ross Laura's mind that this could
not be a stranger; she therefore felt of her hands very eagerly, while
her countenance assumed an expression of intense interest; she became
very pale, and then suddenly red; hope seemed struggling with doubt and
anxiety, and never were contending emotions more strongly painted upon
the human face. At this moment of painful uncertainty, the mother drew
Laura close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once the truth
flashed upon the child, and all distrust and anxiety disappeared from
her face. With an expression of exceeding joy, Laura nestled to the
bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces. After
this the beads were all unheeded, and the playthings which were offered
to her were utterly disregarded. Her playmates, for whom she but a
moment before left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her
mother. The meeting and subsequent parting showed alike the affection,
the intelligence, and the resolution of the child as well as of her
mother.

The following facts are drawn from the report made of her case at the
end of the year 1839, after she had been a little more than two years
under instruction. Having mastered the manual alphabet of the deaf
mutes, and having learned to spell readily the names of every thing
within her reach, she was then taught words expressive of positive
qualities, as hardness and softness. This was a very difficult process.
She was next taught those expressions of relation to place which she
could understand. A ring, for example, was taken and placed _on_ a box;
then the words were spelled to her, and she repeated them from
imitation. The ring was afterward placed _on_ a hat, desk, etc. In a
similar manner she learned the use of _in_, _into_, etc. She would
illustrate the use of these and other words as follows: She would spell
~_on_~, and then lay one hand _on_ the other; then she would spell
~_into_~, and inclose one hand _within_ the other.

Laura very easily acquired a knowledge and use of active verbs,
especially those expressive of _tangible action_, as to walk, to run, to
sew, to shake. In acquiring a knowledge of language, she used the words
with which she had become acquainted in a general sense, and according
to the order of _her sense of ideas_. Thus, in asking some one to give
her bread, she would first use the word expressive of the leading idea,
and say, _Bread, give, Laura_. If she wanted water, she would say,