Anne didn’t just teach Helen how to draw words. She also tried to make Helen behave like a proper girl. At mealtimes, Helen would not sit in her chair. She would walk around and put her fingers into everyone’s food. She ate what she wanted from everyone’s plate. Mr. and Mrs. Keller did not try to stop Helen. They let her do whatever she wanted.
Anne forced Helen to sit in her chair and to stay there. Helen was not only allowed to eat from her own plate. Of course, Helen fought this. She would cry, scream, kick, and punch.
Mrs. Keller didn’t like to see Helen cry. “I can’t stand to see her being punished,” she said. 
But Anne was dertermined. “ We must show that we love Helen,” she explained. “ But we can’t let her think that she can do whatever she wants just because she is blind and deaf. She musy behaved herself like other children.” 

Helen was a difficult child to control. One day, she was especially bad. She threw her doll on the floor and broke it. Anne was tired and thirsty. She took Helen’s hand and walked outside. They stopped at the pump where the family got water. Then something happened that changed Helen’s life forever.
When the water poured over Helen’s hand, Anne took Helen’s other hand and speeled “W-A-T-E-R” as usual. A look of understanding came over Helen’s face. She spelled “W-A-T-E-R” several times in Anne quickly spelled “ G-R-O-U-N-D.” He len’s face became bright. She had suddenly realized that these were words
Helen pointed to Anne. Anne spelled “T-E-A-C-H- E-R” in Helen’s hand. For the rest of Helen’s life, she always called Anne “Teacher.”

Now Anne was no longer tired, and Helen was no longer bored. Helen pointed to hershelf. Slowly, her teacher spelled “H-E-L-E-N K-E-L-L-E-R” into the little girl’s hand. A smile spread across Helen’s face. She had discovered she had a name.
Then Helen ran into the house and found her mother. She threw her arms around her mother’s leg. Quickly, Anne spelled “M-O-T-H-E-R.” When Helen smiled in understanding, Mrs. Keller put her hand over her mouth. Tears of happiness were in her eyes.
For the rest of the day, Helen ran around the house. Her teacher and mother ran close behind her. Whenever Helen touched something new, Ann spelled its name. When Helen put her hand on her little sister, Anne spelled “B-A-B-Y.”
Many years later, when Helen wrote about her life, she remembered that wonderful day. “ I was born again that day,” she wrote. “ I had been a little ghost in a nothing world. Suddenly, I knew my name. I was a preson for the first time. I could understand, and I could understand me.”
It wasn’t long before Helen could ask question by spelling words. She had many questions by spelling words. She had many questions about the world. 
Every morning that summer, Anne had lessons with Helen. They walked outside to learn the names of trees and flowers. Helen could regconize them by touch. In the barn, Helen held a chicken’s egg as the baby chick came out. She held her fingers in a bowl of water to feel baby frogs swimming around. Anne also gave Helen wooden beads and straws to learn how to count.

One morning, Anne had a surprise for Helen. On the table were several small cards. On each card were some raised dots. Helen felt the first one. Anne spelled “A” in her hand. Then Anne put Helen’s fingers on the next card and spelled “B.” helen soon understood that the raised dots spelled words. This system was called “Braille.”
It took Helen several days to memorize all the letters. When she was finished, she put three cards together to spell “D-O-G.” Then she ran to find her dog, Belle, and made the dog’s paws touch the letters. 
The next day, to Anne’s surprise, Helen spelled out a whole sentence: “D-O-L-L-S-O-N-B-E-D.”
Anne said , “Very good! Tomorrow you will have your first book in Braille so that you can start reading.”
Helen also finally learned how to behave . She did not run around the table at mealtimes. She sat in her chair and leanred to use a knife and fork. She even learned how to dress herself neatly and how to make her own bed.
Sometimes Helen became angry like before. But now she could feel the frown on her teacher’s face when she was a bad girl. The worst punishment Anne used on Helen was not to spell out stories for her. Helen had come to love books as much as Anne did. 
When Christmas came that year, it was the first one that Helen could understand. She got very excited and helped her mother bake cookies.
On Christmas night, Mr. and Mrs. Keller looked at Helen. She was sitting under the tree holding her new doll. Her face was full of joy and understanding.
Mrs. Keller took Anne’s hand and almost cried. “I thank God every day of my life for sending you to us,” she said.