by putting her fingers into my mouth. I then
placed my tongue in the position for the sound
of i in it, and let her find the point, as it lay
perfectly still and soft in the bed of the jaw,
just behind the lower front teeth, and discover
that the teeth were slightly parted. After she
had tlone this, I placed one of her forefingers
upon my teeth antl the other upon my throat,
or trachea, at the lowest point where it may be
felt, and repeated the sound I several times.
During this time Helen, standing in front of
me in the attitude of one listening intently,
gave the closest attention to every detail; and,
when I ceased making the sound, her fingers
flew to her own mouth and throat, and, after
arranging her tongue and teeth, she uttered
the sound i so nearly like that I had made, it
seemed like an echo of it. When told she had
given the sound correctly, she repeated it again
and again. I next showed her, by means of her
sensitive fingers, the depression through the
centre of the tongue when in position for the
sound of a and the opening between the teeth
tluring the utterance of that sound. Again
she waited with her fingers upon my teeth and
throat until I sounded a several times, and then
she gave the vowel fairly well. A little prac-
tice enabled her to give it perfectly. We then
repeated the sound of i and contrasted it with
a. Having these two differing positions well
fixed in her mind, I illustrated the position of
the tongue and lips while sounding the vowel
0. She experimented with her own mouth, and
soon produced a clear, well-defined o. After
acquiring this she began to ask what the sounds
represented, and if they were words. I then
told her that i is one of the sounds of the letter
i, that a is one of the sounds of the letter a,
and that some letters have many different
sountls, but that it would not be difficult for her
to think of these sounds after she had learned
to speak words. I next took the position for a,
Helen following as before with her fingers, and,
while sounding the vowel, .slowly closed my
lips, producing the word " arm." Without hesi-
tation she arranged her tongue, repeated the
sounils, and was delighted to know that she
had pronounced a word. Her teacher suggested
to her that she should let me hear her say the
words "mamma" and "papa," which she had
tried to speak before coming to me. She
quickly and forcibly said, "nmm nmm" and
puj) pup I commended her efforts, and said that it would be better to speak very softly, and to sountl one part of the word
longer than she did the other. I then illustrated what I wanted her to understand, by pronouncing the word "mamma" very delicately, and at the same time drawing my finger along the back of her hand to show the relative length of the two syllables. After a few repetitions, the words "mamma" and "papa" came with almost musical sweetness from her lips.
This was her first lesson. She had but ten les.sons in all, although she was with me at other times talking freely, but not under in- struction. The plan was to develop at each lesson new elements, review those previously learnetl, listen to all of the combinations she could make with the consonants as initial and final elements, and construct sentences with the words resulting from the combinations. In the intervals between the les.sons she practised these with Miss Sullivan. She was an ideal pupil, for she followetl every direction with the utmost care, and seemed never to forget anything told her. On the day she had her seventh lesson (Aprl 19) she and Miss Sullivan were invited with me to lunch at the house of a friend. While on the way there Miss Sullivan remarked that she wished Helen woukl use the sentences she had learned, and added that she seemed unwilling to do so. It at once occurred to me that the cause of her reluctance was her conscientious care to pronounce every word perfectly; and so, in the moments I had with her during the visit, I encouraged her to talk freely with me while I refrained from making corrections. This hatl the desired effect. In going about the house of our friend she asked a great many ciuestions, using speech constantly. In the presence of all she told of her studies, her home, and her family. She also told of a visit to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes a short time before, when she "talked" to him. Noticing her words as .she spoke, there were but four which I did not readily understand. These I asked her to spell on her fingers. Her enjoyment of this, her first experience in the real use of speech, was touchingly expressed in her re-
