and
Mrs. Keller says she has not been ill a day since the illness that deprived her of her sight and hearing.
She has a fine head, and it is set on her shoulders just right. Her face is hard to describe. It is
intelligent, but lacks mobility, or soul, or something. Her mouth is large and finely shaped. You see at
a glance that she is blind. One eye is larger than the other, and protrudes noticeably. She rarely
smiles; indeed, I have seen her smile only once or twice since I came. She is unresponsive and even
impatient of caresses from any one except her mother. She is very quick-tempered and wilful, and
nobody, except her brother James, has attempted to control her. The greatest problem I shall have
to solve is how to discipline and control her without breaking her spirit. I shall go rather slowly at first
and try to win her love. I shall not attempt to conquer her by force alone; but I shall insist on
reasonable obedience from the start. One thing that impresses everybody is Helen’s tireless activity.
She is never still a moment. She is here, there, and everywhere. Her hands are in everything; but
nothing holds her attention for long. Dear child, her restless spirit gropes in the dark. Her untaught,
unsatisfied hands destroy whatever they touch because they do not know what else to do with things.
She helped me unpack my trunk when it came, and was delighted when she found the doll the little
girls sent her. I thought it a good opportunity to teach her her first word. I spelled “d-o-l-l” slowly in
her hand and pointed to the doll and nodded my head, which seems to be her sign for possession.
Whenever anybody gives her anything, she points to it, then to herself, and nods her head. She
looked puzzled and felt my hand, and I repeated the letters. She imitated them very well and pointed
to the doll. Then I took the doll, meaning to give it back to her when she had made the letters; but
she thought I meant to take it from her, and in an instant she was in a temper, and tried to seize the
doll. I shook my head and tried to form the letters with her fingers; but she got more and more angry.
I forced her into a chair and held her there until I was nearly exhausted. Then it occurred to me that it
was useless to continue the struggle—I must do something to turn the current of her thoughts. I let
her go, but refused to give up the doll. I went downstairs and got some cake (she is very fond of
sweets). I showed Helen the cake and spelled “c-a-k-e” in her hand, holding the cake toward her.
Of course she wanted it and tried to take it; but I spelled the word again and patted her hand. She
made the letters rapidly, and I gave her the cake, which she ate in a great hurry, thinking, I suppose,
that I might take it from her. Then I showed her the doll and spelled the word again, holding the doll
toward her as I held the cake. She made the letters “d-o-l”‘ and I made the other “l” and gave her the
doll. She ran downstairs with it and could not be induced to return to my room all day.
Yesterday I gave her a sewing-card to do. I made the first row of vertical lines and let her feel it
and notice that there were several rows of little holes. She began to work delightedly and finished the
card in a few minutes, and did it very neatly indeed. I thought I would try another word; so I spelled
“c-a-r-d.” She made the “c-a,” then stopped and thought, and making the sign for eating and pointing
downward she pushed me toward the door, meaning that I must go downstairs for some cake. The
two letters “c-a,” you see, had reminded her of Fridays “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. I finished the word “c-a-k-e” and obeyed her command. She was delighted. Then I spelled “d-o-l-l” and began to hunt
for it. She follows with her hands every motion you make, and she knew that I was looking for the
doll. She pointed down, meaning that the doll was downstairs. I made the signs that she had used
when she wished me to go for the cake, and pushed her toward the door. She started forward, then
hesitated a moment, evidently debating within herself whether she would go or not. She decided to
send me instead. I shook my head and spelled “d-o-l-l” more emphatically, and opened the door for
her; but she obstinately refused to obey. She had not finished the cake she was eating, and I took it
away, indicating that if she brought the doll I would give her back the cake. She stood perfectly still
for one long moment, her face crimson; then her desire for the cake triumphed, and she ran
downstairs and brought the doll, and of course I gave her the cake, but could not persuade her to
enter the room again.
She was very troublesome when I began to write this morning. She kept coming up behind me
and putting her hand on the paper and into the ink-bottle. These blots are her handiwork. Finally I
remembered the kindergarten beads, and set her to work stringing them. First I put on two wooden
beads and one glass bead, then made her feel of the string and the two boxes of beads. She nodded
and began at once to fill the string with wooden beads. I shook my head and took them all off and
made her feel of the two wooden beads and the one glass bead. She examined them thoughtfully and
began again. This time she put on the glass bead first and the two wooden ones next. I took them off
and showed her that the two wooden ones must go on first, then the glass bead. She had no further
trouble and filled the string quickly, too quickly, in fact. She tied the ends together when she had
finished the string, and put the beads round her neck. I did not make the knot large enough in the
next string, and the beads came off as fast as she put them on; but she solved the difficulty herself by
putting the string through a bead and tying it. I thought this very clever. She amused herself with the
beads until dinner-time, bringing the strings to me now and then for my approval.
My eyes are very much inflamed. I know this letter is very carelessly written. I had a lot to say,
and couldn’t stop to think how to express things neatly. Please do not show my letter to any one. If
you want to, you may read it to my friends.
Monday P.M.
I had a battle royal with Helen this morning. Although I try very hard not to force issues, I find it
very difficult to avoid them.
Helen’s table manners are appalling. She puts her hands in our plates and helps herself, and when
the dishes are passed, she grabs them and takes out whatever she wants. This morning I would not
let her put her hand in my plate. She persisted, and a contest of wills followed. Naturally the family
was much disturbed, and left the room. I locked the dining-room door, and proceeded to eat my
breakfast, though the food almost choked me. Helen was lying on the floor, kicking and screaming
and trying to pull my chair from under me. She kept this up for half an hour, then she got up to see
what I was doing. I let her see that I was eating, but did not let her put her hand in the plate. She
pinched me, and I slapped her every time she did it. Then she went all round the table to see who
was there, and finding no one but me, she seemed bewildered. After a few minutes she came back to
her place and began to eat her breakfast with her fingers. I gave her a spoon, which she threw on the
floor. I forced her out of the chair and made her pick it up. Finally I succeeded in getting her back in
her chair again, and held the spoon in her hand, compelling her to take up the food with it and put it
in her mouth. In a few minutes she yielded and finished her breakfast peaceably. Then we had
another tussle over folding her napkin. When she had finished, she threw it on the floor and ran
toward the door. Finding it locked, she began to kick and scream all over again. It was another hour
before I succeeded in getting her napkin folded. Then I let her out into the warm sunshine and went
up to my room and threw myself on the bed exhausted. I had a good cry and felt better. I suppose I
shall have many such battles with the little woman before she learns the only two essential things I can
teach her, obedience and love.
Good-by, dear. Don’t worry; I’ll do my best and leave the rest to whatever power manages that
which we cannot. I like Mrs. Keller very much.
Tuscumbia, Alabama, March 11, 1887.
Since I wrote you, Helen and I have gone to live all by ourselves in a little garden-house about a
quarter of a mile from her home, only a short distance from Ivy Green, the Keller homestead. I very
soon made up my mind that I could do nothing with Helen in the midst of the family, who have
always allowed her to do exactly as she pleased. She has tyrannized over everybody, her mother,
her father, the servants, the little darkies who play with her, and nobody had ever seriously disputed
her will, except occasionally her brother James, until I came; and like all tyrants she holds tenaciously
to her divine right to do as she pleases. If she ever failed to get what she wanted, it was because of
her inability to make the vassals of her household understand what it was. Every thwarted desire was
the signal for a passionate outburst, and as she grew older and stronger, these tempests became
more violent. As I began to teach her, I was beset by many difficulties. She wouldn’t yield a point
without contesting it to the bitter end. I couldn’t coax her or compromise with her. To get her to do
the simplest thing, such as combing her hair or washing her hands or buttoning her boots, it was
necessary to use force, and, of course, a distressing scene followed. The family naturally felt inclined
to interfere, especially her father, who cannot bear to see her cry. So they were all willing to give in
for the sake of peace. Besides, her past experiences and associations were all against me. I saw
clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learned to obey me. I
have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the
gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child. As I wrote you, I
meant to go slowly at first. I had an idea that I could win the love and confidence of my little pupil by
the same means that I should use if she could see and hear. But I soon found that I was cut off from
all the usual approaches to the child’s heart. She accepted everything I did for her as a matter of
course, and refused to be caressed, and there was no way of appealing to her affection or sympathy
or childish love of approbation. She would or she wouldn’t, and there was an end of it. Thus it is, we
study, plan and prepare ourselves for a task, and when the hour for action arrives, we find that the
system we have followed with such labour and pride does not fit the occasion; and then there’s
nothing for us to do but rely on something within us, some innate capacity for knowing and doing,
which we did not know we possessed until the hour of our great need brought it to light.
I had a good, frank talk with Mrs. Keller, and explained to her how difficult it was going to be to
do anything with Helen under the existing circumstances. I told her that in my opinion the child ought
to be separated from the family for a few weeks at least—that she must learn to depend on and obey
me before I could make any headway. After a long time Mrs. Keller said that she would think the
matter over and see what Captain Keller thought of sending Helen away with me. Captain Keller fell
in with the scheme most readily and suggested that the little garden-house at the “old place” be got
ready for us. He said that Helen might recognize the place, as she had often been there, but she
would have no idea of her surroundings, and they could come every day to see that all was going
well, with the understanding, of course, that she was to know nothing of their visits. I hurried the
preparations for our departure as much as possible, and here we are.
The little house is a genuine bit of paradise. It consists of one large square room with a great
fireplace, a spacious bay-window, and a small room where our servant, a little negro boy, sleeps.
There is a piazza in front, covered with vines that grow so luxuriantly that you have to part them to
see the garden beyond. Our meals are brought from the house, and we usually eat on the piazza. The
little negro boy takes care of the fire when we need one, so I can give my whole attention to Helen.
She was greatly excited at first, and kicked and screamed herself into a sort of stupor, but when supper was brought she ate heartily and seemed brighter, although she refused to let me touch her.
She devoted herself to her dolls the first evening, and when it was bedtime she undressed very
quietly, but when she felt me get into bed with her, she jumped out on the other side, and nothing that
I could do would induce her to get in again. But I was afraid she would take cold, and I insisted that
she must go to bed. We had a terrific tussle, I can tell you. The struggle lasted for nearly two hours. I
never saw such strength and endurance in a child. But fortunately for us both, I am a little stronger,
and quite as obstinate when I set out. I finally succeeded in getting her on the bed and covered her
up, and she lay curled up as near the edge of the bed as possible.
The next morning she was very docile, but evidently homesick. She kept going to the door, as if
she expected some one, and every now and then she would touch her cheek, which is her sign for
her mother, and shake her head sadly. She played with her dolls more than usual, and would have
nothing to do with me. It is amusing and pathetic to see Helen with her dolls. I don’t think she has any
special tenderness for them—I have never seen her caress them; but she dresses and undresses them
many times during the day and handles them exactly as she has seen her mother and the nurse handle
her baby sister.
This morning Nancy, her favourite doll, seemed to have some difficulty about swallowing the milk
that was being administered to her in large spoonfuls; for Helen suddenly put down the cup and
began to slap her on the back and turn her over on her knees, trotting her gently and patting her
softly all the time. This lasted for several minutes; then this mood passed, and Nancy was thrown
ruthlessly on the floor and pushed to one side, while a large, pink-cheeked, fuzzy-haired member of
the family received the little mother’s undivided attention.
Helen knows several words now, but has no idea how to use them, or that everything has a name.
I think, however, she will learn quickly enough by and by. As I have said before, she is wonderfully
bright and active and as quick as lightning in her movements.
March 13, 1887.
You will be glad to hear that my experiment is working out finely. I have not had any trouble at all
with Helen, either yesterday or to-day. She has learned three new words, and when I give her the
objects, the names of which she has learned, she spells them unhesitatingly; but she seems glad when
the lesson is over.
We had a good frolic this morning out in the garden. Helen evidently knew where she was as soon
as she touched the boxwood hedges, and made many signs which I did not understand. No doubt
they were signs for the different members of the family at Ivy Green.
I have just heard something that surprised me very much. It seems that Mr. Anagnos had heard of
Helen before he received Captain Keller’s letter last summer. Mr. Wilson, a teacher at Florence, and
a friend of the Kellers’, studied at Harvard the summer before and went to the Perkins Institution to
learn if anything could be done for his friend’s child. He saw a gentleman whom he presumed to be
the director, and told him about Helen. He says the gentleman was not particularly interested, but
said he would see if anything could be done. Doesn’t it seem strange that Mr. Anagnos never
referred to this interview?
March 20, 1887.
My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has
shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!
The wild little creature of two weeks ago has been transformed into a gentle child. She is sitting by
me as I write, her face serene and happy, crocheting a long red chain of Scotch wool. She learned
the stitch this week, and is very proud of the achievement. When she succeeded in making a chain
that would reach across the room, she patted herself on the arm and put the first work of her hands
lovingly against her cheek. She lets me kiss her now, and when she is in a particularly gentle mood, she will sit in my lap for a minute or two; but she does not return my caresses. The great step—the
step that counts—has been taken. The little savage has learned her first lesson in obedience, and
finds the yoke easy. It now remains my pleasant task to direct and mould the beautiful intelligence
that is beginning to stir in the child-soul. Already people remark the change in Helen. Her father
looks in at us morning and evening as he goes to and from his office, and sees her contentedly
stringing her beads or making horizontal lines on her sewing-card, and exclaims, “How quiet she is!”
When I came, her movements were so insistent that one always felt there was something unnatural
and almost weird about her. I have noticed also that she eats much less, a fact which troubles her
father so much that he is anxious to get her home. He says she is homesick. I don’t agree with him;
but I suppose we shall have to leave our little bower very soon.
Helen has learned several nouns this week. “M-u-g” and “m-i-l-k,” have given her more trouble
than other words. When she spells “milk,” she points to the mug, and when she spells “mug,” she
makes the sign for pouring or drinking, which shows that she has confused the words. She has no
idea yet that everything has a name.
Yesterday I had the little negro boy come in when Helen was having her lesson, and learn the
letters, too. This pleased her very much and stimulated her ambition to excel Percy. She was
delighted if he made a mistake, and made him form the letter over several times. When he succeeded
in forming it to suit her, she patted him on his woolly head so vigorously that I thought some of his
slips were intentional.
One day this week Captain Keller brought Belle, a setter of which he is very proud, to see us. He
wondered if Helen would recognize her old playmate. Helen was giving Nancy a bath, and didn’t
notice the dog at first. She usually feels the softest step and throws out her arms to ascertain if any
one is near her. Belle didn’t seem very anxious to attract her attention. I imagine she has been rather
roughly handled sometimes by her little mistress. The dog hadn’t been in the room more than half a
minute, however, before Helen began to sniff, and dumped the doll into the wash-bowl and felt about
the room. She stumbled upon Belle, who was crouching near the window where Captain Keller was
standing. It was evident that she recognized the dog; for she put her arms round her neck and
squeezed her. Then Helen sat down by her and began to manipulate her claws. We couldn’t think for
a second what she was doing; but when we saw her make the letters “d-o-l-l” on her own fingers,
we knew that she was trying to teach Belle to spell.
March 28, 1887.
Helen and I came home yesterday. I am sorry they wouldn’t let us stay another week; but I think I
have made the most I could of the opportunities that were mine the past two weeks, and I don’t
expect that I shall have any serious trouble with Helen in the future. The back of the greatest obstacle
in the path of progress is broken. I think “no” and “yes,” conveyed by a shake or a nod of my head,
have become facts as apparent to her as hot and cold or as the difference between pain and
pleasure. And I don’t intend that the lesson she has learned at the cost of so much pain and trouble
shall be unlearned. I shall stand between her and the over-indulgence of her parents. I have told
Captain and Mrs. Keller that they must not interfere with me in any way. I have done my best to
make them see the terrible injustice to Helen of allowing her to have her way in everything, and I
have pointed out that the processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it, are
apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher. They have promised to let me have a free hand and
help me as much as possible. The improvement they cannot help seeing in their child has given them
more confidence in me. Of course, it is hard for them. I realize that it hurts to see their afflicted little
child punished and made to do things against her will. Only a few hours after my talk with Captain
and Mrs. Keller (and they had agreed to everything), Helen took a notion that she wouldn’t use her
napkin at table. I think she wanted to see what would happen. I attempted several times to put the
napkin round her neck; but each time she tore it off and threw it on the floor and finally began to kick the table. I took her plate away and started to take her out of the room. Her father objected and said
that no child of his should be deprived of his food on any account.
Helen didn’t come up to my room after supper, and I didn’t see her again until breakfast-time. She
was at her place when I came down. She had put the napkin under her chin, instead of pinning it at
the back, as was her custom. She called my attention to the new arrangement, and when I did not
object she seemed pleased and patted herself. When she left the dining-room, she took my hand and
patted it. I wondered if she was trying to “make up.” I thought I would try the effect of a little belated
discipline. I went back to the dining-room and got a napkin. When Helen came upstairs for her
lesson, I arranged the objects on the table as usual, except that the cake, which I always give her in
bits as a reward when she spells a word quickly and correctly, was not there. She noticed this at
once and made the sign for it. I showed her the napkin and pinned it round her neck, then tore it off
and threw it on the floor and shook my head. I repeated this performance several times. I think she
understood perfectly well; for she slapped her hand two or three times and shook her head. We
began the lesson as usual. I gave her an object, and she spelled the name (she knows twelve now).
After spelling half the words, she stopped suddenly, as if a thought had flashed into her mind, and felt
for the napkin. She pinned it round her neck and made the sign for cake (it didn’t occur to her to
spell the word, you see). I took this for a promise that if I gave her some cake she would be a good
girl. I gave her a larger piece than usual, and she chuckled and patted herself.
April 3, 1887.
We almost live in the garden, where everything is growing and blooming and glowing. After
breakfast we go out and watch the men at work. Helen loves to dig and play in the dirt like any other
child. This morning she planted her doll and showed me that she expected her to grow as tall as I.
You must see that she is very bright, but you have no idea how cunning she is.
At ten we come in and string beads for a few minutes. She can make a great many combinations
now, and often invents new ones herself. Then I let her decide whether she will sew or knit or
crochet. She learned to knit very quickly, and is making a wash-cloth for her mother. Last week she
made her doll an apron, and it was done as well as any child of her age could do it. But I am always
glad when this work is over for the day. Sewing and crocheting are inventions of the devil, I think. I’d
rather break stones on the king’s highway than hem a handkerchief. At eleven we have gymnastics.
She knows all the free-hand movements and the “Anvil Chorus” with the dumb-bells. Her father says
he is going to fit up a gymnasium for her in the pump-house; but we both like a good romp better
than set exercises. The hour from twelve to one is devoted to the learning of new words. BUT YOU
MUSTN’T THINK THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I SPELL TO HELEN; FOR I SPELL IN HER
HAND EVERYTHING WE DO ALL DAY LONG, ALTHOUGH SHE HAS NO IDEA AS
YET WHAT THE SPELLING MEANS. After dinner I rest for an hour, and Helen plays with her
dolls or frolics in the yard with the little darkies, who were her constant companions before I came.
Later I join them, and we make the rounds of the outhouses. We visit the horses and mules in their
stalls and hunt for eggs and feed the turkeys. Often, when the weather is fine, we drive from four to
six, or go to see her aunt at Ivy Green or her cousins in the town. Helen’s instincts are decidedly
social; she likes to have people about her and to visit her friends, partly, I think, because they always
have things she likes to eat. After supper we go to my room and do all sorts of things until eight,
when I undress the little woman and put her to bed. She sleeps with me now. Mrs. Keller wanted to
get a nurse for her, but I concluded I’d rather be her nurse than look after a stupid, lazy negress.
Besides, I like to have Helen depend on me for everything, AND I FIND IT MUCH EASIER TO
TEACH HER THINGS AT ODD MOMENTS THAN AT SET TIMES.
On March 31st I found that Helen knew eighteen nouns and three verbs. Here is a list of the
words. Those with a cross after them are words she asked for herself: DOLL, MUG, PIN, KEY,
DOG, HAT, CUP, BOX, WATER, MILK, CANDY, EYE (X), FINGER (X), TOE (X), HEAD
(X), CAKE, BABY, MOTHER, SIT, STAND, WALK. On April 1st she learned the nouns
KNIFE, FORK, SPOON, SAUCER, TEA, PAPA, BED, and the verb RUN.
April 5, 1887.
I must write you a line this morning because something very important has happened. Helen has
taken the second great step in her education. She has learned that EVERYTHING HAS A NAME,
AND THAT THE MANUAL ALPHABET IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING SHE WANTS TO
KNOW.
In a previous letter I think I wrote you that “mug” and “milk” had given Helen more trouble than all
the rest. She confused the nouns with the verb “drink.” She didn’t know the word for “drink,” but
went through the pantomime of drinking whenever she spelled “mug” or “milk.” This morning, while
she was washing, she wanted to know the name for “water.” When she wants to know the name of
anything, she points to it and pats my hand. I spelled “w-a-t-e-r” and thought no more about it until
after breakfast. Then it occurred to me that with the help of this new word I might succeed in
straightening out the “mug-milk” difficulty. We went out to the pump-house, and I made Helen hold
her mug under the spout while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled
“w-a-t-e-r” in Helen’s free hand. The word coming so close upon the sensation of cold water rushing
over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as one transfixed. A new light
came into her face. She spelled “water” several times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked
for its name and pointed to the pump and the trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my
name. I spelled “Teacher.” Just then the nurse brought Helen’s little sister into the pump-house, and
Helen spelled “baby” and pointed to the nurse. All the way back to the house she was highly excited,
and learned the name of every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had adDED THIRTY
NEW WORDS TO HER VOCABULARY. HERE ARE SOME OF THEM: DOOR, OPEN,
SHUT, GIVE, GO, COME, and a great many more.
P.S.—I didn’t finish my letter in time to get it posted last night; so I shall add a line. Helen got up
this morning like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking the name of everything
and kissing me for very gladness. Last night when I got in bed, she stole into my arms of her own
accord and kissed me for the first time, and I thought my heart would burst, so full was it of joy.
April 10, 1887.
I see an improvement in Helen day to day, almost from hour to hour. Everything must have a name
now. Wherever we go, she asks eagerly for the names of things she has not learned at home. She is
anxious for her friends to spell, and eager to teach the letters to every one she meets. She drops the
signs and pantomime she used before, as soon as she has words to supply their place, and the
acquirement of a new word affords her the liveliest pleasure. And we notice that her face grows
more expressive each day.
I HAVE DECIDED NOT TO TRY TO HAVE REGULAR LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. I
AM GOING TO TREAT HELEN EXACTLY LIKE A TWO-YEAR-OLD CHILD. IT
OCCURRED TO ME THE OTHER DAY THAT IT IS ABSURD TO REQUIRE A CHILD TO
COME TO A CERTAIN PLACE AT A CERTAIN TIME AND RECITE CERTAIN LESSONS,
WHEN HE HAS NOT YET ACQUIRED A WORKING VOCABULARY. I sent Helen away
and sat down to think. I asked myself, “How does a normal child learn language?” The answer was
simple, “By imitation.” The child comes into the world with the ability to learn, and he learns of
himself, provided he is supplied with sufficient outward stimulus. He sees people do things, and he
tries to do them. He hears others speak, and he tried to speak. BUT LONG BEFORE HE
UTTERS HIS FIRST WORD, HE UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS SAID TO HIM. I have been
observing Helen’s little cousin lately. She is about fifteen months old, and already understands a great
deal. In response to questions she points out prettily her nose, mouth, eye, chin, cheek, ear. If I say,
“Where is baby’s other ear?” she points it out correctly. If I hand her a flower, and say, “Give it to
mamma,” she takes it to her mother. If I say, “Where is the little rogue?” she hides behind her
mother’s chair, or covers her face with her hands and peeps out at me with an expression of genuine
roguishness. She obeys many commands like these: “Come,” “Kiss,” “Go to papa,” “Shut the door,”
“Give me the biscuit.” But I have not heard her try to say any of these words, although they have
been repeated hundreds of times in her hearing, and it is perfectly evident that she understands them.
These observations have given me a clue to the method to be followed in teaching Helen language.I
SHALL TALK INTO HER HAND AS WE TALK INTO THE BABY’S EARS. I shall assume
that she has the normal child’s capacity of assimilation and imitation. I SHALL USE COMPLETE
SENTENCES IN TALKING TO HER, and fill out the meaning with gestures and her descriptive
signs when necessity requires it; but I shall not try to keep her mind fixed on any one thing. I shall do
all I can to interest and stimulate it, and wait for results.
April 24, 1887.
The new scheme works splendidly. Helen knows the meaning of more than a hundred words now,
and learns new ones daily without the slightest suspicion that she is performing a most difficult feat.
She learns because she can’t help it, just as the bird learns to fly. But don’t imagine that she “talks
fluently.” Like her baby cousin, she expresses whole sentences by single words. “Milk,” with a
gesture means, “Give me more milk.” “Mother,” accompanied by an inquiring look, means, “Were is
mother?” “Go” means, “I want to go out.” But when I spell into her hand, “Give me some bread,” she
hands me the bread, or if I say, “Get your hat and we will go to walk,” she obeys instantly. The two
words, “hat” and “walk” would have the same effect; BUT THE WHOLE SENTENCE,
REPEATED MANY TIMES DURING THE DAY, MUST IN TIME IMPRESS ITSELF UPON
THE BRAIN, AND BY AND BY SHE WILL USE IT HERSELF.
We play a little game which I find most useful in developing the intellect, and which incidentally
answers the purpose of a language lesson. It is an adaptation of hide-the-thimble. I hide something, a
ball or a spool, and we hunt for it. When we first played this game two or three days ago, she
showed no ingenuity at all in finding the object. She looked in places where it would have been
impossible to put the ball or the spool. For instance, when I hid the ball, she looked under her
writing-board. Again, when I hid the spool, she looked for it in a little box not more than an inch
long; and she very soon gave up the search. Now I can keep up her interest in the game for an hour
or longer, and she shows much more intelligence, and often great ingenuity in the search. This
morning I hid a cracker. She looked everywhere she could think of without success, and was
evidently in despair when suddenly a thought struck her, and she came running to me and made me
open my mouth very wide, while she gave it a thorough investigation. Finding no trace of the cracker
there, she pointed to my stomach and spelled “eat,” meaning, “Did you eat it?”
Friday we went down town and met a gentleman who gave Helen some candy, which she ate,
except one small piece which she put in her apron pocket. When we reached home, she found her
mother, and of her own accord said, “Give baby candy.” Mrs. Keller spelled, “No—baby eat—no.”
Helen went to the cradle and felt of Mildred’s mouth and pointed to her own teeth. Mrs. Keller
spelled “teeth.” Helen shook her head and spelled “Baby teeth—no, baby eat—no,” meaning of
course, “Baby cannot eat because she has no teeth.”
May 8, 1887.
No, I don’t want any more kindergarten materials. I used my little stock of beads, cards and
straws at first because I didn’t know what else to do; but the need for them is past, for the present at
any rate.
I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be
built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if
the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely,
let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little
round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden
blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots.
Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can
develop independent ideas out of actual experiences.
Helen is learning adjectives and adverbs as easily as she learned nouns. The idea always precedes
the word. She had signs for SMALL and LARGE long before I came to her. If she wanted a small
object and was given a large one, she would shake her head and take up a tiny bit of the skin of one
hand between the thumb and finger of the other. If she wanted to indicate something large, she
spread the fingers of both hands as wide as she could, and brought them together, as if to clasp a big
ball. The other day I substituted the words SMALL and LARGE for these signs, and she at once
adopted the words and discarded the signs. I can now tell her to bring me a large book or a small
plate, to go upstairs slowly, to run fast and to walk quickly. This morning she used the conjunction
AND for the first time. I told her to shut the door, and she added, “and lock.”
She came tearing upstairs a few minutes ago in a state of great excitement. I couldn’t make out at
first what it was all about. She kept spelling “dog—baby” and pointing to her five fingers one after
another, and sucking them. My first thought was, one of the dogs has hurt Mildred; but Helen’s
beaming face set my fears at rest. Nothing would do but I must go somewhere with her to see
something. She led the way to the pump-house, and there in the corner was one of the setters with
five dear little pups! I taught her the word “puppy” and drew her hand over them all, while they
sucked, and spelled “puppies.” She was much interested in the feeding process, and spelled “motherdog”
and “baby” several times. Helen noticed that the puppies’ eyes were closed, and she said, “Eyes
—shut. Sleep—no,” meaning, “The eyes are shut, but the puppies are not asleep.” She screamed
with glee when the little things squealed and squirmed in their efforts to get back to their mother, and
spelled, “Baby—eat large.” I suppose her idea was “Baby eats much.” She pointed to each puppy,
one after another, and to her five fingers, and I taught her the word FIVE. Then she held up one
finger and said “baby.” I knew she was thinking of Mildred, and I spelled, “One baby and five
puppies.” After she had played with them a little while, the thought occurred to her that the puppies
must have special names, like people, and she asked for the name of each pup. I told her to ask her
father, and she said, “No—mother.” She evidently thought mothers were more likely to know about
babies of all sorts. She noticed that one of the puppies was much smaller than the others, and she
spelled “small,” making the sign at the same time, and I said “very small.” She evidently understood
that VERY was the name of the new thing that had come into her head; for all the way back to the
house she used the word VERY correctly. One stone was “small,” another was “very small.” When
she touched her little sister, she said: “Baby—small. Puppy—very small.” Soon after, she began to
vary her steps from large to small, and little mincing steps were “very small.” She is going through the
house now, applying the new words to all kinds of objects.
Since I have abandoned the idea of regular lessons, I find that Helen learns much faster. I am
convinced that the time spent by the teacher in digging out of the child what she has put into him, for
the sake of satisfying herself that it has taken root, is so much time thrown away. IT’S MUCH
BETTER, I THINK, TO ASSUME THAT THE CHILD IS DOING HIS PART, AND THAT
THE SEED YOU HAVE SOWN WILL BEAR FRUIT IN DUE TIME. It’s only fair to the child,
anyhow, and it saves you much unnecessary trouble.
May 16, 1887.
We have begun to take long walks every morning, immediately after breakfast. The weather is
fine, and the air is full of the scent of strawberries. Our objective point is Keller’s Landing, on the
Tennessee, about two miles distant. We never know how we get there, or where we are at a given
moment; but that only adds to our enjoyment, especially when everything is new and strange. Indeed,
I feel as if I had never seen anything until now, Helen finds so much to ask about along the way. We
chase butterflies, and sometimes catch one. Then we sit down under a tree, or in the shade of a bush,
and talk about it. Afterwards, if it has survived the lesson, we let it go; but usually its life and beauty
are sacrificed on the altar of learning, though in another sense it lives forever; for has it not been
transformed into living thoughts? It is wonderful how words generate ideas! Every new word Helen
learns seems to carry with it necessity for many more. Her mind grows through its ceaseless activity.
Keller’s Landing was used during the war to land troops, but has long since gone to pieces, and is
overgrown with moss and weeds. The solitude of the place sets one dreaming. Near the landing
there is a beautiful little spring, which Helen calls “squirrel-cup,” because I told her the squirrels came
there to drink. She has felt dead squirrels and rabbits and other wild animals, and is anxious to see a
“walk-squirrel,” which interpreted, means, I think, a “live squirrel.” We go home about dinner-time
usually, and Helen is eager to tell her mother everything she has seen. THIS DESIRE TO REPEAT
WHAT HAS BEEN TOLD HER SHOWS A MARKED ADVANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF HER INTELLECT, AND IS AN INVALUABLE STIMULUS TO THE ACQUISITION OF
LANGUAGE. 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. This gratifies the child’s love of approbation and
keeps up her interest in things. This is the basis of real intercourse. She makes many mistakes, of
course, twists words and phrases, puts the cart before the horse, and gets herself into hopeless
tangles of nouns and verbs; but so does the hearing child. I am sure these difficulties will take care of
themselves. The impulse to tell is the important thing. I supply a word here and there, sometimes a
sentence, and suggest something which she has omitted or forgotten. 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.
May 22, 1887.
My work grows more absorbing and interesting every day. Helen is a wonderful child, so
spontaneous and eager to learn. She knows about 300 words now and A GREAT MANY
COMMON IDIOMS, and it is not three months yet since she learned her first word. It is a rare
privilege to watch the birth, growth, and first feeble struggles of a living mind; this privilege is mine;
and moreover, it is given me to rouse and guide this bright intelligence.
If only I were better fitted for the great task! I feel every day more and more inadequate. My mind
is full of ideas; but I cannot get them into working shape. You see, my mind is undisciplined, full of
skips and jumps, and here and there a lot of things huddled together in dark corners. How I long to
put it in order! Oh, if only there were some one to help me! I need a teacher quite as much as Helen.
I know that the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains
and perseverance to accomplish it. I have made up my mind about one thing: Helen must learn to use
books—indeed, we must both learn to use them, and that reminds me—will you please ask Mr.
Anagnos to get me Perez’s and Sully’s Psychologies? I think I shall find them helpful.
We have reading lessons every day. Usually we take one of the little “Readers” up in a big tree
near the house and spend an hour or two finding the words Helen already knows. WE MAKE A
SORT OF GAME OF IT and try to see who can find the words most quickly, Helen with her
fingers, or I with my eyes, and she learns as many new words as I can explain with the help of those
she knows. When her fingers light upon words she knows, she fairly screams with pleasure and hugs
and kisses me for joy, especially if she thinks she has me beaten. It would astonish you to see how
many words she learns in an hour in this pleasant manner. Afterward I put the new words into little
sentences in the frame, and sometimes it is possible to tell a little story about a bee or a cat or a little
boy in this way. I can now tell her to go upstairs or down, out of doors or into the house, lock or unlock a door, take or bring objects, sit, stand, walk, run, lie, creep, roll, or climb. She is delighted
with action-words; so it is no trouble at all to teach her verbs. She is always ready for a lesson, and
the eagerness with which she absorbs ideas is very delightful. She is as triumphant over the conquest
of a sentence as a general who has captured the enemy’s stronghold.
One of Helen’s old habits, that is strongest and hardest to correct, is a tendency to break things. If
she finds anything in her way, she flings it on the floor, no matter what it is: a glass, a pitcher, or even
a lamp. She has a great many dolls, and every one of them has been broken in a fit of temper or
ennui. The other day a friend brought her a new doll from Memphis, and I thought I would see if I
could make Helen understand that she must not break it. I made her go through the motion of
knocking the doll’s head on the table and spelled to her: “No, no, Helen is naughty. Teacher is sad,”
and let her feel the grieved expression on my face. Then I made her caress the doll and kiss the hurt
spot and hold it gently in her arms, and I spelled to her, “Good Helen, teacher is happy,” and let her
feel the smile on my face. She went through these motions several times, mimicking every movement,
then she stood very still for a moment with a troubled look on her face, which suddenly cleared, and
she spelled, “Good Helen,” and wreathed her face in a very large, artificial smile. Then she carried
the doll upstairs and put it on the top shelf of the wardrobe, and she has not touched it since.
Please give my kind regards to Mr. Anagnos and let him see my letter, if you think best. I hear
there is a deaf and blind child being educated at the Baltimore Institution.
June 2, 1887.
The weather is scorching. We need rain badly. We are all troubled about Helen. She is very
nervous and excitable. She is restless at night and has no appetite. It is hard to know what to do with
her. The doctor says her mind is too active; but how are we to keep her from thinking? She begins to
spell the minute she wakes up in the morning, and continues all day long. If I refuse to talk to her, she
spells into her own hand, and apparently carries on the liveliest conversation with herself.
I gave her my braille slate to play with, thinking that the mechanical pricking of holes in the paper
would amuse her and rest her mind. But what was my astonishment when I found that the little witch
was writing letters! I had no idea she knew what a letter was. She has often gone with me to the
post-office to mail letters, and I suppose I have repeated to her things I wrote to you. She knew,
too, that I sometimes write “letters to blind girls” on the slate; but I didn’t suppose that she had any
clear idea what a letter was. One day she brought me a sheet that she had punched full of holes, and
wanted to put it in an envelope and take it to the post-office. She said, “Frank—letter.” I asked her
what she had written to Frank. She replied, “Much words. Puppy motherdog—five. Baby—cry.
Hot. Helen walk—no. Sunfire—bad. Frank—come. Helen—kiss Frank. Strawberries—very good.”
Helen is almost as eager to read as she is to talk. I find she grasps the import of whole sentences,
catching from the context the meaning of words she doesn’t know; and her eager questions indicate
the outward reaching of her mind and its unusual powers.
The other night when I went to bed, I found Helen sound asleep with a big book clasped tightly in
her arms. She had evidently been reading, and fallen asleep. When I asked her about it in the
morning, she said, “Book—cry,” and completed her meaning by shaking and other signs of fear. I
taught her the word AFRAID, and she said: “Helen is not afraid. Book is afraid. Book will sleep with
girl.” I told her that the book wasn’t afraid, and must sleep in its case, and that “girl” mustn’t read in
bed. She looked very roguish, and apparently understood that I saw through her ruse.
I am glad Mr. Anagnos thinks so highly of me as a teacher. But “genius” and “originality” are
words we should not use lightly. If, indeed, they apply to me even remotely, I do not see that I
deserve any laudation on that account.
And right here I want to say something which is for your ears alone. Something within me tells me
that I shall succeed beyond my dreams. Were it not for some circumstances that make such an idea highly improbable, even absurd, I should think Helen’s education would surpass in interest and
wonder Dr. Howe’s achievement. I know that she has remarkable powers, and I believe that I shall
be able to develop and mould them. I cannot tell how I know these things. I had no idea a short time
ago how to go to work; I was feeling about in the dark; but somehow I know now, and I know that
I know. I cannot explain it; but when difficulties arise, I am not perplexed or doubtful. I know how to
meet them; I seem to divine Helen’s peculiar needs. It is wonderful.
Already people are taking a deep interest in Helen. No one can see her without being impressed.
She is no ordinary child, and people’s interest in her education will be no ordinary interest. Therefore
let us be exceedingly careful what we say and write about her. I shall write freely to you and tell you
everything, on one condition: It is this: you must promise never to show my letters to any one. My
beautiful Helen shall not be transformed into a prodigy if I can help it.
June 5, 1887.
The heat makes Helen languid and quiet. Indeed, the Tophetic weather has reduced us all to a
semi-liquid state. Yesterday Helen took off her clothes and sat in her skin all the afternoon. When the
sun got round to the window where she was sitting with her book, she got up impatiently and shut the
window. But when the sun came in just the same, she came over to me with a grieved look and
spelled emphatically: “Sun is bad boy. Sun must go to bed.”
She is the dearest, cutest little thing now, and so loving! One day, when I wanted her to bring me
some water, she said: “Legs very tired. Legs cry much.”
She is much interested in some little chickens that are pecking their way into the world this
morning. I let her hold a shell in her hand, and feel the chicken “chip, chip.” Her astonishment, when
she felt the tiny creature inside, cannot be put in a letter. The hen was very gentle, and made no
objection to our investigations. Besides the chickens, we have several other additions to the family—
two calves, a colt, and a penful of funny little pigs. You would be amused to see me hold a squealing
pig in my arms, while Helen feels it all over, and asks countless questions—questions not easy to
answer either. After seeing the chicken come out of the egg, she asked: “Did baby pig grow in egg?
Where are many shells?”
Helen’s head measures twenty and one-half inches, and mine measures twenty-one and one-half
inches. You see, I’m only one inch ahead!
June 12, 1887.
The weather continues hot. Helen is about the same—pale and thin; but you mustn’t think she is
really ill. I am sure the heat, and not the natural, beautiful activity of her mind, is responsible for her
condition. Of course, I shall not overtax her brain. We are bothered a good deal by people who
assume the responsibility of the world when God is neglectful. They tell us that Helen is “overdoing,”
that her mind is too active (these very people thought she had no mind at all a few months ago!) and
suggest many absurd and impossible remedies. But so far nobody seems to have thought of
chloroforming her, which is, I think, the only effective way of stopping the natural exercise of her
faculties. It’s queer how ready people always are with advice in any real or imaginary emergency,
and no matter how many times experience has shown them to be wrong, they continue to set forth
their opinions, as if they had received them from the Almighty!
I am teaching Helen the square-hand letters as a sort of diversion. It gives her something to do,
and keeps her quiet, which I think is desirable while this enervating weather lasts. She has a perfect
mania for counting. She has counted everything in the house, and is now busy counting the words in
her primer. I hope it will not occur to her to count the hairs of her head. If she could see and hear, I
suppose she would get rid of her superfluous energy in ways which would not, perhaps, tax her brain
so much, although I suspect that the ordinary child takes his play pretty seriously. The little fellow
who whirls his “New York Flyer” round the nursery, making “horseshoe curves” undreamed of by less imaginative engineers, is concentrating his whole soul on his toy locomotive.
She just came to say, with a worried expression, “Girl—not count very large (many) words.” I
said, “No, go and play with Nancy.” This suggestion didn’t please her, however; for she replied, “No.
Nancy is very sick.” I asked what was the matter, and she said, “Much (many) teeth do make Nancy
sick.” (Mildred is teething.)
I happened to tell her the other day that the vine on the fence was a “creeper.” She was greatly
amused, and began at once to find analogies between her movements and those of the plants. They
run, creep, hop, and skip, bend, fall, climb, and swing; but she tells me roguishly that she is “walkplant.”
Helen held some worsted for me last night while I wound it. Afterward she began to swing round
and round, spelling to herself all the time, “Wind fast, wind slow,” and apparently enjoying her
conceit very much.
June 15, 1887.
We had a glorious thunder-tempest last night, and it’s much cooler to-day. We all feel refreshed,
as if we’d had a shower-bath. Helen’s as lively as a cricket. She wanted to know if men were
shooting in the sky when she felt the thunder, and if the trees and flowers drank all the rain.
June 19, 1887.
My little pupil continues to manifest the same eagerness to learn as at first. Her every waking
moment is spent in the endeavour to satisfy her innate desire for knowledge, and her mind works so
incessantly that we have feared for her health. But her appetite, which left her a few weeks ago, has
returned, and her sleep seems more quiet and natural. She will be seven years old the twenty-seventh
of this month. Her height is four feet one inch, and her head measures twenty and one-half inches in
circumference, the line being drawn round the head so as to pass over the prominences of the
parietal and frontal bones. Above this line the head rises one and one-fourth inches.
During our walks she keeps up a continual spelling, and delights to accompany it with actions such
as skipping, hopping, jumping, running, walking fast, walking slow, and the like. When she drops
stitches she says, “Helen wrong, teacher will cry.” If she wants water she says, “Give Helen drink
water.” She knows four hundred words besides numerous proper nouns. In one lesson I taught her
these words: BEDSTEAD, MATTRESS, SHEET, BLANKET, COMFORTER, SPREAD,
PILLOW. The next day I found that she remembered all but spread. The same day she had learned,
at different times, the words: hOUSE, WEED, DUST, SWING, MOLASSES, FAST, SLOW,
MAPLE-SUGAR and COUNTER, and she had not forgotten one of these last. This will give you an
idea of the retentive memory she possesses. She can count to thirty very quickly, and can write
seven of the square-hand letters and the words which can be made with them. She seems to
understand about writing letters, and is impatient to “write Frank letter.” She enjoys punching holes in
paper with the stiletto, and I supposed it was because she could examine the result of her work; but
we watched her one day, and I was much surprised to find that she imagined she was writing a letter.
She would spell “Eva” (a cousin of whom she is very fond) with one hand, then make believe to write
it; then spell, “sick in bed,” and write that. She kept this up for nearly an hour. She was (or imagined
she was) putting on paper the things which had interested her. When she had finished the letter she
carried it to her mother and spelled, “Frank letter,” and gave it to her brother to take to the postoffice.
She had been with me to take letters to the post-office.
She recognizes instantly a person whom she has once met, and spells the name. Unlike Laura
Bridgman, she is fond of gentlemen, and we notice that she makes friends with a gentleman sooner
than with a lady.
She is always ready to share whatever she has with those about her, often keeping but very little
for herself. She is very fond of dress and of all kinds of finery, and is very unhappy when she finds a
hole in anything she is wearing. She will insist on having her hair put in curl papers when she is so
sleepy she can scarcely stand. She discovered a hole in her boot the other morning, and, after
breakfast, she went to her father and spelled, “Helen new boot Simpson (her brother) buggy store
man.” One can easily see her meaning.
July 3, 1887.
There was a great rumpus downstairs this morning. I heard Helen screaming, and ran down to see
what was the matter. I found her in a terrible passion. I had hoped this would never happen again.
She has been so gentle and obedient the past two months, I thought love had subdued the lion; but it
seems he was only sleeping. At all events, there she was, tearing and scratching and biting Viney like
some wild thing. It seems Viney had attempted to take a glass, which Helen was filling with stones,
fearing that she would break it. Helen resisted, and Viney tried to force it out of her hand, and I
suspect that she slapped the child, or did something which caused this unusual outburst of temper.
When I took her hand she was trembling violently, and began to cry. I asked what was the matter,
and she spelled: “Viney—bad,” and began to slap and kick her with renewed violence. I held her
hands firmly until she became more calm.
Later Helen came to my room, looking very sad, and wanted to kiss me. I said, “I cannot kiss
naughty girl.” She spelled, “Helen is good, Viney is bad.” I said: “You struck Viney and kicked her
and hurt her. You were very naughty, and I cannot kiss naughty girl.” She stood very still for a
moment, and it was evident from her face, which was flushed and troubled, that a struggle was going
on in her mind. Then she said: “Helen did (does) not love teacher. Helen do love mother. Mother will
whip Viney.” I told her that she had better not talk about it any more, but think. She knew that I was
much troubled, and would have liked to stay near me; but I thought it best for her to sit by herself. At
the dinner-table she was greatly disturbed because I didn’t eat, and suggested that “Cook make tea
for teacher.” But I told her that my heart was sad, and I didn’t feel like eating. She began to cry and
sob and clung to me.
She was very much excited when we went upstairs; so I tried to interest her in a curious insect
called a stick-bug. It’s the queerest thing I ever saw—a little bundle of fagots fastened together in the
middle. I wouldn’t believe it was alive until I saw it move. Even then it looked more like a mechanical
toy than a living creature. But the poor little girl couldn’t fix her attention. Her heart was full of
trouble, and she wanted to talk about it. She said: “Can bug know about naughty girl? Is bug very
happy?” Then, putting her arms round my neck, she said: “I am (will be) good to-morrow. Helen is
(will be) good all days.” I said, “Will you tell Viney you are very sorry you scratched and kicked
her?” She smiled and answered, “Viney (can) not spell words.” “I will tell Viney you are very sorry,”
I said. “Will you go with me and find Viney?” She was very willing to go, and let Viney kiss her,
though she didn’t return the caress. She has been unusually affectionate since, and it seems to me
there is a sweetness-a soul-beauty in her face which I have not seen before.
July 31, 1887.
Helen’s pencil-writing is excellent, as you will see from the enclosed letter, which she wrote for her
own amusement. I am teaching her the braille alphabet, and she is delighted to be able to make
words herself that she can feel.
She has now reached the question stage of her development. It is “what?” “why?” “when?”
especially “why?” all day long, and as her intelligence grows her inquiries become more insistent. I
remember how unbearable I used to find the inquisitiveness of my friends’ children; but I know now
that these questions indicate the child’s growing interest in the cause of things. The “why?” is the
DOOR THROUGH WHICH HE ENTERS THE WORLD OF REASON AND REFLECTION.
“How does carpenter know to build house?” “Who put chickens in eggs?” “Why is Viney black?”
“Flies bite—why?” “Can flies know not to bite?” “Why did father kill sheep?” Of course she asks
many questions that are not as intelligent as these. Her mind isn’t more logical than the minds of
ordinary children. 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.
I had a letter from Laura Bridgman last Sunday. Please give her my love, and tell her Helen sends
her a kiss. I read the letter at the supper-table, and Mrs. Keller exclaimed: “My, Miss Annie, Helen
writes almost as well as that now!” It is true.
August 21, 1887.
We had a beautiful time in Huntsville. Everybody there was delighted with Helen, and showered
her with gifts and kisses. The first evening she learned the names of all the people in the hotel, about
twenty, I think. The next morning we were astonished to find that she remembered all of them, and
recognized every one she had met the night before. She taught the young people the alphabet, and
several of them learned to talk with her. One of the girls taught her to dance the polka, and a little
boy showed her his rabbits and spelled their names for her. She was delighted, and showed her
pleasure by hugging and kissing the little fellow, which embarrassed him very much.
We had Helen’s picture taken with a fuzzy, red-eyed little poodle, who got himself into my lady’s
good graces by tricks and cunning devices known only to dogs with an instinct for getting what they
want.
She has talked incessantly since her return about what she did in Huntsville, and we notice a very
decided improvement in her ability to use language. Curiously enough, a drive we took to the top of
Monte Sano, a beautiful mountain not far from Huntsville, seems to have impressed her more than
anything else, except the wonderful poodle. She remembers all that I told her about it, and in telling
her mother REPEATED THE VERY WORDS AND PHRASES I HAD USED IN DESCRIBING
IT TO HER. In conclusion she asked her mother if she should like to see “very high mountain and
beautiful cloudcaps.” I hadn’t used this expression. I said, “The clouds touch the mountain softly, like
beautiful flowers.” You see, I had to use words and images with which she was familiar through the
sense of touch. But it hardly seems possible that any mere words should convey to one who has
never seen a mountain the faintest idea of its grandeur; and I don’t see how any one is ever to know
what impression she did receive, or the cause of her pleasure in what was told her about it. All that
we do know certainly is that she has a good memory and imagination and the faculty of association.
August 28, 1887.
I do wish things would stop being born! “New puppies,” “new calves” and “new babies” keep
Helen’s interest in the why and wherefore of things at white heat. The arrival of a new baby at Ivy
Green the other day was the occasion of a fresh outburst of questions about the origin of babies and
live things in general. “Where did Leila get new baby? How did doctor know where to find baby?
Did Leila tell doctor to get very small new baby? Where did doctor find Guy and Prince?” (puppies)
“Why is Elizabeth Evelyn’s sister?” etc., etc. These questions were sometimes asked under
circumstances which rendered them embarrassing, and I made up my mind that something must be
done. If it was natural for Helen to ask such questions, it was my duty to answer them. It’s a great
mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of
observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things. From the beginning, I
HAVE MADE IT A PRACTICE TO ANSWER ALL HELEN’S QUESTIONS TO THE BEST
OF MY ABILITY IN A WAY INTELLIGIBLE TO HER, and at the same time truthfully. “Why
should I treat these questions differently?” I asked myself. I decided that there was no reason, except
my deplorable ignorance of the great facts that underlie our physical existence. It was no doubt
because of this ignorance that I rushed in where more experienced angels fear to tread. There isn’t a
living soul in this part of the world to whom I can go for advice in this, or indeed, in any other
educational difficulty. The only thing for me to do in a perplexity is to go ahead, and learn by making
mistakes. But in this case I don’t think I made a mistake. I took Helen and my Botany, “How Plants
Grow,” up in the tree, where we often go to read and study, and I told her in simple words the story
of plantlife. I reminded her of the corn, beans and watermelon-seed she had planted in the spring,
and told her that the tall corn in the garden, and the beans and watermelon vines had grown from
those seeds. I explained how the earth keeps the seeds warm and moist, until the little leaves are
strong enough to push themselves out into the light and air where they can breathe and grow and
bloom and make more seeds, from which other baby-plants shall grow. I drew an analogy between
plant and animal-life, and told her that seeds are eggs as truly as hens’ eggs and birds’ eggs—that the
mother hen keeps her eggs warm and dry until the little chicks come out. I made her understand that
all life comes from an egg. The mother bird lays her eggs in a nest and keeps them warm until the
birdlings are hatched. The mother fish lays her eggs where she knows they will be moist and safe,
until it is time for the little fish to come out. I told her that she could call the egg the cradle of life.
Then I told her that other animals like the dog and cow, and human beings, do not lay their eggs, but
nourish their young in their own bodies. I had no difficulty in making it clear to her that if plants and
animals didn’t produce offspring after their kind, they would cease to exist, and everything in the
world would soon die. But the function of sex I passed over as lightly as possible. I did, however, try
to give her the idea that love is the great continuer of life. The subject was difficult, and my
knowledge inadequate; but I am glad I didn’t shirk my responsibility; for, stumbling, hesitating, and
incomplete as my explanation was, it touched deep responsive chords in the soul of my little pupil,
and the readiness with which she comprehended the great facts of physical life confirmed me in the
opinion that the child has dormant within him, when he comes into the world, all the experiences of
the race. These experiences are like photographic negatives, until language develops them and brings
out the memory-images.
September 4, 1887.
Helen had a letter this morning from her uncle, Doctor Keller. He invited her to come to see him at
Hot Springs. The name Hot Springs interested her, and she asked many questions about it. She
knows about cold springs. There are several near Tuscumbia; one very large one from which the
town got its name. “Tuscumbia” is the Indian for “Great Spring.” But she was surprised that hot water
should come out of the ground. She wanted to know who made fire under the ground, and if it was
like the fire in stoves, and if it burned the roots of plants and trees.
She was much pleased with the letter, and after she had asked all the questions she could think of,
she took it to her mother, who was sewing in the hall, and read it to her. It was amusing to see her
hold it before her eyes and spell the sentences out on her fingers, just as I had done. Afterward she
tried to read it to Belle (the dog) and Mildred. Mrs. Keller and I watched the nursery comedy from
the door. Belle was sleepy, and Mildred inattentive. Helen looked very serious, and, once or twice,
when Mildred tried to take the letter, she put her hand away impatiently. Finally Belle got up, shook
herself, and was about to walk away, when Helen caught her by the neck and forced her to lie down
again. In the meantime Mildred had got the letter and crept away with it. Helen felt on the floor for it,
but not finding it there, she evidently suspected Mildred; for she made the little sound which is her
“baby call.” Then she got up and stood very still, as if listening with her feet for Mildred’s “thump,
thump.” When she had located the sound, she went quickly toward the little culprit and found her
chewing the precious letter! This was too much for Helen. She snatched the letter and slapped the
little hands soundly. Mrs. Keller took the baby in her arms, and when we had succeeded in pacifying
her, I asked Helen, “What did you do to baby?” She looked troubled, and hesitated a moment
before answering. Then she said: “Wrong girl did eat letter. Helen did slap very wrong girl.” I told her
that Mildred was very small, and didn’t know that it was wrong to put the letter in her mouth.
“I did tell baby, no, no, much (many) times,” was Helen’s reply.
I said, “Mildred doesn’t understand your fingers, and we must be very gentle with her.”
She shook her head.
“Baby—not think. Helen will give baby pretty letter,” and with that she ran upstairs and brought
down a neatly folded sheet of braille, on which she had written some words, and gave it to Mildred,
saying, “Baby can eat all words.”
September 18, 1887.
I do not wonder you were surprised to hear that I was going to write something for the report. I
do not know myself how it happened, except that I got tired of saying “no,” and Captain Keller
urged me to do it. He agreed with Mr. Anagnos that it was my duty to give others the benefit of my
experience. Besides, they said Helen’s wonderful deliverance might be a boon to other afflicted
children.
When I sit down to write, my thoughts freeze, and when I get them on paper they look like
wooden soldiers all in a row, and if a live one happens along, I put him in a strait-jacket. It’s easy
enough, however, to say Helen is wonderful, because she really is. I kept a record of everything she
said last week, and I found that she knows six hundred words. This does not mean, however, that
she always uses them correctly. Sometimes her sentences are like Chinese puzzles; but they are the
kind of puzzles children make when they try to express their half-formed ideas by means of arbitrary
language. She has the true language-impulse, and shows great fertility of resource in making the
words at her command convey her meaning.
Lately she has been much interested in colour. She found the word “brown” in her primer and
wanted to know its meaning. I told her that her hair was brown, and she asked, “Is brown very
pretty?” After we had been all over the house, and I had told her the colour of everything she
touched, she suggested that we go to the hen-houses and barns; but I told her she must wait until
another day because I was very tired. We sat in the hammock; but there was no rest for the weary
there. Helen was eager to know “more colour.” I wonder if she has any vague idea of colour—any
reminiscent impression of light and sound. It seems as if a child who could see and hear until her
nineteenth month must retain some of her first impressions, though ever so faintly. Helen talks a great
deal about things that she cannot know of through the sense of touch. She asks many questions
about the sky, day and night, the ocean and mountains. She likes to have me tell her what I see in
pictures.
But I seem to have lost the thread of my discourse. “What colour is think?” was one of the restful
questions she asked, as we swung to and fro in the hammock. I told her that when we are happy our
thoughts are bright, and when we are naughty they are sad. Quick as a flash she said, “My think is
white, Viney’s think is black.” You see, she had an idea that the colour of our thoughts matched that
of our skin. I couldn’t help laughing, for at that very moment Viney was shouting at the top of her
voice:
“I long to sit on dem jasper walls And see dem sinners stumble and fall!”
October 3, 1887.
My account for the report is finished and sent off. I have two copies, and will send you one; but
you mustn’t show it to anybody. It’s Mr. Anagnos’s property until it is published.
I suppose the little girls enjoyed Helen’s letter. She wrote it out of her own head, as the children
say.
She talks a great deal about what she will do when she goes to Boston. She asked the other day,
“Who made all things and Boston?” She says Mildred will not go there because “Baby does cry all
days.”
October 25, 1887.
Helen wrote another letter to the little girls yesterday, and her father sent it to Mr. Anagnos. Ask
him to let you see it. She has begun to use the pronouns of her own accord. This morning I happened
to say, “Helen will go upstairs.” She laughed and said, “Teacher is wrong. You will go upstairs.” This
is another great forward step. Thus it always is. Yesterday’s perplexities are strangely simple to-day,
and to-day’s difficulties become to-morrow’s pastime.
The rapid development of Helen’s mind is beautiful to watch. I doubt if any teacher ever had a
work of such absorbing interest. There must have been one lucky star in the heavens at my birth, and
I am just beginning to feel its beneficent influence.
I had two letters from Mr. Anagnos last week. He is more grateful for my report than the English
idiom will express. Now he wants a picture “of darling Helen and her illustrious teacher, to grace the
pages of the forthcoming annual report.”
October, 1887.
You have probably read, ere this, Helen’s second letter to the little girls. I am aware that the
progress which she has made between the writing of the two letters must seem incredible. Only those
who are with her daily can realize the rapid advancement which she is making in the acquisition of
language. You will see from her letter that she uses many pronouns correctly. She rarely misuses or
omits one in conversation. Her passion for writing letters and putting her thoughts upon paper grows
more intense. She now tells stories in which the imagination plays an important part. She is also
beginning to realize that she is not like other children. The other day she asked, “What do my eyes
do?” I told her that I could see things with my eyes, and that she could see them with her fingers.
After thinking a moment she said, “My eyes are bad!” then she changed it into “My eyes are sick!”
Miss Sullivan’s first report, which was published in the official report of the Perkins Institution for
the year 1887, is a short summary of what is fully recorded in the letters. Here follows the last part,
beginning with the great day, April 5th, when Helen learned water.
In her reports Miss Sullivan speaks of “lessons” as if they came in regular order. This is the effect
of putting it all in a summary. “Lesson” is too formal for the continuous daily work.
One day I took her to the cistern. As the water gushed from the pump I spelled “w-a-t-e-r.”
Instantly she tapped my hand for a repetition, and then made the word herself with a radiant face.
Just then the nurse came into the cistern-house bringing her little sister. I put Helen’s hand on the
baby and formed the letters “b-a-b-y,” which she repeated without help and with the light of a new
intelligence in her face.
On our way back to the house everything she touched had to be named for her, and repetition
was seldom necessary. Neither the length of the word nor the combination of letters seems to make
any difference to the child. Indeed, she remembers HELIOTROPE and CHRYSANTHEMUM
more readily than she does shorter names. At the end of August she knew 625 words.
This lesson was followed by one on words indicative of place-relations. Her dress was put IN a
trunk, and then ON it, and these prepositions were spelled for her. Very soon she learned the
difference between ON and IN, though it was some time before she could use these words in
sentences of her own. Whenever it was possible she was made the actor in the lesson, and was
delighted to stand ON the chair, and to be put INTO the wardrobe. In connection with this lesson
she learned the names of the members of the family and the word IS. “Helen is in wardrobe,”
“Mildred is in crib,” “Box is on table,” “Papa is on bed,” are specimens of sentences constructed by
her during the latter part of April.
Next came a lesson on words expressive of positive quality. For the first lesson I had two balls,
one made of worsted, large and soft, the other a bullet. She perceived the difference in size at once.
Taking the bullet she made her habitual sign for SMALL—that is, by pinching a little bit of the skin of
one hand. Then she took the other ball and made her sign for LARGE by spreading both hands over it. I substituted the adjectives LARGE and SMALL for those signs. Then her attention was called to
the hardness of the one ball and the softness of the other, and she learned SOFT and HARD. A few
minutes afterward she felt of her little sister’s head and said to her mother, “Mildred’s head is small
and hard.” Next I tried to teach her the meaning of FAST and SLOW. She helped me wind some
worsted one day, first rapidly and afterward slowly. I then said to her with the finger alphabet, “wind
fast,” or “wind slow,” holding her hands and showing her how to do as I wished. The next day, while
exercising, she spelled to me, “Helen wind fast,” and began to walk rapidly. Then she said, “Helen
wind slow,” again suiting the action to the words.
I now thought it time to teach her to read printed words. A slip on which was printed, in raised
letters, the word BOX was placed on the object, and the same experiment was tried with a great
many articles, but she did not immediately comprehend that the label-name represented the thing.
Then I took an alphabet sheet and put her finger on the letter A, at the same time making A with my
fingers. She moved her finger from one printed character to another as I formed each letter on my
fingers. She learned all the letters, both capital and small, in one day. Next I turned to the first page
of the primer and made her touch the word CAT, spelling it on my fingers at the same time. Instantly
she caught the idea, and asked me to find DOG and many other words. Indeed, she was much
displeased because I could not find her name in the book. Just then I had no sentences in raised
letters which she could understand; but she would sit for hours feeling each word in her book. When
she touched one with which she was familiar, a peculiarly sweet expression lighted her face, and we
saw her countenance growing sweeter and more earnest every day. About this time I sent a list of the
words she knew to Mr. Anagnos, and he very kindly had them printed for her. Her mother and I cut
up several sheets of printed words so that she could arrange them into sentences. This delighted her
more than anything she had yet done; and the practice thus obtained prepared the way for the writing
lessons. There was no difficulty in making her understand how to write the same sentences with
pencil and paper which she made every day with the slips, and she very soon perceived that she
need not confine herself to phrases already learned, but could communicate any thought that was
passing through her mind. I put one of the writing boards used by the blind between the folds of the
paper on the table, and allowed her to examine an alphabet of the square letters, such as she was to
make. I then guided her hand to form the sentence, “Cat does drink milk.” When she finished it she
was overjoyed. She carried it to her mother, who spelled it to her.
Day after day she moved her pencil in the same tracks along the grooved paper, never for a
moment expressing the least impatience or sense of fatigue.
As she had now learned to express her ideas on paper, I next taught her the braille system. She
learned it gladly when she discovered that she could herself read what she had written; and this still
affords her constant pleasure. For a whole evening she will sit at the table writing whatever comes
into her busy brain; and I seldom find any difficulty in reading what she has written.
Her progress in arithmetic has been equally remarkable. She can add and subtract with great
rapidity up to the sum of one hundred; and she knows the multiplication tables as far as the FIVES.
She was working recently with the number forty, when I said to her, “Make twos.” She replied
immediately, “Twenty twos make forty.” Later I said, “Make fifteen threes and count.” I wished her
to make the groups of threes and supposed she would then have to count them in order to know
what number fifteen threes would make. But instantly she spelled the answer: “Fifteen threes make
forty-five.”
On being told that she was white and that one of the servants was black, she concluded that all
who occupied a similar menial position were of the same hue; and whenever I asked her the colour
of a servant she would say “black.” When asked the colour of some one whose occupation she did
not know she seemed bewildered, and finally said “blue.” She has never been told anything about death or the burial of the body, and yet on entering the
cemetery for the first time in her life, with her mother and me, to look at some flowers, she laid her
hand on our eyes and repeatedly spelled “cry—cry.” Her eyes actually filled with tears. The flowers
did not seem to give her pleasure, and she was very quiet while we stayed there.
On another occasion while walking with me she seemed conscious of the presence of her brother,
although we were distant from him. She spelled his name repeatedly and started in the direction in
which he was coming.
When walking or riding she often gives the names of the people we meet almost as soon as we
recognize them.
The letters take up the account again.
November 13, 1887.
We took Helen to the circus, and had “the time of our lives”! The circus people were much
interested in Helen, and did everything they could to make her first circus a memorable event. They
let her feel the animals whenever it was safe. She fed the elephants, and was allowed to climb up on
the back of the largest, and sit in the lap of the “Oriental Princess,” while the elephant marched
majestically around the ring. She felt some young lions. They were as gentle as kittens; but I told her
they would get wild and fierce as they grew older. She said to the keeper, “I will take the baby lions
home and teach them to be mild.” The keeper of the bears made one big black fellow stand on his
hind legs and hold out his great paw to us, which Helen shook politely. She was greatly delighted
with the monkeys and kept her hand on the star performer while he went through his tricks, and
laughed heartily when he took off his hat to the audience. One cute little fellow stole her hair-ribbon,
and another tried to snatch the flowers out of her hat. I don’t know who had the best time, the
monkeys, Helen or the spectators. One of the leopards licked her hands, and the man in charge of
the giraffes lifted her up in his arms so that she could feel their ears and see how tall they were. She
also felt a Greek chariot, and the charioteer would have liked to take her round the ring; but she was
afraid of “many swift horses.” 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. Some of them cried, and the wild man of Borneo shrank from her sweet
little face in terror. She has talked about nothing but the circus ever since. In order to answer her
questions, I have been obliged to read a great deal about animals. At present I feel like a jungle on
wheels!
December 12, 1887.
I find it hard to realize that Christmas is almost here, in spite of the fact that Helen talks about
nothing else. Do you remember what a happy time we had last Christmas?
Helen has learned to tell the time at last, and her father is going to give her a watch for Christmas.
Helen is as eager to have stories told her as any hearing child I ever knew. She has made me
repeat the story of little Red Riding Hood so often that I believe I could say it backward. She likes
stories that make her cry—I think we all do, it’s so nice to feel sad when you’ve nothing particular to
be sad about. I am teaching her little rhymes and verses, too. They fix beautiful thoughts in her
memory. I think, too, that they quicken all the child’s faculties, because they stimulate the imagination.
Of course I don’t try to explain everything. If I did, there would be no opportunity for the play of
fancy. TOO MUCH EXPLANATION DIRECTS THE CHILD’S ATTENTION TO WORDS
AND SENTENCES, SO THAT HE FAILS TO GET THE THOUGHT AS A WHOLE. I do not
think anyone can read, or talk for that matter, until he forgets words and sentences in the technical
sense.
January 1, 1888.
It is a great thing to feel that you are of some use in the world, that you are necessary to
somebody. Helen’s dependence on me for almost everything makes me strong and glad.
Christmas week was a very busy one here, too. Helen is invited to all the children’s
entertainments, and I take her to as many as I can. I want her to know children and to be with them
as much as possible. Several little girls have learned to spell on their fingers and are very proud of the
accomplishment. One little chap, about seven, was persuaded to learn the letters, and he spelled his
name for Helen. She was delighted, and showed her joy, by hugging and kissing him, much to his
embarrassment.
Saturday the school-children had their tree, and I took Helen. It was the first Christmas tree she
had ever seen, and she was puzzled, and asked many questions. “Who made tree grow in house?
Why? Who put many things on tree?” She objected to its miscellaneous fruits and began to remove
them, evidently thinking they were all meant for her. It was not difficult, however, to make her
understand that there was a present for each child, and to her great delight she was permitted to
hand the gifts to the children. There were several presents for herself. She placed them in a chair,
resisting all temptation to look at them until every child had received his gifts. One little girl had fewer
presents than the rest, and Helen insisted on sharing her gifts with her. It was very sweet to see the
children’s eager interest in Helen, and their readiness to give her pleasure. The exercises began at
nine, and it was one o’clock before we could leave. My fingers and head ached; but Helen was as
fresh and full of spirit as when we left home.
After dinner it began to snow, and we had a good frolic and an interesting lesson about the snow.
Sunday morning the ground was covered, and Helen and the cook’s children and I played snowball.
By noon the snow was all gone. It was the first snow I had seen here, and it made me a little
homesick. The Christmas season has furnished many lessons, and added scores of new words to
Helen’s vocabulary.
For weeks we did nothing but talk and read and tell each other stories about Christmas. Of
course I do not try to explain all the new words, nor does Helen fully understand the little stories I tell
her; but constant repetition fixes the words and phrases in the mind, and little by little the meaning will
come to her. I SEE NO SENSE IN “FAKING” CONVERSATION FOR THE SAKE OF
TEACHING LANGUAGE. IT’S STUPID AND DEADENING TO PUPIL AND TEACHER.
TALK SHOULD BE NATURAL AND HAVE FOR ITS OBJECT AN EXCHANGE OF
IDEAS. If there is nothing in the child’s mind to communicate, it hardly seems worth while to require
him to write on the blackboard, or spell on his fingers, cut and dried sentences about “the cat,” “the
bird,” “a dog.” I HAVE TRIED FROM THE BEGINNING TO TALK NATURALLY TO
HELEN AND TO TEACH HER TO TELL ME ONLY THINGS THAT INTEREST HER AND
ASK QUESTIONS ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF FINDING OUT WHAT SHE WANTS TO
KNOW. When I see that she is eager to tell me something, but is hampered because she does not
know the words, I supply them and the necessary idioms, and we get along finely. The child’s
eagerness and interest carry her over many obstacles that would be our undoing if we stopped to
define and explain everything. What would happen, do you think, if some one should try to measure
our intelligence by our ability to define the commonest words we use? I fear me, if I were put to such
a test, I should be consigned to the primary class in a school for the feeble-minded.
It was touching and beautiful to see Helen enjoy her first Christmas. Of course, she hung her
stocking—two of them lest Santa Claus should forget one, and she lay awake for a long time and got
up two or three times to see if anything had happened. When I told her that Santa Claus would not
come until she was asleep, she shut her eyes and said, “He will think girl is asleep.” She was awake
the first thing in the morning, and ran to the fireplace for her stocking; and when she found that Santa
Claus had filled both stockings, she danced about for a minute, then grew very quiet, and came to
ask me if I thought Santa Claus had made a mistake, and thought there were two little girls, and
would come back for the gifts when he discovered his mistake. The ring you sent her was in the toe
of the stocking, and when I told her you gave it to Santa Claus for her, she said, “I do love Mrs.
Hopkins.” She had a trunk and clothes for Nancy, and her comment was, “Now Nancy will go to
party.” When she saw the braille slate and paper, she said, “I will write many letters, and I will thank
Santa Claus very much.” It was evident that every one, especially Captain and Mrs. Keller, was
deeply moved at the thought of the difference between this bright Christmas and the last, when their
little girl had no conscious part in the Christmas festivities. As we came downstairs, Mrs. Keller said
to me with tears in her eyes, “Miss Annie, I thank God every day of my life for sending you to us; but
I never realized until this morning what a blessing you have been to us.” Captain Keller took my
hand, but could not speak. But his silence was more eloquent than words. My heart, too, was full of
gratitude and solemn joy.
The other day Helen came across the word grandfather in a little story and asked her mother,
“Where is grandfather?” meaning her grandfather. Mrs. Keller replied, “He is dead.” “Did father
shoot him?” Helen asked, and added, “I will eat grandfather for dinner.” So far, her only knowledge
of death is in connection with things to eat. She knows that her father shoots partridges and deer and
other game.
This morning she asked me the meaning of “carpenter,” and the question furnished the text for the
day’s lesson. After talking about the various things that carpenters make, she asked me, “Did
carpenter make me?” and before I could answer, she spelled quickly, “No, no, photographer made
me in Sheffield.”
One of the greatest iron furnaces has been started in Sheffield, and we went over the other
evening to see them make a “run.” Helen felt the heat and asked, “Did the sun fall?”
January 9, 1888.
The report came last night. I appreciate the kind things Mr. Anagnos has said about Helen and
me; but his extravagant way of saying them rubs me the wrong way. The simple facts would be so
much more convincing! Why, for instance, does he take the trouble to ascribe motives to me that I
never dreamed of? You know, and he knows, and I know, that my motive in coming here was not in
any sense philanthropic. How ridiculous it is to say I had drunk so copiously of the noble spirit of Dr.
Howe that I was fired with the desire to rescue from darkness and obscurity the little Alabamian! I
came here simply because circumstances made it necessary for me to earn my living, and I seized
upon the first opportunity that offered itself, although I did not suspect nor did he, that I had any
special fitness for the work.
January 26, 1888.
I suppose you got Helen’s letter. The little rascal has taken it into her head not to write with a
pencil. I wanted her to write to her Uncle Frank this morning, but she objected. She said: “Pencil is
very tired in head. I will write Uncle Frank braille letter.” I said, “But Uncle Frank cannot read
braille.” “I will teach him,” she said. I explained that Uncle Frank was old, and couldn’t learn braille
easily. In a flash she answered, “I think Uncle Frank is much (too) old to read very small letters.”
Finally I persuaded her to write a few lines; but she broke her pencil six times before she finished it. I
said to her, “You are a naughty girl.” “No,” she replied, “pencil is very weak.” I think her objection to
pencil-writing is readily accounted for by the fact that she has been asked to write so many
specimens for friends and strangers. You know how the children at the Institution detest it. It is
irksome because the process is so slow, and they cannot read what they have written or correct their
mistakes.
Helen is more and more interested in colour. When I told her that Mildred’s eyes were blue, she
asked, “Are they like wee skies?” A little while after I had told her that a carnation that had been
given her was red, she puckered up her mouth and said, “Lips are like one pink.” I told her they were tulips; but of course she didn’t understand the word-play. I can’t believe that the colourimpressions
she received during the year and a half she could see and hear are entirely lost.
Everything we have seen and heard is in the mind somewhere. It may be too vague and confused to
be recognizable, but it is there all the same, like the landscape we lose in the deepening twilight.
February 10, 1888.
We got home last night. We had a splendid time in Memphis, but I didn’t rest much. It was nothing
but excitement from first to last—drives, luncheons, receptions, and all that they involve when you
have an eager, tireless child like Helen on your hands. She talked incessantly. I don’t know what I
should have done, had some of the young people not learned to talk with her. They relieved me as
much as possible. But even then I can never have a quiet half hour to myself. It is always: “Oh, Miss
Sullivan, please come and tell us what Helen means,” or “Miss Sullivan, won’t you please explain this
to Helen? We can’t make her understand.” I believe half the white population of Memphis called on
her, she is too unconscious of herself, and too loving.
The stores in Memphis are very good, and I managed to spend all the money that I had with me.
One day Helen said, “I must buy Nancy a very pretty hat.” I said, “Very well, we will go shopping
this afternoon.” She had a silver dollar and a dime. When we reached the shop, I asked her how
much she would pay for Nancy’s hat. She answered promptly, “I will pay ten cents.” “What will you
do with the dollar?” I asked. “I will buy some good candy to take to Tuscumbia,” was her reply.
We visited the Stock Exchange and a steamboat. Helen was greatly interested in the boat, and
insisted on being shown every inch of it from the engine to the flag on the flagstaff. I was gratified to
read what the Nation had to say about Helen last week.
Captain Keller has had two interesting letters since the publication of the “Report,” one from Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell, and the other from Dr. Edward Everett Hale. Dr. Hale claims kinship with
Helen, and seems very proud of his little cousin. Dr. Bell writes that Helen’s progress is without a
parallel in the education of the deaf, or something like that and he says many nice things about her
teacher.
March 5, 1888.
I did not have a chance to finish my letter yesterday. Miss Ev. came up to help me make a list of
words Helen has learned. We have got as far as P, and there are 900 words to her credit. I had
Helen begin a journal March 1st.[Most of this journal was lost. Fortunately, however, Helen Keller
wrote so many letters and exercises that there is no lack of records of that sort.] I don’t know how
long she will keep it up. It’s rather stupid business, I think. Just now she finds it great fun. She seems
to like to tell all she knows. This is what Helen wrote Sunday:
“I got up, washed my face and hands, combed my hair, picked three dew violets for Teacher and
ate my breakfast. After breakfast I played with dolls short. Nancy was cross. Cross is cry and kick.
I read in my book about large, fierce animals. Fierce is much cross and strong and very hungry. I do
not love fierce animals. I wrote letter to Uncle James. He lives in Hotsprings. He is doctor. Doctor
makes sick girl well. I do not like sick. Then I ate my dinner. I like much icecream very much. After
dinner father went to Birmingham on train far away. I had letter from Robert. He loves me. He said
Dear Helen, Robert was glad to get a letter from dear, sweet little Helen. I will come to see you
when the sun shines. Mrs. Newsum is Robert’s wife. Robert is her husband. Robert and I will run
and jump and hop and dance and swing and talk about birds and flowers and trees and grass and
Jumbo and Pearl will go with us. Teacher will say, We are silly. She is funny. Funny makes us laugh.
Natalie is a good girl and does not cry. Mildred does cry. She will be a nice girl in many days and
run and play with me. Mrs. Graves is making short dresses for Natalie. Mr. Mayo went to Duckhill
and brought home many sweet flowers. Mr. Mayo and Mr. Farris and Mr. Graves love me and Teacher. I am going to Memphis to see them soon, and they will hug and kiss me. Thornton goes to
school and gets his face dirty. Boy must be very careful. After supper I played romp with Teacher in
bed. She buried me under the pillows and then I grew very slow like tree out of ground. Now, I will
go to bed. HELEN KELLER.”
April 16, 1888.
We are just back from church. Captain Keller said at breakfast this morning that he wished I
would take Helen to church. The Presbytery would be there in a body, and he wanted the ministers
to see Helen. The Sunday-school was in session when we arrived, and I wish you could have seen
the sensation Helen’s entrance caused. The children were so pleased to see her at Sunday-school,
they paid no attention to their teachers, but rushed out of their seats and surrounded us. She kissed
them all, boys and girls, willing or unwilling. She seemed to think at first that the children all belonged
to the visiting ministers; but soon she recognized some little friends among them, and I told her the
ministers didn’t bring their children with them. She looked disappointed and said, “I’ll send them
many kisses.” One of the ministers wished me to ask Helen, “What do ministers do?” She said, “They
read and talk loud to people to be good.” He put her answer down in his note book. When it was
time for the church service to begin, she was in such a state of excitement that I thought it best to
take her away; but Captain Keller said, “No, she will be all right.” So there was nothing to do but
stay. It was impossible to keep Helen quiet. She hugged and kissed me, and the quiet-looking divine
who sat on the other side of her. He gave her his watch to play with; but that didn’t keep her still.
She wanted to show it to the little boy in the seat behind us. When the communion service began, she
smelt the wine, and sniffed so loud that every one in the church could hear. When the wine was
passed to our neighbour, he was obliged to stand up to prevent her taking it away from him. I never
was so glad to get out of a place as I was to leave that church! I tried to hurry Helen out-of-doors,
but she kept her arm extended, and every coat-tail she touched must needs turn round and give an
account of the children he left at home, and receive kisses according to their number. Everybody
laughed at her antics, and you would have thought they were leaving a place of amusement rather
than a church. Captain Keller invited some of the ministers to dinner. Helen was irrepressible. She
described in the most animated pantomime, supplemented by spelling, what she was going to do in
Brewster. Finally she got up from the table and went through the motion of picking seaweed and
shells, and splashing in the water, holding up her skirts higher than was proper under the
circumstances. Then she threw herself on the floor and began to swim so energetically that some of
us thought we should be kicked out of our chairs! Her motions are often more expressive than any
words, and she is as graceful as a nymph.
I wonder if the days seem as interminable to you as they do to me. We talk and plan and dream
about nothing but Boston, Boston, Boston. I think Mrs. Keller has definitely decided to go with us,
but she will not stay all summer.
May 15, 1888.
Do you realize that this is the last letter I shall write to you for a long, long time? The next word
that you receive from me will be in a yellow envelope, and it will tell you when we shall reach
Boston. I am too happy to write letters; but I must tell you about our visit to Cincinnati.
We spent a delightful week with the “doctors.” Dr. Keller met us in Memphis. Almost every one
on the train was a physician, and Dr. Keller seemed to know them all. When we reached Cincinnati,
we found the place full of doctors. There were several prominent Boston physicians among them.
We stayed at the Burnet House. Everybody was delighted with Helen. All the learned men marveled
at her intelligence and gaiety. There is something about her that attracts people. I think it is her joyous
interest in everything and everybody.
Wherever she went she was the centre of interest. She was delighted with the orchestra at the
hotel, and whenever the music began she danced round the room, hugging and kissing every one she
happened to touch. Her happiness impressed all; nobody seemed to pity her. One gentleman said to
Dr. Keller, “I have lived long and seen many happy faces; but I have never seen such a radiant face
as this child’s before to-night.” Another said, “Damn me! but I’d give everything I own in the world to
have that little girl always near me.” But I haven’t time to write all the pleasant things people said—
they would make a very large book, and the kind things they did for us would fill another volume. Dr.
Keller distributed the extracts from the report that Mr. Anagnos sent me, and he could have
disposed of a thousand if he had had them. Do you remember Dr. Garcelon, who was Governor of
Maine several years ago? He took us to drive one afternoon, and wanted to give Helen a doll; but
she said: “I do not like too many children. Nancy is sick, and Adeline is cross, and Ida is very bad.”
We laughed until we cried, she was so serious about it. “What would you like, then?” asked the
Doctor. “Some beautiful gloves to talk with,” she answered. The Doctor was puzzled. He had never
heard of “talking-gloves”; but I explained that she had seen a glove on which the alphabet was
printed, and evidently thought they could be bought. I told him he could buy some gloves if he
wished, and that I would have the alphabet stamped on them.
We lunched with Mr. Thayer (your former pastor) and his wife. He asked me how I had taught
Helen adjectives and the names of abstract ideas like goodness and happiness. These same
questions had been asked me a hundred times by the learned doctors. It seems strange that people
should marvel at what is really so simple. Why, it is as easy to teach the name of an idea, if it is
clearly formulated in the child’s mind, as to teach the name of an object. It would indeed be a
herculean task to teach the words if the ideas did not already exist in the child’s mind. If his
experiences and observations hadn’t led him to the concepts, SMALL, LARGE, GOOD, BAD,
SWEET, SOUR, he would have nothing to attach the word-tags to.
I, little ignorant I, found myself explaining to the wise men of the East and the West such simple
things as these: If you give a child something sweet, and he wags his tongue and smacks his lips and
looks pleased, he has a very definite sensation; and if, every time he has this experience, he hears the
word SWEET, or has it spelled into his hand, he will quickly adopt this arbitrary sign for his
sensation. Likewise, if you put a bit of lemon on his tongue, he puckers up his lips and tries to spit it
out; and after he has had this experience a few times, if you offer him a lemon, he shuts his mouth and
makes faces, clearly indicating that he remembers the unpleasant sensation. You label it SOUR, and
he adopts your symbol. If you had called these sensations respectively BLACK and WHITE, he
would have adopted them as readily; but he would mean by BLACK and WHITE the same things
that he means by SWEET and SOUR. In the same way the child learns from many experiences to
differentiate his feelings, and we name them for him—GOOD, BAD, GENTLE, ROUGH, HAPPY,
SAD. It is not the word, but the capacity to experience the sensation that counts in his education.
This extract from one of Miss Sullivan’s letters is added because it contains interesting casual
opinions stimulated by observing the methods of others.
We visited a little school for the deaf. We were very kindly received, and Helen enjoyed meeting
the children. Two of the teachers knew the manual alphabet, and talked to her without an interpreter.
They were astonished at her command of language. Not a child in the school, they said, had anything
like Helen’s facility of expression, and some of them had been under instruction for two or three
years. I was incredulous at first; but after I had watched the children at work for a couple of hours, I
knew that what I had been told was true, and I wasn’t surprised. In one room some little tots were
standing before the blackboard, painfully constructing “simple sentences.” A little girl had written: “I
have a new dress. It is a pretty dress. My mamma made my pretty new dress. I love mamma.” A
curly-headed little boy was writing: “I have a large ball. I like to kick my large ball.” When we
entered the room, the children’s attention was riveted on Helen. One of them pulled me by the sleeve
and said, “Girl is blind.” The teacher was writing on the blackboard: “The girl’s name is Helen. She is
deaf. She cannot see. We are very sorry.” I said: “Why do you write those sentences on the board?
Wouldn’t the children understand if you talked to them about Helen?” The teacher said something
about getting the correct construction, and continued to construct an exercise out of Helen. I asked
her if the little girl who had written about the new dress was particularly pleased with her dress.
“No,” she replied, “I think not; but children learn better if they write about things that concern them
personally.” It seemed all so mechanical and difficult, my heart ached for the poor little children.
Nobody thinks of making a hearing child say, “I have a pretty new dress,” at the beginning. These
children were older in years, it is true, than the baby who lisps, “Papa kiss baby—pretty,” and fills
out her meaning by pointing to her new dress; but their ability to understand and use language was no
greater.
There was the same difficulty throughout the school. In every classroom I saw sentences on the
blackboard, which evidently had been written to illustrate some grammatical rule, or for the purpose
of using words that had previously been taught in the same, or in some other connection. This sort of
thing may be necessary in some stages of education; but it isn’t the way to acquire language.
NOTHING, I THINK, CRUSHES THE CHILD’S IMPULSE TO TALK NATURALLY MORE
EFFECTUALLY THAN THESE BLACKBOARD EXERCISES. The schoolroom is not the place
to teach any young child language, least of all the deaf child. He must be kept as unconscious as the
hearing child of the fact that he is learning words,AND HE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO
PRATTLE ON HIS FINGERS, OR WITH HIS PENCIL, IN MONOSYLLABLES IF HE
CHOOSES, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS HIS GROWING INTELLIGENCE DEMANDS THE
SENTENCE. Language should not be associated in his mind with endless hours in school, with
puzzling questions in grammar, or with anything that is an enemy to joy. But I must not get into the
habit of criticizing other people’s methods too severely. I may be as far from the straight road as
they.
Miss Sullivan’s second report brings the account down to October 1st, 1888.
During the past year Helen has enjoyed excellent health. Her eyes and ears have been examined
by specialists, and it is their opinion that she cannot have the slightest perception of either light or
sound.
It is impossible to tell exactly to what extent the senses of smell and taste aid her in gaining
information respecting physical qualities; but, according to eminent authority, these senses do exert a
great influence on the mental and moral development. Dugald Stewart says, “Some of the most
significant words relating to the human mind are borrowed from the sense of smell; and the
conspicuous place which its sensations occupy in the poetical language of all nations shows how
easily and naturally they ally themselves with the refined operations of the fancy and the moral
emotions of the heart.” Helen certainly derives great pleasure from the exercise of these senses. On
entering a greenhouse her countenance becomes radiant, and she will tell the names of the flowers
with which she is familiar, by the sense of smell alone. Her recollections of the sensations of smell are
very vivid. She enjoys in anticipation the scent of a rose or a violet; and if she is promised a bouquet
of these flowers, a peculiarly happy expression lights her face, indicating that in imagination she
perceives their fragrance, and that it is pleasant to her. It frequently happens that the perfume of a
flower or the flavour of a fruit recalls to her mind some happy event in home life, or a delightful
birthday party.
Her sense of touch has sensibly increased during the year, and has gained in acuteness and
delicacy. Indeed, her whole body is so finely organized that she seems to use it as a medium for
bringing herself into closer relations with her fellow creatures. She is able not only to distinguish with
great accuracy the different undulations of the air and the vibrations of the floor made by various
sounds and motions, and to recognize her friends and acquaintances the instant she touches their
hands or clothing, but she also perceives the state of mind of those around her. It is impossible for
any one with whom Helen is conversing to be particularly happy or sad, and withhold the knowledge
of this fact from her.
She observes the slightest emphasis placed upon a word in conversation, and she discovers
meaning in every change of position, and in the varied play of the muscles of the hand. She responds
quickly to the gentle pressure of affection, the pat of approval, the jerk of impatience, the firm motion
of command, and to the many other variations of the almost infinite language of the feelings; and she
has become so expert in interpreting this unconscious language of the emotions that she is often able
to divine our very thoughts.
In my account of Helen last year, I mentioned several instances where she seemed to have called
into use an inexplicable mental faculty; but it now seems to me, after carefully considering the matter,
that this power may be explained by her perfect familiarity with the muscular variations of those with
whom she comes into contact, caused by their emotions. She has been forced to depend largely
upon this muscular sense as a means of ascertaining the mental condition of those about her. She has
learned to connect certain movements of the body with anger, others with joy, and others still with
sorrow. One day, while she was out walking with her mother and Mr. Anagnos, a boy threw a
torpedo, which startled Mrs. Keller. Helen felt the change in her mother’s movements instantly, and
asked, “What are we afraid of?” On one occasion, while walking on the Common with her, I saw a
police officer taking a man to the station-house. The agitation which I felt evidently produced a
perceptible physical change; for Helen asked, excitedly, “What do you see?”
A striking illustration of this strange power was recently shown while her ears were being
examined by the aurists in Cincinnati. Several experiments were tried, to determine positively
whether or not she had any perception of sound. All present were astonished when she appeared not
only to hear a whistle, but also an ordinary tone of voice. She would turn her head, smile, and act as
though she had heard what was said. I was then standing beside her, holding her hand. Thinking that
she was receiving impressions from me, I put her hands upon the table, and withdrew to the opposite
side of the room. The aurists then tried their experiments with quite different results. Helen remained
motionless through them all, not once showing the least sign that she realized what was going on. At
my suggestion, one of the gentlemen took her hand, and the tests were repeated. This time her
countenance changed whenever she was spoken to, but there was not such a decided lighting up of
the features as when I had held her hand.
In the account of Helen last year it was stated that she knew nothing about death, or the burial of
the body; yet on entering a cemetery for the first time in her life, she showed signs of emotion—her
eyes actually filling with tears.
A circumstance equally remarkable occurred last summer; but, before relating it, I will mention
what she now knows with regard to death. Even before I knew her, she had handled a dead
chicken, or bird, or some other small animal. Some time after the visit to the cemetery before
referred to, Helen became interested in a horse that had met with an accident by which one of his
legs had been badly injured, and she went daily with me to visit him. The wounded leg soon became
so much worse that the horse was suspended from a beam. The animal groaned with pain, and
Helen, perceiving his groans, was filled with pity. At last it became necessary to kill him, and, when
Helen next asked to go and see him, I told her that he was DEAD. This was the first time that she
had heard the word. I then explained that he had been shot to relieve him from suffering, and that he
was now BURIED—put into the ground. I am inclined to believe that the idea of his having been
intentionally shot did not make much impression upon her; but I think she did realize the fact that life
was extinct in the horse as in the dead birds she had touched, and also that he had been put into the
ground. Since this occurrence, I have used the word DEAD whenever occasion required, but with
no further explanation of its meaning.
While making a visit at Brewster, Massachusetts, she one day accompanied my friend and me
through the graveyard. She examined one stone after another, and seemed pleased when she could
decipher a name. She smelt of the flowers, but showed no desire to pluck them; and, when I
gathered a few for her, she refused to have them pinned on her dress. When her attention was drawn
to a marble slab inscribed with the name FLORENCE in relief, she dropped upon the ground as
though looking for something, then turned to me with a face full of trouble, and asked, “Were is poor
little Florence?” I evaded the question, but she persisted. Turning to my friend, she asked, “Did you
cry loud for poor little Florence?” Then she added: “I think she is very dead. Who put her in big
hole?” As she continued to ask these distressing questions, we left the cemetery. Florence was the
daughter of my friend, and was a young lady at the time of her death; but Helen had been told
nothing about her, nor did she even know that my friend had had a daughter. Helen had been given a
bed and carriage for her dolls, which she had received and used like any other gift. On her return to
the house after her visit to the cemetery, she ran to the closet where these toys were kept, and
carried them to my friend, saying, “They are poor little Florence’s.” This was true, although we were
at a loss to understand how she guessed it. A letter written to her mother in the course of the
following week gave an account of her impression in her own words:
“I put my little babies to sleep in Florence’s little bed, and I take them to ride in her carriage. Poor
little Florence is dead. She was very sick and died. Mrs. H. did cry loud for her dear little child. She
got in the ground, and she is very dirty, and she is cold. Florence was very lovely like Sadie, and
Mrs. H. kissed her and hugged her much. Florence is very sad in big hole. Doctor gave her medicine
to make her well, but poor Florence did not get well. When she was very sick she tossed and
moaned in bed. Mrs. H. will go to see her soon.”
Notwithstanding the activity of Helen’s mind, she is a very natural child. She is fond of fun and
frolic, and loves dearly to be with other children. She is never fretful or irritable, and I have never
seen her impatient with her playmates because they failed to understand her. She will play for hours
together with children who cannot understand a single word she spells, and it is pathetic to watch the
eager gestures and excited pantomime through which her ideas and emotions find expression.
Occasionally some little boy or girl will try to learn the manual alphabet. Then it is beautiful to
observe with what patience, sweetness, and perseverance Helen endeavours to bring the unruly
fingers of her little friend into proper position.
One day, while Helen was wearing a little jacket of which she was very proud, her mother said:
“There is a poor little girl who has no cloak to keep her warm. Will you give her yours?” Helen began
to pull off the jacket, saying, “I must give it to a poor little strange girl.”
She is very fond of children younger than herself, and a baby invariably calls forth all the motherly
instincts of her nature. She will handle the baby as tenderly as the most careful nurse could desire. It
is pleasant, too, to note her thoughtfulness for little children, and her readiness to yield to their whims.
She has a very sociable disposition, and delights in the companionship of those who can follow the
rapid motions of her fingers; but if left alone she will amuse herself for hours at a time with her knitting
or sewing.
She reads a great deal. She bends over her book with a look of intense interest, and as the
forefinger of her left hand runs along the line, she spells out the words with the other hand; but often
her motions are so rapid as to be unintelligible even to those accustomed to reading the swift and
varied movements of her fingers.
Every shade of feeling finds expression through her mobile features. Her behaviour is easy and
natural, and it is charming because of its frankness and evident sincerity. Her heart is too full of
unselfishness and affection to allow a dream of fear or unkindness. She does not realize that one can
be anything but kind-hearted and tender. She is not conscious of any reason why she should be awkward; consequently, her movements are free and graceful.
She is very fond of all the living things at home, and she will not have them unkindly treated. When
she is riding in the carriage she will not allow the driver to use the whip, because, she says, “poor
horses will cry.” One morning she was greatly distressed by finding that one of the dogs had a block
fastened to her collar. We explained that it was done to keep Pearl from running away. Helen
expressed a great deal of sympathy, and at every opportunity during the day she would find Pearl
and carry the burden from place to place.
Her father wrote to her last summer that the birds and bees were eating all his grapes. At first she
was very indignant, and said the little creatures were “very wrong”; but she seemed pleased when I
explained to her that the birds and bees were hungry, and did not know that it was selfish to eat all
the fruit. In a letter written soon afterward she says:
“I am very sorry that bumblebees and hornets and birds and large flies and worms are eating all of
my father’s delicious grapes. They like juicy fruit to eat as well as people, and they are hungry. They
are not very wrong to eat too many grapes because they do not know much.”
She continues to make rapid progress in the acquisition of language as her experiences increase.
While these were few and elementary, her vocabulary was necessarily limited; but, as she learns
more of the world about her, her judgment grows more accurate, her reasoning powers grow
stronger, more active and subtle, and the language by which she expresses this intellectual activity
gains in fluency and logic.
When traveling she drinks in thought and language. Sitting beside her in the car, I describe what I
see from the window—hills and valleys and the rivers; cotton-fields and gardens in which
strawberries, peaches, pears, melons, and vegetables are growing; herds of cows and horses feeding
in broad meadows, and flocks of sheep on the hillside; the cities with their churches and schools,
hotels and warehouses, and the occupations of the busy people. While I am communicating these
things, Helen manifests intense interest; and, in default of words, she indicates by gestures and
pantomime her desire to learn more of her surroundings and of the great forces which are operating
everywhere. In this way, she learns countless new expressions without any apparent effort.
From the day when Helen first grasped the idea that all objects have names, and that these can be
communicated by certain movements of the fingers, I have talked to her exactly as I should have
done had she been able to hear, with only this exception, that I have addressed the words to her
fingers instead of to her ears. Naturally, there was at first a strong tendency on her part to use only
the important words in a sentence. She would say: “Helen milk.” I got the milk to show her that she
had used the correct word; but I did not let her drink it until she had, with my assistance, made a
complete sentence, as “Give Helen some milk to drink.” In these early lessons I encouraged her in
the use of different forms of expression for conveying the same idea. If she was eating some candy, I
said: “Will Helen please give teacher some candy?” or, “Teacher would like to eat some of Helen’s
candy,” emphasizing the ‘s. She very soon perceived that the same idea could be expressed in a great
many ways. In two or three months after I began to teach her she would say: “Helen wants to go to
bed,” or, “Helen is sleepy, and Helen will go to bed.”
I am constantly asked the question, “How did you teach her the meaning of words expressive of
intellectual and moral qualities?” I believe it was more through association and repetition than through
any explanation of mine. This is especially true of her earlier lessons, when her knowledge of
language was so slight as to make explanation impossible.
I always made it a practice to use the words descriptive of emotions, of intellectual or moral
qualities and actions, in connection with the circumstance which required these words. Soon after I
became her teacher Helen broke her new doll, of which she was very fond. She began to cry. I said
to her, “Teacher is SORRY.” After a few repetitions she came to associate the word with the feeling.
The word HAPPY she learned in the same way; ALSO, RIGHT, WRONG, GOOD, BAD, and
other adjectives. The word LOVE she learned as other children do—by its association with
caresses.
One day I asked her a simple question in a combination of numbers, which I was sure she knew.
She answered at random. I checked her, and she stood still, the expression of her face plainly
showing that she was trying to think. I touched her forehead, and spelled “t-h-i-n-k.” The word, thus
connected with the act, seemed to impress itself on her mind much as if I had placed her hand upon
an object and then spelled its name. Since that time she has always used the word THINK.
At a later period I began to use such words as PERHAPS, SUPPOSE, EXPECT, FORGET,
REMEMBER. If Helen asked, “Where is mother now?” I replied: “I do not know. PERHAPS she is
with Leila.”
She is always anxious to learn the names of people we meet in the horse-cars or elsewhere, and
to know where they are going, and what they will do. Conversations of this kind are frequent:
HELEN. What is little boy’s name?
TEACHER. I do not know, for he is a little stranger; but PERHAPS his name is Jack.
HELEN. Where is he going?
TEACHER. He MAY BE going to the Common to have fun with other boys.
HELEN. What will he play?
TEACHER. I SUPPOSE he will play ball.
HELEN. What are boys doing now?
TEACHER. PERHAPS they are expecting Jack, and are waiting for him.
After the words have become familiar to her, she uses them in composition.
September 26, 1888.
“This morning teacher and I sat by the window and we saw a little boy walking on the sidewalk. It
was raining very hard and he had a very large umbrella to keep off the rain-drops.
“I do not know how old he was but THINK he MAY HAVE BEEN six years old. PERHAPS his
name was Joe. I do not know where he was going because he was a little strange boy. But
PERHAPS his mother sent him to a store to buy something for dinner. He had a bag in one hand. I
SUPPOSE he was going to take it to his mother.”
In teaching her the use of language, I have not confined myself to any particular theory or system. I
have observed the spontaneous movements of my pupil’s mind, and have tried to follow the
suggestions thus given to me.
Owing to the nervousness of Helen’s temperament, every precaution has been taken to avoid
unduly exciting her already very active brain. The greater part of the year has been spent in travel and
in visits to different places, and her lessons have been those suggested by the various scenes and
experiences through which she has passed. She continues to manifest the same eagerness to learn as
at first. It is never necessary to urge her to study. Indeed, I am often obliged to coax her to leave an
example or a composition.
While not confining myself to any special system of instruction, I have tried to add to her general
information and intelligence, to enlarge her acquaintance with things around her, and to bring her into
easy and natural relations with people. I have encouraged her to keep a diary, from which the
following selection has been made:
“March 22nd, 1888.
“Mr. Anagnos came to see me Thursday. I was glad to hug and kiss him. He takes care of sixty
little blind girls and seventy little blind boys. I do love them. Little blind girls sent me a pretty work basket. I found scissors and thread, and needle-book with many needles in it, and crochet hook and
emery, and thimble, and box, and yard measure and buttons, and pin-cushion. I will write little blind
girls a letter to thank them. I will make pretty clothes for Nancy and Adeline and Allie. I will go to
Cincinnati in May and buy another child. Then I will have four children. New baby’s name is Harry.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Mitchell came to see us Sunday. Mr. Anagnos went to Louisville Monday to
see little blind children. Mother went to Huntsville. I slept with father, and Mildred slept with teacher.
I did learn about calm. It does mean quiet and happy. Uncle Morrie sent me pretty stories. I read
about birds. The quail lays fifteen or twenty eggs and they are white. She makes her nest on the
ground. The blue-bird makes her nest in a hollow tree and her eggs are blue. The robin’s eggs are
green. I learned a song about spring. March, April, May are spring.
Now melts the snow. The warm winds blow The waters flow And robin dear, Is come to show
That Spring is here.
“James killed snipes for breakfast. Little chickens did get very cold and die. I am sorry. Teacher
and I went to ride on Tennessee River, in a boat. I saw Mr. Wilson and James row with oars. Boat
did glide swiftly and I put hand in water and felt it flowing.
“I caught fish with hook and line and pole. We climbed high hill and teacher fell and hurt her head.
I ate very small fish for supper. I did read about cow and calf. The cow loves to eat grass as well as
girl does bread and butter and milk. Little calf does run and leap in field. She likes to skip and play,
for she is happy when the sun is bright and warm. Little boy did love his calf. And he did say, I will
kiss you, little calf, and he put his arms around calf’s neck and kissed her. The calf licked good boy’s
face with long rough tongue. Calf must not open mouth much to kiss. I am tired, and teacher does
not want me to write more.”
In the autumn she went to a circus. While we were standing before his cage the lion roared, and
Helen felt the vibration of the air so distinctly that she was able to reproduce the noise quite
accurately.
I tried to describe to her the appearance of a camel; but, as we were not allowed to touch the
animal, I feared that she did not get a correct idea of its shape. A few days afterward, however,
hearing a commotion in the schoolroom, I went in and found Helen on all fours with a pillow so
strapped upon her back as to leave a hollow in the middle, thus making a hump on either side.
Between these humps she had placed her doll, which she was giving a ride around the room. I
watched her for some time as she moved about, trying to take long strides in order to carry out the
idea I had given her of a camel’s gait. When I asked her what she was doing, she replied, “I am a
very funny camel.”
During the next two years neither Mr. Anagnos, who was in Europe for a year, nor Miss Sullivan
wrote anything about Helen Keller for publication. In 1892 appeared the Perkins Institution report
for 1891, containing a full account of Helen Keller, including many of her letters, exercises, and
compositions. As some of the letters and the story of the “Frost King” are published here, there is no
need of printing any more samples of Helen Keller’s writing during the third, fourth and fifth years of
her education. It was the first two years that counted. From Miss Sullivan’s part of this report I give
her most important comments and such biographical matter as does not appear elsewhere in the
present volume.
These extracts Mr. Anagnos took from Miss Sullivan’s notes and memoranda.
One day, while her pony and her donkey were standing side by side, Helen went from one to the
other, examining them closely. At last she paused with her hand upon Neddy’s head, and addressed
him thus: “Yes, dear Neddy, it is true that you are not as beautiful as Black Beauty. Your body is not
so handsomely formed, and there is no proud look in your face, and your neck does not arch,
Besides, your long ears make you look a little funny. Of course, you cannot help it, and I love you
just as well as if you were the most beautiful creature in the world.”
Helen has been greatly interested in the story of “Black Beauty.” To show how quickly she
perceives and associates ideas, I will give an instance which all who have read the book will be able
to appreciate. I was reading the following paragraph to her:
“The horse was an old, worn-out chestnut, with an ill-kept coat, and bones that showed plainly
through it; the knees knuckled over, and the forelegs were very unsteady. I had been eating some
hay, and the wind rolled a little lock of it that way, and the poor creature put out her long, thin neck
and picked it up, and then turned round and looked about for more. There was a hopeless look in
the dull eye that I could not help noticing, and then, as I was thinking where I had seen that horse
before, she looked full at me and said, ‘Black Beauty, is that you?'”
At this point Helen pressed my hand to stop me. She was sobbing convulsively. “It was poor
Ginger,” was all she could say at first. Later, when she was able to talk about it, she said: “Poor
Ginger! The words made a distinct picture in my mind. I could see the way Ginger looked; all her
beauty gone, her beautiful arched neck drooping, all the spirit gone out of her flashing eyes, all the
playfulness gone out of her manner. Oh, how terrible it was! I never knew before that there could be
such a change in anything. There were very few spots of sunshine in poor Ginger’s life, and the
sadnesses were so many!” After a moment she added, mournfully, “I fear some people’s lives are just
like Ginger’s.”
This morning Helen was reading for the first time Bryant’s poem, “Oh, mother of a mighty race!” I
said to her, “Tell me, when you have read the poem through, who you think the mother is.” When she
came to the line, “There’s freedom at thy gates, and rest,” she exclaimed: “It means America! The
gate, I suppose, is New York City, and Freedom is the great statue of Liberty.” After she had read
“The Battlefield,” by the same author, I asked her which verse she thought was the most beautiful.
She replied, “I like this verse best:
‘Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded,
writhes with pain, And dies among his worshipers.'”
She is at once transported into the midst of the events of a story. She rejoices when justice wins,
she is sad when virtue lies low, and her face glows with admiration and reverence when heroic deeds
are described. She even enters into the spirit of battle; she says, “I think it is right for men to fight
against wrongs and tyrants.”
Here begins Miss Sullivan’s connected account in the report of 1891:
During the past three years Helen has continued to make rapid progress in the acquisition of
language. She has one advantage over ordinary children, that nothing from without distracts her
attention from her studies.
But this advantage involves a corresponding disadvantage, the danger of unduly severe mental
application. Her mind is so constituted that she is in a state of feverish unrest while conscious that
there is something that she does not comprehend. I have never known her to be willing to leave a
lesson when she felt that there was anything in it which she did not understand. If I suggest her
leaving a problem in arithmetic until the next day, she answers, “I think it will make my mind stronger
to do it now.”
A few evenings ago we were discussing the tariff. Helen wanted me to tell her about it. I said:
“No. You cannot understand it yet.” She was quiet for a moment, and then asked, with spirit: “How
do you know that I cannot understand? I have a good mind! You must remember, dear teacher, that
Greek parents were very particular with their children, and they used to let them listen to wise words,
and I think they understood some of them.” I have found it best not to tell her that she cannot
understand, because she is almost certain to become excited. Not long ago I tried to show her how to build a tower with her blocks. As the design was
somewhat complicated, the slightest jar made the structure fall. After a time I became discouraged,
and told her I was afraid she could not make it stand, but that I would build it for her; but she did not
approve of this plan. She was determined to build the tower herself; and for nearly three hours she
worked away, patiently gathering up the blocks whenever they fell, and beginning over again, until at
last her perseverance was crowned with success. The tower stood complete in every part.
Until October, 1889, I had not deemed it best to confine Helen to any regular and systematic
course of study. For the first two years of her intellectual life she was like a child in a strange country,
where everything was new and perplexing; and, until she gained a knowledge of language, it was not
possible to give her a definite course of instruction.
Moreover, Helen’s inquisitiveness was so great during these years that it would have interfered
with her progress in the acquisition of language, if a consideration of the questions which were
constantly occurring to her had been deferred until the completion of a lesson. 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. Therefore it has always seemed best to me to teach anything whenever my
pupil needed to know it, whether it had any bearing on the projected lesson or not, her inquiries have
often led us far away from the subject under immediate consideration.
Since October, 1889, her work has been more regular and has included arithmetic, geography,
zoology, botany and reading.
She has made considerable progress in the study of arithmetic. She readily explains the processes
of multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division, and seems to understand the operations. She has
nearly finished Colburn’s mental arithmetic, her last work being in improper fractions. She has also
done some good work in written arithmetic. Her mind works so rapidly, that it often happens, that
when I give her an example she will give me the correct answer before I have time to write out the
question. She pays little attention to the language used in stating a problem, and seldom stops to ask
the meaning of unknown words or phrases until she is ready to explain her work. Once, when a
question puzzled her very much, I suggested that we take a walk and then perhaps she would
understand it. She shook her head decidedly, and said: “My enemies would think I was running
away. I must stay and conquer them now,” and she did.
The intellectual improvement which Helen has made in the past two years is shown more clearly in
her greater command of language and in her ability to recognize nicer shades of meaning in the use of
words, than in any other branch of her education.
Not a day passes that she does not learn many new words, nor are these merely the names of
tangible and sensible objects. For instance, she one day wished to know the meaning of the following
words: PHENOMENON, COMPRISE, ENERGY, REPRODUCTION, EXTRAORDINARY,
PERPETUAL and MYSTERY. Some of these words have successive steps of meaning, beginning
with what is simple and leading on to what is abstract. It would have been a hopeless task to make
Helen comprehend the more abstruse meanings of the word MYSTERY, but she understood readily
that it signified something hidden or concealed, and when she makes greater progress she will grasp
its more abstruse meaning as easily as she now does the simpler signification. In investigating any
subject there must occur at the beginning words and phrases which cannot be adequately understood
until the pupil has made considerable advancement; yet I have thought it best to go on giving my pupil
simple definitions, thinking that, although these may be somewhat vague and provisional, they will
come to one another’s assistance, and that what is obscure to-day will be plain to-morrow.
I regard my pupil as a free and active being, whose own spontaneous impulses must be my surest
guide. I have always talked to Helen exactly as I would talk to a seeing and hearing child, and I have
insisted that other people should do the same. Whenever any one asks me if she will understand this
or that word I always reply: “Never mind whether she understands each separate word of a sentence
or not. She will guess the meanings of the new words from their connection with others which are
already intelligible to her.”
In selecting books for Helen to read, I have never chosen them with reference to her deafness and
blindness. She always reads such books as seeing and hearing children of her age read and enjoy. Of
course, in the beginning it was necessary that the things described should be familiar and interesting,
and the English pure and simple. I remember distinctly when she first attempted to read a little story.
She had learned the printed letters, and for some time had amused herself by making simple
sentences, using slips on which the words were printed in raised letters; but these sentences had no
special relation to one another. One morning we caught a mouse, and it occurred to me, with a live
mouse and a live cat to stimulate her interest, that I might arrange some sentences in such a way as to
form a little story, and thus give her a new conception of the use of language. So I put the following
sentences in the frame, and gave it to Helen: “The cat is on the box. A mouse is in the box. The cat
can see the mouse. The cat would like to eat the mouse. Do not let the cat get the mouse. The cat
can have some milk, and the mouse can have some cake.” The word THE she did not know, and of
course she wished it explained. At that stage of her advancement it would have been impossible to
explain its use, and so I did not try, but moved her finger on to the next word, which she recognized
with a bright smile. Then, as I put her hand upon puss sitting on the box, she made a little exclamation
of surprise, and the rest of the sentence became perfectly clear to her. When she had read the words
of the second sentence, I showed her that there really was a mouse in the box. She then moved her
finger to the next line with an expression of eager interest. “The cat can see the mouse.” Here I made
the cat look at the mouse, and let Helen feel the cat. The expression of the little girl’s countenance
showed that she was perplexed. I called her attention to the following line, and, although she knew
only the three words, CAT, EAT and MOUSE, she caught the idea. She pulled the cat away and
put her on the floor, at the same time covering the box with the frame. When she read, “Do not let
the cat get the mouse!” she recognized the negation in the sentence, and seemed to know that the cat
must not get the mouse. GET and LET were new words. She was familiar with the words of the last
sentence, and was delighted when allowed to act them out. By signs she made me understand that
she wished another story, and I gave her a book containing very short stories, written in the most
elementary style. 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.
I am convinced that Helen’s use of English is due largely to her familiarity with books. She often
reads for two or three hours in succession, and then lays aside her book reluctantly. One day as we
left the library I noticed that she appeared more serious than usual, and I asked the cause. “I am
thinking how much wiser we always are when we leave here than we are when we come,” was her
reply.
When asked why she loved books so much, she once replied: “Because they tell me so much that
is interesting about things I cannot see, and they are never tired or troubled like people. They tell me
over and over what I want to know.”
While reading from Dickens’s “Child’s History of England,” we came to the sentence, “Still the
spirit of the Britons was not broken.” I asked what she thought that meant. She replied, “I think it
means that the brave Britons were not discouraged because the Romans had won so many battles,
and they wished all the more to drive them away.” It would not have been possible for her to define
the words in this sentence; and yet she had caught the author’s meaning, and was able to give it in her
own words. The next lines are still more idiomatic, “When Suetonius left the country, they fell upon
his troops and retook the island of Anglesea.” Here is her interpretation of the sentence: “It means
that when the Roman general had gone away, the Britons began to fight again; and because the
Roman soldiers had no general to tell them what to do, they were overcome by the Britons and lost
the island they had captured.”
She prefers intellectual to manual occupations, and is not so fond of fancy work as many of the
blind children are; yet she is eager to join them in whatever they are doing. She has learned to use the
Caligraph typewriter, and writes very correctly, but not rapidly as yet, having had less than a month’s
practice.
More than two years ago a cousin taught her the telegraph alphabet by making the dots and
dashes on the back of her hand with his finger. Whenever she meets any one who is familiar with this
system, she is delighted to use it in conversation. I have found it a convenient medium of
communicating with Helen when she is at some distance from me, for it enables me to talk with her
by tapping upon the floor with my foot. She feels the vibrations and understands what is said to her.
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. In the case of Helen, as in that of Laura
Bridgman, disappointment was inevitable. It is impossible to isolate a child in the midst of society, so
that he shall not be influenced by the beliefs of those with whom he associates. In Helen’s case such
an end could not have been attained without depriving her of that intercourse with others, which is
essential to her nature.
It must have been evident to those who watched the rapid unfolding of Helen’s faculties that it
would not be possible to keep her inquisitive spirit for any length of time from reaching out toward
the unfathomable mysteries of life. But great care has been taken not to lead her thoughts
prematurely to the consideration of subjects which perplex and confuse all minds. Children ask
profound questions, but they often receive shallow answers, or, to speak more correctly, they are
quieted by such answers.
“Were did I come from?” and “Where shall I go when I die?” were questions Helen asked when
she was eight years old. But the explanations which she was able to understand at that time did not
satisfy, although they forced her to remain silent, until her mind should begin to put forth its higher
powers, and generalize from innumerable impressions and ideas which streamed in upon it from
books and from her daily experiences. Her mind sought for the cause of things.
As her observation of phenomena became more extensive and her vocabulary richer and more
subtle, enabling her to express her own conceptions and ideas clearly, and also to comprehend the
thoughts and experiences of others, she became acquainted with the limit of human creative power,
and perceived that some power, not human, must have created the earth, the sun, and the thousand
natural objects with which she was perfectly familiar.
Finally she one day demanded a name for the power, the existence of which she had already
conceived in her own mind.
Through Charles Kingsley’s “Greek Heroes” she had become familiar with the beautiful stories of
the Greek gods and goddesses, and she must have met with the words GOD, HEAVEN, SOUL,
and a great many similar expressions in books.
She never asked the meaning of such words, nor made any comment when they occurred; and
until February, 1889, no one had ever spoken to her of God. At that time, a dear relative who was
also an earnest Christian, tried to tell her about God but, as this lady did not use words suited to the
comprehension of the child, they made little impression upon Helen’s mind. When I subsequently
talked with her she said: “I have something very funny to tell you. A. says God made me and every
one out of sand; but it must be a joke. I am made of flesh and blood and bone, am I not?” Here she
examined her arm with evident satisfaction, laughing heartily to herself. After a moment she went on:
“A. says God is everywhere, and that He is all love; but I do not think a person can be made out of
love. Love is only something in our hearts. Then A. said another very comical thing. She says He
(meaning God) is my dear father. It made me laugh quite hard, for I know my father is Arthur
Keller.”
I explained to her that she was not yet able to understand what had been told her, and so easily
led her to see that it would be better not to talk about such things until she was wiser.
She had met with the expression Mother Nature in the course of her reading, and for a long time
she was in the habit of ascribing to Mother Nature whatever she felt to be beyond the power of man
to accomplish. She would say, when speaking of the growth of a plant, “Mother Nature sends the
sunshine and the rain to make the trees and the grass and the flowers grow.” The following extract
from my notes will show what were her ideas at this time:
Helen seemed a little serious after supper, and Mrs. H. asked her of what she was thinking. “I am
thinking how very busy dear Mother Nature is in the springtime,” she replied. When asked why, she
answered: “Because she has so many children to take care of. She is the mother of everything; the
flowers and trees and winds.”
“How does Mother Nature take care of the flowers?” I asked.
“She sends the sunshine and rain to make them grow,” Helen replied; and after a moment she
added, “I think the sunshine is Nature’s warm smile, and the raindrops are her tears.”
Later she said: “I do not know if Mother Nature made me. I think my mother got me from heaven,
but I do not know where that place is. I know that daisies and pansies come from seeds which have
been put in the ground; but children do not grow out of the ground, I am sure. I have never seen a
plant-child! But I cannot imagine who made Mother Nature, can you? I love the beautiful spring,
because the budding trees and the blossoming flowers and the tender green leaves fill my heart with
joy. I must go now to see my garden. The daisies and the pansies will think I have forgotten them.”
After May, 1890, it was evident to me that she had reached a point where it was impossible to
keep from her the religious beliefs held by those with whom she was in daily contact. She almost
overwhelmed me with inquiries which were the natural outgrowth of her quickened intelligence.
Early in May she wrote on her tablet the following list of questions:
“I wish to write about things I do not understand. Who made the earth and the seas, and
everything? What makes the sun hot? Where was I before I came to mother? I know that plants
grow from seeds which are in the ground, but I am sure people do not grow that way. I never saw a
child-plant. Little birds and chickens come out of eggs. I have seen them. What was the egg before it
was an egg? Why does not the earth fall, it is so very large and heavy? Tell me something that Father
Nature does. May I read the book called the Bible? Please tell your little pupil many things when you
have much time.”
Can any one doubt after reading these questions that the child who was capable of asking them
was also capable of understanding at least their elementary answers? 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.
Throughout Helen’s education I have invariably assumed that she can understand whatever it is
desirable for her to know. Unless there had been in Helen’s mind some such intellectual process as
the questions indicate, any explanation of them would have been unintelligible to her. Without that
degree of mental development and activity which perceives the necessity of superhuman creative
power, no explanation of natural phenomena is possible.
After she had succeeded in formulating the ideas which had been slowly growing in her mind, they
seemed suddenly to absorb all her thoughts, and she became impatient to have everything explained.
As we were passing a large globe a short time after she had written the questions, she stopped
before it and asked, “Who made the REAL world?” I replied, “No one knows how the earth, the
sun, and all the worlds which we call stars came to be; but I will tell you how wise men have tried to
account for their origin, and to interpret the great and mysterious forces of nature.”
She knew that the Greeks had many gods to whom they ascribed various powers, because they
believed that the sun, the lightning, and a hundred other natural forces, were independent and
superhuman powers. But after a great deal of thought and study, I told her, men came to believe that
all forces were manifestations of one power, and to that power they gave the name GOD.
She was very still for a few minutes, evidently thinking earnestly. She then asked, “Who made
God?” I was compelled to evade her question, for I could not explain to her the mystery of a selfexistent
being. Indeed, many of her eager questions would have puzzled a far wiser person than I am.
Here are some of them: “What did God make the new worlds out of?” “Where did He get the soil,
and the water, and the seeds, and the first animals?” “Where is God?” “Did you ever see God?” I
told her that God was everywhere, and that she must not think of Him as a person, but as the life, the
mind, the soul of everything. She interrupted me: “Everything does not have life. The rocks have not
life, and they cannot think.” It is often necessary to remind her that there are infinitely many things that
the wisest people in the world cannot explain.
No creed or dogma has been taught to Helen, nor has any effort been made to force religious
beliefs upon her attention. Being fully aware of my own incompetence to give her any adequate
explanations of the mysteries which underlie the names of God, soul, and immortality, I have always
felt obliged, by a sense of duty to my pupil, to say as little as possible about spiritual matters. The Rt.
Rev. Phillips Brooks has explained to her in a beautiful way the fatherhood of God.
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. I have already told her
in simple language of the beautiful and helpful life of Jesus, and of His cruel death. The narrative
affected her greatly when first she listened to it.
When she referred to our conversation again, it was to ask, “Why did not Jesus go away, so that
His enemies could not find Him?” She thought the miracles of Jesus very strange. When told that
Jesus walked on the sea to meet His disciples, she said, decidedly, “It does not mean WALKED, it
means SWAM.” When told of the instance in which Jesus raised the dead, she was much perplexed,
saying, “I did not know life could come back into the dead body!”
One day she said, sadly: “I am blind and deaf. That is why I cannot see God.” I taught her the
word INVISIBLE, and told her we could not see God with our eyes, because He was a spirit; but
that when our hearts were full of goodness and gentleness, then we saw Him because then we were
more like Him.
At another time she asked, “What is a soul?” “No one knows what the soul is like,” I replied; “but
we know that it is not the body, and it is that part of us which thinks and loves and hopes, and which
Christian people believe will live on after the body is dead.” I then asked her, “Can you think of your
soul as separate from your body?” “Oh, yes!” she replied; “because last hour I was thinking very
hard of Mr. Anagnos, and then my mind,”—then changing the word—”my soul was in Athens, but
my body was here in the study.” At this moment another thought seemed to flash through her mind,
and she added, “But Mr. Anagnos did not speak to my soul.” I explained to her that the soul, too, is
invisible, or in other words, that it is without apparent form. “But if I write what my soul thinks,” she
said, “then it will be visible, and the words will be its body.”
A long time ago Helen said to me, “I would like to live sixteen hundred years.” When asked if she
would not like to live ALWAYS in a beautiful country called heaven, her first question was, “Where
is heaven?” I was obliged to confess that I did not know, but suggested that it might be on one of the
stars. A moment after she said, “Will you please go first and tell me all about it?” and then she added,
“Tuscumbia is a very beautiful little town.” It was more than a year before she alluded to the subject
again, and when she did return to it, her questions were numerous and persistent. She asked: “Where
is heaven, and what is it like? Why cannot we know as much about heaven as we do about foreign
countries?” I told her in very simple language that there may be many places called heaven, but that
essentially it was a condition—the fulfilment of the heart’s desire, the satisfaction of its wants; and that
heaven existed wherever RIGHT was acknowledged, believed in, and loved.
She shrinks from the thought of death with evident dismay. Recently, on being shown a deer which
had been killed by her brother, she was greatly distressed, and asked sorrowfully, “Why must
everything die, even the fleet-footed deer?” At another time she asked, “Do you not think we would
be very much happier always, if we did not have to die?” I said, “No; because, if there were no
death, our world would soon be so crowded with living creatures that it would be impossible for any
of them to live comfortably.” “But,” said Helen, quickly, “I think God could make some more worlds
as well as He made this one.”
When friends have told her of the great happiness which awaits her in another life, she instantly
asked: “How do you know, if you have not been dead?”
The literal sense in which she sometimes takes common words and idioms shows how necessary it
is that we should make sure that she receives their correct meaning. When told recently that
Hungarians were born musicians, she asked in surprise, “Do they sing when they are born?” When
her friend added that some of the pupils he had seen in Budapest had more than one hundred tunes
in their heads, she said, laughing, “I think their heads must be very noisy.” She sees the ridiculous
quickly, and, instead of being seriously troubled by metaphorical language, she is often amused at her
own too literal conception of its meaning.
Having been told that the soul was without form, she was much perplexed at David’s words, “He
leadeth my soul.” “Has it feet? Can it walk? Is it blind?” she asked; for in her mind the idea of being
led was associated with blindness.
Of all the subjects which perplex and trouble Helen, none distresses her so much as the
knowledge of the existence of evil, and of the suffering which results from it. For a long time it was
possible to keep this knowledge from her; and it will always be comparatively easy to prevent her
from coming in personal contact with vice and wickedness. The fact that sin exists, and that great
misery results from it, dawned gradually upon her mind as she understood more and more clearly the
lives and experiences of those around her. The necessity of laws and penalties had to be explained to
her. 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.
One day she asked, “Does God take care of us all the time?” She was answered in the affirmative.
“Then why did He let little sister fall this morning, and hurt her head so badly?” Another time she was
asking about the power and goodness of God. She had been told of a terrible storm at sea, in which
several lives were lost, and she asked, “Why did not God save the people if He can do all things?”
Surrounded by loving friends and the gentlest influences, as Helen had always been, she has, from
the earliest stage of her intellectual enlightenment, willingly done right. She knows with unerring
instinct what is right, and does it joyously. She does not think of one wrong act as harmless, of
another as of no consequence, and of another as not intended. To her pure soul all evil is equally
unlovely.
These passages from the paper Miss Sullivan prepared for the meeting at Chautauqua, in July,
1894, of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, contain her
latest written account of her methods.
You must not imagine that as soon as Helen grasped the idea that everything had a name she at once became mistress of the treasury of the English language, or that “her mental faculties emerged,
full armed, from their then living tomb, as Pallas Athene from the head of Zeus,” as one of her
enthusiastic admirers would have us believe. At first, the words, phrases and sentences which she
used in expressing her thoughts were all reproductions of what we had used in conversation with her,
and which her memory had unconsciously retained. And indeed, this is true of the language of all
children. Their language is the memory of the language they hear spoken in their homes. Countless
repetition of the conversation of daily life has impressed certain words and phrases upon their
memories, and when they come to talk themselves, memory supplies the words they lisp. Likewise,
the language of educated people is the memory of the language of books.
Language grows out of life, out of its needs and experiences. At first my little pupil’s mind was all
but vacant. She had been living in a world she could not realize. LANGUAGE and KNOWLEDGE
are indissolubly connected; they are interdependent. Good work in language presupposes and
depends on a real knowledge of things. As soon as Helen grasped the idea that everything had a
name, and that by means of the manual alphabet these names could be transmitted from one to
another, I proceeded to awaken her further interest in the OBJECTS whose names she learned to
spell with such evident joy. 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. In order to use
language intelligently, one must have something to talk ABOUT, and having something to talk about
is the result of having had experiences; no amount of language training will enable our little children to
use language with ease and fluency unless they have something clearly in their minds which they wish
to communicate, or unless we succeed in awakening in them a desire to know what is in the minds of
others.
At first I did not attempt to confine my pupil to any system. I always tried to find out what
interested her most, and made that the starting-point for the new lesson, whether it had any bearing
on the lesson I had planned to teach or not. During the first two years of her intellectual life, I
required Helen to write very little. In order to write one must have something to write about, and
having something to write about requires some mental preparation. The memory must be stored with
ideas and the mind must be enriched with knowledge before writing becomes a natural and
pleasurable effort. Too often, I think, children are required to write before they have anything to say.
Teach them to think and read and talk without self-repression, and they will write because they
cannot help it.
Helen acquired language by practice and habit rather than by study of rules and definitions.
Grammar with its puzzling array of classifications, nomenclatures, and paradigms, was wholly
discarded in her education. She learned language by being brought in contact with the LIVING
language itself; she was made to deal with it in everyday conversation, and in her books, and to turn
it over in a variety of ways until she was able to use it correctly. No doubt I talked much more with
my fingers, and more constantly than I should have done with my mouth; for had she possessed the
use of sight and hearing, she would have been less dependent on me for entertainment and
instruction.
I believe every child has hidden away somewhere in his being noble capacities which may be
quickened and developed if we go about it in the right way; but we shall never properly develop the
higher natures of our little ones while we continue to fill their minds with the so-called rudiments.
Mathematics will never make them loving, nor will the accurate knowledge of the size and shape of
the world help them to appreciate its beauties. Let us lead them during the first years to find their
greatest pleasure in Nature. Let them run in the fields, learn about animals, and observe real things.
Children will educate themselves under right conditions. They require guidance and sympathy far
more than instruction.
I think much of the fluency with which Helen uses language is due to the fact that nearly every
impression which she receives comes through the medium of language. But after due allowance has
been made for Helen’s natural aptitude for acquiring language, and for the advantage resulting from
her peculiar environment, I think that we shall still find that the constant companionship of good
books has been of supreme importance in her education. It may be true, as some maintain, that
language cannot express to us much beyond what we have lived and experienced; but I have always
observed that children manifest the greatest delight in the lofty, poetic language which we are too
ready to think beyond their comprehension. “This is all you will understand,” said a teacher to a class
of little children, closing the book which she had been reading to them. “Oh, please read us the rest,
even if we won’t understand it,” they pleaded, delighted with the rhythm, and the beauty which they
felt, even though they could not have explained it. It is not necessary that a child should understand
every word in a book before he can read with pleasure and profit. Indeed, only such explanations
should be given as are really essential. Helen drank in language which she at first could not
understand, and it remained in her mind until needed, when it fitted itself naturally and easily into her
conversation and compositions. Indeed, it is maintained by some that she reads too much, that a
great deal of originative force is dissipated in the enjoyment of books; that when she might see and
say things for herself, she sees them only through the eyes of others, and says them in their language,
but I am convinced that original composition without the preparation of much reading is an
impossibility. Helen has had the best and purest models in language constantly presented to her, and
her conversation and her writing are unconscious reproductions of what she has read. Reading, I
think, should be kept independent of the regular school exercises. Children should be encouraged to
read for the pure delight of it. The attitude of the child toward his books should be that of
unconscious receptivity. The great works of the imagination ought to become a part of his life, as
they were once of the very substance of the men who wrote them. It is true, the more sensitive and
imaginative the mind is that receives the thought-pictures and images of literature, the more nicely the
finest lines are reproduced. Helen has the vitality of feeling, the freshness and eagerness of interest,
and the spiritual insight of the artistic temperament, and naturally she has a more active and intense
joy in life, simply as life, and in nature, books, and people than less gifted mortals. Her mind is so
filled with the beautiful thoughts and ideals of the great poets that nothing seems commonplace to her;
for her imagination colours all life with its own rich hues.
There has been much discussion of such of Miss Sullivan’s statements and explanations as have
been published before. 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. Miss Keller’s education, however, is so
fundamentally a question of language teaching that it rather includes the problems of the deaf than
limits itself to the deaf alone. Teachers can draw their own conclusions. For the majority of readers,
who will not approach Miss Keller’s life from the educator’s point of view, I will summarize a few
principal things in Miss Sullivan’s methods.
Miss Sullivan has begun where Dr. Howe left off. He invented the instrument, the physical means
of working, but the teaching of language is quite another thing from the mechanical means by which
language may be taught. By experiment, by studying other children, Miss Sullivan came upon the
practical way of teaching language by the natural method. It was for this “natural method” that Dr.
Howe was groping, but he never got to this idea, that a deaf child should not be taught each word
separately by definition, but should be given language by endless repetition of language which it does
not understand. And this is Miss Sullivan’s great discovery. All day long in their play-time and worktime
Miss Sullivan kept spelling into her pupil’s hand, and by that Helen Keller absorbed words, just
as the child in the cradle absorbs words by hearing thousands of them before he uses one and by
associating the words with the occasion of their utterance. Thus he learns that words name things and
actions and feelings. Now, that is the first principle in Miss Sullivan’s method, one that had practical
results, and one which, so far as I can discover, had never been put in practice in the education of a
deaf child, not to say a deaf-blind child, until Miss Sullivan tried it with Helen Keller. And the
principle had never been formulated clearly until Miss Sullivan wrote her letters.
The second principle in her method (the numerical order is, of course, arbitrary) is never to talk to
the child about things distasteful or wearisome to him. In the first deaf school Miss Sullivan ever
visited, the teacher was busy at the blackboard telling the children by written words something they
did not want to know, while they were crowding round their visitor with wide-awake curiosity,
showing there were a thousand things they did want to know. Why not, says Miss Sullivan, make a
language lesson out of what they were interested in?
Akin to this idea of talking to the child about what interests him, is the principle never to silence a
child who asks questions, but to answer the questions as truly as possible; for, says Miss Sullivan,
the question is the door to the child’s mind. Miss Sullivan never needlessly belittled her ideas or
expressions to suit the supposed state of the child’s intelligence. She urged every one to speak to
Helen naturally, to give her full sentences and intelligent ideas, never minding whether Helen
understood or not. Thus Miss Sullivan knew what so many people do not understand, that after the
first rudimentary definitions of HAT, CUP, GO, SIT, the unit of language, as the child learns it, is the
sentence, which is also the unit of language in our adult experience. We do not take in a sentence
word by word, but as a whole. It is the proposition, something predicated about something, that
conveys an idea. True, single words do suggest and express ideas; the child may say simply
“mamma” when he means “Where is mamma?” but he learns the expression of the ideas that relate to
mamma—he learns language—by hearing complete sentences. And though Miss Sullivan did not
force grammatical completeness upon the first finger-lispings of her pupil, yet when she herself
repeated Helen’s sentence, “mamma milk,” she filled out the construction, completed the child’s
ellipsis and said, “Mamma will bring Helen some milk.”
Thus Miss Sullivan was working out a natural method, which is so simple, so lacking in artificial
system, that her method seems rather to be a destruction of method. It is doubtful if we should have
heard of Helen Keller if Miss Sullivan had not been where there were other children. By watching
them, she learned to treat her pupil as nearly as possible like an ordinary child.
The manual alphabet was not the only means of presenting words to Helen Keller’s fingers. Books
supplemented, perhaps equaled in importance the manual alphabet, as a means of teaching language.
Helen sat poring over them before she could read, not at first for the story, but to find words she
knew; and the definition of new words which is implied in their context, in their position with
reference to words known, added to Helen’s vocabulary. Books are the storehouse of language, and
any child, whether deaf or not, if he has his attention attracted in any way to printed pages, must
learn. He learns not by reading what he understands, but by reading and remembering words he
does not understand. And though perhaps few children will have as much precocious interest in
books as did Helen Keller, yet the natural curiosity of every healthy child may be turned to printed
pages, especially if the teacher is clever and plays a word game as Miss Sullivan did. Helen Keller is
supposed to have a special aptitude for languages. It is true rather that she has a special aptitude for
thinking, and her leaning toward language is due to the fact that language to her meant life. It was not
a special subject, like geography or arithmetic, but her way to outward things.
When at the age of fourteen she had had but a few lessons in German, she read over the words of
“Wilhelm Tell” and managed to get the story. Of grammar she knew nothing and she cared nothing
for it. She got the language from the language itself, and this is, next to hearing the language spoken,
the way for any one to get a foreign tongue, more vital and, in the end, easier than our schoolroom
method of beginning with the grammar. In the same way she played with Latin, learning not only from
the lessons her first Latin teacher gave her, but from going over and over the words of a text, a game
she played by herself.
Mr. John D. Wright, one of her teachers at the Wright-Humason School, says in a letter to me:
“Often I found her, when she had a little leisure, sitting in her favourite corner, in a chair whose
arms supported the big volume prepared for the blind, and passing her finger slowly over the lines of
Moliere’s ‘Le Medecin Malgre Lui,’ chuckling to herself at the comical situations and humorous lines.
At that time her actual working vocabulary in French was very small, but by using her judgment, as
we laughingly called the mental process, she could guess at the meanings of the words and put the
sense together much as a child puzzles out a sliced object. The result was that in a few weeks she
and I spent a most hilarious hour one evening while she poured out to me the whole story, dwelling
with great gusto on its humour and sparkling wit. It was not a lesson, but only one of her
recreations.”
So Helen Keller’s aptitude for language is her whole mental aptitude, turned to language because
of its extraordinary value to her.
There have been many discussions of the question whether Helen Keller’s achievements are due to
her natural ability or to the method by which she was taught.
It is true that a teacher with ten times Miss Sullivan’s genius could not have made a pupil so
remarkable as Helen Keller out of a child born dull and mentally deficient. But it is also true that, with
ten times her native genius, Helen Keller could not have grown to what she is, if she had not been
excellently taught from the very start, and especially at the start. And the fact remains that she was
taught by a method of teaching language to the deaf the essential principles of which are clearly
expressed in Miss Sullivan’s letters, written while she was discovering the method and putting it
successfully into practice. 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.
In the many discussions of this question writers seem to throw us from one horn to another of a
dilemma—either a born genius in Helen Keller, or a perfect method in the teacher. Both things may
be true at once, and there is another truth which makes the dilemma imperfect. Miss Sullivan is a
person of extraordinary power. Her method might not succeed so completely in the hands of any one
else. Miss Sullivan’s vigorous, original mind has lent much of its vitality to her pupil. If Miss Keller is
fond of language and not interested especially in mathematics, it is not surprising to find Miss
Sullivan’s interests very similar. And this does not mean that Miss Keller is unduly dependent on her
teacher. It is told of her that, as a child of eight, when some one tried to interfere with her, she sat
sober a few moments, and, when asked what was the trouble, answered, “I am preparing to assert
my independence.” Such an aggressive personality cannot grow up in mere dependence even under
the guidance of a will like Miss Sullivan’s. But Miss Sullivan by her “natural aptitude” has done for her
pupil much that is not capable of analysis and reduction to principle; she has given the inspiration
which is in all close friendship, and which rather develops than limits the powers of either person.
Moreover, if Miss Keller is a “marvel of sweetness and goodness,” if she has a love “of all things
good and beautiful,” this implies something about the teacher who has lived with her for sixteen years.
There is, then, a good deal that Miss Sullivan has done for Miss Keller which no other teacher can
do in just the same way for any one else. To have another Helen Keller there must be another Miss
Sullivan. To have another, well-educated deaf and blind child, there need only be another teacher,
living under favourable conditions, among plenty of external interests, unseparated from her pupil
allowed to have a free hand, and using as many as she needs of the principles which Miss Sullivan
has saved her the trouble of finding out for herself, modifying and adding as she finds it necessary;
and there must be a pupil in good health, of good native powers, young enough not to have grown
beyond recovery in ignorance. Any deaf child or deaf and blind child in good health can be taught.
And the one to do it is the parent or the special teacher, not the school. I know that this idea will be
vigorously combated by those who conduct schools for the deaf. To be sure, the deaf school is the
only thing possible for children educated by the State. But it is evident that precisely what the deaf
child needs to be taught is what other children learn before they go to school at all. When Miss
Sullivan went out in the barnyard and picked up a little chicken and talked to Helen about it, she was
giving a kind of instruction impossible inside four walls, and impossible with more than one pupil at a
time.
Surely Dr. Howe is wrong when he says, “A teacher cannot be a child.” That is just what the
teacher of the deaf child must be, a child ready to play and romp, and interested in all childish things.
The temptation to discuss, solely in the light of Helen Keller, the whole matter of educating the
deaf is a dangerous one, and one which I have not taken particular care to avoid, because my
opinions are of no authority and I have merely tried to suggest problems and reinforce some of the
main ideas expressed by Miss Sullivan, who is an authority. It is a question whether Helen Keller’s
success has not led teachers to expect too much of other children, and I know of deaf-blind children
who are dragged along by their teachers and friends, and become the subjects of glowing reports,
which are pathetically untrue, because one sees behind the reports how the children are tugged at to
bring them somewhere near the exaggerated things that are said about them.
Let me sum up a few of the elements that made Helen Keller what she is. In the first place she had
nineteen months’ experience of sight and sound. This meant some mental development. She had
inherited vigour of body and mind. She expressed ideas in signs before she learned language. Mrs.
Keller writes me that before her illness Helen made signs for everything, and her mother thought this
habit the cause of her slowness in learning to speak. After the illness, when they were dependent on
signs, Helen’s tendency to gesture developed. How far she could receive communications is hard to
determine, but she knew much that was going on around her. She recognized that others used their
lips; she “saw” her father reading a paper and when he laid it down she sat in his chair and held the
paper before her face. Her early rages were an unhappy expression of the natural force of character
which instruction was to turn into trained and organized power.
It was, then, to a good subject that Miss Sullivan brought her devotion and intelligence, and
fearless willingness to experiment. Miss Sullivan’s methods were so good that even without the
practical result, any one would recognize the truth of the teacher’s ideas. Miss Sullivan has in addition
a vigorous personality. And finally all the conditions were good for that first nature school, in which
the teacher and pupil played together, exploring together and educating themselves, pupil and teacher
inseparable.
Miss Keller’s later education is easy to understand and needs no further explanation than she has
given. Those interested may get on application to the Volta Bureau, Washington, D. C., the reports
of the teachers who prepared her for college, Mr. Arthur Gilman of the Cambridge School for
Young Ladies, and Mr. Merton S. Keith.
CHAPTER IV.
SPEECH
The two persons who have written authoritatively about Miss Keller’s speech and the way she
learned it are Miss Sarah Fuller, of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston, Massachusetts,
who gave her the first lessons, and Miss Sullivan, who, by her unremitting discipline, carried on the
success of these first lessons.
Before I quote from Miss Sullivan’s account, let me try to give some impression of what Miss Keller’s speech and voice qualities are at present.
Her voice is low and pleasant to listen to. Her speech lacks variety and modulation; it runs in a
sing-song when she is reading aloud; and when she speaks with fair degree of loudness, it hovers
about two or three middle tones. Her voice has an aspirate quality; there seems always to be too
much breath for the amount of tone. Some of her notes are musical and charming. When she is telling
a child’s story, or one with pathos in it, her voice runs into pretty slurs from one tone to another. This
is like the effect of the slow dwelling on long words, not quite well managed, that one notices in a
child who is telling a solemn story.
The principal thing that is lacking is sentence accent and variety in the inflection of phrases. Miss
Keller pronounces each word as a foreigner does when he is still labouring with the elements of a
sentence, or as children sometimes read in school when they have to pick out each word.
She speaks French and German. Her friend, Mr. John Hitz, whose native tongue is German, says
that her pronunciation is excellent. Another friend, who is as familiar with French as with English,
finds her French much more intelligible than her English. When she speaks English she distributes her
emphasis as in French and so does not put sufficient stress on accented syllables. She says for
example, “pro-vo-ca-tion,” “in-di-vi-du-al,” with ever so little difference between the value of
syllables, and a good deal of inconsistency in the pronunciation of the same word one day and the
next. It would, I think, be hard to make her feel just how to pronounce DICTIONARY without her
erring either toward DICTIONAYRY or DICTION’RY, and, of course the word is neither one nor
the other. For no system of marks in a lexicon can tell one how to pronounce a word. The only way
is to hear it, especially in a language like English which is so full of unspellable, suppressed vowels
and quasi-vowels.
Miss Keller’s vowels are not firm. Her AWFUL is nearly AWFIL. The wavering is caused by the
absence of accent on FUL, for she pronounces FULL correctly.
She sometimes mispronounces as she reads aloud and comes on a word which she happens never
to have uttered, though she may have written it many times. This difficulty and some others may be
corrected when she and Miss Sullivan have more time. Since 1894, they have been so much in their
books that they have neglected everything that was not necessary to the immediate task of passing
the school years successfully. Miss Keller will never be able, I believe, to speak loud without
destroying the pleasant quality and the distinctness of her words, but she can do much to make her
speech clearer.
When she was at the Wright-Humason School in New York, Dr. Humason tried to improve her
voice, not only her word pronunciation, but the voice itself, and gave her lessons in tone and vocal
exercises.
It is hard to say whether or not Miss Keller’s speech is easy to understand. Some understand her
readily; others do not. Her friends grow accustomed to her speech and forget that it is different from
that of any one else. Children seldom have any difficulty in understanding her; which suggests that her
deliberate measured speech is like theirs, before they come to the adult trick of running all the words
of a phrase into one movement of the breath. I am told that Miss Keller speaks better than most
other deaf people.
Miss Keller has told how she learned to speak. Miss Sullivan’s account in her address at
Chautauqua, in July, 1894, at the meeting of The American Association to Promote the Teaching of
Speech to the Deaf, is substantially like Miss Keller’s in points of fact.
MISS SULLIVAN’S ACCOUNT OF MISS KELLER’S SPEECH
It was three years from the time when Helen began to communicate by means of the manual
alphabet that she received her first lesson in the more natural and universal medium of human
intercourse—oral language. She had become very proficient in the use of the manual alphabet, which was her only means of communication with the outside world; through it she had acquired a
vocabulary which enabled her to converse freely, read intelligently, and write with comparative ease
and correctness. Nevertheless, the impulse to utter audible sounds was strong within her, and the
constant efforts which I made to repress this instinctive tendency, which I feared in time would
become unpleasant, were of no avail. I made no effort to teach her to speak, because I regarded her
inability to watch the lips of others as an insurmountable obstacle. But she gradually became
conscious that her way of communicating was different from that used by those around her, and one
day her thoughts found expression. “How do the blind girls know what to say with their mouths?
Why do you not teach me to talk like them? Do deaf children ever learn to speak?” I explained to
her that some deaf children were taught to speak, but that they could see their teachers’ mouths, and
that that was a very great assistance to them. But she interrupted me to say she was very sure she
could feel my mouth very well. Soon after this conversation, a lady came to see her and told her
about the deaf and blind Norwegian child, Ragnhild Kaata, who had been taught to speak and
understand what her teacher said to her by touching his lips with her fingers. She at once resolved to
learn to speak, and from that day to this she has never wavered in that resolution. She began
immediately to make sounds which she called speaking, and I saw the necessity of correct
instruction, since her heart was set upon learning to talk; and, feeling my own incompetence to teach
her, never having given the subject of articulation serious study, I went with my pupil for advice and
assistance, to Miss Sarah Fuller. Miss Fuller was delighted with Helen’s earnestness and enthusiasm,
and at once began to teach her. In a few lessons she learned nearly all of the English sounds, and in
less than a month she was able to articulate a great many words distinctly. From the first she was not
content to be drilled in single sounds, but was impatient to pronounce words and sentences. The
length of the word or the difficulty of the arrangement of the elements never seemed to discourage
her. But, with all her eagerness and intelligence, learning to speak taxed her powers to the utmost.
But there was satisfaction in seeing from day to day the evidence of growing mastery and the
possibility of final success. And Helen’s success has been more complete and inspiring than any of
her friends expected, and the child’s delight in being able to utter her thoughts in living and distinct
speech is shared by all who witness her pleasure when strangers tell her that they understand her.
I have been asked a great many times whether I think Helen will ever speak naturally; that is, as
other people speak. I am hardly prepared to decide that question, or even give an opinion regarding
surprise that Helen’s speech is so good when she has not received any regular instruction in speech
since the first few lessons given her by Miss Fuller. I can only say in reply, “This is due to habitual
imitation and practice! practice! practice!” Nature has determined how the child shall learn to speak,
and all we can do is to aid him in the simplest, easiest way possible, by encouraging him to observe
and imitate the vibrations in the voice.
Some further details appear in an earlier, more detailed account, which Miss Sullivan wrote for the
Perkins Institution Report of 1891.
I knew that Laura Bridgman had shown the same intuitive desire to produce sounds, and had even
learned to pronounce a few simple words, which she took great delight in using, and I did not doubt
that Helen could accomplish as much as this. I thought, however, that the advantage she would
derive would not repay her for the time and labour that such an experiment would cost.
Moreover, the absence of hearing renders the voice monotonous and often very disagreeable; and
such speech is generally unintelligible except to those familiar with the speaker.
The acquiring of speech by untaught deaf children is always slow and often painful. Too much
stress, it seems to me, is often laid upon the importance of teaching a deaf child to articulate—a
process which may be detrimental to the pupil’s intellectual development. In the very nature of things,
articulation is an unsatisfactory means of education; while the use of the manual alphabet quickens
and invigorates mental activity, since through it the deaf child is brought into close contact with the
English language, and the highest and most abstract ideas may be conveyed to the mind readily and
accurately. Helen’s case proved it to be also an invaluable aid in acquiring articulation. She was
already perfectly familiar with words and the construction of sentences, and had only mechanical
difficulties to overcome. Moreover, she knew what a pleasure speech would be to her, and this
definite knowledge of what she was striving for gave her the delight of anticipation which made
drudgery easy. The untaught deaf child who is made to articulate does not know what the goal is,
and his lessons in speech are for a long time tedious and meaningless.
Before describing the process of teaching Helen to speak, it may be well to state briefly to what
extent she had used the vocal organs before she began to receive regular instruction in articulation.
When she was stricken down with the illness which resulted in her loss of sight and hearing, at the
age of nineteen months, she was learning to talk. The unmeaning babblings of the infant were
becoming day by day conscious and voluntary signs of what she felt and thought. But the disease
checked her progress in the acquisition of oral language, and, when her physical strength returned, it
was found that she had ceased to speak intelligibly because she could no longer hear a sound. She
continued to exercise her vocal organs mechanically, as ordinary children do. Her cries and laughter
and the tones of her voice as she pronounced many word elements were perfectly natural, but the
child evidently attached no significance to them, and with one exception they were produced not with
any intention of communicating with those around her, but from the sheer necessity of exercising her
innate, organic, and hereditary faculty of expression. She always attached a meaning to the word
water, which was one of the first sounds her baby lips learned to form, and it was the only word
which she continued to articulate after she lost her hearing. Her pronunciation of this gradually
became indistinct, and when I first knew her it was nothing more than a peculiar noise. Nevertheless,
it was the only sign she ever made for water, and not until she had learned to spell the word with her
fingers did she forget the spoken symbol. The word water, and the gesture which corresponds to the
word good-by,seem to have been all that the child remembered of the natural and acquired signs
with which she had been familiar before her illness.
As she became acquainted with her surroundings through the sense of feeling (I use the word in
the broadest sense, as including all tactile impressions), she felt more and more the pressing necessity
of communicating with those around her. Her little hands felt every object and observed every
movement of the persons about her, and she was quick to imitate these movements. She was thus
able to express her more imperative needs and many of her thoughts.
At the time when I became her teacher, she had made for herself upward of sixty signs, all of
which were imitative and were readily understood by those who knew her. The only signs which I
think she may have invented were her signs for SMALL and LARGE. Whenever she wished for
anything very much she would gesticulate in a very expressive manner. Failing to make herself
understood, she would become violent. In the years of her mental imprisonment she depended
entirely upon signs, and she did not work out for herself any sort of articulate language capable of
expressing ideas. It seems, however, that, while she was still suffering from severe pain, she noticed
the movements of her mother’s lips.
When she was not occupied, she wandered restlessly about the house, making strange though
rarely unpleasant sounds. I have seen her rock her doll, making a continuous, monotonous sound,
keeping one hand on her throat, while the fingers of the other hand noted the movements of her lips.
This was in imitation of her mother’s crooning to the baby. Occasionally she broke out into a merry
laugh, and then she would reach out and touch the mouth of any one who happened to be near her,
to see if he were laughing also. If she detected no smile, she gesticulated excitedly, trying to convey
her thought; but if she failed to make her companion laugh, she sat still for a few moments, with a
troubled and disappointed expression. She was pleased with anything which made a noise. She liked
to feel the cat purr; and if by chance she felt a dog in the act of barking, she showed great pleasure.
She always liked to stand by the piano when some one was playing and singing. She kept one hand
on the singer’s mouth, while the other rested on the piano, and she stood in this position as long as
any one would sing to her, and afterward she would make a continuous sound which she called
singing. The only words she had learned to pronounce with any degree of distinctness previous to
March, 1890, were PAPA, MAMMA, BABY, SISTER. These words she had caught without
instruction from the lips of friends. It will be seen that they contain three vowel and six consonant
elements, and these formed the foundation for her first real lesson in speaking.
At the end of the first lesson she was able to pronounce distinctly the following sounds: a, a”, a^,
e, i, o, c soft like s and hard like k, g hard, b, l, n, m, t, p, s, u, k, f and d. Hard consonants were,
and indeed still are, very difficult for her to pronounce in connection with one another in the same
word; she often suppresses the one and changes the other, and sometimes she replaces both by an
analogous sound with soft aspiration. The confusion between l and r was very noticeable in her
speech at first. She would repeatedly use one for the other. The great difficulty in the pronunciation
of the r made it one of the last elements which she mastered. The ch, sh and soft g also gave her
much trouble, and she does not yet enunciate them clearly. [The difficulties which Miss Sullivan found
in 1891 are, in a measure, the difficulties which show in Miss Keller’s speech today.]
When she had been talking for less than a week, she met her friend, Mr. Rodocanachi, and
immediately began to struggle with the pronunciation of his name; nor would she give it up until she
was able to articulate the word distinctly. Her interest never diminished for a moment; and, in her
eagerness to overcome the difficulties which beset her on all sides, she taxed her powers to the
utmost, and learned in eleven lessons all of the separate elements of speech.
Enough appears in the accounts by Miss Keller’s teacher to show the process by which she reads
the lips with her fingers, the process by which she was taught to speak, and by which, of course, she
can listen to conversation now. In reading the lips she is not so quick or so accurate as some reports
declare. It is a clumsy and unsatisfactory way of receiving communication, useless when Miss
Sullivan or some one else who knows the manual alphabet is present to give Miss Keller the spoken
words of others. Indeed, when some friend is trying to speak to Miss Keller, and the attempt is not
proving successful, Miss Sullivan usually helps by spelling the lost words into Miss Keller’s hand.
President Roosevelt had little difficulty last spring in making Miss Keller understand him, and
especially requested Miss Sullivan not to spell into her hand. She got every word, for the President’s
speech is notably distinct. Other people say they have no success in making Miss Keller “hear” them.
A few friends to whom she is accustomed, like Mrs. A. C. Pratt, and Mr. J. E. Chamberlin, can
pass a whole day with her and tell her everything without the manual alphabet. The ability to read the
lips helps Miss Keller in getting corrections of her pronunciation from Miss Sullivan and others, just
as it was the means of her learning to speak at all, but it is rather an accomplishment than a necessity.
It must be remembered that speech contributed in no way to her fundamental education, though
without the ability to speak she could hardly have gone to higher schools and to college. But she
knows better than any one else what value speech has had for her. The following is her address at
the fifth meeting of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, at Mt.
Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1896:
ADDRESS OF HELEN KELLER AT MT. AIRY
If you knew all the joy I feel in being able to speak to you to-day, I think you would have some
idea of the value of speech to the deaf, and you would understand why I want every little deaf child
in all this great world to have an opportunity to learn to speak. I know that much has been said and
written on this subject, and that there is a wide difference of opinion among teachers of the deaf in
regard to oral instruction. It seems very strange to me that there should be this difference of opinion;
I cannot understand how any one interested in our education can fail to appreciate the satisfaction we
feel in being able to express our thoughts in living words. Why, I use speech constantly, and I cannot
begin to tell you how much pleasure it gives me to do so. Of course I know that it is not always easy
for strangers to understand me, but it will be by and by; and in the meantime I have the unspeakable
happiness of knowing that my family and friends rejoice in my ability to speak. My little sister and
baby brother love to have me tell them stories in the long summer evenings when I am at home; and
my mother and teacher often ask me to read to them from my favourite books. I also discuss the
political situation with my dear father, and we decide the most perplexing questions quite as
satisfactorily to ourselves as if I could see and hear. So you see what a blessing speech is to me. It
brings me into closer and tenderer relationship with those I love, and makes it possible for me to
enjoy the sweet companionship of a great many persons from whom I should be entirely cut off if I
could not talk.
I can remember the time before I learned to speak, and how I used to struggle to express my
thoughts by means of the manual alphabet—how my thoughts used to beat against my finger tips like
little birds striving to gain their freedom, until one day Miss Fuller opened wide the prison-door and
let them escape. I wonder if she remembers how eagerly and gladly they spread their wings and flew
away. Of course, it was not easy at first to fly. The speech-wings were weak and broken, and had
lost all the grace and beauty that had once been theirs; indeed, nothing was left save the impulse to
fly, but that was something. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. But,
nevertheless, it seemed to me sometimes that I could never use my speech-wings as God intended I
should use them; there were so many difficulties in the way, so many discouragements; but I kept on
trying, knowing that patience and perseverance would win in the end. And while I worked, I built the
most beautiful air-castles, and dreamed dreams, the pleasantest of which was of the time when I
should talk like other people, and the thought of the pleasure it would give my mother to hear my
voice once more, sweetened every effort and made every failure an incentive to try harder next time.
So I want to say to those who are trying to learn to speak and those who are teaching them: Be of
good cheer. Do not think of to-days failures, but of the success that may come to-morrow. You
have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in
overcoming obstacles—a delight in climbing rugged paths, which you would perhaps never know if
you did not sometime slip backward—if the road was always smooth and pleasant. Remember, no
effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. Sometime, somewhere, somehow we
shall find that which we seek. We shall speak, yes, and sing, too, as God intended we should speak
and sing.
CHAPTER V.
LITERARY STYLE
No one can have read Miss Keller’s autobiography without feeling that she writes unusually fine
English. Any teacher of composition knows that he can bring his pupils to the point of writing without
errors in syntax or in the choice of words. It is just this accuracy which Miss Keller’s early education
fixes as the point to which any healthy child can be brought, and which the analysis of that education
accounts for. Those who try to make her an exception not to be explained by any such analysis of
her early education, fortify their position by an appeal to the remarkable excellence of her use of
language even when she was a child.
This appeal is to a certain degree valid; for, indeed, those additional harmonies of language and
beauties of thought which make style are the gifts of the gods. No teacher could have made Helen
Keller sensitive to the beauties of language and to the finer interplay of thought which demands
expression in melodious word groupings.
At the same time the inborn gift of style can be starved or stimulated. No innate genius can invent
fine language. The stuff of which good style is made must be given to the mind from without and
given skilfully. A child of the muses cannot write fine English unless fine English has been its
nourishment. In this, as in all other things, Miss Sullivan has been the wise teacher. If she had not had
taste and an enthusiasm for good English, Helen Keller might have been brought up on the “Juvenile
Literature,” which belittles the language under pretense of being simply phrased for children; as if a
child’s book could not, like “Treasure Island” or “Robinson Crusoe” or the “Jungle Book,” be in good
style.
If Miss Sullivan wrote fine English, the beauty of Helen Keller’s style would, in part, be explicable
at once. But the extracts from Miss Sullivan’s letters and from her reports, although they are clear
and accurate, have not the beauty which distinguishes Miss Keller’s English. Her service as a teacher
of English is not to be measured by her own skill in composition. The reason why she read to her
pupil so many good books is due, in some measure, to the fact that she had so recently recovered
her eyesight. When she became Helen Keller’s teacher she was just awakening to the good things
that are in books, from which she had been shut out during her years of blindness.
In Captain Keller’s library she found excellent books, Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare,” and
better still Montaigne. After the first year or so of elementary work she met her pupil on equal terms,
and they read and enjoyed good books together.
Besides the selection of good books, there is one other cause for Miss Keller’s excellence in
writing, for which Miss Sullivan deserves unlimited credit. That is her tireless and unrelenting
discipline, which is evident in all her work. She never allowed her pupil to send off letters which
contained offenses against taste, but made her write them over until they were not only correct, but
charming and well phrased.
Any one who has tried to write knows what Miss Keller owes to the endless practice which Miss
Sullivan demanded of her. Let a teacher with a liking for good style insist on a child’s writing a
paragraph over and over again until it is more than correct, and he will be training, even beyond his
own power of expression, the power of expression in the child.
How far Miss Sullivan carried this process of refinement and selection is evident from the
humorous comment of Dr. Bell, that she made her pupil a little old woman, too widely different from
ordinary children in her maturity of thought. When Dr. Bell said this he was arguing his own case. For
it was Dr. Bell who first saw the principles that underlie Miss Sullivan’s method, and explained the
process by which Helen Keller absorbed language from books.
There is, moreover, a reason why Helen Keller writes good English, which lies in the very absence
of sight and hearing. The disadvantages of being deaf and blind were overcome and the advantages
remained. She excels other deaf people because she was taught as if she were normal. On the other
hand, the peculiar value to her of language, which ordinary people take for granted as a necessary
part of them like their right hand, made her think about language and love it. Language was her
liberator, and from the first she cherished it.
The proof of Miss Keller’s early skill in the use of English, and the final comment on the excellence
of this whole method of teaching, is contained in an incident, which, although at the time it seemed
unfortunate, can no longer be regretted. I refer to the “Frost King” episode, which I shall explain in
detail. Miss Keller has given her account of it, and the whole matter was discussed in the first Volta
Bureau Souvenir from which I quote at length:
MISS SULLIVAN’S ACCOUNT OF THE “FROST KING” HON. JOHN HITZ, Superintendent of the Volta Bureau, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: Since my paper was prepared for the second edition of the Souvenir “Helen Keller,”
some facts have been brought to my notice which are of interest in connection with the subject of the
acquisition of language by my pupil, and if it is not already too late for publication in this issue of the
Souvenir, I shall be glad if I may have opportunity to explain them in detail.
Perhaps it will be remembered that in my paper*, where allusion is made to Helen’s remarkable
memory, it is noted that she appears to retain in her mind many forms of expression which, at the
time they are received, she probably does not understand; but when further information is acquired,
the language retained in her memory finds full or partial expression in her conversation or writing,
according as it proves of greater or less value to her in the fitness of its application to the new
experience. Doubtless this is true in the case of every intelligent child, and should not, perhaps, be
considered worthy of especial mention in Helen’s case, but for the fact that a child who is deprived of
the senses of sight and hearing might not be expected to be as gifted mentally as this little girl proves
to be; hence it is quite possible we may be inclined to class as marvelous many things we discover in
the development of her mind which do not merit such an explanation.
* In this paper Miss Sullivan says: “During this winter (1891-92) I went with her into the yard
while a light snow was falling, and let her feel the falling flakes. She appeared to enjoy it very much
indeed. As we went in she repeated these words, ‘Out of the cloud-folds of his garments Winter
shakes the snow.’ I inquired of her where she had read this; she did not remember having read it, did
not seem to know that she had learned it. As I had never heard it, I inquired of several of my friends
if they recalled the words; no one seemed to remember it. The teachers at the Institution expressed
the opinion that the description did not appear in any book in raised print in that library; but one lady,
Miss Marrett, took upon herself the task of examining books of poems in ordinary type, and was
rewarded by finding the following lines in one of Longfellow’s minor poems, entitled ‘Snowflakes’:
‘Out of the bosom of the air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands
brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow.’
“It would seem that Helen had learned and treasured the memory of this expression of the poet,
and this morning in the snow-storm had found its application.”
In the hope that I may be pardoned if I appear to overestimate the remarkable mental capacity
and power of comprehension and discrimination which my pupil possesses, I wish to add that, while
I have always known that Helen made great use of such descriptions and comparisons as appeal to
her imagination and fine poetic nature, yet recent developments in her writings convince me of the
fact that I have not in the past been fully aware to what extent she absorbs the language of her
favourite authors. In the early part of her education I had full knowledge of all the books she read
and of nearly all the stories which were read to her, and could without difficulty trace the source of
any adaptations noted in her writing or conversation; and I have always been much pleased to
observe how appropriately she applies the expressions of a favourite author in her own
compositions.
The following extracts from a few of her published letters give evidence of how valuable this
power of retaining the memory of beautiful language has been to her. One warm, sunny day in early
spring, when we were at the North, the balmy atmosphere appears to have brought to her mind the
sentiment expressed by Longfellow in “Hiawatha,” and she almost sings with the poet: “The ground
was all aquiver with the stir of new life. My heart sang for very joy. I thought of my own dear home.
I knew that in that sunny land spring had come in all its splendour. ‘All its birds and all its blossoms,
all its flowers and all its grasses.'”
About the same time, in a letter to a friend, in which she makes mention of her Southern home, she
gives so close a reproduction from a poem by one of her favourite authors that I will give extracts
from Helen’s letter and from the poem itself:
EXTRACTS FROM HELEN’S LETTER
[The entire letter is published on pp. 245 and 246 of the Report of the Perkins Institution for
1891]
The blue-bird with his azure plumes, the thrush clad all in brown, the robin jerking his spasmodic
throat, the oriole drifting like a flake of fire, the jolly bobolink and his happy mate, the mocking-bird
imitating the notes of all, the red-bird with his one sweet trill, and the busy little wren, are all making
the trees in our front yard ring with their glad song.
FROM THE POEM ENTITLED “SPRING” BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
The bluebird, breathing from his azure plumes The fragrance borrowed from the myrtle blooms;
The thrush, poor wanderer, dropping meekly down, Clad in his remnant of autumnal brown; The
oriole, drifting like a flake of fire Rent by a whirlwind from a blazing spire; The robin, jerking his
spasmodic throat, Repeats imperious, his staccato note; The crack-brained bobolink courts his crazy
mate, Poised on a bullrush tipsy with his weight: Nay, in his cage the lone canary sings, Feels the soft
air, and spreads his idle wings.
On the last day of April she uses another expression from the same poem, which is more an
adaptation than a reproduction: “To-morrow April will hide her tears and blushes beneath the flowers
of lovely May.”
In a letter to a friend at the Perkins Institution, dated May 17, 1889, she gives a reproduction
from one of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, which I had read to her not long before. This letter is
published in the Perkins Institution Report (1891), p. 204. The original story was read to her from a
copy of “Andersen’s Stories,” published by Leavitt & Allen Bros., and may be found on p. 97 of
Part I. in that volume.
Her admiration for the impressive explanations which Bishop Brooks has given her of the
Fatherhood of God is well known. In one of his letters, speaking of how God in every way tells us of
His love, he says, “I think he writes it even upon the walls of the great house of nature which we live
in, that he is our Father.” The next year at Andover she said: “It seems to me the world is full of
goodness, beauty, and love; and how grateful we must be to our heavenly Father, who has given us
so much to enjoy! His love and care are written all over the walls of nature.”
In these later years, since Helen has come in contact with so many persons who are able to
converse freely with her, she has made the acquaintance of some literature with which I am not
familiar; she has also found in books printed in raised letters, in the reading of which I have been
unable to follow her, much material for the cultivation of the taste she possesses for poetical imagery.
The pages of the book she reads become to her like paintings, to which her imaginative powers give
life and colour. She is at once transported into the midst of the events portrayed in the story she
reads or is told, and the characters and descriptions become real to her; she rejoices when justice
wins, and is sad when virtue goes unrewarded. The pictures the language paints on her memory
appear to make an indelible impression; and many times, when an experience comes to her similar in
character, the language starts forth with wonderful accuracy, like the reflection from a mirror.
Helen’s mind is so gifted by nature that she seems able to understand with only the faintest touch
of explanation every possible variety of external relations. One day in Alabama, as we were
gathering wild flowers near the springs on the hillsides, she seemed to understand for the first time
that the springs were surrounded by mountains, and she exclaimed: “The mountains are crowding
around the springs to look at their own beautiful reflections!” I do not know where she obtained this
language, yet it is evident that it must have come to her from without, as it would hardly be possible
for a person deprived of the visual sense to originate such an idea. In mentioning a visit to Lexington,
Mass., she writes: “As we rode along we could see the forest monarchs bend their proud forms to
listen to the little children of the woodlands whispering their secrets. The anemone, the wild violet, the
hepatica, and the funny little curled-up ferns all peeped out at us from beneath the brown leaves.”
She closes this letter with, “I must go to bed, for Morpheus has touched my eyelids with his golden
wand.” Here again, I am unable to state where she acquired these expressions.
She has always seemed to prefer stories which exercise the imagination, and catches and retains
the poetic spirit in all such literature; but not until this winter have I been conscious that her memory
absorbed the exact language to such an extent that she is herself unable to trace the source.
This is shown in a little story she wrote in October last at the home of her parents in Tuscumbia,
which she called “Autumn Leaves.” She was at work upon it about two weeks, writing a little each
day, at her own pleasure. When it was finished, and we read it in the family, it occasioned much
comment on account of the beautiful imagery, and we could not understand how Helen could
describe such pictures without the aid of sight. As we had never seen or heard of any such story as
this before, we inquired of her where she read it; she replied, “I did not read it; it is my story for Mr.
Anagnos’s birthday.” While I was surprised that she could write like this, I was not more astonished
than I had been many times before at the unexpected achievements of my little pupil, especially as we
had exchanged many beautiful thoughts on the subject of the glory of the ripening foliage during the
autumn of this year.
Before Helen made her final copy of the story, it was suggested to her to change its title to “The
Frost King,” as more appropriate to the subject of which the story treated; to this she willingly
assented. The story was written by Helen in braille, as usual and copied by her in the same manner, I
then interlined the manuscript for the greater convenience of those who desired to read it. Helen
wrote a little letter, and, enclosing the manuscript, forwarded both by mail to Mr. Anagnos for his
birthday.
The story was printed in the January number of the Mentor and, from a review of it in the
Goodson Gazette, I was startled to find that a very similar story had been published in 1873, seven
years before Helen was born. This story, “Frost Fairies,” appeared in a book written by Miss
Margaret T. Canby, entitled “Birdie and his Fairy Friends.” The passages quoted from the two
stories were so much alike in thought and expression as to convince me that Miss Canby’s story must
at some time have been read to Helen.
As I had never read this story, or even heard of the book, I inquired of Helen if she knew anything
about the matter, and found she did not. She was utterly unable to recall either the name of the story
or the book. Careful examination was made of the books in raised print in the library of the Perkins
Institution to learn if any extracts from this volume could be found there; but nothing was discovered.
I then concluded that the story must have been read to her a long time ago, as her memory usually
retains with great distinctness facts and impressions which have been committed to its keeping.
After making careful inquiry, I succeeded in obtaining the information that our friend, Mrs. S. C.
Hopkins, had a copy of this book in 1888 which was presented to her little daughter in 1873 or
where she kindly relieved me a part of the time, of the care of Helen. She amused and entertained
Helen by reading to her from a collection of juvenile publications, among which was the copy of
“Birdie and his Fairy Friends”; and, while Mrs. Hopkins does not remember this story of “Frost
Fairies,” she is confident that she read to Helen extracts, if not entire stories, from this volume. But as
she was not able to find her copy, and applications for the volume at bookstores in Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Albany, and other places resulted only in failure, search was instituted for the
author herself. This became a difficult task, as her publishers in Philadelphia had retired from business
many years ago; however, it was eventually discovered that her residence is at Wilmington,
Delaware, and copies of the second edition of the book, 1889, were obtained from her. She has
since secured and forwarded to me a copy of the first edition.
The most generous and gratifying letters have been received from Miss Canby by Helen’s friends,
a few extracts from which are given:
Under date of February 24, 1892, after mentioning the order of the publication of the stories in the
magazine, she writes:
“All the stories were revised before publishing them in book form; additions were made to the
number as first published, I think, and some of the titles may have been changed.”
In the same letter she writes:
“I hope that you will be able to make her understand that I am glad she enjoyed my story, and that
I hope the new book will give her pleasure by renewing her friendship with the Fairies. I shall write to
her in a short time. I am so much impressed with what I have learned of her that I have written a little
poem entitled A Silent Singer, which I may send to her mother after a while. Can you tell me in what
paper the article appeared accusing Helen of plagiarism, and giving passages from both stories? I
should like much to see it, and to obtain a few copies if possible.”
Under date of March 9, 1892, Miss Canby writes:
“I find traces, in the Report which you so kindly sent me, of little Helen having heard other stories
than that of ‘Frost Fairies.’ On page 132, in a letter, there is a passage which must have been
suggested by my story called ‘The Rose Fairies’ (see pp. 13-16 of ‘Birdie’) and on pages 93 and 94
of the Report the description of a thunderstorm is very much like Birdie’s idea of the same in the
‘Dew Fairies’ on page 59 and 60 of my book. What a wonderfully active and retentive mind that
gifted child must have! If she had remembered and written down accurately, a short story, and that
soon after hearing it, it would have been a marvel; but to have heard the story once, three years ago,
and in such a way that neither her parents nor teacher could ever allude to it or refresh her memory
about it, and then to have been able to reproduce it so vividly, even adding some touches of her own
in perfect keeping with the rest, which really improve the original, is something that very few girls of
riper age, and with every advantage of sight, hearing, and even great talents for composition, could
have done as well, if at all. Under the circumstances, I do not see how any one can be so unkind as
to call it a plagiarism; it is a wonderful feat of memory, and stands ALONE, as doubtless much of
her work will in future, if her mental powers grow and develop with her years as greatly as in the few
years past. I have known many children well, have been surrounded by them all my life, and love
nothing better than to talk with them, amuse them, and quietly notice their traits of mind and
character; but I do not recollect more than one girl of Helen’s age who had the love and thirst for
knowledge, and the store of literary and general information, and the skill in composition, which
Helen possesses. She is indeed a ‘Wonder-Child.’ Thank you very much for the Report, Gazette,
and Helen’s Journal. The last made me realize the great disappointment to the dear child more than
before. Please give her my warm love, and tell her not to feel troubled about it any more. No one
shall be allowed to think it was anything wrong; and some day she will write a great, beautiful story
or poem that will make many people happy. Tell her there are a few bitter drops in every one’s cup,
and the only way is to take the bitter patiently, and the sweet thankfully. I shall love to hear of her
reception of the book and how she likes the stories which are new to her.”
I have now (March, 1892) read to Helen “The Frost Fairies,” “The Rose Fairies,” and a portion of
“The Dew Fairies,” but she is unable to throw any light on the matter. She recognized them at once
as her own stories, with variations, and was much puzzled to know how they could have been
published before she was born! She thinks it is wonderful that two people should write stories so
much alike; but she still considers her own as original.
I give below a portion of Miss Canby’s story, “The Rose Fairies,” and also Helen’s letter to Mr.
Anagnos containing her “dream,” so that the likenesses and differences may be studied by those interested in the subject:
THE ROSE FAIRIES
[From”Birdie and his Fairy Friends,” by Margaret T. Canby]
One pleasant morning little Birdie might have been seen sitting quietly on the grass-plat at the side
of his mother’s house, looking very earnestly at the rose-bushes.
It was quite early; great Mr. Sun, who is such an early riser in summer time, had not been up very
long; the birds were just beginning to chirp their “good-mornings” to each other; and as for the
flowers, they were still asleep. But Birdie was so busy all day, trotting about the house and garden,
that he was always ready for HIS nest at night, before the birds and flowers had thought of seeking
THEIRS; and so it came to pass that when Mr. Sun raised his head above the green woods and
smiled lovingly upon the earth, Birdie was often the first to see him, and to smile back at him, all the
while rubbing his eyes with his dimpled fists, until between smiling and rubbing, he was wide awake.
And what do you think he did next! Why, the little rogue rolled into his mamma’s bed, and kissed
her eyelids, her cheeks, and her mouth, until she began to dream that it was raining kisses; and at last
she opened her eyes to see what it all meant, and found that it was Birdie, trying to “kiss her awake,”
as he said.
She loved her little boy very dearly, and liked to make him happy, and when he said, “Please
dress me, dear mamma, and let me go out to play in the garden,” she cheerfully consented; and, soon
after, Birdie went downstairs in his morning-dress of cool linen, and with his round face bright and
rosy from its bath, and ran out on the gravel path to play, until breakfast was ready.
He stood still a moment to look about him, and think what he should do first. The fresh morning
air blew softly in his face, as if to welcome him and be his merry playmate; and the bright eye of Mr.
Sun looked at him with a warm and glowing smile; but Birdie soon walked on to find something to
play with. As he came in sight of the rose-bushes that grew near the side of the house, he suddenly
clapped his hands, and with a little shout of joy stopped to look at them; they were all covered with
lovely rosebuds. Some were red, some white, and others pale pink, and they were just peeping out
of the green leaves, as rosy-faced children peep out from their warm beds in wintertime before they
are quite willing to get up. A few days before, Birdie’s papa had told him that the green balls on the
rose-bushes had beautiful flowers shut up within them, but the little boy found it hard to believe, for
he was so young that he did not remember how pretty the roses had been the summer before. Now
he found out that his father’s words were true, for a few days of warm weather had turned the green
balls into rosebuds, and they were SO beautiful that it was enough to make Birdie stand still before
them, his blue eyes dancing with delight and his little hands clasped tightly together.
After awhile he went nearer, and looking closely at the buds, found that they were folded up, leaf
over leaf, as eyelids are folded over sleeping eyes, so that Birdie thought they must be asleep. “Lazy
roses, wake up,” said he, giving the branches a gentle shake; but only the dew fell off in bright drops,
and the flowers were still shut up. At last Birdie remembered how he had awakened his mother with
kisses, and thought he would try the same plan with the roses; so he drew up his red lips until THEY
looked like a rosebud, too, and bending down a branch with a lovely pink bud upon it, he kissed it
softly two or three times.
Here the similarity in the language of the story to that in the letter ceases.
HELEN’S LETTER TO MR. ANAGNOS
(Written February 2 and 3, 1890.)
[This letter was enclosed in another written in French, dated Le 1 fevrier 1890.]
My Dear Mr. Anagnos: You will laugh when you open your little friend’s letter and see all the
queer mistakes she has made in French, but I think you will be pleased to know that I can write even a short letter in French. It makes me very happy to please you and my dear teacher. I wish I could
see your little niece Amelia. I am sure we should love each other. I hope you will bring some of
Virginia Evanghelides’ poems home with you, and translate them for me. Teacher and I have just
returned from our walk. It is a beautiful day. We met a sweet little child. She was playing on the pier
with a wee brother. She gave me a kiss and then ran away, because she was a shy little girl. I
wonder if you would like to have me tell you a pretty dream which I had a long time ago when I was
a very little child? Teacher says it was a day-dream, and she thinks you would be delighted to hear it.
One pleasant morning in the beautiful springtime, I thought I was sitting on the soft grass under my
dear mother’s window, looking very earnestly at the rose-bushes which were growing all around me.
It was quite early, the sun had not been up very long; the birds were just beginning to sing joyously.
The flowers were still asleep. They would not awake until the sun had smiled lovingly upon them. I
was a very happy little child with rosy cheeks, and large blue eyes, and the most beautiful golden
ringlets you can imagine. The fresh morning air blew gently in my face, as if to welcome me, and be
my merry playmate, and the sun looked at me with a warm and tender smile. I clapped my chubby
hands for joy when I saw that the rose-bushes were covered with lovely buds. Some were red,
some white, and others were delicate pink, and they were peeping out from between the green
leaves like beautiful little fairies. I had never seen anything so lovely before, for I was very young and
I could not remember how pretty the roses had been the summer before. My little heart was filled
with a sweet joy, and I danced around the rosebushes to show my delight. After a while I went very
near to a beautiful white rose-bush which was completely covered with buds and sparkling with
dewdrops; I bent down one of the branches with a lovely pure white bud upon it, and kissed it softly
many times; just then I felt two loving arms steal gently around me, and loving lips kissing my eyelids,
my cheeks, and my mouth, until I began to think it was raining kisses; and at last I opened my eyes to
see what it all meant, and found it was my precious mother, who was bending over me, trying to kiss
me awake. Do you like my day-dream? If you do, perhaps I will dream again for you some time.
Teacher and all of your friends send you their love. I shall be so glad when you come home, for I
greatly miss you. Please give my love to your good Greek friends, and tell them that I shall come to
Athens some day.
Lovingly your little friend and playmate, HELEN A. KELLER.
“The Frost Fairies” and “The Frost Kings” are given in full, as the differences are as important as
the resemblances:
The Frost Fairies [From “Birdie and his Fairy Friends”] by Margaret T. Canby
King Frost, or Jack Frost as he is sometimes called, lives in a cold country far to the North; but
every year he takes a journey over the world in a car of golden clouds drawn by a strong and rapid
steed called “North Wind.” Wherever he goes he does many wonderful things; he builds bridges over
every stream, clear as glass in appearance but often strong as iron; he puts the flowers and plants to
sleep by one touch of his hand, and they all bow down and sink into the warm earth, until spring
returns; then, lest we should grieve for the flowers, he places at our windows lovely wreaths and
sprays of his white northern flowers, or delicate little forests of fairy pine-trees, pure white and very
beautiful. But his most wonderful work is the painting of the trees, which look, after his task is done,
as if they were covered with the brightest layers of gold and rubies; and are beautiful enough to
comfort us for the flight of summer.
I will tell you how King Frost first thought of this kind work, for it is a strange story. You must
know that this King, like all other kings, has great treasures of gold and precious stones in his palace;
but, being a good-hearted old fellow, he does not keep his riches locked up all the time, but tries to
do good and make others happy with them. He has two neighbours, who live still farther north; one
is King Winter, a cross and churlish old monarch, who is hard and cruel, and delights in making the
poor suffer and weep; but the other neighbour is Santa Claus, a fine, good-natured, jolly old soul,
who loves to do good, and who brings presents to the poor, and to nice little children at Christmas.
Well, one day King Frost was trying to think of some good that he could do with his treasure; and
suddenly he concluded to send some of it to his kind neighbour, Santa Claus, to buy presents of food
and clothing for the poor, that they might not suffer so much when King Winter went near their
homes. So he called together his merry little fairies, and showing them a number of jars and vases
filled with gold and precious stones, told them to carry those carefully to the palace of Santa Claus,
and give them to him with the compliments of King Frost. “He will know how to make good use of
the treasure,” added Jack Frost; then he told the fairies not to loiter by the way, but to do his bidding
quickly.
The fairies promised obedience and soon started on their journey, dragging the great glass jars
and vases along, as well as they could, and now and then grumbling a little at having such hard work
to do, for they were idle fairies, and liked play better than work. At last they reached a great forest,
and, being quite tired, they decided to rest awhile and look for nuts before going any further. But lest
the treasure should be stolen from them, they hid the jars among the thick leaves of the forest trees,
placing some high up near the top, and others in different parts of the various trees, until they thought
no one could find them.
Then they began to wander about and hunt for nuts, and climb the trees to shake them down, and
worked much harder for their own pleasure than they had done for their master’s bidding, for it is a
strange truth that fairies and children never complain of the toil and trouble they take in search of
amusement, although they often grumble when asked to work for the good of others.
The frost fairies were so busy and so merry over their nutting frolic that they soon forgot their
errand and their king’s command to go quickly; but, as they played and loitered in the forest until
noon, they found the reason why they were told to hasten; for although they had, as they thought,
hidden the treasure so carefully, they had not secured it from the power of Mr. Sun, who was an
enemy of Jack Frost, and delighted to undo his work and weaken him whenever he could.
His bright eyes found out the jars of treasure among the trees, and as the idle fairies left them there
until noon, at which time Mr. Sun is the strongest, the delicate glass began to melt and break, and
before long every jar and vase was cracked or broken, and the precious treasures they contained
were melting, too, and dripping slowly in streams of gold and crimson over the trees and bushes of
the forest.
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! I believe it is raining; I certainly hear the falling drops.” 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. Then looking more closely at the trees around, they saw that the treasure was
all melting away, and that much of it was already spread over the leaves of the oak trees and maples,
which were shining with their gorgeous dress of gold and bronze, crimson and emerald. It was very
beautiful; but the idle fairies were too much frightened at the mischief their disobedience had caused,
to admire the beauty of the forest, and at once tried to hide themselves among the bushes, lest King
Frost should come and punish them.
Their fears were well founded, for their long absence had alarmed the king, and he had started out
to look for his tardy servants, and just as they were all hidden, he came along slowly, looking on all
sides for the fairies. Of course, he soon noticed the brightness of the leaves, and discovered the cause, too, when he caught sight of the broken jars and vases from which the melted treasure was
still dropping. 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.
King Frost frowned and looked very angry at first, and his fairies trembled for fear and cowered
still lower in their hiding-places; but just then two little children came dancing through the wood, and
though they did not see King Frost or the fairies, they saw the beautiful colour of the leaves, and
laughed with delight, and began picking great bunches to take to their mother. “The leaves are as
pretty as flowers,” said they; and they called the golden leaves “buttercups,” and the red ones
“roses,” and were very happy as they went singing through the wood.
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. I will
not be offended at my idle, thoughtless fairies, for they have taught me a new way of doing good.”
When the frost fairies heard these words they crept, one by one, from their corners, and, kneeling
down before their master, confessed their fault, and asked his pardon. He frowned upon them for
awhile, and scolded them, too, but he soon relented, and said he would forgive them this time, and
would only punish them by making them carry more treasure to the forest, and hide it in the trees,
until all the leaves, with Mr. Sun’s help, were covered with gold and ruby coats.
Then the fairies thanked him for his forgiveness, and promised to work very hard to please him;
and the good-natured king took them all up in his arms, and carried them safely home to his palace.
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?
The Frost King by Helen A. Keller
King Frost lives in a beautiful palace far to the North, in the land of perpetual snow. The palace,
which is magnificent beyond description, was built centuries ago, in the reign of King Glacier. 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. But on nearer approach we should discover
our error. What we had supposed to be peaks were in reality a thousand glittering spires. Nothing
could be more beautiful than the architecture of this ice-palace. The walls are curiously constructed
of massive blocks of ice which terminate in cliff-like towers. The entrance to the palace is at the end
of an arched recess, and it is guarded night and day by twelve soldierly-looking white Bears.
But, children, you must make King Frost a visit the very first opportunity you have, and see for
yourselves this wonderful palace. The old King will welcome you kindly, for he loves children, and it
is his chief delight to give them pleasure.
You must know that King Frost, like all other kings, has great treasures of gold and precious
stones; but as he is a generous old monarch, he endeavours to make a right use of his riches. So
wherever he goes he does many wonderful works; he builds bridges over every stream, as
transparent as glass, but often as strong as iron; he shakes the forest trees until the ripe nuts fall into
the laps of laughing children; he puts the flowers to sleep with one touch of his hand; then, lest we
should mourn for the bright faces of the flowers, he paints the leaves with gold and crimson and
emerald, and when his task is done the trees are beautiful enough to comfort us for the flight of
summer. I will tell you how King Frost happened to think of painting the leaves, for it is a strange
story.
One day while King Frost was surveying his vast wealth and thinking what good he could do with
it, he suddenly bethought him of his jolly old neighbour, Santa Claus. “I will send my treasures to
Santa Claus,” said the King to himself. “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.” So he called together the merry little fairies of his household and, showing them the
jars and vases containing his treasures, he bade them carry them to the palace of Santa Claus as
quickly as they could. The fairies promised obedience, and were off in a twinkling, dragging the
heavy jars and vases along after them as well as they could, now and then grumbling a little at having
such a hard task, for they were idle fairies and loved to play better than to work. After awhile they
came to a great forest and, being tired and hungry, they thought they would rest a little and look for
nuts before continuing their journey. But thinking their treasure might be stolen from them, they hid
the jars among the thick green leaves of the various trees until they were sure that no one could find
them. Then they began to wander merrily about searching for nuts, climbing trees, peeping curiously
into the empty birds’ nests, and playing hide and seek from behind the trees. Now, these naughty
fairies were so busy and so merry over their frolic that they forgot all about their errand and their
master’s command to go quickly, but soon they found to their dismay why they had been bidden to
hasten, for although they had, as they supposed, hidden the treasure carefully, yet the bright eyes of
King Sun had spied out the jars among the leaves, and as he and King Frost could never agree as to
what was the best way of benefiting the world, he was very glad of a good opportunity of playing a
joke upon his rather sharp rival. King Sun laughed softly to himself when the delicate jars began to
melt and break. At length every jar and vase was cracked or broken, and the precious stones they
contained were melting, too, and running in little streams over the trees and bushes of the forest.
Still the idle fairies did not notice what was happening, for they were down on the grass, and the
wonderful shower of treasure was a long time in reaching them; but at last they plainly heard the
tinkling of many drops falling like rain through the forest, and sliding from leaf to leaf until they
reached the little bushes by their side, when to their astonishment they discovered that the rain-drops
were melted rubies which hardened on the leaves, and turned them to crimson and gold in a moment.
Then looking around more closely, they saw that much of the treasure was already melted, for the
oaks and maples were arrayed in gorgeous dresses of gold and crimson and emerald. It was very
beautiful, but the disobedient fairies were too frightened to notice the beauty of the trees. They were
afraid that King Frost would come and punish them. So they hid themselves among the bushes and
waited silently for something to happen. Their fears were well founded, for their long absence had
alarmed the King, and he mounted North Wind and went out in search of his tardy couriers. Of
course, he had not gone far when he noticed the brightness of the leaves, and he quickly guessed the
cause when he saw the broken jars from which the treasure was still dropping. At first King Frost
was very angry, and the fairies trembled and crouched lower in their hiding-places, and I do not
know what might have happened to them if just then a party of boys and girls had not entered the
wood. When the children saw the trees all aglow with brilliant colors they clapped their hands and
shouted for joy, and immediately began to pick great bunches to take home. “The leaves are as
lovely as the flowers!” cried they, in their delight. Their pleasure banished the anger from King Frost’s
heart and the frown from his brow, and he, too, began to admire the painted trees. He said to
himself, “My treasures are not wasted if they make little children happy. My idle fairies and my fiery
enemy have taught me a new way of doing good.”
When the fairies heard this, they were greatly relieved and came forth from their hiding-places,
confessed their fault, and asked their master’s forgiveness.
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?
If the story of “The Frost Fairies” was read to Helen in the summer of 1888, she could not have
understood very much of it at that time, for she had only been under instruction since March, 1887.
Can it be that the language of the story had remained dormant in her mind until my description of
the beauty of the autumn scenery in 1891 brought it vividly before her mental vision?
I have made careful investigation among Helen’s friends in Alabama and in Boston and its vicinity,
but thus far have been unable to ascertain any later date when it could have been read to her.
Another fact is of great significance in this connection. “The Rose Fairies” was published in the
same volume with “The Frost Fairies,” and, therefore, was probably read to Helen at or about the
same time.
Now Helen, in her letter of February, 1890 (quoted above), alludes to this story of Miss Canby’s
as a dream “WHICH I HAD A LONG TIME AGO WHEN I WAS A VERY LITTLE CHILD.”
Surely, a year and a half would appear “a long time ago” to a little girl like Helen; we therefore have
reason to believe that the stories must have been read to her at least as early as the summer of 1888.
HELEN KELLER’S OWN STATEMENT
(The following entry made by Helen in her diary speaks for itself.)
‘1892. January 30. This morning I took a bath, and when teacher came upstairs to comb my hair
she told me some very sad news which made me unhappy all day. Some one wrote to Mr. Anagnos
that the story which I sent him as a birthday gift, and which I wrote myself, was not my story at all,
but that a lady had written it a long time ago. The person said her story was called “Frost Fairies.” I
am sure I never heard it. It made us feel so bad to think that people thought we had been untrue and
wicked. My heart was full of tears, for I love the beautiful truth with my whole heart and mind.
‘It troubles me greatly now. I do not know what I shall do. I never thought that people could make
such mistakes. I am perfectly sure I wrote the story myself. Mr. Anagnos is much troubled. It grieves
me to think that I have been the cause of his unhappiness, but of course I did not mean to do it.
‘I thought about my story in the autumn, because teacher told me about the autumn leaves while
we walked in the woods at Fern Quarry. I thought fairies must have painted them because they are
so wonderful, and I thought, too, that King Frost must have jars and vases containing precious
treasures, because I knew that other kings long ago had, and because teacher told me that the leaves
were painted ruby, emerald, gold, crimson, and brown; so that I thought the paint must be melted
stones. I knew that they must make children happy because they are so lovely, and it made me very
happy to think that the leaves were so beautiful and that the trees glowed so, although I could not see
them.
‘I thought everybody had the same thought about the leaves, but I do not know now. I thought
very much about the sad news when teacher went to the doctor’s; she was not here at dinner and I
missed her.’
I do not feel that I can add anything more that will be of interest. My own heart is too “full of
tears” when I remember how my dear little pupil suffered when she knew “that people thought we
had been untrue and wicked,” for I know that she does indeed “love the beautiful truth with her
whole heart and mind.”
Yours truly, ANNIE M. SULLIVAN.
So much appears in the Volta Bureau Souvenir. The following letter from Mr. Anagnos is
reprinted from the American Annals of the Deaf, April, 1892:
PERKINS INSTITUTION AND MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND SO.
BOSTON, March 11, 1892. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANNALS.
Sir: In compliance with your wishes I make the following statement concerning Helen Keller’s
story of “King Frost.” It was sent to me as a birthday gift on November 7th, from Tuscumbia,
Alabama. Knowing as well as I do Helen’s extraordinary abilities I did not hesitate to accept it as her
own work; nor do I doubt to-day that she is fully capable of writing such a composition. Soon after
its appearance in print I was pained to learn, through the Goodson Gazette, that a portion of the story (eight or nine passages) is either a reproduction or adaptation of Miss Margaret Canby’s “Frost
Fairies.” I immediately instituted an inquiry to ascertain the facts in the case. None of our teachers or
officers who are accustomed to converse with Helen ever knew or heard about Miss Canby’s book,
nor did the child’s parents and relatives at home have any knowledge of it. Her father, Captain
Keller, wrote to me as follows on the subject:
“I hasten to assure you that Helen could not have received any idea of the story from any of her
relations or friends here, none of whom can communicate with her readily enough to impress her with
the details of a story of that character.”
At my request, one of the teachers in the girls’ department examined Helen in regard to the
construction of the story. Her testimony is as follows:
“I first tried to ascertain what had suggested to Helen’s mind the particular fancies which made her
story seem like a reproduction of one written by Miss Margaret Canby. Helen told me that for a long
time she had thought of Jack Frost as a king, because of the many treasures which he possessed.
Such rich treasures must be kept in a safe place, and so she had imagined them stored in jars and
vases in one part of the royal palace. She said that one autumn day her teacher told her as they were
walking together in the woods, about the many beautiful colours of the leaves, and she had thought
that such beauty must make people very happy, and very grateful to King Frost. I asked Helen what
stories she had read about Jack Frost. In answer to my question she recited a part of the poem
called ‘Freaks of the Frost,’ and she referred to a little piece about winter, in one of the school
readers. She could not remember that any one had ever read to her any stories about King Frost,
but said she had talked with her teacher about Jack Frost and the wonderful things he did.”
The only person that we supposed might possibly have read the story to Helen was her friend,
Mrs. Hopkins, whom she was visiting at the time in Brewster. I asked Miss Sullivan to go at once to
see Mrs. Hopkins and ascertain the facts in the matter. The result of her investigation is embodied in
the printed note herewith enclosed. [This note is a statement of the bare facts and an apology, which
Mr. Anagnos inserted in his report of the Perkins Institute.]
I have scarcely any doubt that Miss Canby’s little book was read to Helen, by Mrs. Hopkins, in
the summer of 1888. But the child has no recollection whatever of this fact. On Miss Sullivan’s return
to Brewster, she read to Helen the story of “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” which she had purchased in
Boston for the purpose. The child was at once fascinated and absorbed with the charming story,
which evidently made a deeper impression upon her mind than any previously read to her, as was
shown in the frequent reference to it, both in her conversation and letters, for many months
afterward. Her intense interest in Fauntleroy must have buried all remembrance of “Frost Fairies,”
and when, more than three years later, she had acquired a fuller knowledge and use of language, and
was told of Jack Frost and his work, the seed so long buried sprang up into new thoughts and
fancies. This may explain the reason why Helen claims persistently that “The Frost King” is her own
story. She seems to have some idea of the difference between original composition and
reproduction. She did not know the meaning of the word “plagiarism” until quite recently, when it
was explained to her. She is absolutely truthful. Veracity is the strongest element of her character.
She was very much surprised and grieved when she was told that her composition was an adaptation
of Miss Canby’s story of “Frost Fairies.” She could not keep back her tears, and the chief cause of
her pain seemed to be the fear lest people should doubt her truthfulness. She said, with great intensity
of feeling, “I love the beautiful truth.” A most rigid examination of the child of about two hours’
duration, at which eight persons were present and asked all sorts of questions with perfect freedom,
failed to elicit in the least any testimony convicting either her teacher or any one else of the intention
or attempt to practice deception.
In view of these facts I cannot but think that Helen, while writing “The Frost King,” was entirely
unconscious of ever having had the story of “Frost Fairies” read to her, and that her memory has
been accompanied by such a loss of associations that she herself honestly believed her composition
to be original. This theory is shared by many persons who are perfectly well acquainted with the child
and who are able to rise above the clouds of a narrow prejudice.
Very sincerely yours, M. ANAGNOS. Director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts
School for the Blind.
The episode had a deadening effect on Helen Keller and on Miss Sullivan, who feared that she
had allowed the habit of imitation, which has in truth made Miss Keller a writer, to go too far. Even
to-day, when Miss Keller strikes off a fine phrase, Miss Sullivan says in humorous despair, “I
wonder where she got that?” But she knows now, since she has studied with her pupil in college the
problems of composition, under the wise advice of Mr. Charles T. Copeland, that the style of every
writer and indeed, of every human being, illiterate or cultivated, is a composite reminiscence of all
that he has read and heard. Of the sources of his vocabulary he is, for the most part, as unaware as
he is of the moment when he ate the food which makes a bit of his thumbnail. With most of us the
contributions from different sources are blended, crossed and confused. A child with but few sources
may keep distinct what he draws from each. In this case Helen Keller held almost intact in her mind,
unmixed with other ideas, the words of a story which at the time it was read to her she did not fully
understand. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. It shows how the child-mind gathers
into itself words it has heard, and how they lurk there ready to come out when the key that releases
the spring is touched. The reason that we do not observe this process in ordinary children is, because
we seldom observe them at all, and because they are fed from so many sources that the memories
are confused and mutually destructive. The story of “The Frost King” did not, however, come from
Helen Keller’s mind intact, but had taken to itself the mould of the child’s temperament and had
drawn on a vocabulary that to some extent had been supplied in other ways. The style of her version
is in some respects even better than the style of Miss Canby’s story. It has the imaginative credulity
of a primitive folktale; whereas Miss Canby’s story is evidently told for children by an older person,
who adopts the manner of a fairy tale and cannot conceal the mature mood which allows such
didactic phrases as “Jack Frost as he is sometimes called,” “Noon, at which time Mr. Sun is
strongest.” Most people will feel the superior imaginative quality of Helen Keller’s opening
paragraph. Surely the writer must become as a little child to see things like that. “Twelve soldierlylooking
white bears” is a stroke of genius, and there is beauty of rhythm throughout the child’s
narrative. It is original in the same way that a poet’s version of an old story is original.
This little story calls into life all the questions of language and the philosophy of style. Some
conclusions may be briefly suggested.
All use of language is imitative, and one’s style is made up of all other styles that one has met.
The way to write good English is to read it and hear it. Thus it is that any child may be taught to
use correct English by not being allowed to read or hear any other kind. In a child, the selection of
the better from the worse is not conscious; he is the servant of his word experience.
The ordinary man will never be rid of the fallacy that words obey thought, that one thinks first and
phrases afterward. There must first, it is true, be the intention, the desire to utter something, but the
idea does not often become specific, does not take shape until it is phrased; certainly an idea is a
different thing by virtue of being phrased. Words often make the thought, and the master of words
will say things greater than are in him. A remarkable example is a paragraph from Miss Keller’s
sketch in the Youth’s Companion. Writing of the moment when she learned that everything has a
name, she says: “We met the nurse carrying my little cousin; and teacher spelled ‘baby.’ AND FOR
THE FIRST TIME I was impressed with the smallness and helplessness of a little baby, and mingled
with the thought there was another one of myself, and I was glad I was myself, and not a baby.” It was a word that created these thoughts in her mind. So the master of words is master of thoughts
which the words create, and says things greater than he could otherwise know. Helen Keller writing
“The Frost King” was building better than she knew and saying more than she meant.
Whoever makes a sentence of words utters not his wisdom, but the wisdom of the race whose life
is in the words, though they have never been so grouped before. The man who can write stories
thinks of stories to write. The medium calls forth the thing it conveys, and the greater the medium the
deeper the thoughts.
The educated man is the man whose expression is educated. The substance of thought is language,
and language is the one thing to teach the deaf child and every other child. Let him get language and
he gets the very stuff that language is made of, the thought and the experience of his race. The
language must be one used by a nation, not an artificial thing. Volapuk is a paradox, unless one has
French or English or German or some other language that has grown up in a nation. The deaf child
who has only the sign language of De l’Epee is an intellectual Philip Nolan, an alien from all races,
and his thoughts are not the thoughts of an Englishman, or a Frenchman, or a Spaniard. The Lord’s
prayer in signs is not the Lord’s prayer in English.
In his essay on style De Quincey says that the best English is to be found in the letters of the
cultivated gentlewoman, because she has read only a few good books and has not been corrupted
by the style of newspapers and the jargon of street, market-place, and assembly hall.
Precisely these outward circumstances account for Helen Keller’s use of English. In the early years
of her education she had only good things to read; some were, indeed, trivial and not excellent in
style, but not one was positively bad in manner or substance. This happy condition has obtained
throughout her life. She has been nurtured on imaginative literature, and she has gathered from it into
her vigorous and tenacious memory the style of great writers. “A new word opens its heart to me,”
she writes in a letter; and when she uses the word its heart is still open. When she was twelve years
old, she was asked what book she would take on a long railroad journey. “Paradise Lost,” she
answered, and she read it on the train.
Until the last year or two she has not been master of her style, rather has her style been master of
her. It is only since she has made composition a more conscious study that she has ceased to be the
victim of the phrase; the lucky victim, fortunately, of the good phrase.
When in 1892, she was encouraged to write a sketch of her life for the Youth’s Companion, in the
hope that it would reassure her and help her to recover from the effect of “The Frost King,” she
produced a piece of composition which is much more remarkable and in itself more entertaining at
some points than the corresponding part of her story in this book. When she came to retell the story
in a fuller form, the echo was still in her mind of the phrases she had written nine years before. Yet
she had not seen her sketch in the Youth’s Companion since she wrote it, except two passages
which Miss Sullivan read to her to remind her of things she should say in this autobiography, and to
show her, when her phrasing troubled her, how much better she did as a little girl.
From the early sketch I take a few passages which seem to me, without making very much
allowance for difference in time, almost as good as anything she has written since:
I discovered the true way to walk when I was a year old, and during the radiant summer days that
followed I was never still a minute….
Then when my father came in the evening, I would run to the gate to meet him, and he would take
me up in his strong arms and put back the tangled curls from my face and kiss me many times,
saying, “What has my Little Woman been doing to-day?”
But the brightest summer has winter behind it. In the cold, dreary month of February, when I was
nineteen months old, I had a serious illness. I still have confused memories of that illness. My mother
sat beside my little bed and tried to soothe my feverish moans while in her troubled heart she prayed,
“Father in Heaven, spare my baby’s life!” But the fever grew and flamed in my eyes, and for several
days my kind physician thought I would die.
But early one morning the fever left me as mysteriously and unexpectedly as it had come, and I fell
into a quiet sleep. Then my parents knew I would live, and they were very happy. They did not
know for some time after my recovery that the cruel fever had taken my sight and hearing; taken all
the light and music and gladness out of my little life.
But I was too young to realize what had happened. When I awoke and found that all was dark
and still, I suppose I thought it was night, and I must have wondered why day was so long coming.
Gradually, however, I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me, and forgot that it had
ever been day.
I forgot everything that had been except my mother’s tender love. Soon even my childish voice
was stilled, because I had ceased to hear any sound.
But all was not lost! After all, sight and hearing are but two of the beautiful blessings which God
had given me. The most precious, the most wonderful of His gifts was still mine. My mind remained
clear and active, “though fled fore’er the light.”
As soon as my strength returned, I began to take an interest in what the people around me were
doing. I would cling to my mother’s dress as she went about her household duties, and my little hands
felt every object and observed every motion, and in this way I learned a great many things.
When I was a little older I felt the need of some means of communication with those around me,
and I began to make simple signs which my parents and friends readily understood; but it often
happened that I was unable to express my thoughts intelligibly, and at such times I would give way to
my angry feelings utterly….
Teacher had been with me nearly two weeks, and I had learned eighteen or twenty words, before
that thought flashed into my mind, as the sun breaks upon the sleeping world; and in that moment of
illumination the secret of language was revealed to me, and I caught a glimpse of the beautiful country
I was about to explore.
Teacher had been trying all the morning to make me understand that the mug and the milk in the
mug had different names; but I was very dull, and kept spelling MILK for mug, and mug for milk until
teacher must have lost all hope of making me see my mistake. At last she got up, gave me the mug,
and led me out of the door to the pump-house. Some one was pumping water, and as the cool fresh
stream burst forth, teacher made me put my mug under the spout and spelled “w-a-t-e-r,” Water!
That word startled my soul, and it awoke, full of the spirit of the morning, full of joyous, exultant
song. Until that day my mind had been like a darkened chamber, waiting for words to enter and light
the lamp, which is thought….
I learned a great many words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know that
MOTHER, FATHER, SISTER and TEACHER were among them. It would have been difficult to
find a happier little child than I was that night as I lay in my crib and thought over the joy the day had
brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come.
The next morning I awoke with joy in my heart. Everything I touched seemed to quiver with life. It
was because I saw everything with the new, strange, beautiful sight which had been given me. I was
never angry after that because I understood what my friends said to me, and I was very busy learning
many wonderful things. I was never still during the first glad days of my freedom. I was continually
spelling and acting out the words as I spelled them. I would run, skip, jump and swing, no matter
where I happened to be. Everything was budding and blossoming. The honeysuckle hung in long
garlands, deliciously fragrant, and the roses had never been so beautiful before. Teacher and I lived
out-of-doors from morning until night, and I rejoiced greatly in the forgotten light and sunshine found again….
The morning after our arrival I awoke bright and early. A beautiful summer day had dawned, the
day on which I was to make the acquaintance of a somber and mysterious friend. I got up, and
dressed quickly and ran downstairs. I met Teacher in the hall, and begged to be taken to the sea at
once. “Not yet,” she responded, laughing. “We must have breakfast first.” As soon as breakfast was
over we hurried off to the shore. Our pathway led through low, sandy hills, and as we hastened on, I
often caught my feet in the long, coarse grass, and tumbled, laughing, in the warm, shining sand. The
beautiful, warm air was peculiarly fragrant, and I noticed it got cooler and fresher as we went on.
Suddenly we stopped, and I knew, without being told, the Sea was at my feet. I knew, too, it was
immense! awful! and for a moment some of the sunshine seemed to have gone out of the day. But I
do not think I was afraid; for later, when I had put on my bathing-suit, and the little waves ran up on
the beach and kissed my feet, I shouted for joy, and plunged fearlessly into the surf. But,
unfortunately, I struck my foot on a rock and fell forward into the cold water.
Then a strange, fearful sense of danger terrified me. The salt water filled my eyes, and took away
my breath, and a great wave threw me up on the beach as easily as if I had been a little pebble. For
several days after that I was very timid, and could hardly be persuaded to go in the water at all; but
by degrees my courage returned, and almost before the summer was over, I thought it the greatest
fun to be tossed about by the sea-waves….
I do not know whether the difference or the similarity in phrasing between the child’s version and
the woman’s is the more remarkable. The early story is simpler and shows less deliberate artifice,
though even then Miss Keller was prematurely conscious of style, but the art of the later narrative, as
in the passage about the sea, or the passage on the medallion of Homer, is surely a fulfilment of the
promise of the early story. It was in these early days that Dr. Holmes wrote to her: “I am delighted
with the style of your letters. There is no affectation about them, and as they come straight from your
heart, so they go straight to mine.”
In the years when she was growing out of childhood, her style lost its early simplicity and became
stiff and, as she says, “periwigged.” In these years the fear came many times to Miss Sullivan lest the
success of the child was to cease with childhood. At times Miss Keller seemed to lack flexibility, her
thoughts ran in set phrases which she seemed to have no power to revise or turn over in new ways.
Then came the work in college—original theme writing with new ideals of composition or at least
new methods of suggesting those ideals. Miss Keller began to get the better of her old friendly
taskmaster, the phrase. This book, her first mature experiment in writing, settles the question of her
ability to write.
The style of the Bible is everywhere in Miss Keller’s work, just as it is in the style of most great
English writers. Stevenson, whom Miss Sullivan likes and used to read to her pupil, is another
marked influence. In her autobiography are many quotations, chiefly from the Bible and Stevenson,
distinct from the context or interwoven with it, the whole a fabric quite of her own design. Her
vocabulary has all the phrases that other people use, and the explanation of it, and the
reasonableness of it ought to be evident by this time. There is no reason why she should strike from
her vocabulary all words of sound and vision. Writing for other people, she should in many cases be
true to outer fact rather than to her own experience. So long as she uses words correctly, she should
be granted the privilege of using them freely, and not be expected to confine herself to a vocabulary
true to her lack of sight and hearing. In her style, as in what she writes about, we must concede to
the artist what we deny to the autobiographer. It should be explained, too, that LOOK and SEE are
used by the blind, and HEAR by the deaf, for PERCEIVE; they are simple and more convenient
words. Only a literal person could think of holding the blind to PERCEPTION or
APPERCEPTION, when SEEING and LOOKING are so much easier, and have, moreover, in the speech of all men the meaning of intellectual recognition as well as recognition through the sense of
sight. When Miss Keller examines a statue, she says in her natural idiom, as her fingers run over the
marble, “It looks like a head of Flora.”
It is true, on the other hand, that in her descriptions, she is best from the point of view of art when
she is faithful to her own sensations; and this is precisely true of all artists.
Her recent training has taught her to drop a good deal of her conventionality and to write about
experiences in her life which are peculiar to her and which, like the storm in the wild cherry tree,
mean most and call for the truest phrasing. She has learned more and more to give up the style she
borrowed from books and tried to use, because she wanted to write like other people; she has
learned that she is at her best when she “feels” the lilies sway; lets the roses press into her hands and
speaks of the heat which to her means light.
Miss Keller’s autobiography contains almost everything that she ever intended to publish. It seems
worth while, however, to quote from some of her chance bits of writing, which are neither so
informal as her letters nor so carefully composed as her story of her life. These extracts are from her
exercises in her course in composition, where she showed herself at the beginning of her college life
quite without rival among her classmates. Mr. Charles T. Copeland, who has been for many years
instructor in English and Lecturer on English Literature at Harvard and Radcliffe, said to me: “In
some of her work she has shown that she can write better than any pupil I ever had, man or woman.
She has an excellent ‘ear’ for the flow of sentences.” The extracts follow:
A few verses of Omar Khayyam’s poetry have just been read to me, and I feel as if I had spent
the last half-hour in a magnificent sepulcher. Yes, it is a tomb in which hope, joy and the power of
acting nobly lie buried. Every beautiful description, every deep thought glides insensibly into the same
mournful chant of the brevity of life, of the slow decay and dissolution of all earthly things. The poet’s
bright, fond memories of love, youth and beauty are but the funeral torches shedding their light on this
tomb, or to modify the image a little, they are the flowers that bloom on it, watered with tears and fed
by a bleeding heart. Beside the tomb sits a weary soul, rejoicing neither in the joys of the past nor in
the possibilities of the future, but seeking consolation in forgetfulness. In vain the inspiring sea shouts
to this languid soul, in vain the heavens strive with its weakness; it still persists in regretting and seeks
a refuge in oblivion from the pangs of present woe. At times it catches some faint echo from the
living, joyous, real world, a gleam of the perfection that is to be; and, thrilled out of its despondency,
feels capable of working out a grand ideal even “in the poor, miserable, hampered actual,” wherein it
is placed; but in a moment the inspiration, the vision is gone, and this great, much-suffering soul is
again enveloped in the darkness of uncertainty and despair.
It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the
same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
I often think that beautiful ideas embarrass most people as much as the company of great men.
They are regarded generally as far more appropriate in books and in public discourses than in the
parlor or at the table. Of course I do not refer to beautiful sentiments, but to the higher truths relating
to everyday life. Few people that I know seem ever to pause in their daily intercourse to wonder at
the beautiful bits of truth they have gathered during their years of study. Often when I speak
enthusiastically of something in history or in poetry, I receive no response, and I feel that I must
change the subject and return to the commonest topics, such as the weather, dressmaking, sports,
sickness, “blues” and “worries.” To be sure, I take the keenest interest in everything that concerns
those who surround me; it is this very interest which makes it so difficult for me to carry on a
conversation with some people who will not talk or say what they think, but I should not be sorry to
find more friends ready to talk with me now and then about the wonderful things I read. We need not
be like “Les Femmes Savantes” but we ought to have something to say about what we learn as well as about what we MUST do, and what our professors say or how they mark our themes.
To-day I took luncheon with the Freshman Class of Radcliffe. This was my first real experience in
college life, and a delightful experience it was! For the first time since my entrance into Radcliffe I
had the opportunity to make friends with all my classmates, and the pleasure of knowing that they
regarded me as one of themselves, instead of thinking of me as living apart and taking no interest in
the everyday nothings of their life, as I had sometimes feared they did. I have often been surprised to
hear this opinion expressed or rather implied by girls of my own age and even by people advanced in
years. Once some one wrote to me that in his mind I was always “sweet and earnest,” thinking only
of what is wise, good and interesting—as if he thought I was one of those wearisome saints of whom
there are only too many in the world! I always laugh at these foolish notions, and assure my friends
that it is much better to have a few faults and be cheerful and responsive in spite of all deprivations
than to retire into one’s shell, pet one’s affliction, clothe it with sanctity, and then set one’s self up as a
monument of patience, virtue, goodness and all in all; but even while I laugh I feel a twinge of pain in
my heart, because it seems rather hard to me that any one should imagine that I do not feel the tender
bonds which draw me to my young sisters—the sympathies springing from what we have in common
—youth, hope, a half-eager, half-timid attitude towards the life before us and above all the royalty of
maidenhood.
Sainte-Beuve says, “Il vient un age peut-etre quand on n’ecrit plus.” This is the only allusion I have
read to the possibility that the sources of literature, varied and infinite as they seem now, may
sometime be exhausted. It surprises me to find that such an idea has crossed the mind of any one,
especially of a highly gifted critic. The very fact that the nineteenth century has not produced many
authors whom the world may count among the greatest of all time does not in my opinion justify the
remark, “There may come a time when people cease to write.”
In the first place, the fountains of literature are fed by two vast worlds, one of action, one of
thought, by a succession of creations in the one and of changes in the other. New experiences and
events call forth new ideas and stir men to ask questions unthought of before, and seek a definite
answer in the depths of human knowledge.
In the second place, if it is true that as many centuries must pass before the world becomes
perfect as passed before it became what it is to-day, literature will surely be enriched incalculably by
the tremendous changes, acquisitions and improvements that cannot fail to take place in the distant
future. If genius has been silent for a century it has not been idle. On the contrary, it has been
collecting fresh materials not only from the remote past, but also from the age of progress and
development, and perhaps in the new century there will be outbursts of splendor in all the various
branches of literature. At present the world is undergoing a complete revolution, and in the midst of
falling systems and empires, conflicting theories and creeds, discoveries and inventions, it is a marvel
how one can produce any great literary works at all. This is an age of workers, not of thinkers. The
song to-day is:
Let the dead past bury its dead, Act, act in the living present, Heart within and God overhead.
A little later, when the rush and heat of achievement relax, we can begin to expect the appearance
of grand men to celebrate in glorious poetry and prose the deeds and triumphs of the last few
centuries.
It is very interesting to watch a plant grow, it is like taking part in creation. When all outside is cold
and white, when the little children of the woodland are gone to their nurseries in the warm earth, and
the empty nests on the bare trees fill with snow, my window-garden glows and smiles, making
summer within while it is winter without. It is wonderful to see flowers bloom in the midst of a snowstorm!
I have felt a bud “shyly doff her green hood and blossom with a silken burst of sound,” while
the icy fingers of the snow beat against the window-panes. What secret power, I wonder, caused
this blossoming miracle? What mysterious force guided the seedling from the dark earth up to the
light, through leaf and stem and bud, to glorious fulfilment in the perfect flower? Who could have
dreamed that such beauty lurked in the dark earth, was latent in the tiny seed we planted? Beautiful
flower, you have taught me to see a little way into the hidden heart of things. Now I understand that
the darkness everywhere may hold possibilities better even than my hopes.
A FREE TRANSLATION FROM HORACE BOOK II-18.
I am not one of those on whom fortune deigns to smile. My house is not resplendent with ivory
and gold; nor is it adorned with marble arches, resting on graceful columns brought from the quarries
of distant Africa. For me no thrifty spinners weave purple garments. I have not unexpectedly fallen
heir to princely estates, titles or power; but I have something more to be desired than all the world’s
treasures—the love of my friends, and honorable fame, won by my own industry and talents. Despite
my poverty, it is my privilege to be the companion of the rich and mighty. I am too grateful for all
these blessings to wish for more from princes, or from the gods. My little Sabine farm is dear to me;
for here I spend my happiest days, far from the noise and strife of the world.
O, ye who live in the midst of luxury, who seek beautiful marbles for new villas, that shall surpass
the old in splendor, you never dream that the shadow of death is hanging over your halls. Forgetful of
the tomb, you lay the foundation of your palaces. In your mad pursuit of pleasure you rob the sea of
its beach and desecrate hallowed ground. More even than this, in your wickedness you destroy the
peaceful homes of your clients! Without a touch of remorse you drive the father from his land,
clasping to his bosom his household gods and his half-naked children.
You forget that death comes to the rich and the poor alike, and comes once for all; but remember,
Acheron could not be bribed by gold to ferry the crafty Prometheus back to the sunlit world.
Tantalus, too, great as he was above all mortals, went down to the kingdom of the dead, never to
return. Remember, too, that, although death is inexorable, yet he is just; for he brings retribution to
the rich for their wickedness, and gives the poor eternal rest from their toil and sorrow.
Ah, the pranks that the nixies of Dreamland play on us while we sleep! Methinks “they are jesters
at the Court of Heaven.” They frequently take the shape of daily themes to mock me; they strut
about on the stage of Sleep like foolish virgins, only they carry well-trimmed note-books in their
hands instead of empty lamps. At other times they examine and cross-examine me in all the studies I
have ever had, and invariably ask me questions as easy to answer as this: “What was the name of the
first mouse that worried Hippopotamus, satrap of Cambridge under Astyagas, grandfather of Cyrus
the Great?” I wake terror-stricken with the words ringing in my ears, “An answer or your life!”
Such are the distorted fancies that flit through the mind of one who is at college and lives as I do in
an atmosphere of ideas, conceptions and half-thoughts, half-feelings which tumble and jostle each
other until one is almost crazy. I rarely have dreams that are not in keeping with what I really think
and feel, but one night my very nature seemed to change, and I stood in the eye of the world a
mighty man and a terrible. Naturally I love peace and hate war and all that pertains to war; I see
nothing admirable in the ruthless career of Napoleon, save its finish. Nevertheless, in that dream the
spirit of that pitiless slayer of men entered me! I shall never forget how the fury of battle throbbed in
my veins—it seemed as if the tumultuous beating of my heart would stop my breath. I rode a fiery
hunter—I can feel the impatient toss of his head now and the quiver that ran through him at the first
roar of the cannon.
From the top of the hill where I stood I saw my army surging over a sunlit plain like angry
breakers, and as they moved, I saw the green of fields, like the cool hollows between billows.
Trumpet answered trumpet above the steady beat of drums and the rhythm of marching feet. I
spurred my panting steed and waving my sword on high and shouting, “I come! Behold me, warriors
—Europe!” I plunged into the oncoming billows, as a strong swimmer dives into breakers, and struck, alas, ’tis true, the bedpost!
Now I rarely sleep without dreaming; but before Miss Sullivan came to me, my dreams were few
and far between, devoid of thought or coherency, except those of a purely physical nature. In my
dreams something was always falling suddenly and heavily, and at times my nurse seemed to punish
me for my unkind treatment of her in the daytime and return at an usurer’s rate of interest my kickings
and pinchings. I would wake with a start or struggle frantically to escape from my tormentor. I was
very fond of bananas, and one night I dreamed that I found a long string of them in the dining-room,
near the cupboard, all peeled and deliciously ripe, and all I had to do was to stand under the string
and eat as long as I could eat.
After Miss Sullivan came to me, the more I learned, the oftener I dreamed; but with the waking of
my mind there came many dreary fancies and vague terrors which troubled my sleep for a long time.
I dreaded the darkness and loved the woodfire. Its warm touch seemed so like a human caress, I
really thought it was a sentient being, capable of loving and protecting me. One cold winter night I
was alone in my room. Miss Sullivan had put out the light and gone away, thinking I was sound
asleep. Suddenly I felt my bed shake, and a wolf seemed to spring on me and snarl in my face. It
was only a dream, but I thought it real, and my heart sank within me. I dared not scream, and I
dared not stay in bed. Perhaps this was a confused recollection of the story I had heard not long
before about Red Riding Hood. At all events, I slipped down from the bed and nestled close to the
fire which had not flickered out. The instant I felt its warmth I was reassured, and I sat a long time
watching it climb higher and higher in shining waves. At last sleep surprised me, and when Miss
Sullivan returned she found me wrapped in a blanket by the hearth.
Often when I dream, thoughts pass through my mind like cowled shadows, silent and remote, and
disappear. Perhaps they are the ghosts of thoughts that once inhabited the mind of an ancestor. At
other times the things I have learned and the things I have been taught, drop away, as the lizard sheds
its skin, and I see my soul as God sees it. There are also rare and beautiful moments when I see and
hear in Dreamland. What if in my waking hours a sound should ring through the silent halls of
hearing? What if a ray of light should flash through the darkened chambers of my soul? What would
happen, I ask many and many a time. Would the bow-and-string tension of life snap? Would the
heart, overweighted with sudden joy, stop beating for very excess of happiness?
THE END