LESSON XIII.
Importance of Learning to Spell.—Original Version.
1. A rich man, whose education had been neglected in early life, and who was, of course, very ignorant of many things which even little boys and girls among us now-a-days know very well, lived in a large house, with very handsome furniture in it.
2. He kept a carriage, and many servants, some of whom were very much better educated than he was himself.
3. This rich man had been invited out many times to dine with his neighbors; and he observed that at the dinners to which he was invited there were turkeys, and ducks, and chickens, as well as partridges, and quails, and woodcocks, together with salmon, and trout, and pickerel,—with roasted beef, and lamb, and mutton, and pork.
4. But he noticed that every one seemed to be more fond of chickens than anything else, but that they also ate of the ducks and the turkeys.
5. He, one day, determined to invite his friends to dine with him, in return for their civilities in inviting him; and he made up his mind to have an abundance of those things, in particular, of which he had observed his friends to be most fond.
6. He accordingly sent his servant to market, to buy his dinner; and, for fear the servant should make any mistake, he wrote his directions on paper, and, giving the paper, with some money, to the servant, he sent him to the market.
7. The servant took the paper and the money, and set off. Just before he reached the market, he opened the paper, to see what his master had written.
8. But his master wrote so very badly, it took him a long time to find out what was written on the paper; but, at last, he contrived to make it out, as follows:
9. "Dukes would be preferred to Turks; but Chittens would be better than either."
10. What his master meant by dukes, and turks, and chittens, he could not guess. No such things were for sale at the market, and he did not dare to return home without buying something.
11. As he could find nothing like dukes nor turks, he happened to see a poor woman carrying home a basket full of kittens. This was the most like chittens of anything he could find; and not being able to get what his master had written for, he thought his master meant kittens. He therefore bought the basket of kittens, and carried them home for his master's dinner.
