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The Braille worked well enough in the Languages, but when it came to Geometry and Algebra difficulties arose. I was sorely perplexed, and felt discouraged, wasting much precious time, especially in Algebra. It is true that I was familiar with all literary Braille -- English and American -- and New York Point; but the method of writing the various signs and symbols used in Geometry and Algebra in the three systems is very different, and I had used only the English method in my Algebra.

Two days before the examinations Mr. Vining sent me a Braille copy of one of the old Harvard papers in Algebra. To my dismay I found that it was in the American notation. I sat down immediately and wrote to Mr. Vining, asking him to explain the signs. I received another paper and a table of signs by return mail, and I set to work to learn the notation. But on the night before the Algebra examination, while I was struggling over some very complicated examples, I could not tell the combinations of bracket, brace and radicals. Both Mr. Keith and I were distressed and full of forebodings for the morrow; but we went over to the college a little before the examination began, and had Mr. Vining explain more fully the method of writing those symbols.

All Obstacles Overcome at Last

IN GEOMETRY my chief difficulty was that I had always been accustomed to reading the propositions in line print or to having them spelled into my hand; and somehow, although the propositions were right before me, I found the Braille confusing and could not fix in my mind clearly what I was reading. But when I took up Algebra I had a harder time still. The signs, which I had so lately learned and which I thought I knew, perplexed me. Consequently my work was painfully slow, and I had to read the examples over and over before I could form a clear idea of what I was required to do. Indeed, I am not sure now that I read all the signs correctly. I found it very hard to keep my wits about me.

But I do not blame any one. The administrative board of Radcliffe did not realize how difficult they were making my examinations, nor did they understand the peculiar difficulties I had to surmount. But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all.

(CONTINUED IN THE AUGUST JOURNAL)