15. There are some children, who live as much as a mile, or a half of a mile, from the school-house. If these children were told that they must step forward with first one foot and then the other, and must take three or four thousand steps, before they could reach the school-house, they would probably be very much discouraged, every morning, before they set out, and would say to their mothers, Mother, I can't go to school,—it is so far; I must put out one foot, and drag the other after it, three thousand times, before I can get there.
16. You see, then, that although it may appear to be a very hard thing to learn to read and to spell so many words as there are in large books, yet you are required to learn but a few of them at a time; and if there were twice as many as there are, you will learn them all, in time.
17. I shall tell you a story, in the next lesson, to show you how important it is to know how to spell.
LESSON XIII.
Importance of Learning to Spell.—Original Version.
1. A rich man, whose education had been neglected in early life, and who was, of course, very ignorant of many things which even little boys and girls among us now-a-days know very well, lived in a large house, with very handsome furniture in it.
2. He kept a carriage, and many servants, some of whom were very much better educated than he was himself.
3. This rich man had been invited out many times to dine with his neighbors; and he observed that at the dinners to which he was invited there were turkeys, and ducks, and chickens, as well as partridges, and quails, and woodcocks, together with salmon, and trout, and pickerel,—with roasted beef, and lamb, and mutton, and pork.
4. But he noticed that every one seemed to be more fond of chickens than anything else, but that they also ate of the ducks and the turkeys.