8. When he has done this, he can take another small portion of the lesson, and do the same with that, until, by degrees, he has learnt the whole lesson; and then he will feel happy, because he knows that his teacher, and his parents, will be pleased with him.

9. But some pupils say to themselves, when they have a lesson to learn, I do not want to study this lesson now; I will study it by and by, or to-morrow morning.

10. But, by and by, and when to-morrow comes, they feel no more disposed to study their lesson than they did when the lesson was first given to them.

11. Now, my little friend, if you wish your time at school to pa.s.s pleasantly, do not say to yourself, I will get my lesson by and by, or to-morrow, but set yourself about it immediately, learn it as quickly as you can, and I will a.s.sure you will not only make your teachers and your parents happier, but you will be much happier yourself.

LESSON VI.

_The Author to the Pupil._

1. In the first lesson, I told you that I would show you how to understand what is in this book; and how you may, with very little a.s.sistance from your teacher, be able to read all the hard words that you find in any book.

2. Many little boys and girls are very fond of running out of their places in school, and going up to their teachers with a great many unnecessary questions. This always troubles the teacher, and prevents his going through with all his business in time to dismiss you at the usual hour.

3. Whenever you meet with any real difficulty, that you cannot overcome yourself without his a.s.sistance, you should watch for an opportunity when he is at leisure, and endeavor to attract his attention quietly, and without noise and bustle, so that your fellow-pupils may not be disturbed, and then respectfully and modestly ask him to a.s.sist you.

4. But if you are noisy and troublesome, and run up to him frequently with questions that, with a little thought, you could easily answer yourself, he will not be pleased with you, but will think that you wish to make trouble; and, perhaps, will appear unkind to you.

5. I will now endeavor to show you how you may understand what is in your book, so that you will have no need to be troublesome to your teacher.

6. In the first place, then, always endeavor to understand every line that you read; try to find out what it means, and, if there is any word that you have never seen or heard of before, look out the word in a dictionary, and see what the meaning of the word is; and then read the line over again, and see whether you can tell what the whole line means, when you have found out the meaning of the strange word.

7. Now, as you can understand everything best when you have an example, I will give you one, as follows. In the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, at the first verse, there are these words:

1. "There was a certain man in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

2. "A devout man, and one that feared G.o.d with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to G.o.d always."

8. I suppose you know what most of the words in these verses mean, except the word _centurion_ in the first verse, and the word _alms_ in the second.

9. Now, if you look for the word _centurion_ in the dictionary, it will tell you that _centurion_ means a military officer, who commanded a hundred men. Thus you find that Cornelius was a soldier; and not only that he was a soldier, but that he was an officer, that commanded soldiers.

10. Again, if you look for the word _alms_ in your dictionary, you will find that it means money given to the poor; and thus you find that Cornelius was a very good man, and not only prayed to G.o.d, but also gave much money to a.s.sist the poor.

11. You see, then, how useful a book a dictionary is at school, and how important it is that you should have one. If your parents cannot give you a very good one, any one is better than none.

12. But if you have no dictionary, or if you cannot find the word you wish to find in the dictionary, you must then wait for a convenient time to ask your teacher, and he will always be pleased to find that you are trying to understand the words in your lesson.

13. If you have a dictionary, and do not know how to find out the words in it, ask your teacher to show you; and when he has showed you how to use it, be sure never to pa.s.s over a single word without knowing what it means.

LESSON VII.

_How to find out the Meaning of Words._--ORIGINAL.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

1. Many years ago, when I lived in a small town, near the Merrimac river, a little Spanish girl came to board in the same house.

2. She could speak very well in her own language; but the people in her country speak a language very different from ours: and when she first began to speak, she heard nothing but Spanish words; and she learned no other.

3. She could not speak a word of English, and did not understand a word that was spoken to her by any of the family.

4. Her parents were very rich, but they placed her in the family, that she might learn to speak English.

5. She had no dictionary to turn to, to look out the meaning of words; and if she was hungry, she could not ask for bread, and if she was thirsty, she could not ask for water, nor milk, nor tea, for she did not know the meaning of either of the words, _water_, _tea_, nor _milk_.

6. Perhaps you would be puzzled to tell how she could learn to speak English, if she had no one to teach her, and had no dictionary to inform her about the words.

7. But it was not many days before she could say "_bread_," if she was hungry, and "_water_," if she wanted to drink; and I was very much surprised to find how soon it was, at the dinner-table, she could ask for meat, or potato, or pudding; and, at tea-time, for tea, or milk, or sugar, or b.u.t.ter, or bread.

8. I have no doubt that you would like to know how this little Spanish girl learned to speak all of these words. I do not intend to tell you quite yet, but I think you will find out yourself, if you will read the next lesson.

LESSON VIII.

_The same subject, continued._

1. About twenty years ago, I was very ill, and, for a long time, my friends thought I never should recover.

2. By the very attentive care of my physician, and by the devoted attention of my wife, I unexpectedly grew better; and the doctor said that I must take a voyage for the recovery of my health.

3. A kind friend, who was going to the West Indies, in a vessel of his own, very generously offered to take me with him, and I gratefully accepted the offer.

4. We sailed from Boston early one morning, and were soon out of sight of the land. I was quite ill during the voyage; but fortunately the voyage was a short one, and we reached the place of our destination on the fourteenth day after we sailed.

5. The island, where we landed, was a beautiful spot; and lemons, oranges, pine-apples, and many other delicious fruits, were growing out in the open air.

6. The people who lived on this island did not speak the English language; and the family with whom I was to reside could speak only in French.

7. I observed, at dinner-time, that some of the persons at the table held out their tumblers to the servant, and said something which sounded to me like _O_.

8. I often heard this word; and every time it was spoken, _water_ was brought, or poured out, or something was done with _water_.

9. I then made up my mind that this word that I thought was O meant water; and I found out afterwards that I was right, except that I did not spell it right.

10. This I discovered by means of the Bible, from which the family used to read.