_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.
5. He, one day, determined to invite his friends to dine with him, in
return for their civilities in inviting him; and he made up his mind to
have an abundance of those things, in particular, of which he had
observed his friends to be most fond.
6. He accordingly sent his servant to market, to buy his dinner; and,
for fear the servant should make any mistake, he wrote his directions on
paper, and, giving the paper, with some money, to the servant, he sent
him to the market.
7. The servant took the paper and the money, and set off. Just before he
reached the market, he opened the paper, to see what his master had
written.
8. But his master wrote so very badly, it took him a long time to find
out what was written on the paper; but, at last, he contrived to make
it out, as follows:
9. "Dukes would be preferred to Turks; but Chittens would be better than
either."
10. What his master meant by dukes, and turks, and chittens, he could
not guess. No such things were for sale at the market, and he did not
dare to return home without buying something.
11. As he could find nothing like dukes nor turks, he happened to see a
poor woman carrying home a basket full of kittens. This was the most
like _chittens_ of anything he could find; and not being able to get
what his master had written for, he thought his master meant kittens. He
therefore bought the basket of kittens, and carried them home for his
master's dinner.