Chapter 9 Summary

In May 1888, Helen visited the Perkins Institute in Boston. The trip was "as if a beautiful fairy tale had come true." As soon as she arrived, Helen met other children who knew the manual alphabet. She immediately had friends and felt she had come home to her own country. She felt great pain, though, when she realized that all of her new friends were blind. However, when she realized they were "happy and contented," her sorrow passed.

Helen enjoyed several history lessons in Boston. She visited Bunker Hill one day and Plymouth the next. She was interested most in Plymouth Rock, because she could touch it. She did not know then, she says, that the Pilgrims had persecuted others; she only knew then that they traveled to Plymouth for their own religious freedom.

Chapter 9 Analysis

Helen compares her first train trip and her...