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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 of the most difficult 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!" What a blessing it is that she will never realize fully the magnitude of her loss!

To my perfect delight, while I was arranging the materials for this imperfect sketch, I was myself favored with a charming letter from Helen, of which I could not resist the temptation to publish the following fac-simile as an additional illustration of her marvellous progress: --

dear mr. anagnos I will write you a letter. I and teacher did have picture. 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 come home. I did ride in wheelbarrow 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.

These letters, printed in chronological order, are sufficient in themselves without comment or explanation to show that their tiny author is a most extraordinary little individual. Indeed, she is a mental prodigy, an intellectual phenomenon. In view of all the circumstances her achievements are little short of a miracle. It would be extremely difficult, nay impossible, to find a child in full possession of his faculties who could accomplish, in six or seven months, more than Helen has done. Access to her doubly imprisoned mind was gained so speedily that it seemed almost like a touch of witchcraft. Her intellectual faculties bloomed into fragrant flowers as soon as a breath of the warm spring air from the external world entered their rayless and dreary incasement. Her progress was not a gradual advancement but a sort of triumphal march, -- a series of dazzling conquests. The innate desire for knowledge and the instinctive efforts which the human faculties make to exercise their functions are shown as remarkably in Helen's case as they were in Laura's.

The case of this child is unique and of absorbing interest in every respect. So far as I know it is the only one in existence which promises to throw important light upon such psychological questions as were not exhaustively investigated by Dr. Howe, on account of the biasing influence which bigoted and fanatical zealots brought to bear upon the mind of his pupil during the process of his work. Let us hope that both science and humanity will profit by the present opportunity to the fullest extent.

But, remarkable and unparalleled as is Helen's case, that of her teacher is, in some points, no less noteworthy. Miss Sullivan entered our school Oct. 7, 1880, at the age of sixteen years. Her sight was so seriously impaired as to justify her classification with the blind. The circumstances of her early life were very inauspicious. She was neither rocked in a cradle lined with satin and supplied with down cushions, nor brought up on the lap of luxury. On the contrary, her experiences in childhood and youth were of a most distressing character. But it should be remembered that it is adversity rather than prosperity which stimulates the perseverance of strong, healthy natures, rouses their energy and develops their powers. This was precisely the case with Miss Sullivan. When she was admitted to this institution her stock of information was painfully meagre. Her blindness cut her entirely off from all advantages; but even before the obscuration of her vision her struggle for the means of existence had been so constant as to preclude all possibility of her acquiring the rudiments of knowledge. Hence she was obliged to begin her education from 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. The furnace of hardships through which she passed was not without beneficent results. It freed the pure gold of her nature from all dross. For, as Byron puts it, --