_The same subject, continued._
[Illustration]
1. There was a small family living very near to your residence, my young
friends who are reading this lesson, consisting of the father, the
mother, and four young children.
2. The oldest was a boy of twelve years old, the next was a little girl
of about eight, the third was another pretty little girl of six, and the
youngest was an infant boy, only nine months old.
3. As you may well suppose, the baby, as he was called, was the delight,
not only of the father and the mother, but also of his elder brother and
his two sisters.
4. The oldest brother had a dog whose name was Guido,--an Italian name,
which is pronounced as if it were spelt Gwe´do.
5. The dog had learned to love the dear little baby as much as the rest
of the family; and very often, when he was lying on the floor, the baby
would pull his tail, or his ears, or put his little hand into the
creature's mouth, and Guido would play as gently with him as if he knew
that the baby was a very tender little thing, and could not bear any
rough treatment.
6. Nothing pleased the whole family, and Guido among the rest, so much,
as to hear the baby try to say _papa_, and _mamma_, and _bub_, and
_sis_; for he could not say _brother_, nor _sister_, nor pronounce any
other words plainly.
7. The youngest sister was very fond of making him say these words; and
every time the little creature repeated them to her, she would throw her
arms around his little neck, and hug and kiss him with all the
affectionate love her little heart could express.
8. She often used to dress her little doll as prettily as she knew how;
tying its frock on one day with a pretty blue ribbon, and on another
with a red one; for she had noticed, that whenever the doll was newly
dressed, the dear little baby would look very steadily at it, and hold
out its little arms towards it; and then she would carry it to her
little brother, and say to him, "Dolly,--pretty dolly,--bub want to see
dolly?"
9. One day she had dressed her doll in a very bright new dress, with
very gay ribbons, and was carrying it towards her father to show it to
him, when suddenly she heard the baby cry out, "Dolly!"
10. She immediately ran with delight to her little brother, holding up
the doll in its new shining dress, and repeated her usual words,
"Dolly,--bub want dolly?"
11. The baby, delighted, looked up in its mother's face, and laughed,
and crowed, and giggled, and in its delight again repeated the word
"Dolly!"
12. Pleased with her success, the little sister was unwearied in her
efforts to make her little brother repeat other words; and day by day
she was gratified to find the list of words which he lisped was growing
in length.
13. By the unwearied endeavors of father, mother, brother and sisters,
this pretty little baby, by the time that it was three years old, could
speak plainly anything that was repeated to him, and had learned the
names of almost everything that he saw about the house, the yard, and
the street.
14. But it was observed that Guido, the dog, although he could not speak
a word, had also learned the names of many things; and when George, the
oldest son, told him to go and bring his ball to him, Guido would wag
his tail, and go up into George's chamber, and look about the room until
he had found the ball; and then he would run down the stairs, and
dropping the ball at his young master's feet, look up in his face,
expecting that George would throw it down for him to catch again.
[Illustration]
15. The baby, however, learnt words and names much faster than Guido;
for although Guido knew as much as any dog knows, yet dogs are different
creatures from children, and cannot learn so much nor so fast as
children can, because it has not pleased God to give them the same
powers.
16. Now, perhaps you may wish to know who this interesting family were
of whom I have been speaking; and you will probably be surprised to
learn, that all I have told you about this little baby is true of every
little baby, and that the manner that every infant is taught to speak is
the same.
17. It is the same manner as that in which the little Spanish girl,
mentioned in the seventh lesson, was taught to speak the English
language.