Page 279 - The Story of My Lif

She came tearing upstairs a few minutes ago in a state of great excitement. I
couldn’t make out at first what it was all about.

She kept spelling “dog—baby” and pointing to her five fingers one after another,
and sucking them. My first thought was, one of the dogs has hurt Mildred; but
Helen’s beaming face set my fears at rest. Nothing would do but I must go
somewhere with her to see something. She led the way to the pump-house, and

there in the corner was one of the setters with five dear little pups! I taught her
the word “puppy” and drew her hand over them all, while they sucked, and
spelled “puppies.” She was much interested in the feeding process, and spelled
“motherdog” and “baby”

several times. Helen noticed that the puppies’ eyes were closed, and she said,
“Eyes—shut. Sleep—no,” meaning, “The eyes are shut, but the puppies are not
asleep.” She screamed with glee when the little things squealed and squirmed in
their efforts to get back to their mother, and spelled, “Baby—eat large.” I
suppose her idea was “Baby eats much.” She pointed to each puppy, one after
another, and to her five fingers, and I taught her the word FIVE. Then she held
up one finger and said “baby.” I knew she was thinking of Mildred, and I
spelled, “One baby and five puppies.” After she had played with them a little
while, the thought occurred to her that the puppies must have special names, like
people, and she asked for the name of each pup. I told her to ask her father, and
she said, “No—mother.” She evidently thought mothers were more likely to
know about babies of all sorts. She noticed that one of the puppies was much
smaller than the others, and she spelled “small,” making the sign at the same
time, and I said “very small.” She evidently understood that VERY

was the name of the new thing that had come into her head; for all the way back
to the house she used the word VERY correctly.

One stone was “small,” another was “very small.” When she touched her little
sister, she said: “Baby—small. Puppy-very small.”

Soon after, she began to vary her steps from large to small, and little mincing
steps were “very small.” She is going through the house now, applying the new
words to all kinds of objects.