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Miss Fuller's method was this: she passed my hand lightly over her face, and let me feel the position of her tongue and lips when she made a sound. I was eager to imitate every motion and in an hour had learned six elements of speech: M, P, A, S, T, I. Miss Fuller gave me eleven lessons in all. I shall never forget the surprise and delight I felt when I uttered my first connected sentence, "It is warm." True, they were broken and stammering syllables; but they were human speech. My soul, conscious of new strength, came out of bondage, and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith.
富勒小姐的授課方法是這樣的：她把我的手輕輕地放在她的臉上，這樣，當她發音的時候，我就能觸摸到她的舌頭和嘴唇的位置。我如饑似渴地模仿老師的每一個口形，只用了一個小時，我就學會了六個字母的讀音：M，P，A，S，T，I。富勒小姐總共給我上了十一堂課，我永遠也忘不了開口說出第一句話時的驚訝和喜悅，那句話是“天很暖和”。當然，這句話說得結結巴巴，但它的確是人類的語言。在靈魂深處，我感受到了一股掙脫了某種束縛的新生力量。此刻，它正在穿越那些斷裂的音節，奔向所有的知識和所有的信念。
No deaf child who has earnestly tried to speak the words which he has never heard—to come out of the prison of silence, where no tone of love, no song of bird, no strain of music ever pierces the stillness—can forget the thrill of surprise, the joy of discovery which came over him when he uttered his first word. Only such a one can appreciate the eagerness with which I talked to my toys, to stones, trees, birds and dumb animals, or the delight I felt when at my call Mildred ran to me or my dogs obeyed my commands. It is an unspeakable boon to me to be able to speak in winged words that need no interpretation. As I talked, happy thoughts fluttered up out of my words that might perhaps have struggled in vain to escape my fingers.
沒有一個聾啞孩子會用心學習他不曾聽過的詞語——那些詞語來自于“無聲的牢獄”，那里聽不到柔情細語，沒有鳥兒的歌唱，也沒有音樂的旋律能穿透寂靜——但是，當他開口說出平生第一個單詞時，他就會忘掉所有的驚懼，進而沉浸在發現的喜悅之中。也只有帶著這種感恩之心，我才能同我的玩具、石頭、樹木、飛鳥和不會說話的動物們交談。當聽到我召喚的米爾德萊德跑到我跟前，或者聽到我命令的狗兒作出正確反應，我內心的喜悅就會溢于言表。對我來說，能夠迅速地說出我想要表達的話而無須翻譯，這的確是一種難以言說的恩賜。當我說話時，愉快的思緒就會翩然而至。當然，這很可能是我為逃脫手指的束縛而做的徒勞抗爭。
