me, and
then exclaimed: "I wish they'd leave this card out in the rain till the
dots swelled to the size of door-knobs; then I might be able to read
it."

[Illustration: The Braille Room]

Before I left St. Mark's I had mastered the first ten letters of the
alphabet; but I was soon to learn that if one does not keep at it,
"touch" will be lost. After leaving St. Mark's, I spent three idle weeks
at Folkestone. As a result, when I arrived at St. Dunstan's I had to
begin my Braille all over again. My teacher at St. Dunstan's, Miss
Wineberg, proved herself as patient as was Miss Gilles; but patience is
a characteristic virtue of all the women who instructed the sightless
boys in the Braille Room, and among them were some of the best-known
ladies in England, four having titles. These teachers sit for hours
making men "stick it," in many cases against their will, until they have
mastered the mystery of correctly judging the number and arrangement of
dots under the finger tip. The theory of Braille can be grasped in six
weeks by the average student; but it takes from four to six months to so
cultivate touch as to make the fingers readily take the place of eyes.
After the reading of Braille has been mastered, writing it, an even more
difficult operation, is taken up. When I had satisfactorily passed my
test in both reading and writing, I entered that holy of holies, the
Shorthand Room. The four teachers in this room are all blind. Our
teacher was Corporal Charles McIntosh, who had lost both his eyes and
his right leg while with the Gallipoli Expeditionary Force. I have
stated that there are eighty-two signs in Grade II Braille; but Braille
shorthand contains six hundred and eighty word and letter signs that
have to be committed to memory. A herculean task was before me, but by
dogged effort on my part and patience on the part of my instructor, I
succeeded so well that in a few weeks I was able to take shorthand notes
as speedily as the average sighted stenographer. Meanwhile, I had been
diligently at work at my typewriting, and under the kindly instruction
of Miss Dorothy Charles Dickens, a granddaughter of the great novelist,
I had soon acquired sufficient speed and accuracy to qualify for work.

CHAPTER V

THE SPIRIT OF ST. DUNSTAN's

To give an adequate account of the work done at St. Dunstan's, and of
the spirit of the place, it is necessary to touch upon the personnel of
the hostel. I have already dwelt at so