Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/301

 282 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS he came to his message and told her that the maker of this beautiful world we call God, her face lighted up with intel- ligence and joy, as she quickly spelled with her fingers, **I have known him all the time but I never knew his name. ' ' In the next few years, Helen Keller undertook the study of foreign languages and history, and in 1896 entered the Cam- bridge School for Young Ladies, to prepare for entrance to Badcliffe College. In the preliminary examinations which followed in the summer of 1897, she passed in everything, re- ceiving ** honors" in German and English. Miss Keller was in a separate room from other students taking the examina- tion, as she wished to use her typewriter. The principal of the Cambridge School read by means of the manual alphabet all the questions to her. Before taking the final examinations for Radcliflfe, Helen Keller intended spending another year at the Cambridge School, but the principal, fearing for her a breakdown in health, would not allow her to take the full amount of work; consequently it was arranged for her to study at home under a tutor. In June, 1899, she passed her final examinations. The questions had been copied for her in braille, that is, the raised, printed letters ; no one acquainted with her was allowed in the room. The difficulties of the ex- amination were very great, as of course there was no one to read to her what she had written. In addition, the system of raised characters used was one with which she was not at all familiar. There are two methods of raised writing, one the American braille, the other the English. All her previous school work had been done by the English braille, and only two days before the examination she discovered that her ques- tions were to be in the American braille. She at once at- tempted to familiarize herself with that system, brut found it confusing, especially in mathematics. Charitable as always in her judgments. Miss Keller says: **The administrative board at Radcliflfe did not realize how difficult they were mak- ing my examinations, nor did they understand the peculiar difficulties I had to surmount. But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all. * *