Then Miss Anne pointed to the upper line, and in the third word there was an o.
“There,” said she—“prick it with your pointer.”
Lucy pricked through the o with great force, so as to sink the pin for half its length into the pin-cushion.
“That will do,” said Miss Anne. “Now look along until you find another o.”
Lucy found one about the middle of the line.
“Now,” said Miss Anne, “prick him too,—only do it gently, so as just to put the point in a little way; and when you are doing it, say, o.”
Lucy did so. She pressed the point of the pin through the letter, and at the instant that it went through, she said, o.
“Now,” said Miss Anne, “the plan is for you to go on in that way. Look all through that line, and prick every o you can find. Then take the next line, and the next, and so on regularly through the whole, and prick every o. After you have done, put the pointer into the pin-cushion, and the pin-cushion into your drawer. Then set your chair back, and bring the paper to me.”
Lucy was very ready to go on with this work. In fact, while Miss Anne was speaking, she had found another o, and was just going to prick; but Miss Anne stopped her, and told her that it was not rulable to begin to obey her orders until she had finished giving them.
At last, Miss Anne went out of the room, and left Lucy at her work. Lucy pricked away, very industriously, for nearly half an hour. She had then got almost to the bottom of the page. There she found a capital o, thus, O, at the beginning of a sentence; and she did not know whether she ought to prick such a one as that or not. While she was considering, she heard Royal’s voice in the entry way, calling her.