Chapter 2

I can not recall what happened during the first months after my illness. I only know I sat in my mother's lap or clung to her dress as she went about her household duties. My hands and heart felt every object and observed every motion,and in this way I learned to know many things gradually.Soon I felt the need of some communication with others and began to make crude signs.

A shake of the head meant “No” and a nod, “Yes.”When I wanted to eat bread, Then I would imitate the acts of cutting the slices and buttering them. My mother,moreover, succeeded in making me understand a good deal. I always knew when she wished me to bring something. Indeed, I owe to her loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night.

I understood a good deal of what was going on in my life.At five I learned to fold and put away the clean clothes when they were brought in from the laundry , and I distinguished my own from the rest. I was always sent for when there was company, and when the guests took their leave, I waved my hand to them, I think with a vague remembrance of the meaning of the gesture.

I can not remember when I first realized that I was different from other people; but it existed before my teacher came to me.

I had noticed that my mother and my friends did not use signs as I did when they wanted anything done, but talked with their mouths. Sometimes I stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips and gesticulated frantically without result. This made me so angry at that times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted.

In those days a little coloured girl, Martha Washington,the child of our cook, and Belle, an old setter, and a great hunter in her day, were my constant companions. Martha Washington understood my signs, and I seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as I wished. We always spent a great deal of time in the kitchen.

The guinea-fowl likes to hide her nest in out-of--theway places, and it was one of my greatest delights to hunt for eggs in the long grass. 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.

The making ready for Christmas was always a delight to me. Of course I did not know what it was all about, but I enjoyed the pleasant odours hat filled the house. I hung my stocking because the others did; I can not remember,however, that the ceremony interested me especially, nor did my curiosity cause me to wake before daylight to look for my gifts.

Martha had as great a love of mischief as I. Two little children were busy cutting out paper dolls one hot July afternoon. but we soon wearied of this amusement, and after cutting up our shoestrings, I turned my attention to Martha's corkscrews. She objected at first, but finally submitted .Thinking that turn and turn about is fair play, she seized the scissors and cut off one of my curis, and would have cut them all off but for my mother's timely interference.

Belle, our dog, my other companion, was old and lazy and liked to sleep by the open fire rather than to romp with me. I tried hard to teach her my sign language, but she was dull and inattentive.

One day I happened to spill water on my apron, and I spread it out to dry before the fire which was flickering on the sitting-room hearth. In order to let the apron dry quickly, so I threw it right over the hot ashes. The fire leaped into life;the flames encircled me so that in a moment my clothes were blazing. I made a terrified noise that brought Viny, my old nurse, to the rescue. Finally, the fire was put out. Except for my hands and hair I was not badly burned.

About this time I found out the use of a key. One morning I locked my mother up in the pantry, where she was obliged to remain three hours. She kept pounding on the door, while I sat outside on the porch steps and laughed with glee as I felt the jar of the pounding. This most naughty prank of mine convinced my parents that I must be taught as soon as possible. After my teacher, Miss Sullivan, came to me, I sought an early opportunity to lock her in her room.

When I was about five years old we moved from the little house to a large new one. The family consisted of my father an mother, two older half-brothers, and, afterward, a little sister, Mildred. My earliest distinct recollection of my father is making my way through great drifts of newspaper to his side and finding him alone, holding a sheet of paper before his face. I was greatly puzzled to know what he was doing. I imitated his action, even wearing his spectacles , thinking they might help solve the mystery. But I did not find out the secret for several years. Then I learned what those papers were, and that my father edited one of them.

My father was most loving and indulgent , devoted to his home, seldom leaving us, except in the hunting season.He was a great hunter, I have been told, and a celebrated shot. Next to his family he loved his dogs and gun. His hospitality was great, and he seldom came home without bringing a guest. His special pride was the big garden where,it was said, he raised the finest watermelons and strawberries in the county; and to me he brought the first ripe grapes and the choicest berries. I remember his caressing touch as he led me from tree to tree, from vine to vine, and his eager delight in whatever pleased me.

I was in the North, enjoying the last beautiful days of the summer of 1896, when I heard the news of my father's death. He had had a short illness, there had been a brief time of acute suffering, then all was over. This was my first great sorrow—my first personal experience with death.

How shall I write of my mother? She is so near to me that it almost seems indelicate to speak of her.

For a long time I regarded my little sister as an intruder.I knew that I had ceased to be my mother's only darling, and the thought filled me with jealousy. She sat in my mother's lap constantly, where I used to sit, and seemed to take up all her care and time. One day something happened which seemed to me to be adding insult to injury.

At that time I had a much-petted doll, which I afterward named Nancy. She was my favourite doll. She had a cradle,and I often spent an hour or more rocking her. I guarded both doll and cradle with the most jealous care; but once I discovered my little sister sleeping peacefully in the cradle.At this presumption on the part of one to whom as yet no tie of love bound me I grew angry. I rushed upon the cradle and overturned it, and the baby might have been killed had my mother not caught her as she fell. Thus it is that when we walk in the valley of two fold solitude we know little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and actions and companionship. But afterward, when I was restored to my human heritage, Mildred and I grew into each other's hearts.

Meanwhile the desire to express myself grew. The few signs I used became less and less adequate, and my failures to make myself understood were invariably followed by outbursts of passion. If my mother happened to be near I crept into her arms, too miserable even to remember the cause of the tempest.

My parents were deeply grieved and perplexed. We lived a long way from any school for the blind or the deaf, and it seemed unlikely that any one would come to such an out-ofthe-way place as Tuscumbia to teach a child who was both deaf and blind. At that time, everyone doubted whether I could be taught.

When I was about six years old, my father heard of an eminent oculist in Baltimore, who had been successful in many cases that had seemed hopeless. My parents at once determined to take me to Baltimore to see doctor.

The journey was very pleasant. I made friends with many people on the train. One lady gave me a box of shells. My father made holes in these and I string them, and for a long time they kept me happy and contented. The conductor,too, was kind. His punch with which he let me play, was a delightful toy. My aunt made me a big doll out of towels. But it had not eyes, which struck me. A bright idea shot into my mind, and the problem was solved. I tumbled off the seat and searched under it until I found my aunt’s cape, which was trimmed with large beads. I pulled two beads off and indicted to her to sew them on doll. The beads were sewed and made me so happy. During the whole trip there were so many things attracted my attention that I did not have one fit of temper.

When we arrived in Baltimore, Dr. Chisholm received us kindly: After a big physical examination,he could do nothing. He said, however, that I could be educated, and advised my father to consult Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, of Washington, who would be able to give him information about schools and teachers of deaf or blind children. According to the doctor’s advice, we went Washington immediately, my parents felt sad and anxious on the way. I wholly unconscious of his anguish,finding pleasure in the excitement of moving from place to place.

Though I was a child at that time, I felt the tenderness and sympathy. He held me on his knee while I play his watch and he made it strike. The doctor had a high degree of medical skill, he understood my signs and I loved him at once. But at that time I did not realized that interview would be the door through which I should pass from darkness into light, from isolated to friendship, companionship , love,knowledge.

Dr. Bell advised my father to write to Mr. Anagnos,director of the Perkins institution in Boston, and ask him to look for a teacher for me. My father did at once, and in a few weeks there came a kind letter that told us a pleasant news: A teacher had been found. This was in the summer of 1886. But Miss Sullivan did not arrive until the following March.

Thus I came up out of Egypt and stood before Sinal*,and a power divine touched my spirit and gave it sight, so that I beheld many wonders. And from the sacred mountain I heard a voice which said, “Knowledge give people love, light and vision.”

佳句赏析

1. Indeed, I owe to her loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night.

>事实上，在那漫漫长夜中，是母亲的慈爱和智慧让我体会到了光明和生命中的美好。

2. She is so near to me that it almost seems indelicate to speak of her.

>我如何描述我的母亲呢？她和我是如此亲近，真不知道该怎么说。

3. During the whole trip there were so many things attracted my attention that I did not have one fit of temper.

>整个旅途中，吸引我的事层出不穷，我忙个不停，一次脾气也没有发。

名句大搜索

1. 这是我人生中第一次感受到的巨大悲恸，也让我第一次感受到死亡的存在。

2. 所以说，当我们在幽谷中散步时，体会不到亲密的语言、亲热的动作以及手足般的情谊带来的好感。

3. 当时我并没有意识到，这次会面竟会成为我生命的转折点，为我打开了从黑暗走向光明的大门，让我从此不再孤独，享受着友谊和关怀，获得了爱和知识。

4. 就这样，我走出了埃及，站在了西奈山的面前。一股神圣的力量触摸我的灵魂，带给了我光明，让我看到了无数奇景。

5. 知识给人以爱，给人以光明，给人以智慧。 y26HKnyGZp+Z4XweQ66T8W4djids3ayM4Ug1oxzpj/4Avd1/zhgk5PPU3YVhQmwp