Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Still the idle fairies did not notice what was happening, for they were down on the grass, and the wonderful shower of treasure was a long time in reaching them; but at last they plainly heard the tinkling of many drops falling like rain through the forest, and sliding from leaf to leaf until they reached the little bushes by their side, when to their astonishment they discovered that the raindrops were melted rubies, which hardened on the leaves and turned them to crimson and gold in a moment. Then looking around more closely, they saw that much of the treasure was already melted, for the oaks and maples were arrayed in gorgeous dresses of gold and crimson and emerald. It was very beautiful, but the disobedient fairies were too frightened to notice the beauty of the trees. They were afraid that King Frost would come and punish them. So they hid themselves among the bushes and waited silently for something to happen. Their fears were well founded, for their long absence had alarmed the king, and he mounted north wind and went out in search of his tardy couriers. Of course he had not gone far when he noticed the brightness of the leaves, and he quickly guessed the cause when he saw the broken jars from which the treasure was still dropping. At first King Frost was very angry, and the fairies trembled and crouched lower in their hiding places, and I do not know what might have happened to them if just then a party of boys and girls had not entered the wood. When the children saw the trees all aglow with brilliant colors they clapped their hands and shouted for joy, and immediately began to pick great bunches to take home. "The leaves are as lovely as the flowers!" cried they, in their delight. Their pleasure banished the anger from King Frost's heart and the frown from his brow, and he too began to admire the painted trees. He said to himself, "My treasures are not wasted if they make little children happy. My idle fairies and my fiery enemy have taught me a new way of doing good." When the fairies heard this they were greatly relieved, and came forth from their hiding places, confessed their fault and asked their master's forgiveness. Ever since that time it has been King Frost's great delight to paint the leaves with the glowing colors we see in the autumn; and, if they are not covered with gold and precious stones, I cannot imagine what makes them so bright, can you?

HELEN KELLER.

If there be a pupil in any of the private or public grammar schools of New England who can write an original story like this, without assistance from any one, he or she certainly is a rare phenomenon.

Helen's imagination is not a thin flame kindled deliberately with gathered materials. It is an intense flash born unexpectedly of internal collisions. Independently of words or of pictures of actual objects furnished by perception, her fancy creates for itself scenes and images not less vivid than their tangible representatives. It is penetrative and far-sighted, bringing together things widely sundered, apparently diverse and opposite. It is broad, keen and soaring.

Helen's thoughts are far-reaching, and her nature is one of great depth. To use a phrase of Coleridge, she is an example of endless self-reproduction. She is often visited by those thoughts that come unsummoned out of the invisible like new stars, which out of the unfathomable deeps of the sky dart suddenly upon the vision of the watcher of the heavens.

Language and Compositions.

"Her even thoughts with so much plainness flow,
Their sense untutored Infancy may know;
Yet to such height is all that plainness wrought,
Wit may admire, and letter'd pride be taught."
Prior.

Helen has a marvellous faculty for language, and the progress which she has already made in acquiring her mother tongue is matchless. It exceeds all the glowing anticipations of her instructors and the most sanguine expectations of her enthusiastic admirers. Her vocabulary has become immensely rich and varied.

The number of new words which she has gained during the past three years is incredibly great. She has learned them so fast and in such large groups that it has been found impossible to keep a record of their number. Her knowledge of them is very exact. She has mastered them in all their details, and is perfectly familiar with their spelling and definition, as well as with the various ways in which they should be employed in composition. She understands thoroughly the force of their meaning and the importance of their function as elements of human speech. Perhaps she does not realize fully the immensity of the power which Emile de Girardin ascribes to them, by saying that "a well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying enemy, to change defeat into victory and to save an empire;" but she shows excellent judgment and fine taste in selecting them.

Helen seems to have a special talent for language. She uses words with delicacy and precision, and suits them to the sense with unerring accuracy. She is led by instinct to perceive their fitness, to give preference to those which appear to her graceful and euphonious, and to avoid their opposites. Eagerly and apparently without conscious effort she frequently resorts to the fields of the synonyms and feasts on their varieties. She does this spontaneously, and not with any intention of conformity to the rules of rhetoric or the canons and requirements of elegant style, because she has never studied them nor has she ever been told anything about them. "The word stingy is harsh, and I do not like it," said she one evening. To my question, "what word would you use in its stead?" she immediately replied "parsimonious." She earnestly assured her devoted friend, Mrs. Hopkins, that, in speaking of the soles of her shoes, it was more appropriate to say flexible than limber.