Page 312 - The Story of My Lif

play with; but that didn’t keep her still.

She wanted to show it to the little boy in the seat behind us.

When the communion service began, she smelt the wine, and sniffed so loud that
every one in the church could hear. When the wine was passed to our neighbour,
he was obliged to stand up to prevent her taking it away from him. I never was
so glad to get out of a place as I was to leave that church! I tried to hurry Helen
out-of-doors, but she kept her arm extended, and every coat-tail she touched

must needs turn round and give an account of the children he left at home, and
receive kisses according to their number. Everybody laughed at her antics, and
you would have thought they were leaving a place of amusement rather than a
church. Captain Keller invited some of the ministers to dinner.

Helen was irrepressible. She described in the most animated pantomime,
supplemented by spelling, what she was going to do in Brewster. Finally she got
up from the table and went through the motion of picking seaweed and shells,
and splashing in the water, holding up her skirts higher than was proper under
the circumstances. Then she threw herself on the floor and began to swim so
energetically that some of us thought we should be kicked out of our chairs! Her
motions are often more expressive than any words, and she is as graceful as a
nymph.

I wonder if the days seem as interminable to you as they do to me. We talk and
plan and dream about nothing but Boston, Boston, Boston. I think Mrs. Keller
has definitely decided to go with us, but she will not stay all summer.

May 15, 1888.

Do you realize that this is the last letter I shall write to you for a long, long time?

The next word that you receive from me will be in a yellow envelope, and it will
tell you when we shall reach Boston. I am too happy to write letters; but I must
tell you about our visit to Cincinnati.