LAUEA BRIDGMAN. 247 Doctor Howe next procured for her a font of metal types with the letters cast upon one end, and a board in which there were square holes in which she could place the types, so that the raised letters alone would extend above the surface of the wood. Upon handing her a pencil or a watch, she would immediately set up its name in type, so that the blind could read it ; and in this way she was exercised for several weeks, until her list of words became considerable. She took great delight in this exercise, and learned far more rapidly than when her performances were purely mechanical. The next step was to enable her to communicate with others by means of her fingers, using the various deaf and dumb alphabets. Strange as it may seem, she learned very quickly to represent the different letters by the position of her fingers ; for she now had a clear sense of what the teacher was about. When she had been a year in the Institution, she could converse with its inmates with considerable freedom, and was apparently among the happiest of them all. She never appeared to be in low spirits, but was full of fun and frolic, romped with the rest of the children, and laughed louder than them all. When alone, she seemed more than content with her knitting and sewing, and would amuse herself for hours in that way. In the course of time, she learned to write, and the first use she made of this accomplishment was to write a letter to her mother. When she had been six months in the Institution, her mother came to see her; but Laura, though she ran against her, and felt of her hands and dress, did not recognize her — to her mother's great grief. But after a while, when her mother took hold of her again, an idea seemed to flash upon her mind; she eagerly felt her mother's hands ; became pale and red by turns ; and when her mother drew her close to her side and kissed
