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Such, then, were some of the difficulties encountered at the beginning; hard, perhaps insurmountable heights to be climbed by one who (it was surmised) had not the strength to climb and who, if the summit should be reached, could not see all the glories there. Worse than this, it was hinted that with Helen a break-down might be fraught with more terrible consequences than in ordinary cases, that total collapse would ensue.

My duties, then, at first were those of the kind physician, as well as those of the ambitious tutor. And here let me gratefully make known the debt we owe -- Miss Keller, Miss Sullivan, and I -- to Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Chamberlin, at whose house in Wrentham were found the comforts and delights of home. It was upon them that I chiefly relied for information of Helen's physical condition, and I was partly guided by them in arrangements for work; while in innumerable ways and in frequent emergencies they have been a comfort and help to Helen and Miss Sullivan.

But fears of collapse were groundless. At least I soon came to that conclusion. Miss Sullivan, to whom I communicated these fears -- not at first, but after three or four weeks -- declared that Helen had not had, or needed, a physician for years; that, to be sure, she had been in a terribly nervous state after the trouble in Cambridge, but that then there seemed no especial danger. Success, too, lightened work. The Algebra snarls we soon began to unravel, and in their place to weave some fabrics of fair texture. The Geometry was more perplexing, but gave us some new hopes. So that I was bold enough to argue at some length in favor of the Mathematics in a letter to Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who had written to me her doubts on that subject and had consulted Miss Irwin. It seemed to me that Helen needed the drill in accuracy and in logic afforded by Mathematics. History, literature, and languages she masters with wonderful facility. There seems no limit to the possibility of her achievement there. Her joy in life and her power of service to the world (as far as these result from mental attainments through education) will find their chief sources there. The poetic and imaginative qualities of her mind will find ample field for their natural and due development without great need of teachers; but certain correctives, or balances, are necessary to perfect and sane development. The state of mind implied by such statements as Helen made about Mathematics 1 showed not only her need of information, but a lack of appreciation of the limitations and conditions of civilized life.

It must not be inferred from what has been written that Helen objected to the study of Mathematics. Far from it. It would have been a deep mortification to her to acknowledge defeat. Her ambition and her confidence in her own power to master whatever she has once undertaken are two of her most marked traits of mind. Her desire to know Algebra was doubtless of a far different kind and intensity from that to learn how to speak when she began with Miss Fuller. But she was all eagerness to learn, and seemed, as far as I could judge, during the first few weeks all the more determined to succeed and all the more plucky in the fight, because others had been in despair. This had furnished me with another argument for persisting in the mathematical studies. Disappointment and chagrin at failure would, I believe, have had a worse effect on her health than the mere mental labor necessary to success. Successful toil is the fountain of health and sanity.

With these drawbacks and hardships, then, we worked from early February, 1898, till July, 1898. In May, Helen and I wrote for The Silent Worker, a periodical published at Trenton, N. J., devoted to the interests of the deaf, the following account of her studies:

MY DEAR MR. JENKINS:

I cannot write an article for the Silent Worker, but I will tell you as briefly as I can in a letter what I have been doing since I left the Cambridge School last December.

But, before I begin, let me assure you that I am perfectly well. I was not ill when my mother removed me from Mr. Gilman's school. Indeed, I have not been ill enough to have a physician for several years -- not since I was quite a little girl.

My studies at present consist of Greek, Algebra, and Geometry. I pursue these studies under the guidance of an excellent tutor, Mr. Keith, assisted by Miss Sullivan. Mr. Keith comes out here once a week and teaches me for three hours. He explains what I did not understand in the previous lesson, assigns new work and takes the Greek exercises, which I have written during the week on my Greek typewriter, home with him, corrects them fully and clearly, and returns them to me. In this way my preparation for college has gone on uninterruptedly. I find it much easier and pleasanter to be taught by myself than to receive instruction in classes. There is no hurry, no confusion. My teacher has plenty of time to explain what I do not understand, so I get on faster and do better work than I ever did in school. I still find more difficulty in mastering problems in mathematics than I do in any other of my studies. But I am not discouraged. I am going to conquer them, and right soon, too!