Page 219 - The Story of My Lif

use the manual alphabet! She reads the lips well, and if she cannot understand a

phrase, her friends write it in her hand, and in this way she converses with
strangers. I cannot make out anything written in my hand, so you see, Ragnhild
has got ahead of me in some things. I do hope I shall see her sometime…

TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON

Wrentham, July 29, 1899.

…I passed in all the subjects I offered, and with credit in advanced Latin…. But
I must confess, I had a hard time on the second day of my examinations. They
would not allow Teacher to read any of the papers to me; so the papers were
copied for me in braille. This arrangement worked very well in the languages,
but not nearly so well in the Mathematics. Consequently, I did not do so well as I
should have done, if Teacher had been allowed to read the Algebra and

Geometry to me. But you must not think I blame any one. Of course they did not
realize how difficult and perplexing they were making the examinations for me.
How could they—they can see and hear, and I suppose they could not understand
matters from my point of view….

Thus far my summer has been sweeter than anything I can remember.

My mother, and sister and little brother have been here five weeks, and our
happiness knows no bounds. Not only do we enjoy being together; but we also

find our little home most delightful.

I do wish you could see the view of the beautiful lake from our piazza, the
islands looking like little emerald peaks in the golden sunlight, and the canoes

flitting here and there, like autumn leaves in the gentle breeze, and breathe in the
peculiarly delicious fragrance of the woods, which comes like a murmur from an
unknown clime. I cannot help wondering if it is the same fragrance that greeted
the Norsemen long ago, when, according to tradition, they visited our shores—
an odorous echo of many centuries of silent growth and decay in flower and
tree….