The Story of My Life-Helen Keller-Summary-Chapter 10

 CHAPTER X

Just before the Perkins Institution closed for the summer, it was arranged that my teacher and I should spend our vacation at Brewster, on Cape Cod, with our dear friend, Mrs. Hopkins. I was delighted, for my mind was full of the prospective (future/forthcoming/soon-to-be) joys and of the wonderful stories I had heard about the sea. My most vivid (clear) recollection (memories) of that summer is the ocean.

I had always lived far inland (at a long distance from the sea/ocean) and had never had so much as a whiff (slight smell carried by a current of air) of salt air, but I had read in a big book called "Our World" a description of the ocean which filled me with wonder and an intense longing (strong desire) to touch the mighty sea and feel it roar. So my little heart leaped high with eager excitement when I knew that my wish was at last to be realized. No sooner had I been helped into my bathing suit than I sprang out upon the warm sand and without thought of fear plunged (jumped) into the cool water.

I felt the great billows (fill with air and swell) rock (move up) and sink. The buoyant (afloat) motion of the water filled me with exquisite (superb), quivering (shuddering) joy. Suddenly my ecstasy (/ˈek.stə.si/ extreme feeling of happiness) gave place to terror; for my foot struck against a rock and the next instant there was a rush of water over my head. I thrust out my hands to grasp (grip) some support, I clutched (caught) at the water and at the seaweed (the plants that grow in the sea) which the waves tossed (thrown) in my face. But all my frantic (hysterical/out of control due to worry) efforts were in vain. The waves seemed to be playing a game with me and tossed me from one to another in their wild (violent) frolic (play).

It was fearful! The good (kind), firm earth had slipped from my feet, and everything seemed to shut out from this strange, all-enveloping element—life, air, warmth, and love. At last, however, the sea, as if weary (tired) of its new toy, threw me back on the shore, and in another instant, I was clasped (held) in my teacher's arms. Oh, the comfort of the long, tender embrace!

As soon as I had recovered from my panic sufficiently to say anything, I demanded: "Who put salt in the water?" After I had recovered from my first experience in the water, I thought it great fun to sit on a big rock in my bathing suit and feel wave after wave dash against the rock, sending up a shower of spray that quite covered me.

 I felt the pebbles (small stones) rattling (creating noise) as the waves threw their ponderous (heavy) weight against the shore; the whole beach seemed racked (troubled) by their terrific (wonderful) onset (arrival), and the air throbbed (beat) with their pulsations (rhythms). The breakers (wavers coming towards the shore) would swoop (jump) back to gather themselves for a mightier leap, and I clung to the rock, tense, fascinated (extremely interested), as I felt the dash (rush) and roar (howl) of the rushing sea! I could never stay long enough on the shore. The tang (strong, sharp taste or smell) of the untainted (pure), fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought, and the shells and pebbles and the seaweed with tiny living creatures attached to it never lost their fascination for me.  

One day Miss Sullivan attracted my attention to a strange object that she had captured basking in the shallow  (not so deep)water. It was a great horseshoe crab —the first one I had ever seen. I felt him and thought it very strange that he should carry his house on his back. It suddenly occurred to me that he might make a delightful pet; so I seized (captured) him by the tail with both hands and carried him home.

This feat (act) pleased me highly, as his body was very heavy, and it took all my strength to drag him half a mile. I would not leave Miss Sullivan in peace until she had put the crab in a trough (container) near the well where I was confident he would be secure. But the next morning I went to the trough, and lo, he had disappeared! Nobody knew where he had gone, or how he had escaped.

My disappointment was bitter at the time, but little by little I came to realize that it was not kind or wise to force this poor dumb creature out of his element, and after a while, I felt happy in the thought that perhaps he had returned to the sea.

Q1.How did Helen react when she had her first trip to the ocean?

Q2.What was the unfortunate incident that happened with Nancy?

Q3. Describe the incident of capturing the horsecrab and what lesson did she learn from that incident?

 

 

 

The Story of My Life By Helen Keller-Summary-Chapter 9

 The Story of My Life By Helen Keller-Summary    Chapter 9

Helen’s visit to Boston was the next most important event of her life. She remembers all, the preparations, the departure with her teacher and her mother, the journey, and finally her arrival in Boston. She had made a journey to Baltimore two years before this journey. There was a lot of difference between the two journeys.

That time, she was a restless, excitable little creature who required the attention of everyone on the train to keep her amused.

She sat quietly near Miss Sullivan and listened to her teacher’s explanation intently. She explained all she was watching outside the car window.

She was explaining “all....the beautiful Tennesse river, the great cotton fields, the crowds of laughing negroes at the stations, who waved to the people on the train and brought delicious candy and popcorn balls through the car.

Her big rag doll was placed on the seat just in front of her. It was in a new dress made of ‘gingham (lightweight cotton cloth)’, looking at her from her two beady eyes. After some time, when her mind was diverted from her teacher’s explanation, she remembered her doll, Nancy. She would like to keep her in her arms, but she convinced herself that she was asleep.

   Helen wants to continue talking about Nancy. She continues with an experience that she had immediately after they arrived in Boston. She had compelled her doll to eat mud pies, so she was covered with mud, although she had never found any encouragement from the doll to eat them.

Then, the laundress at the Perkins Institution took it secretly and gave it a bath, which reduced it to be a formless heap of cotton, beyond recognition except for its two beady eyes.

At Perkins, Helen immediately started making friends with the blind children there. It delighted her very much that they knew the manual alphabet.

 

 

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller-Summary-Chapter 8

  

              The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

                                           Chapter 8

  Helen writes that the first Christmas that came after Miss Sullivan’s arrival in her house was a great event and every member of the family wished to surprise her.

   What surprised her most was the fact that Miss Sullivan and she had prepared surprises for everyone. There was a mystery about the gifts and it amused and delighted her most.

    Her friends did all to increase her curiosity by giving hints by writing half-spelled words on her hand. Miss Sullivan and she played a game of guessing and that proved to be very good to teach the use of language. After that, they practiced it every evening while sitting by a glowing wood fire.

  The school children at Tuscumbia had made a tree on Christmas Eve and they also invited her. The beautiful tree, “ablaze and shimmering, stood in the center of the schoolroom. Its branches were loaded with strange wonderful fruits in soft light. Helen felt extremely happy while dancing and capering around the tree.

   Her happiness doubled up when she came to know that she would distribute gifts to the children present there with her own hands. Her excitement and impatience were out of control. The gifts were not those for which her friends had given her hints. Her teacher told her that the gifts were nicer than those she was expecting.

   At the same time, she was to remain contented with the gifts she had got from the tree and others until the next morning.

  That night, she hung her stockings and lay awake for a long time, pretending that she was asleep to know what gifts Santa Claus would give to her. But she could not continue this for long and at last, she fell asleep keeping a new doll and a white bear in her arms.

   At the same time, she was to remain contented with the gifts she had got from the tree and others until the next morning.

   The next morning, when she woke up, it was she, who woke up the whole family by saying “Merry Christmas”. She found surprises from everywhere, not only from the stockings, but also on the table, on the chairs, at the door, on the very window sill.”

   But when her teacher presented to her a canary, her joy knew no bounds.

    Her new pet ‘Little Tim” (the singing bird canary) was so tame that he would go on her fingers and eat sweet cherries out of her hand. She was taught to take care of the new pet.

   She carefully “prepared his bath, made his cage clean and sweet, filled his cups with fresh seeds and water” and then hung a spray of chickweed in his swing.”

   One morning, she left the cage on the window seat and went to fetch water for his bath. As she came back and opened the door, she felt a big cat went out from there.

     She didn’t guess at that time as to what a cat could do, but when she put her hand into the cage, she did not feel Tim’s pretty wings and his pointed claws take hold of her fingers. She understood that the cat had killed her pet canary.

The Story of My Life By Helen Keller

                 Chapter 9

Helen’s visit to Boston was the next most important event of her life. She remembers all, the preparations, the departure with her teacher and her mother, the journey and finally her arrival in Boston. She had made a journey to Baltimore two years before this journey. There was a lot of difference between the two journeys.

That time, she was a restless, excitable little creature who required the attention of everyone on the train to keep her amused.

She sat quietly near Miss Sullivan and listened to her teacher’s explanation intently. She explained all she was watching outside the car window.

She was explaining “all....the beautiful Tennesse river, the great cotton fields, the crowds of laughing negroes at the stations, who waved to the people on the train and brought delicious candy and popcorn balls through the car.

Her big rag doll was placed on the seat just in front of her. It was in a new dress made of ‘gingham (light weight cotton cloth)’, looking at her from her two beady eyes. After sometime, when her mind was diverted from her teacher’s explanation, she remembered her doll Nancy. She would like to keep her in her arms, but she convinced herself that she was asleep.

   Helen wants to continue talking about Nancy. She continues with an experience that she had immediately after their arrival in Boston. She had compelled her doll to eat mud-pies, so she was covered with mud, although she had never found any encouragement from the doll for eating them.

Then, the laundress at the Perkins Institution took it secretly and gave it a bath, which reduced it to be a formless heap of cotton, beyond recognition except its two beady eyes.

At Perkins, Helen immediately started making friends with the blind children there. It delighted her very much that they knew manual alphabet.