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Perkins Report of 1888

Creator: Michael Anagnos (author)
Date: 1888
Source: Perkins School for the Blind

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Page 19:

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Helen Keller.

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Story.

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Sept. 25th, 1888. -- Ted and Tena, had a very cunning little bed and when it was night and they felt very tired and sleepy their mother put them to bed and they were soon sound asleep. Then they dreamed about a picnic. They went with their little playmates to a very pretty field where the large trees made a pleasant shade, and there were daisies and buttercups and wild roses in the field and grass and a pretty little brook that rippled gaily over the pebbles, and the birds were happy high up in the trees and they sang for the little girls and boys. When they were very hungry they made a table on the green grass and ate the ice-cream and cake, and chicken and pickles and biscuit, and they drank the lemonade and cold coffee.

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Then they played games and came home for they were tired and their mothers put them in their little beds to rest.

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Helen A. Keller.

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Rosa asked her mother to take her to see the sheep that were feeding on some fresh green grass on the side of a little hill. So, her mother told Rosa to get her hat and she would take her to look at the sheep. When Rosa saw the sheep she was very happy and said there are the sheep, may I run with them? They are very mild and they will not hurt me. I will catch a tame sheep and bring it to you. No, said her mother you could not bring one to me because they are too large. I will go with you and we can talk to a pretty lamb. While her mother was talking a large sheep saw some bright flowers in Rosa's hat and he thought they were real flowers and he was hungry and so he began to eat them. Rosa's mother drove the sheep off many times but he kept coining back and trying to pull of the flowers and at last Rosa and her mother had to go out of the field.

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Helen A. Keller.

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Oct. 21st. -- Genevieve is a pretty little maiden and she is good and sweet and fair. There are two roses in her smiling face and her hair is as bright as the sunshine and her voice is soft and loving. Genevieve is a happy little maiden because she is always affectionate and kind. Her heart is full of loving thoughts. She loves to hear the birds sing and to run and dance and catch the pretty butterflies. Every one loves Genevieve because she is so gentle, sweet and loving. She has a roguish little brother, his name is Willie. He has a face as round as an apple and two laughing blue eyes. He is always jumping and leaping and dancing. Her sister Lue is six years old and her wee little sister Bessie is a timid little darling. She is just two years old. One day she went out into the garden and laid her bright head on the Strawberry bed to hear what the red cheeked berries were saying. She loved to go with Lue and Genevieve and sit in the swing that hung in the huge ash tree and the little birds up in the tree thought baby Bessie made a pretty picture as the swing moved gently to and fro.

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Helen A. Keller.

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Oct. 21-. -Arthur went to walk in the garden one beautiful day with his mother. The birds were singing, and the flowers were very bright and fragrant. After a while Arthur saw some lovely white flowers and they looked like tiny white bells. He asked his mother the name of the beautiful flower and she told him it was the lily of the valley. Arthur thought the little flowers would make pretty night caps for the fairies. He told his mother that he should like to sleep under the leaves of the lily of the valley with a flower for a cap. Why, said she, how very small you would have to be. Your head would have to be not much larger than the head of a pin.

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The next morning Arthur came downstairs in great glee for he had been dreaming while he was asleep about the beautiful flowers. He told his mother all about it, and she was glad to listen because it was a very pleasant dream.

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Arthur thought he was sitting under the lily of the valley and he was so small he could put his head into one of the tiny bells. He sat very near an acorn and he was such a wee little boy he could lean on it. He heard a bird singing and he thought it was his mother calling him. He was a very funny little boy and his mother laughed very hard at his pretty dream.

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Helen A. Keller.

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To Helen the heroes and heroines of her little stories are real boys and girls, in whom she manifests a lively interest. She does not for a moment doubt that some day she will see Lord Fauntleroy, and enjoy in reality all the incidents of Mrs. Burnett's charming book. She seems to prefer stories which exercise the imagination. She is very fond of such poetry as comes within her comprehension, and it will be seen from many of her letters and compositions, that she catches the poetical spirit which pervades juvenile tales.

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The development of her mind is apparent in the increased interest she manifests, and in the character of the questions she asks when a new subject is presented to her. In earlier lessons, when I first described something new, she would ask a few simple questions, and then leave the subject, rarely returning to it voluntarily. But now her field of inquiry has enlarged, and she repeatedly recurs to previous lessons or conversations, seeking further information in the same direction.

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