In a beautiful southern garden where birds sang gaily and roses, honeysuckle, and jessamine shed their fragrance, little Helen lay face downward on the ground. She hid her hot cheeks in the cool leaves and grass. The tears flowed fast. Why, why would no one understand what she wanted? Sometimes it seemed as if she could not bear the world of darkness and silence in which she lived. This little girl could not talk like other children. Neither could she see the yellow rose petals, nor hear the songs of the birds. On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born in the little Alabama town of Tuscumbia. For nineteen months she was just like any other happy, healthy baby girl. Then a severe illness took away her sight and hearing, and, because she was unable to hear her baby words, she soon forgot how to talk. One day when Helen was nearly seven years old, a new doll was put into her arms. Then, in her hand a lady made the letters _d-o-l-l_ in the deaf alphabet. Helen did not know that things had names, but she was amused with this new game and imitated the letters for her mother. Helen’s new friend and teacher was Miss Anne Sullivan. She had come from the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston, to teach this little girl. When the finger game had been going on for a month, Miss Sullivan spelled the word, _w-a-t-e-r_, into Helen’s hand, letting her feel the water from the pump. A light broke over Helen’s face. For the first time she understood that everything had a name. She touched the pump and the trellis, and asked for their names. In a few hours she had learned thirty new words. That night Helen went to bed very happy, looking forward, for the first time in her life, to another day. A new, joyous life now began for this little girl whose mind had been in the dark. She soon realized that every word that she would learn would provide her with a new and pleasant thought. Miss Sullivan gave Helen slips of cardboard on which words were printed in raised letters. She never tired of playing the game of arranging these words in sentences. Down by the river Helen built dams of pebbles and dug lakes and bays and was taught how the world is made. In the woods her teacher put a violet or dogwood blossom in her hand and explained about growing things. She learned to know the crickets and katydids by holding them in her hand. Helen played all these games, not realizing that she was learning lessons. When Helen was eight years old, Miss Sullivan took her to Boston to the Perkins Institution for the Blind. The child was delighted to find there little girls and boys who could talk to her in the language of the hand. She enjoyed, too, the books in the library printed in raised type, and began to read in earnest. It was at this time that she climbed Bunker Hill Monument, counting every step. She had another lesson in history at Plymouth Rock.