page, which already contains a picture of a cow and of a dog's paw. On another page we have pictures of an arm, thumb, tooth, and several teeth. The last two words she has learned within the past few days. On another page there is a picture of a shoe and a car. We have a separate page for numbers and one for colors. Mamie herself colored two spots on a small card to paste on her number page, but as yet her color page is blank. I think this grouping of the words on different pages will give some system to her book and make her words less confusing to her. I am still looking for a picture of a party. I want one of a children's party, so if you come across one please send it.

But, before we go any further, I must tell you how she learned "tooth" and "teeth." We had been drilling on

arf arf arf

awf awf awf

oof oof oof

eef eef eef

arth arth arth

awth awth awth

ooth ooth ooth

far far" and "farther farther farther," and by having her repeat this with her hand on my throat she could feel the accent, as well as the shortening of the last vowel. She gets the accent in "Father" much better than she does "Arthur," and I attribute it to her counting at the piano "far far far," and also her familiarity with the syllable "far."

The work on "Mother" is somewhat difficult, because in giving it there are two vowels to be shortened instead of one. Perhaps I had better tell you just what syllables I use, as it will be clearer for you:

eeth eeth eeth

tarf tarf tarf

tawf tawf tawf

farp

farm parth tharp farth parm sarth tarm karth karm karl

farl

farn

parl

tarn

tarl

parn

karn

tarth tarth tarth

tawth tawth tawth tooth tooth tooth teeth teeth teeth

I had intended giving her "tooth," but thought I would wait until later on to give her "teeth." In going over the exercises she recognized "teeth," because I have been saying, "Brush your teeth" to her every morning.. When she recognized the word she caught my hand and took me into the bath-room and showed

me her tooth-brush. For fear she might connect the word "teeth" up with the meaning of the word "tooth-brush." I showed her what the word "teeth" meant. In teaching "Father," Mamie first learned the voiced form of "th"-th, as it is written in the little book, "Forma

2

And we have used these same syllables, substituting "aw," "oo," and "ee" for “ar."

By saying these syllables over to yourself, you can see, Margey, that many of them are really the pronunciation of words. But we are not working for these words mainly; we are working for the fluency which these combinations of sounds give.

"moon" and "nee" (knee) and "mouth" In her drill-work Mamie can say nicely; but I do not tell her what they mean, as I do not want her to have words so fast that she will mix up the names of things. However, she does so well in lip-reading that there is not much danger of this.

In regard to Mamie's clothes: I have tried her last-spring coat on her and find it is too tight across the chest and that the sleeves are too short. I suppose she will have to have a new one, and if you will send me the material I can have it made here, unless you prefer to get her one ready made.

MARCH 3.

DEAR MARGEY: Did you think of our Texas holiday yesterday? And did your thoughts drift back to our school days, when that 2d of March was so welcome? There was very little celebration here. Here at home we raised our Texas flag and after supper we went to a picture show, which ended our day's celebration.

I am glad you asked me in your last letter about the ear-training, or probably I would have forgotten to tell you about it for some time to come. Mamie is able to recognize through her ears all the vowels she can speak and almost all of the words she knows. "Arm" was the first word I gave her through her hearing. I repeated "arm" with the mailing tube to her ear several times, each time pointing to her arm, and she would say "arm" after me.

After she had learned to speak "cow," I began to say "cow" into her ears, and showed her a cow and had her say "cow" after me. Then I would say either "cow" or "arm," and she would tell me which I said by speaking the one I spoke.

As she can hear in both ears, I give her these exercises first in one ear and then in the other. She can understand "cow," "arm," "shoe," "paw," "teeth," and "Father," which are all the words I have tried with her. I use the mailing tube when I give her these words, and I am now able to soften my voice a great deal more than I did at first. I do not use the mailing tube when giving her the single vowels, and I use an ordinary tone of voice when speaking these. She does not object to the eartraining at all now, as through training she has become accustomed to sounds.

The vowels I practise on at different distances from her ears. "Ar" and "ee" she can understand in both ears when I am about one and a half feet from either ear and my voice is perhaps a trifle louder

than ordinary speech. With "aw" and "oo" she cannot do quite so well at this distance, and "ou" she sometimes confuses with "ar."

Mamie is at present being instructed in the lip-reading of the names of Helen's different dolls.. There is "Louise," "Grace," and "Mandy." Helen has them all in a row, and as she speaks the name Mamie points to the doll bearing that particular name. I do not think Mamie has ever thought of naming her dolls; but when she progresses with her speechwork, so that she can say some easy names, I shall help her name them. The Mexican cow-boy doll which Captain Dale sent her will probably be burdened with the name "Villa," as that is about the easiest Mexican name I know of.

Mamie is at my elbow and smiling as usual when I write to you. She sends a kiss.

SHERWOOD, March 6.

DEAR MARGEY: Please don't ever say again that I am wise, as you did in your last letter. It makes me feel as if I were a freshman trying to wear a cap and gown. I am not wise, Margey; and, as I think back over my work, I wonder whether I have ever had an original thought on the subject. If I make a success in teaching Mamie, there are many whom I have to thank for it. I owe the most to the school where I took the training. It was there that I obtained the rudiments of the work of teaching the deaf, and the contact with the persons there, who, Margey, really are wonderful, meant a great deal to me.

Then, too, in the State school where I taught, it seems that from every teacher with whom I came in contact I gained something which has been of value to me since. So, you see, it is not I who am wonderful, but those who have given me their knowledge that can be classed as such.

I want you to promise me that as soon as you are able you will try to visit some of the schools in this country and see for yourself the strenuous efforts that are being put forth and the wonderful work which is being done for the betterment and education of the deaf.

It has delighted me to learn that you

SHERWOOD, March 8.

DEAR MARGEY: Where did you get those lovely pictures you sent? Thanks so much for them. They are so nicely colored and are so easy to cut out that I shall let Mamie do the cutting out herself as we need them. Our book, I believe, is a great success and is the pride of Mamie's heart. She takes keen delight in showing it to every one who comes to the house. All of the neighborhood children are quite interested in it and often bring pictures for Mamie to use in it.

When I told Mamie I would tell you that your picture. has been pasted in the book, she was very much pleased with the idea. There are several other pictures which you sent that have been pasted in on the different pages-moon, fork, knee, and mouth. The figure "one" has been added to her number page.

The last few days our main drill-work has been on the syllables containing the new vowels which Mamie has learned. These vowels are a, as in cat, and i-e, as in mile. With these sounds the drillwork has been like this for a:

We are still having concerts after supper every night. Mamie can say "far" to both 2/4 time and to 4/4 time. I play "Yankee Doodle" for 2/4 time, and she says "far far far far, far far" to the music. I play "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep" for the 4/4 time, and she says "far far far far; far far far far; far far far far.”

In

I have to change the music a little bit in order to make the accent regular. playing the chords, Mamie says “far” instead of just pointing to the middle register of the piano, and says "see" instead of pointing to the upper register. She tries to say "do," but I do not encourage that, as she has not had the sounds which make up this word.

We had such a nice letter from Mrs. Dale, but were very sorry to learn from her that the Captain has been stationed at Brownsville, as we will not get to see them again for a long time, but are glad they are pleasantly situated. Good night.

SHERWOOD, March 10. DEAR MARGEY: Mamie's spring togs have come, and each individual garment has been tried on and closely scrutinized. The coat and hat are lovely and both fit nicely. The dresses are a bit long, but I'll have the hems attended to when the seamstress comes to do some sewing for me. Mamie's favorite is the pink linen, SO I shall let her have that for her Easter dress.

Every year there is a big Easter egg hunt on the day before Easter, given by the Mothers' Club, and, of course, every child that attends likes to have a new dress. Mamie and Helen have been invited with a host of other children, so I am at present making Helen an appropriate dress. I have pasted an Easter egg on the calendar, so the children will know when to expect Mr. Rabbit. "Easter egg," "rabbit,” and “nest” have all been learned from lip-reading, so we are already prepared for the great day. We have been on our first spring outing. The weather was a little too cool to

make it a regular picnic, but I wanted to go early in order to catch some tadpoles in the first stages of their development. At 10 o'clock in the morning we started out and returned home in about two and a half hours.

I took a few sandwiches for the children, as I thought they might get hungry before we got back; but they were so interested in the tadpoles that I had to remind them that there was something in our basket that would no doubt taste very good.

The children took their overshoes, and when we came to the creek where the tadpoles were I put them on and let the children walk into the mud and edges of the water, where they could catch some themselves. We brought home about. fifteen and they are of different sizes, but all in the early stage of development. Most of them are in a small tub, but four are in a glass bowl, so that we can watch them more closely. I have not told the children what to expect, as I want to see whether they will notice of their own accord the different changes as they appear. It is needless to say that “tadpole” has been learned from lip

reading.

Our question form, "How many?" has been branching out some. "How many eyes has a horse?" "How many hoofs has a cow?" "How many eyes has a fish?" "How many tails has a cow?" When I began giving her these, I always had pictures of the animals, so she could point to either the hoof or tail, or whatever part of the anatomy I had mentioned in my question, or in case she did not understand the question I could show her what I meant.

Our transplanting of vegetables and flowers has been started. Those plants which are furthest developed have been planted in the beds that are protected from the north wind, and we are careful to keep the bed covered over with sacking most of the time. We uncover it from 10 o'clock in the morning until about 3 in the afternoon.

Our lettuce and peas head the vegetable list and sweet peas and nasturtiums the flowers. The other plants we have left in the boxes for another week or so.

Margey, I wish you could have seen

how gently the children handled the little plants while we were transplanting. I showed them that they must be very careful not to bruise them or they would die. "Uncle Noble" was here helping us and he said: "I ain't never seen no chillun befo' what got dat much sense about flowers and plants." I was surprised at "Uncle Noble," for he does not like to have children around when he is working; but when I engaged him to help me, I told him it was the spading and lifting I wanted him to do, for these plants belonged to the children and they were to do the planting themselves with our help.

Mamie has learned "root," "stem," "leaf," and "plant" from the lips and she can say "leaf." By the time our other plants are ready to be transplanted I think Mamie will be ready to be given "root" to speak.

I wrote you in my letter that I had given Mamie i-e, and I intended telling you of the experiment I tried when I gave it to her. I had not given her any tongue gymnastics nor any preparatory work toward i-e except, of course, the preparatory work she had had for the other sounds which I had given her. In giving the vowels to her through her ears, I said ar and she said ar. Then I gave her ou and ee, and she repeated them, after which I said i-e slowly and then turned around and said ar-ee with distinctly, and she hesitated a minute and a questioning look. I praised her very much, as she had gotten the two sounds of which i-e is made. I then held her hand on my throat, so she could feel the difference in length of ar and ee in the

diphthong i-e. With a little practise she got it smoothly, and has not confused it once with other vowels in her ear training.

We seem to be having our April showers in March, but I am satisfied, as our garden will grow the faster.

With lots of love to you all,
Devotedly,

HEBE.

SHERWOOD, March 13.

DEAR MARGEY: Hurrah for Mamie! The little rascal was the first to find a tadpole with two legs. Yesterday the

three of us had gone out into the yard to uncover our garden, and Mamie stopped at the tub, which we are using for an aquarium, and stooped down and was watching the little tadpoles, when all at once I heard a shriek. There stood Mamie, all excited, beckoning us to come. She said "paw," "paw," and I knew right away what she meant.

After much trouble I caught the specimen in a spoon and we looked at him carefully. Then I showed them that after a while there would be two other legs. We brought our precocious tadpole into the house and put him into the glass jar, where we can watch him more conveniently and closely.

Day before yesterday one of the little tots in the neighborhood came over here radiantly happy with some pictures in her hands for Mamie to paste in her book. She wanted Mamie to speak them right away; they were a sewing-machine, cotton gin, fire-engine, and an automobile. Her happy expression changed to one of disappointment when I told her that Mamie could not speak the names of these, as they were too long, and that they could not be pasted in her book just yet. Then, to please the little child, I said: "Well, I guess she can learn 'auto.' The little tot was so happy that I told her that we would work hard and maybe by the next time she came over Mamie would be able to say it, and that I was sure Mamie would let her paste that picture in the book.

Little Tot could not come over. This was fortunate for Mamie and me, as we did not have to hurry. However, this morning before we were through breakfast the door-bell rang and there stood Miss Little Tot, hardly waiting to come in before asking if Mamie could say "auto."

Mamie was proud as could be when I showed her the picture and she said "auto." We got out the paste and the book, and after selecting the page I let the little girl paste the picture on it. Mamie showed me afterward that the little girl had not pasted it on straight. I was very glad Mamie noticed it, because I have tried to make both of the children be accurate in all of their cutting, pasting, and coloring.

"Fan," "cap," and "cart" are all in our book now. Mamie caught a fan and Helen a pencil box in the fish-pond at a church sale which we went to last Tuesday. When Mamie pulled out the fan, she came running to me and said “fat,” which was what she thought it was from reading my lips. I told her that it was "fan," and later I saw her showing it to several people and saying "fan," which seemed to please them as much as it did her.

Mamie is a great favorite in town, especially with the grown people; but I do not wonder, as she has such a sweet, friendly manner with people whom she meets.

Our garden is lovely and the weather. has been ideal for it. I think the ground hog made a mistake this year, as we have had very little cold weather since he went back into his hole.

Did I tell you that Mamie has gained 4 pounds since she came? We weighed her when she came and she weighed 36 pounds, and last night we weighed her on the same scales and she weighed 40 pounds.

Good night. With love,

HEBE.

SHERWOOD, March 17. ME KOIND FRIND: I address you thusly in honor of the day and in memory of one of my distant ancestors, who happened to bear the name O'Brien.

I have ruined a pair of scissors since