TALKING WITH THE FINGERS.


No doubt, many of the little readers of "The Nursery" go to school; yet
not many of them, I think, can ever have been in such a school as the
one in which I am teaching. The walls of the room are hung with pictures
of birds, animals, insects, fishes, and flowers. The blackboard is
covered with drawings of many familiar objects.

While I am writing this, seven little boys and nine little girls (how
many does that make in all?) are busy writing on their slates. These
children do not have any books to study. I tell them what I wish to
teach them, and they write it down, and try to remember it. But I teach
them without speaking a word. I talk to them with my fingers.

You have guessed already, I dare say, that these dear little children
are deaf and dumb; that is, they can neither hear nor speak. They cannot
go to school and live at home, and see papa and mamma night and morning,
as you can; for there are no schools for them near their homes. They
have to go a long way from home, and stay in school many long weeks
without seeing father or mother, brother or sister. So, when vacation
comes, how glad and happy they are! Some of them are even now writing on
their slates, "In sixteen weeks we shall go home."

I have said that these children cannot speak; but that is not quite
true, for many of them are learning to speak. When I talk to them, they