[=1] .sx Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama .sx Until she was nineteen months old she enjoyed a perfectly normal infancy .sx At the age of six months she amused people by greeting them with " How " , and delighted her proud parents by shouting " TEA , TEA , " .sx Her face wore smiles for everyone .sx In her cot she wriggled and squirmed and chuckled when anyone spoke to her , and the sight of birds , flowers , butterflies , or the sun glinting through overhanging trees in the summertime , sent her into shrieks of happiness .sx She loved bright objects and pleasant sounds , including that of her own voice .sx She began to walk at the age of twelve months when she unexpectedly slipped down from her mother's lap after she had been lifted out of the morning tub , and ran to catch patterns of sunlight dancing on the bathroom floor .sx She ran until she lost her balance , staggered and fell ; but , to her delight , she tumbled right into the focus of the sunbeam .sx At the age of nineteen months , this adorable , fascinating child had a mysterious illness , which they called acute congestion of the stomach and brain , which left her blind , deaf and dumb .sx Without a moment's warning , her bright world was blotted out and she was plunged into a darkness as black and silent as the grave .sx Only by a great and painful effort of the imagination can we begin to understand the next five years in Helen's life .sx Although she says little about it , that terrible period will never be erased from her memory .sx She remembers the dry , hot painfulness of her eyes when she first lost her sight , the agony and bewilderment of waking and being unable to see , of tossing , half-asleep , in pain and fretfulness ; the tenderness of her mother's hand trying to soothe her , but the utter desolation of being unable to hear her mother's voice or see her face , and the terrible frustration of being unable to make her wants known .sx The reader should pause and try to enter into the plight of a child of nineteen months suddenly plunged into such a perplexing and frightening situation .sx During the next five years Helen tried times without number to establish some sort of contact with the outside world but all in vain .sx It was like being thrust into the dark , silent , innermost dungeon of a prison with no hope of visitors and no possibility of escape .sx She tried to free herself from the impenetrable silence and darkness which held her captive , but to no effect .sx Her deep frustration often threw her into tempests of passion which , during those five years recurred more and more frequently , until they were convulsing her daily , sometimes hourly , driving her at times almost beside herself .sx And often after such tempests , she would feel her way around the garden to hide her hot face in the flowers she could not see , or creep into her mother's loving arms and sleep from sheer emotional and physical exhaustion .sx One day when she was six years and nine months old , Helen vaguely felt that something unusual was afoot in her home , as though some special visitor was expected .sx During recent weeks her moods had been nearly all anger and bitterness .sx The wordless cry of her soul for human communication , which she could make no one understand , reduced her to a feeling of utter misery and helplessness .sx Of course she did not understand her own condition , or her fundamental frustrations ; she felt only her maddening inability to communicate with her parents , while they , on their side , were broken-hearted that they could find no way of talking to their child , no way of getting a single word into Helen's mind or heart .sx But this day , as Helen stood on the steps at the front entrance to their home , she felt the touch of a new hand , and a stranger embraced her .sx It was Anne Sullivan .sx The tremendous debt which Helen and blind people the world round owe to Anne Sullivan is beyond computation .sx For it was Anne who rescued Helen from her world of darkness and misery , and enabled her to bring deliverance to countless fellow sufferers .sx Anne was born in poverty , and her eyes were infected from birth .sx Her mother died when Anne was eight years old , leaving three children who were placed in the workhouse .sx It was here that Anne spent the next four years of her life , being allowed no social contacts save that of fellow paupers .sx One of them told her that blindness entitled her to go to a special school , but no one was interested in the education of a blind pauper child until Anne literally threw herself at the feet of the chairman of the visiting committee and pleaded " I want to go to school .sx " The plea was heard .sx At fourteen she was sent to the Perkins Institution for Blind Children in Boston .sx While there she had two surgical operations which partially restored her sight .sx She remained in the Perkins Institution for six years , and was still there when the Director received a letter from Helen's parents describing Helen's condition , and asking if he could supply a teacher for her .sx Anne , twenty years of age , was sent .sx Anne arrived at Helen's home with eyes red through overmuch crying on the journey .sx She did not want the job of teaching a girl who was blind , deaf and dumb .sx But she had no other job , and she was without money ; economic necessity compelled her to accept this unwanted post .sx But if Anne was despondent on arrival , she very soon forgot herself in her new work .sx From the moment she embraced Helen on the front porch , she devoted all the energy of her mind and body to the service of her stricken charge .sx In complete self-effacement , sweeping all self-pity aside , she gave herself to Helen , working tirelessly to open lines of communications between the imprisoned child and the world of people and nature about her .sx [=2] .sx It was the day after Anne Sullivan's arrival that Helen learned the finger language for the word " doll" .sx Anne spelt it into her hand very slowly and deliberately , and got Helen to imitate .sx Helen did not know then that " doll " was the name of the gift Anne had brought her the day before from the blind children in the Perkins Institution ; she thought she was learning some finger game , and played it repeatedly until she could do it correctly .sx Then she felt her way downstairs to show her mother the game .sx Other simple words were taught her in the same manner during the following days- such words as pin , hat , cup , sit , stand , walk- but as yet she had no idea what they meant ; no inkling that the finger work which spelt " pin " was the name of the object , or that fingering which meant sit or stand had any reference to those actions .sx The power of associating word with object or action had not yet awakened in her .sx A whole month passed in this way before Helen began to associate the letters spelt into her hand with objects .sx The association came at the end of a lesson in which Anne had tried to make Helen understand that the word mug meant the object which she held , and water meant that which the mug contained .sx But Helen simply could not understand , and as Anne persisted , she grew annoyed and gave expression to her annoyance by dashing her mug to the floor , smashing it to pieces .sx She felt the broken fragments with her feet , and experienced a measure of relief in doing so .sx The lesson was adjourned and they went out into the sunshine .sx As they passed the well-house someone was drawing water , and Anne placed Helen's hand into the stream pouring from the spout of the pump , and spelt into her other hand the word water , water , water .sx Anne continued to do this , at first slowly and then rapidly , until it suddenly dawned on Helen's mind that water meant the cool something flowing over her hand .sx " That living word awakened my soul , " said Helen many years after , " gave it light , hope , joy , set it free .sx " She now knew that things had names , and she wanted to learn them all at once .sx " As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life .sx That was because I saw everything with the strange new sight that had come to me .sx " She learned many new words that same day , including mother , father , sister , teacher .sx She felt that she was at last in contact with the outside world .sx She went to bed that night but was too happy to sleep .sx During the following summer Anne took Helen on exploration walks , discovering plants , flowers , and trees ; Helen handling them , learning their names , inhaling their scent , feeling them against her hand and her face .sx Sitting in a field on the warm grass Anne described through their sign language the countless things which Helen could not see .sx With the new freedom of that summer Helen took to tree climbing , and loved it .sx But one day Anne left her sitting aloft in the branches of a cherry tree , while she returned to the house to fetch lunch .sx While Anne was away the weather suddenly changed , breaking into a violent thunderstorm .sx Helen tells how she felt the warmth go out of the atmosphere , by which she knew clouds had come over the sun , how she smelt the strange earth odour that precedes thunderstorms .sx She was alone and she felt afraid .sx A sense of absolute isolation gripped her .sx She felt cut off from friends ; severed from the firm earth .sx Her terror increased until she was in a state bordering on hysteria .sx " There was a moment of sinister stillness , and then a multitudinous stirring of the leaves , " she says .sx " A shiver ran through the tree , and the wind sent forth a blast that would have knocked me off had I not clung to the branch with might and main .sx The tree swayed and strained .sx The small twigs snapped and fell about me in showers .sx A wild impulse to jump seized me , but terror held me fast .sx I crouched down in the fork of the tree .sx The branches lashed about me .sx I felt the intermittent jarring that came now and then , as if something heavy had fallen and the shock had travelled up till it reached the limb which I sat on .sx It worked my suspense up to the highest point , and just as I was thinking the tree and I should fall together , my teacher seized my hand and helped me down .sx I clung to her , trembling with joy to feel the earth under my feet once " .sx For some time after this the thought of climbing a tree alarmed her , and she did not fully overcome her fear until the next spring .sx Then as she was sitting alone one morning in the summer house , she became aware of a beautiful fragrance filling the air .sx She recognised it as the scent of the mimosa tree .sx She knew where that mimosa tree stood- at the end of the garden near the fence at the turn of the path , and she felt her way to it .sx She found it , " all quivering in the warm sunshine , its blossom-laden branches almost touching the long grass .sx . " I made my way through a shower of petals to the great trunk , and for one minute stood irresolute ; then , putting my foot in the broad space between the forked branches , I pulled myself up into the tree .sx . I had a delicious sense that I was doing something unusual and wonderful , so I kept on climbing higher and higher , until I reached a little seat which somebody had built there so long ago that it had grown part of the tree itself .sx " I sat there for a long time , feeling like a fairy on a rosy cloud .sx After that I spent many happy hours in my tree of paradise , thinking fair thoughts and dreaming bright dreams .sx "