“And yet,” added Jessie, “you could relate, several days after, a large part of this story, and give many minute particulars about the characters. I don’t believe my memory would be equal to such a feat as that.”
“Oh, well,” said Abby, “that was only a story, and it’s easy enough to remember stories. But take such a lesson as our class had this morning—that hateful list of irregular verbs—I can’t learn it, and I wont try. I should think Mr. Upton would know better than to tell us to learn such a stupid mess of words—what good would it ever do us, if we did learn them?”
“I learned the list of irregular verbs two years ago, and I did not find it half so hard as I thought it would be,” said Jessie. “I remember all about it, as well as though it was last week. I thought it was a hard lesson, and so I studied it just before I went to bed, and then repeated it over two or three times, after I was in bed.”
“Why, is that a good way to learn a hard lesson?” inquired Abby.
“I think it is,” replied Jessie, “and I’ve heard others say that if you want to remember words, it is a good rule to fix them in the memory just before you go to bed. They say the best way to teach a parrot to talk, is to darken his cage, and keep repeating the words he is to learn while he is going to sleep. I kept saying over the irregular verbs until I fell asleep, and the next morning I found I knew them by heart, and I haven’t forgotten them yet.”
“Oh, well, that just proves what I said, that you’ve got a better memory than I have,” added Abby.
“No, Abby, it proves no such thing,” replied Jessie. “You say you can’t learn the list, and you wont try; I said, I can learn it, and I will—and I did. That is all the difference between us. I have no doubt you could commit the list to memory without much trouble, if you would only think so, and would try. That’s the secret of good lessons.”
“I don’t believe I could learn that lesson, if I should study it a week—it’s a long string of words, without any sense or reason, and I can’t learn such things,” said Abby.
“Oh, yes, you can learn it if you will only determine to do so,” replied Jessie.
“But I know I never could learn it—it isn’t in me,” said Abby, and she declined further conversation on the subject by walking off.