Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... Asked her why she did not read now in her book. "I never read now, I do not know what the words mean." Proposed her reading to me, but she asked that she might tell me about an elephant. Told her a story of little boy who troubled one, and how he retaliated. I chanced to say he thought. She did not interrupt the story, but at its close said, "Can elephants think?" Dec. 21, 1842. Laura announced her birthday. ' I am thirteen now: am I taller?" A very good gymnasium had been fitted up for the use of the blind pupils, and it was thought best for Laura to join the girls at their hour. She was not much pleased with it. As she could not hear the orders and make the movements in concert as those only blind could, it was not strange that some of the charm of it was lost on her. She visited a museum yesterday, and I asked her to tell me what she saw. ' I saw crocodile and elephant's bone of head; why was his eye very large? I saw elephant's trunk and camel's legs; they were very high. I could not reach his head, and I stood on stool, and could not reach. Why cannot he put his head to the ground? I saw bear; what does he do?" After thinking awhile she said, "Why did God make proboscis, and why does the elephant not have teeth and lips like us?" She wanted to have me tell her about the cages in which bears were kept. After paying close attention, she said, "I will get something to show you if it is like." She went to the apparatus case, and took the little carriage from the inclined plane, to illustrate her idea of a cage on wheels. To give her a more correct one I took the wire frame used with the air pump, and put that on wheels. She understood it at once, but asked, ' Why do not bears have cages made of wood?" "They could not have air enough to...