The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-11-28
Ghildren's Column.


4Ou uhN0 dI uSAEO Oh Tue WOuO8E
full mind of that poor little girl with.
out sight or hearing, have you not9
A friend who has known her since she
was a little child tells how her devoted
companion, Miss Sullivan, first realized
the awakening of her understanding.
In an exchange the story is thus told:
She was one day pumping water at
the well-an operation which some
times employed her restless but blind
and uncomprehending childish ener
gies. Miss Sullivan was at her side as
usual; she watched her night and day
for the dswning of the instant of com.
~prehension, dominating the rebellious
child's every movement, bearing in
udon her with an untiring determine
tion the Word which was to unlock
the world to her. Suddenly, as the
water poured out at the spout, Helen
stopped pumping, and q light came
into her face which no n had aver
seen there before. Then she thrust her
hands into the water and eagerly
grasped her teachers hands, and over
and over again made, rudely, the man.
ual sign which signifies "water." Her
sudden eagerness showed that the
Word had had come. Miss Sullivan
took the child in her arms, hugging
her, kissing her and patiing her joy.
fully. Then Helen knelt on the earth,
slapped the ground with both her
hands, rose and seized Miss SullivaR's
hands inquiringly. What was the
sign for that3 Miss Sullivan made it
and Helen repeated it excitedly. She
seized the pump and again clasped the
teachers hands. The sign for that3
So she groped from object to object,
demanding to know the word for every.
thing. She went to the house and
plucked her treasured doll to pieces,
presenting its eyes and everything else
about it that she could detach for nam.
ing.
From this moment everything was
easy. The child's whole nature seemed
changed. From literal kicking che
passed to docility and tractability.
Her eagerness to learn had to be re-
pressed; but she understood and was
patient. In a few weeks any one who
knew the manual alphabet could com
municate rapidly with her. Soon
came the raised print, and the art Of
writing with a pencil and an apparatus
to keep her lines straight and her let
tiers within bounds, so that in July,
1897, she wrote an intelligent letter.
The ordinary facts of the visible world
she soon learned-the color Of the grass
and flowers, the rising and setting Of
the sun, etc. With this knowledge
came memory and reflection with a
sudden thrush. She relates infinitely,
if asked, the incidents Of this first sum-
mer Of her conscious existence; of the
sum ner which went before it she has
no knowledge whatever.
Helen Keller has never ceased to
study from that day to this, for her
periods Of repose are also periods of
ipquiry. The main fact in her life is
that she has learned and can still learn.
She is gifted with a good memory, par.
ticuIarly for words. She tells a story
which she has read long ago with very
close verbal approximation to the form
in which che first read it. Ny little
children, five and three years old, sit
a long time at her feet listening to
stories which she tells them; they un-
derstand her articulation as well as
they do that Of any other person. She
goes from one story to another, the
chil1ren's favorites being "The Blue
Haired Ogre" THE Prince and the
S Fallow," 1.-THE Disseminated BY"
"Perseus, " "Theseus, "and"Anwanda F"
THE Prince and the Swallow" she read
in German, and has never seen nor
heard it in English, but her English
version, told to the children, is a very
good and perfectly idiomatic transla
ton. She never tells the children an
original story, though she sometimes
varies and embellishes a tale for their
benefit. 1 have never seen any sign in
her of the creative faculty, though I
think she will be found capable Of it if
her mind turns into this channel. At
present her intelligence is concentrated
on apprehension and on reflection Of a
digestive sort.
have spoken of her translations of
German into idiomatic Eaglish. This
il thoroughly characteristic Of her. In
her early education Miss Sullivan toll
Grated no slovenliness of language nor
any omissions or ellipticism. Com