‘I know that you did not begin your lessons when I told you, for you remained talking to your parrot, and lost some time. But if you make haste and begin, and if you do not cry, you will do them easily. Look at the clock; you see that you have two hours, for I am not going out till twelve; now try and waste no more time.
‘But you must not try to do all at once, or even to think of all at once; begin and do each in its turn. Learn your piece of poetry first, and think only of that; and when you know it, look at the clock, but not before, and see how long you have been, then take your two other sums, and do them without looking off your slate. Your spelling will not take you long.
‘Try and do exactly as I tell you, and let no tears fall on your book or slate.’
Alice smiled, and giving grandmamma a kiss, sat down with her book in hand, and in less than half an hour she had learnt three verses of her piece of poetry by heart. She then took her slate, saying to herself, ‘I like to do sums, and so does grandmamma,’ and one by one she did them, then proved them right, all but one figure in the last, it was always wrong. ‘I shall never be ready,’ said the little girl again; but on second thoughts she resolved to try, and in a few minutes she found out her mistake, and now all the sums were right.
Her spelling was quite easy; she had only to read the words over twice, and she knew them all. And when she looked at the clock, Alice saw that she had been but little more than one hour; and taking her books and slate, she ran full of joy to her grandmamma.
‘I am ready, grandmamma; I have finished everything. I know my lessons; may I say them to you now? I am so glad I did as you told me.’
‘I too am very glad, my dear child,’ said her grandmamma, kissing her tenderly.
Alice then said her lessons extremely well, and her sums were praised. Then her grandmamma said, ‘You must never think of how much you have to do, without remembering how much time you have to do it in.’
From this time little occurred to tell of; but the little girls were very happy, and liked to stay with their grandmamma in the country still, although the storms of autumn had stripped the trees of their leaves, and the winter was coming on, and the garden had no flowers or fruit.
The sun, however, still shone bright, and the weather still was very mild; and they were able, nearly daily, to take longer walks than in the summer, and go much farther among the pretty valleys and high hills of Devonshire, and they learned to love their grandmamma’s pretty home more and more.