full of skips and jumps, and here and there a lot of things
huddled together in dark corners. How I long to put it in order!
Oh, if only there were some one to help me! I need a teacher
quite as much as Helen. I know that the education of this child
will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains
and perseverance to accomplish it. I have made up my mind about
one thing: Helen must learn to use books- indeed, we must both
learn to use them, and that reminds me--will you please ask Mr.
Anagnos to get me Perez's and Sully's Psychologies? I think I
shall find them helpful.

We have reading lessons every day. Usually we take one of the
little "Readers" up in a big tree near the house and spend an
hour or two finding the words Helen already knows. WE MAKE A SORT
OF GAME OF IT and try to see who can find the words most quickly,
Helen with her fingers, or I with my eyes, and she learns as many
new words as I can explain with the help of those she knows. When
her fingers light upon words she knows, she fairly screams with
pleasure and hugs and kisses me for joy, especially if she thinks
she has me beaten. It would astonish you to see how many words
she learns in an hour in this pleasant manner. Afterward I put
the new words into little sentences in the frame, and sometimes
it is possible to tell a little story about a bee or a cat or a
little boy in this way. I can now tell her to go upstairs or
down, out of doors or into the house, lock or unlock a door, take
or bring objects, sit, stand, walk, run, lie, creep, roll, or
climb. She is delighted with action-words; so it is no trouble at
all to teach her verbs. She is always ready for a lesson, and the
eagerness with which she absorbs ideas is very delightful. She is
as triumphant over the conquest of a sentence as a general who