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On her return to Boston at the opening of our school, Helen seemed to be very eager to study Greek; and, in answer to her constant inquiries, I spelled to her, from time to time, in the simplest possible form, a number of words and short familiar phrases, such as dendron, tree; dactylidion, ring; triches, hair; kalè eméra, good morning; kalè nykta, good night; pos échete, how do you do; kalos, well; choere, good-bye, and many others of the same character. That the little witch should have stored in the capacious treasury of her memory every scrap of knowledge, which she had picked up in her irregular linguistic excursions, and that she should be able to use it correctly whenever she pleases, seems inconceivable. Yet the following fac-simile of a letter which she wrote to me while making a visit at the kindergarten for the blind, -- differing from the original only in the underlining of the foreign words and sentences, -- leaves not a shadow of doubt on this point: --

Roxbury, Mass, Oct. 17.

Mon cher Monsieur Anagnos.

I am sitting by the window and beautiful sun shining on me teacher and I came to the kindergarten yesterday. There are twenty seven children here and they are all very blind. I am sorry because they cannot see much. Sometime will they have very well eyes? Poor Edith is blind and deaf and dumb. Are you very sad for Edith and me? Soon I shall go home to see my mother and my father and my dear good and sweet little sister. I hope you will come to Alabama to visit me and I will take you to ride in my little cart and I think you will like to see me on my dear gentle little pony's back. I shall wear my lovely cap and my new riding-dress. If the sun shines brightly I will take you to see Leila and Eva and Bessie When I am thirteen years old I am going to travel to many strange and beautiful countries. I shall climb very high mountains in Norway and see much ice and snow I hope I will not fall and hurt my head I shall visit little Lord Fauntleroy in England and he will be glad to show me his grand and very ancient castle And we will run with the deer and feed the rabbits and catch the squirrels. I shall not be afraid of Fauntleroy's great dog Dougal. I hope Fauntleroy take me to see a very kind queen. When I go to France I will talk French. A little French boy will say Parles-vous Francais? and I will say, Oui, Monsieur, vous-aves un joli chapeau. Donnes moi unbraiser. I hope you will go with me to Athens. She was very lovely lady and I will talk Greek to her. I will say, se agapo and, pos echete and I think she will say kalos, and then I will say Chaere. Will you please come to see me soon and take me to the theater? When you come I will say, Kale emera, and when you go home I will say, Kale nykta. Now I am too tired to write more. je vous aime.

Au revoir

from your darling little friend Helen A. Keller

On the 29th of October she wrote to her aunt in Tuscumbia a brief letter, in which she recurs to the same subject with her usual clearness. As this epistle may serve as a confirmation of the statement made above, I copy it herewith verbatim, literatim and punctuatim. It may be proper in this connection to state, once for all, that whenever any passage of Helen's writings is quoted in the accounts concerning her, it is done with a sense of the importance of a scrupulous adherence to the exact form which she used. No change and no correction is ever made, not even of the orthography. The note in question reads as follows: --

My dearest Aunt, -- I am coming home very soon and I think you and every one will be very glad to see my teacher and me. I am very happy because I have learned much about many things. I am studying French and German and Latin and Greek. Se agapo is Greek, and it means I love thee. J'ai une bonne petite soeur is French, and it means I have a good little sister. Nous avous un bon pere et une bonne mere means, we have a good father and a good mother. Puer is boy in Latin, and Mutter is mother in German. I will teach Mildred many languages when I come home.

Helen A. Keller.

These letters, together with a large number of others which she has written to relatives and friends, show conclusively not only that their tiny author is gifted with extraordinary ability for acquiring foreign languages as well as that of her own ancestors, but also that she has made surprising progress in the arrangement and coherency of her ideas, in clearness of statement and in evenness of style.

Helen has attained uncommon dexterity in the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf-mutes. She spells out the words and sentences so fast and so deftly, that even those who are accustomed to this language find it extremely difficult to follow with the eye the rapid motions of her fingers. When left alone, she seems very happy if she has a book or her knitting, or some sewing to do for the famous Nancy and the rest of her dolls, of which she has quite a family. If she has no occupation, she evidently amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impressions. Whether she reads, soliloquizes or dreams, she invariably spells out with her fingers her perceptions, her thoughts or her sleeping fantasies.