Eighth:  These variations of emphasis in No. 4 coincided sometimes with those seen in No. 2 and again with those in No. 3.

Ninth:  Each one of these specimens, saving the first, ended in a shaded character.

Tenth:  While some of the characters were squares or parts of a square, others were in the shape of a Y turned now this way and now that.

Eleventh:  These characters were varied by the introduction of dots, and, in some cases, by the insertion of minute sketches of animals, birds, arrows, signs of the zodiac, etc., with here and there one of a humorous, possibly sarcastic, nature.

Twelfth:  Dots and dots only were to be found in the specimen emanating from Mrs. Packard’s hand; birds, arrows, skipping boys and hanging men, etc., being confined to No. 5, the product of another brain and hand, at present unknown.

Now what conclusions could I draw from these?  I shall give them to you as they came to me that night.  Others with wits superior to my own may draw additional and more suggestive ones: 

First:  Division into words was not considered necessary or was made in some other way than by breaks.

Second:  The fact of the shading being omitted from No. 1 meant nothing—­that specimen being my own memory of lines, the shading or non-shading of which would hardly have attracted my attention.

Third:  The similarity observable in the seven opening characters of the first four specimens being taken as a proof of their standing for the same word or phrase, it was safe to consider this word or phrase as a complete one to which she had tried to fit others, and always to her dissatisfaction, till she had finally rejected all but the simple one with which she had started.

Fourth:  No. 1, short as it was, was, therefore, a communication in itself.

Fifth:  The shading of a character was in some way essential to its proper understanding, but not the exact place where that shading fell.

Sixth:  The dots were necessarily modifications, but not their shape or nature.

Seventh:  This shading might indicate the end of a word.

Eighth:  If so, the shading of two contiguous characters would show the first one to be a word of one letter.  There are but two words in the English language of one letter—­a and i—­and in the specimens before me but one character, that of [], which shows shading, next to another shaded character.

Ninth:  [] was therefore a or i

A decided start.

All this, of course, was simply preliminary.

The real task still lay before me.  It was to solve the meaning of those first seven characters, which, if my theory were correct, was a communication in itself, and one of such importance that, once mastered, it would give the key to the whole situation.

[]; V; []; .>; V; [-]; <;

or with the shading (same in bold — transcriber)