72 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



unusual conditions. Signs were developed by mutual suggestion be- 

 tween her and her family. "A shake of the head meant 'No' and a 

 nod, 'Yes,' a pull meant 'Come' and a push, 'Go.' Was it bread that 

 I wanted? Then I would imitate the acts of cutting the slices and 

 buttering them. If I wanted my mother to make ice-cream for din- 

 ner I made the sign for working the freezer and shivered, indicating 

 cold." "I understood a good deal of what was going on about me. 

 At five I learned to fold and put away the clean clothes when thej 

 were brought in from the laundry, and I distinguished my own from 

 the rest. I knew by the way my mother and aunt dressed when they 

 were going out, and I invariably begged to go with them. ' ' She played 

 with the children about her and thus records how she did it. "I 

 could not tell Martha Washington when I wanted to go egg-hunting, 

 but I would double my hands and put them on the ground, which meant 

 something round in the grass, and Martha always understood. When 

 we were fortunate enough to find a nest I never allowed her to carry 

 the eggs home, making her understand by emphatic signs that she 

 might fall and break them." Writing at the age of ten, she says: 

 "When I was a very little child I used to sit on my mother's lap all 

 the time, because I was very timid, and did not like to be left by 

 myself. And I would keep my little hand on her face all the while, 

 because it amused me to feel her face and lijjs move when she talked 

 with people. I did not know then what she was doing, for I was quite 

 ignorant of all things. Then when I was older I learned to play with 

 my nurse and the little negro children, and I noticed that they kept 

 moving their lips, just like my mother, so I moved mine too." Here 

 is another recollection of her childish play : ' ' My aunt made me a 

 big doll out of towels. It was the most comical, shapeless thing, this 

 improvised doll, with no nose, mouth, ears or eyes — nothing that even 

 the imagination of a child could convert into a face. Curiously 

 enough, the absence of eyes struck me more than all the other defects 

 put together. I pointed this out to everybody with provoking per- 

 sistency, but no one seemed equal to the task of providing the doll 

 with eyes. A bright idea, however, shot into my mind, and the prob- 

 lem was solved. ... I found my aunt's cape which was trimmed with 

 large beads. I pulled two beads off and indicated to her that I wanted 

 her to sew them on my doll. She raised my hand to her eyes in a 

 questioning way, and I nodded energetically." Obviously the little 

 girl's mind was developing, though doubtless with far greater slow- 

 ness and difficulty than would have been the case under more normal 

 circumstances. Her moral training under the natural indulgence to 

 one so afflicted suffered; and fits of passion and a lawless disregard of 

 social amenities were a frequent occurrence. 



It was through Charles Dickens's account of Laura Bridgman, 



