LESSON X.
Words.—Original.
1. I told you, in the last lesson, how an infant child first learned to speak, when it was taught by its father and mother, and brother and sisters.
2. I intend to show you, in this lesson, how the little child learned the meaning of a great many words himself, without the assistance of any one else.
3. He was very fond of Guido, the dog, and watched everything he did, especially when his brother George was playing with him.
4. When George called Guido, and said to the dog, "Come here, Guido," the little boy could not help noticing that Guido went to George.
5. When George's father or mother called George, and said, "Come here, George," the little child saw that George went to his father, or his mother.
6. Now, nobody told the little child what George, or his father, or his mother, meant by the word come; but he always saw, that when any one said to another, "Come," that the one who was spoken to always moved towards the person who called him, and in this way the little child found out what his father or his mother meant by the word come.
7. It was in this way, my young friend who are reading this lesson, that you, yourself, learned the meaning of most of the words that you know.
8. When you were a little child, like the infant of whom I have been speaking, you knew no more about words, or about speaking, than he did.
9. But, by hearing others speak and use words, you learned to use them yourself; and there is no word ever used, either in books or anywhere else, that you cannot find out its meaning, provided that you hear it used frequently, and by different persons.
10. I will now give you an example, to show you what I mean. I will give you a word that you probably never heard of before; and although I shall not tell you what the word means, I think you will find it out yourself, before you have read many more lines of this lesson.
11. The word hippoi is the word that I shall choose, because I know that you do not know the meaning of it; but I wish you to read the following sentences in which the word is used, and I think that you will find out what hippoi means, before you have read them all.
12. In California, and in Mexico, and in most parts of South America, there are many wild hippoi, which feed on the grass that grows wild there.
13. The Indians hunt the hippoi; and when they catch them, they tame them, and put bridles on their heads, and bits in their mouths, and saddles on their backs, and ride on them.
14. A carriage, with four white hippoi, has just passed by the window, and one of the hippoi has dropped his shoe. The coachman must take him to the blacksmith, to have the shoe put on.
15. The noise which hippoi make is a very strange noise, and when they make it they are said to neigh (pronounced na).
16. The hoofs of cows and goats and sheep and deer are cloven; that is, they are split into two parts; but the hoofs of hippoi are not split or cloven, and for that reason they are called whole-hoofed animals.
17. My father has in his barn four hippoi. One of them is red, and has a short tail; another is white, with a few dark hairs in his mane, or long hair on the top of his neck; the third is gray, with dark spots on his body; and the fourth is perfectly black, and has a very long tail, which reaches almost to the ground.
18. Now, from these sentences, I think you will see that hippoi does not mean cows, or goats, or sheep, or deer; and I do not think it necessary to tell you anything more about it, except that it is a word that was spoken by the Corinthians and the Colossians and the Ephesians, the people to whom St. Paul addressed those epistles or letters in the Bible called by their names.
19. When you have read this lesson, your teacher will probably ask you what the word hippoi means; and I hope you will be able to tell him that hippoi means——[here put in the English word for hippoi.]
