Do you see after the word coal, in the last line but one, a little star? Do you know what that star is for? It is to make you look down to the bottom of the page, and there you will find something more about the black wood. When you come to any little star then, when you are reading, you must look down to the bottom of the page, and there you will find another little star, with something printed after it. That which is printed thus at the bottom of a page is called a note.
Other characters besides stars are made for notes. These are some of the characters, § ¶ † ‡. There are not many notes in this book. Perhaps you will find some by and by.
This is all that I have to tell you now about reading. But now I will put in the whole story about the man going up the mountain, and you may see if you can read it all right, and see too, if you remember all that I have explained.
[*] It was burnt black by a fire, which somebody had built there a great while before.
CLIMBING UP A MOUNTAIN.
Once there was a man who thought he would go up upon a mountain; so he rode along upon his horse till he came as near the mountain as he could, and then he turned off into the woods and rode on until he came to the foot of the mountain. He could ride no farther; so he tied his horse to a tree.
Then he began to walk up. He scrambled through the bushes for some time, and at last came out into a smooth but muddy path. Here, however, he was in no little difficulty, for the path was so slippery that, notwithstanding all he could do, he seemed rather to be sliding down, than climbing up.
He at last got over this slippery part of the path, and then came to a place where it was very rocky. Trees and bushes hung over his head, and grew thick, all around him, and he began to be afraid that he might meet with some wild beast. Presently he looked through the bushes, and saw at a distance among the rocks, some large, black thing, and he thought it was a bear. He was very much frightened, and began to scream out as loud as he could, Help, Help, Help.