Library Collections: Document: Full Text

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. The weeks she spent in forming the same letters over and over again were weeks of interest and pleasure to me. With such a gentle, persevering and patient pupil, who would not find teaching a delight?

On the 12th of July she wrote without assistance a correctly spelled and legible letter to one of her cousins; and this was only a little more than a month after her first lesson in chirography. She is very fond of letter-writing and has written several epistles, -- which are truly wonderful, when her age and opportunities are considered.

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 cones 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 without waiting to cipher out the sum, "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."

She said to me a few days ago, "what is Helen made of?" I replied, "flesh and blood and bone." A little while afterwards I asked her about her dog, "what is Jumbo made of?" After a moment's pause she answered, "flesh and bone and blood." I then turned to her doll and asked, "what is Nancy made of?" Helen was puzzled, but at last she replied slowly, as if in doubt, "straw." Evidently she went through a process of reasoning, and concluded that her doll was not made of the same material as herself and her dog.

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 color of a servant she would say, "black." When asked the color of some one whose occupation she did not know she seemed bewildered, and finally said, "blue."

Helen takes great pleasure in feeding the domestic animals and in learning their habits and uses. It would puzzle a far wiser person than I am to answer many of her eager questions.

Her power of imitation is strongly developed. Her memory is retentive, and her curiosity insatiable. The relation of things she quickly perceives, -- so quickly that she seems sometimes to divine our very thoughts.

By way of illustration I will give a few of the many instances where she has exercised this inexplicable mental power.

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 myself, 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.

Her grandmother told Mrs. Keller in Helen's presence that orange peel soaked in wine made a nice flavoring for cake. Mrs. Keller gave Helen the orange peel and showed her how to cut it up and put it into the jar. As soon as Helen had done this, she went to her mother and spelled, "wine"; nor would she be satisfied until the wine was added to the jar.

One of her dolls was knocked off a table and broken. As we were tired of seeing it lying about, Mrs. Adams said to Mrs. Keller, "give it to Bessie," -- a little negress on the place. Instantly Helen said, with her fingers, "Helen will give Bessie doll."

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 by which he was coming.

When walking or riding she often gives the names of the people we meet almost as soon as we recognize their presence. Frequently when desirous of making suggestions to her, outside of the routine of her studies or her daily life, she will anticipate me by spelling out the very plan I had in mind.

Of necessity much must be omitted which would be of interest concerning this remarkable child. Her progress so far has been most gratifying. With great patience and perseverance she is constantly adding to her little store of knowledge. Every day finds some new task completed, some fresh obstacle overcome.

This wonderful story narrating, as it does, concisely, but with force and clearness, the simple facts relating to the education of one of the most remarkable children in existence, is full of profound interest, not only to scholars and men of science, but to all thinking persons. Helen's progress will continue to be carefully watched in the future as it has been in the past, and every new development will be faithfully recorded by her devoted teacher.