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Mildred is the dearest and sweetest little maiden in the world. She is very roguish, too. Sometimes, when mother does not know it, she goes out into the vineyard, and gets her apron full of delicious grapes. I think she would like to put her two soft arms around your neck and hug you.

Sunday I went to church. I love to go to church, because I like to see my friends.

A gentleman gave me a beautiful card. It was a picture of a mill, near a beautiful brook. There was a boat floating on the water, and the fragrant lilies were growing all around the boat. Not far from the mill there was an old house, with many trees growing close to it. There were eight pigeons on the roof of the house, and a great dog on the step. Pearl is a very proud mother-dog now. She has eight puppies, and she thinks there never were such fine puppies as hers.

I read in my books every day. I love them very, very, very much. I do want you to come back to me soon. I miss you so very, very much. I cannot know about many things, when my dear teacher is not here. I send you five thousand kisses, and more love than I can tell. I send Mrs. H. much love and a kiss. From your affectionate little pupil,

HELEN A. KELLER.

III. MORAL NATURE.

"All true glory rests,
All praise of safety, and all happiness,
Upon the moral law. "
Wordsworth.

Wonderful as are Helen's intellectual achievements, her spiritual nature furnishes the crown of her glory. Her moral qualities are of the highest order, and command even greater admiration than that due to her mental gifts. She stands as one of the rarest and most perfect types of ethical excellence. In most respects she resembles St. Clara.

"Her heart is pure. Obedience is her guide,
And chastity walks ever by her side."

She is a child of high principle and unimpeachable integrity. Her conduct is irreproachable in every particular. She never speaks a false or unkind word, nor harms a living creature. She has a noble and courageous regard for truth, and her supreme loyalty to it is the light of her whole life. In her written words her language is a beautifully accurate symbol of her thought; and it is with strict propriety that one can apply to her Goethe's beautiful words:

"Dieses ist der Sinn der Wahrheit
Der sich nur mit Shönem schmükt,
Und getrost der höchsten klarheit
Hellsten Tag's entgegenblickt."

Helen's thoughts dwell in a world of beauty and majesty, and she shines like a new resplendent gem in the treasure-house of humanity. She is pure and fresh as a violet, and --

"Chaste as the icicle
That's curded by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian's temple."

She is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of uprightness, fights heroically the battles of justice and equity, and sacrifices every instinct of selfishness on the altar of generosity. Her sense of honor keeps pace with her sensibility, and maintains the equilibrium of her mind. She has no memory for injuries, and no inclination for revenge. She knows absolutely nothing of the unkindness, hostility, narrow-mindedness, hatefulness and wickedness of the world around her. Hope, faith and love are so deeply graved upon her soul, that she finds strength when affliction's surges roll maddest, and light and sweet music when she else is blind and deaf.

Helen has implicit trust and confidence in the good intent of every one.

"Suspicion lurks not in her artless breast,
The worst suggested, she believes the best."

Rarely has she failed to seek for a charitable excuse for the author of a mean act, of which she had become cognizant. She is always prepared to throw gently the mantle of clemency over all wrongdoers. When she was told of the wickedness of a colored servant who had stolen a breast-pin which had been accidentally sent to the wash, she replied, pityingly, "the poor thing did not know that it was not right to do so!" On another occasion, while she was reading a letter from home, in which one of her pet animals was characterized as stupid, she remarked: "Mother does not realize that Cedric is very young!" Even when she was profoundly grieved at the loss of her favorite dog, which had been barbarously killed, near her house, she tried to palliate the cruelty of its slayers by saying that they were ignorant of its goodness. Instances of this kind, showing that Helen is ever ready to go in search of an apology for transgressors, are very numerous. She earnestly believes that there is good in every human being, and feels a deep interest in the welfare of all. Her concern for the happiness of others manifests itself in various ways, and forms the key-note of the harmony of her character.

Many are the moral qualities which adorn this remarkable child; but a sympathetic and unselfish temper is her greatest ornament, "a pearl without price." These attributes, enhanced by her natural grace and vitalized by her sweetness and modesty, render her a fairy queen who draws to herself hundreds of hearts, -- a kindly magician who turns all her visitors into friends and admirers.