Now they were friends! Doby knew in a flash how the little boy lived and how he thought. He exclaimed, "That is the way my mother does!" And the two boys, one from New England, one from Kentucky, because their mothers were alike, could look into each other's heart with perfect understanding.
Doby said: "The last page in my speller is the hard one. Every day ma teaches me those words and every night I forget 'em."
The little boy pursed his mouth and shook his head as one who had also gone through this troublesome forgetting. "I can read Æsop's fables," he said.
"I have a New England primer," began Doby, painstakingly quoting from its title-page:
"The
New England Primer
Improved
For the more easy attaining the true
Reading of English
To which is added,
The Assembly of Divines,
and Mr. Cotton's
Catechism
Boston: Printed and Sold by
S. Adams, in Queen-street. 1762.
Have you got one?"
The little boy shook his head.
"You ought to have," was Doby's dogmatic decision, "because for ever so many years it has been the most important lesson-book for schools and families. A million boys have studied it and another million grown folks have bought it, and there have been another million besides those."
The little boy was much impressed by these large numbers which Doby knew were true.