Helen Adams Keller：The Story of My Life (12)

海倫‧凱勒 著  東年 譯

我們在巴爾地摩受到齊仁醫生親切的接待，可是他無能為力。不過，他表示我可以受教育，然後建議我父親向華盛頓州的亞歷山大‧貝爾醫生請教關於聾瞎孩童學校和教師的事。

遵照這位醫生的建議，我們立刻前往華盛頓去看貝爾醫生，我父親即悲哀又很憂慮，而我，完全不知道他的苦惱，只顧在充滿興奮的一地地旅行中尋找樂趣。我這樣的小孩，立刻感覺到貝爾醫生令大家喜愛的親切和同情心；這些特性，和他特別的成就一樣，也令人敬佩。當我在揣摸他的錶時，他把我抱到他的膝上；這讓我感動。他懂得我的表示，我明白如此就立刻喜愛他了。但是，我並沒夢想那次的會見會是這麼的一道門：通過那裡，我將由黑暗走進光明，從孤立走向友誼、同伴、知識和愛。

貝爾醫生建議我父親寫信給波士頓柏金斯盲校( Perkins School for the Blind)的負責人燕那哥洛斯先生，請教他是否可以推薦一位勝任的教師開始教育我；柏金斯盲校是撒牡爾‧郝醫生（Samuel G. Howe）為盲人盡力的地方。我父親立刻寫信去，而幾個星期後燕那哥洛斯先生親切的回了信，並且令人欣慰的鼓舞說已經為我找到了一位教師。這是1886年夏天的事，但是蘇利文老師沒能來，直到下一年的三月。   

When we arrived in Baltimore, Dr. Chisholm received us kindly: but he could do nothing. He said, however, that I could be educate d, and advised my father to consult Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, of Washington, who would be able to give him information about schools and teachers of deaf or blind children.

 Acting on the doctor's advice, we went immediately to Washington to see Dr. Bell, my father with a sad heart and many misgivings, I wholly unconscious of his anguish, finding pleasure in the excitement of moving from place to place. Child as I was, I at once felt the tenderness and sympathy which endeared Dr. Bell to so many hearts, as his wonderful achievements enlist their admiration. He held me on his knee while I examined his watch, and he made it strike for me. He understood my signs, and I knew it and loved him at once. But I did not dream that that interview would be the door through which I should pass from darkness into light, from isolation to friendship, companionship, knowledge, love. 

Dr. Bell advised my father to write to Mr. Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution in Boston, the scene of Dr. Howe's great labor urs for the blind, and ask him if he had a teacher competent to begin my education. This my father did at once, and in a few weeks there came a kind letter from Mr. Anagnos with the comforting assurance that a teacher had been found. This was in the summer of 1886. But Miss Sullivan did not arrive until the following March.