Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/300

 HELEN KELLER 281 autumn leaves and the frost, she sat down and wrote a beau- tiful, imaginative little story, which Miss Sullivan delightedly named for her The Frost King. Teacher and parents mar- velled at the descriptive power of the young girl, and the story was sent to Mr. Anagnos, at the Perkins Institution. He, too, was delighted and published the story in one of the Institu- tion reports. It was then discovered that The Frost King was unmistakably similar in idea and expression to a story called The Frost Fairies. After very careful investigation^ Miss Sullivan discovered when and where The Frost Fairies had probably been read to her pupil, and gave her theory of its having lain subconsciously in the mind of the child until a realization of autumn and frost really came to her, when the words and images of the story, heard but not understood, came back to her mind unrecognized as anything but her own thought. This explanation is now universally accepted, but at the time Helen Keller and Miss Sullivan were made to suf- fer keenly under the suspicious questioning of those who be- lieved they had intentionally deceived the officers of the Insti- tution. They were brought before a court of investigation of the teachers and officers and questioned and cross-questioned separately. The verdict was divided, half believing and half rejecting the story. In the account of her life Helen says: have wept. I felt so cold, I imagined I should die before morning, and the thought comforted me. * ' The incident was a very unhappy and unfortunate one for both pupil and teach- er, and it was long before they recovered from constant dread lest Helen's writings should prove to contain unwarranted imitations. It was at about this period in Helen Keller's life that her parents and teacher felt the time had come when the develop- ment of her character demanded definite teaching regarding God. Bishop Brooks was asked to come to the Alabama home and reveal to the little girl who sat in darkness, the glory and the power of her Creator. Very carefully he talked to her through her teacher of the world 's beauty, of light and color and fragrance, of the mountains, the sky, and the sea. When
 * As I lay in my bed that night I wept as I hope few children