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Helen enjoys life with all the heartiness of a child. She views everything with the most glowing spirit of hopefulness. The leading impulse and most vital feature in her character is her optimism; her firm belief that meanness cannot form a part in any of the phases of human nature, and that all things proceed from the good and end in the best. This faith is the chief sentiment which gives unity to her thoughts. It is the source of the perpetual sunshine of her temperament. It is the one golden thread upon which she strings all her glittering beads. It is the principal lesson she is destined to teach, -- the grand sermon she is ordained to preach. She is cheerful, helpful, inspiring. She is ignorant of the prevailing power of evil in the world. Nor is the slightest tendency towards it to be found in her. She is so absolutely free from it, that the strongest theological microscope would fail to discover an atom of perverseness in her moral constitution. She is a living negation of the doctrine of total depravity, and a positive confirmation of the ethics of Confucius, the peculiar characteristic of which is the repeated assertion of the goodness of human nature in the normal man.

Happiness, Cheerfulness and Gratitude.

"No bird upon a tree
E'er found life half so rare a boon as she."

Alice Chadbourne.

Helen is most happily constituted. There seems to be nothing wanting for her felicity. The infinite happiness which can be derived from resources within one's self is well emphasized by her case. She enjoys life and everything pertaining to it with the ardor of her soul. Contentment is a continual feast with her. It is a pearl of great price in the crown of her nature. She is entirely free from all that might infringe delight. Her countenance, bright with smiles and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever-shining benevolence. All her pleasures are as fresh as the hours and as beautiful as eternity. To use Vaughan's words, she is

"Sweet as the flower's first breath, and close
As th' unseen spreading of the rose,
When she unfolds her curtained head,
And makes her bosom the sun's bed."

Helen's felicity reaches its highest mark when she has an opportunity of making others happy. This disposition is one of those noble traits of her character which render her existence so exceptional. A sweeter, a more generous or a more self-sacrificing child never, as I think, lent the charm of her presence to this world.

Last Christmas a beautiful little tree was prepared for her, and she was greatly pleased with it, and highly excited over the "secrets" which hung on its branches. Her friends gathered in the parlors early in the forenoon to witness the distribution of the presents with which the tree was loaded; and Helen was radiant with delight when she discovered that others fared as well as she did, and that all her guests were generously remembered.

Miss Lane, who was one of the participants in this joyous and most impressive occasion, describes it as follows: --

Such a merry, merry Christmas! No child in all the world could have been happier than was Helen. "The day was full of joy from beginning to end," -- as she afterwards described it in a letter to her mother.

The Christmas tree prepared for her by loving friends was gaily decorated and loaded with gifts. Upon its topmost bough alighted an image of a little angel, the gift of a dear young friend of kindred spirit, -- Rosalind Richards of Gardiner, Me. When Helen found it there she said it had come "to tell of peace on earth and good-will to all." Filled with that spirit of good-will and thoughtful love, she made sure with her own hands and purse that the tree contained an added gift for each expected guest.

Learning at a late moment that Mrs. Julia Ward Howe had arrived, and would be her guest on the occasion, Helen hastily procured a pretty lily-penwiper and wrote a little note to accompany it, which was full of love and kind wishes for the "dear lady."

When all were assembled in the parlors, the self-appointed young "messenger of Santa Claus" joyously hastened to do his bidding. Skipping gracefully to and fro, and pronouncing the name of each recipient, she enhanced the value of the precious tokens by her vivid and keen delight in their presentation. After the work for Santa Claus was finished, she eagerly sought her own newly-acquired treasures. And what choice treasures they were! A real canary in his glittering cage, a beautiful carnation pink full of fragrant blossoms, an exquisite pin from Italy, "lovely Italy," and many other things beautiful and valuable, which were all carefully examined with unbounded pleasure. Soon the wonderful fingers discovered a book of poems in embossed print, "Stray Chords," by Mrs. Anagnos, and at once the child was wholly absorbed in its contents. She read aloud with an intense earnestness of expression and a happy look on the sweet face, which surprised and charmed her audience, -- especially the "dear lady," to whom evidently it recalled the past, -- the great work which her noble husband accomplished for Laura Bridgman, and which thus opened the pathway to this joyous Christmas for Helen Keller.