water she says, "Give Helen drink water." She knows four hundred
words besides numerous proper nouns. In one lesson I taught her
these words: BEDSTEAD, MATTRESS, SHEET, BLANKET, COMFORTER,
SPREAD, PILLOW. The next day I found that she remembered all but
spread. The same day she had learned, at different times, the
words: hOUSE, WEED, DUST, SWING, MOLASSES, FAST, SLOW,
MAPLE-SUGAR and COUNTER, and she had not forgotten one of these
last. This will give you an idea of the retentive memory she
possesses. She can count to thirty very quickly, and can write
seven of the square-hand letters and the words which can be made
with them. She seems to understand about writing letters, and is
impatient to "write Frank letter." She enjoys punching holes in
paper with the stiletto, and I supposed it was because she could
examine the result of her work; but we watched her one day, and I
was much surprised to find that she imagined she was writing a
letter. She would spell "Eva" (a cousin of whom she is very fond)
with one hand, then make believe to write it; then spell, "sick
in bed," and write that. She kept this up for nearly an hour. She
was (or imagined she was) putting on paper the things which had
interested her. When she had finished the letter she carried it
to her mother and spelled, "Frank letter," and gave it to her
brother to take to the post-office. She had been with me to take
letters to the post-office.

She recognizes instantly a person whom she has once met, and
spells the name. Unlike Laura Bridgman, she is fond of gentlemen,
and we notice that she makes friends with a gentleman sooner than
with a lady.

She is always ready to share whatever she has with those about