_Water, drink, Laura_.

Having acquired the use of substantives, adjectives, verbs,
prepositions, and conjunctions, it was thought time to make the
experiment of trying to teach her to _write_, and to show her she might
communicate her ideas to persons not in contact with her. It was amusing
to witness the mute amazement with which she submitted to the process;
the docility with which she imitated every motion, and the perseverance
with which she moved her pencil over and over again in the same track,
until she could form the letter. But when at last the idea dawned upon
her that by this mysterious process she could make other people
understand what she thought, her joy was boundless! Never did a child
apply more eagerly and joyfully to any task than she did to this; and in
a few months she could make every letter distinctly, and separate words
from each other.

At this time Laura actually wrote, unaided, a legible letter to her
mother, in which she expressed the idea of her being well, and of her
expectation of going home in a few weeks. It was, indeed, a very rude
and imperfect letter, couched in the language which a prattling infant
would use. Still, it shadowed forth and expressed to her mother the
ideas that were passing in her own mind. She had attained about the same
command of language as common children three years of age. But her power
of expression was, of course, by no means equal to her power of
conception; for she had no words to express many of the perceptions and
sensations which her mind doubtless experienced. In the spring of 1840,
when she had been under instruction about two and a half years,
returning fatigued from her journey home, she complained of a pain in
her side, and on being asked what caused it, she replied as follows:
"Laura did go to see mother, ride did make Laura side ache, horse was
wrong, did not run softly." Her improvement in the use of language was
very rapid, and she soon became, in some respects, quite a critic. When
one of the girls had the mumps, Laura learned the name of the disease;
soon after she had it herself, but she had the swelling only on one
side; and some one saying to her, "You have got the mumps," she replied
quickly, "_No, no; I have mump._"

About this time Laura learned the difference between the present and
past tense of the verb. And here her simplicity rebukes the clumsy
irregularities of our language. She learned _jump, jumped_--_walk,
walked_, etc., unti