"Can't learn to spell? Bring me your book, and let me have a look at it."
Very willingly Marjorie flew to her father's side, and, big girl though she was, perched herself on his knee while she showed him the page.
"Just look! There's 'deleble' spelled with an e, and 'indelible' with an i! Why can't they spell them alike?"
"I think myself they might as well have done so," said Mr. Maynard, "but, since they didn't, we'll have to learn them as they are. Where is your lesson?"
"All that page. And they're fearfully hard words. And words I'll never use anyway. Why would I want to use 'harassed' and 'daguerreotype' and 'macaroni' and such words as those?"
Mr. Maynard smiled at the troubled little face.
"You may not want to use them, dearie, but it is part of your education to learn to spell them. Come, now, I'll help you, and we'll soon put them through. Let's pick out the very hardest one first."
"All right; 'daguerreotype' is the hardest."
"Oh, pshaw, no! That's one of the very easiest. Just remember that it was a Frenchman named Daguerre who invented the process; then you only have to add 'o' and 'type,' and there you are!"
"Why, that is easy! I'll never forget that. 'Macaroni' is a hard one, though."