nouns. The idea always precedes the word. She had signs for SMALL
and LARGE long before I came to her. If she wanted a small object
and was given a large one, she would shake her head and take up a
tiny bit of the skin of one hand between the thumb and finger of
the other. If she wanted to indicate something large, she spread
the fingers of both hands as wide as she could, and brought them
together, as if to clasp a big ball. The other day I substituted
the words SMALL and LARGE for these signs, and she at once
adopted the words and discarded the signs. I can now tell her to
bring me a large book or a small plate, to go upstairs slowly, to
run fast and to walk quickly. This morning she used the
conjunction AND for the first time. I told her to shut the door,
and she added, "and lock."

She came tearing upstairs a few minutes ago in a state of great
excitement. I couldn't make out at first what it was all about.
She kept spelling "dog--baby" and pointing to her five fingers
one after another, and sucking them. My first thought was, one of
the dogs has hurt Mildred; but Helen's beaming face set my fears
at rest. Nothing would do but I must go somewhere with her to see
something. She led the way to the pump-house, and there in the
corner was one of the setters with five dear little pups! I
taught her the word "puppy" and drew her hand over them all,
while they sucked, and spelled "puppies." She was much interested
in the feeding process, and spelled "mother-dog" and "baby"
several times. Helen noticed that the puppies' eyes were closed,
and she said, "Eyes--shut. Sleep--no," meaning, "The eyes are
shut, but the puppies are not asleep." She screamed with glee
when the little things squealed and squirmed in their efforts to
get back to their mother, and spelled, "Baby--eat large." I