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Just here, perhaps, I had better explain our use of the manual alphabet, which seems to be a source of wonder and perplexity to people who do not know us. One who is reading or talking to me spells with his right hand, using the manual alphabet usually employed by the deaf. I place my right hand on the hand of the speaker so lightly as not to impede its motion. The position of the hand is as easy to feel as it is to see. I do not feel each letter any more than others see each letter separately when they read with their eyes. 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 an act of consciousness than in writing one is conscious of each letter. The manual alphabet is an old, trusty friend, but speech is the dearest treasure I have won; when I made it my own I could hardly wait to show it to those I loved.

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 my mother and 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 with ecstasy, and my father and big brothers expressed their pride and affection in tender, broken exclamations. It was as if Isaiah's ecstatic 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!"

(CONTINUED IN THE JULY JOURNAL)

Helen Keller as Her Friends Know Her

It is hard for some people to believe that the story of Helen Keller's life is really her own story, actually composed by the blind girl herself and written by means of her typewriter. For this reason it is a pleasure to announce that her articles will be supplemented by two others, in which her teacher, Miss Annie M. Sullivan, and one of her intimate friends, Mr. James Albert Macy, will tell all about her preparation of the wonderful story now appearing in THE JOURNAL, and show Miss Keller as her friends see her day by day.