_Do as you would be done by_.
Or give him two or three lines: here and there scratch out a word; let
him tell what those words must be to make sense.
_Second Girl._ The card on which you have a, b, c, and so on, might
have a, b, c, made with a pen at their backs, to teach written hand.
_First Girl._ I have a set of those; I could read my mother’s writing
when I was four years old.
_Second Girl._ I will buy some prints or cuts, and paste at the back
of cards, for our little ones; so they will soon learn to distinguish
nouns. On one side shall be DOG; I will ask what part of speech is
that? _Charles_ will say, Is it not a noun?—He will turn the card, and
find a cut.
_First Girl._ Let us prepare some words of all kinds; we can lay
sentences for little ones to read. For _Lydia_, we will place them thus:
_Our new dog._
_An old cat._
My mother says that three words are as much as a child could read in a
breath at first.
_Second Girl._ Where there is a house full of young folks, it might be
good sport to teach and learn in these ways.
_First Girl._ It is; we play with our words thus; mother gives to one
some words; he is to place them so as to make sense: one is to parse
them: one to tell more than the parts of speech, as the tense, mode and
so on, of the verbs.—_George_ and I have false _English_ to correct;
verse to turn to prose; we write out a passage which we like; we write
letters upon given subjects; we read a story, and then write it in our
own words.
_Second Girl._ Do you repeat much?
_First Girl._ To strengthen our memories, we learn to repeat passages
in _prose_—we also repeat _verse_, and read it aloud.
_Second Girl._ That is a great pleasure.
_First Girl._ Yes, and my mother reads aloud to us; this teaches us
to read with propriety; and she often stops to inquire whether we
understand any expression which is not perfectly plain.