“Now, Lucy, that we are here, you’d better let me teach you one of the figures. I’ll just teach you the figure one; that’s very easy. It’s nothing but a mark.”
So Royal made a mark upon the slate for the figure one, and then put the pencil into Lucy’s hands, that she might attempt to imitate it. Lucy made a mark as nearly as she could like Royal’s, only it was a great deal too long.
“That’s very well, Lucy,” said Royal, “very well indeed for the first, only it isn’t necessary to make it quite so long. You must make the next one shorter.”
Lucy accordingly made another; and she stopped sooner than she had done before, so as to make the mark shorter than she had done at first. Royal said it was a very good one indeed. Lucy, finding that Royal, instead of upbraiding or ridiculing her, was pleased and satisfied with her attempts, began to feel gratified herself; and she said that she should like much to make some more ones; and Royal accordingly told her to make a row of them quite across the slate near the top. She made them, on the whole, very well, though some of them were crooked.
“It is very hard to make straight letters,” said she.
“Straight figures, you mean,” said Royal.
“Yes,” said Lucy, “straight figures. Crooked figures are much easier to make. I can make a three. I’m going to make a three.”
“No,” said Royal, “two comes next.”
“I don’t care,” said Lucy; “I can’t make a two, but I can make a three, and so I am going to make that next.”
“No,” said Royal, “you mustn’t make a three next; that is out of order. Besides, I am your teacher, and you must mind me.”