I wish all the boys and girls who may read this book to learn by it to read right, and now I shall tell you how to read right. But first I must explain some things to you about the way in which books are printed. What I am going to tell you now, is what Rollo’s father explained to him, after he had learned to read in easy reading, and had learned all the stops,—the comma, and the period, and the interrogation mark, and all the stops. I shall explain them to you by the help of a story, which I am going to put in here. I shall stop telling the story every few minutes to explain some things about the way of printing it. Here is the beginning of the story:—

Once there was a man who thought he would go up upon a mountain.

That is the beginning of the story; but I wish to stop a moment to ask you to look at the letters which it is printed with, and see whether they are as large as the reading before it. Is it printed in just as large letters, or larger, or smaller? Yes, it is smaller. I am going to have all the story printed in smaller print. The reason is because the principal thing I wish to do now, is to explain to you how to read, and I only wish for the story to help me,—so I put it in smaller print, or as they generally call it smaller type. It is very often so in books. One part is printed in larger, and the other part in smaller type. The most important is in large type. The least important is in small type. If you will ask your father or mother, or your brother or sister, if you have one old enough, they will show you books with large and small print in them. Whenever you see any thing printed in smaller print than the rest of the book, you ought not to read right on without thinking any thing of it; but you ought to pause a minute, and observe it, and think what the reason is. Now I will begin my story again in small print.

Once there was a man who thought he would go up upon a mountain; so he rode along on his horse till he came as near to the mountain as he could, in the road,—and then he turned off into the woods and rode on until he came to the foot of the mountain. He could ride no farther; so he tied his horse to a tree.

Then he began to walk up the mountain.

Do you see that when we come to the word tree, just above there, that we leave off printing in that line. There is a period, and then the rest of the line has nothing in it. It is blank, as they call it, that is white, all white paper. The next part of the story begins in the next line. The next part of the story is, these words, “Then he began,” and that is printed in the next line. And if you look at it, you will see that it is not exactly at the beginning of the line. The word “Then” is not printed as near the side of the page as the other lines above it are. There is a little space left blank. Do you see the little space left blank before the “Then”? Now what do you suppose is the reason why we left off in the middle of the line and began again in the next line, leaving a little blank space? Why, it is because I had finished telling you all about the man’s coming to the mountain, and was now going to tell you about his going up the mountain, and so I thought it would be best to leave off for that line, and begin again in the next. Should you like to know what such a place is called? It is called a new paragraph. A new paragraph is made whenever we come to any new part of the story. If you look back over the leaves of this book you will find a great many new paragraphs on all the pages. If any person says any thing in the story, we put what he says in a paragraph by itself. See if you can find some new paragraphs.

Now, when you come to any new paragraph in your reading, you ought not to read right forward without stopping or noticing it at all. You should pause a little when one paragraph ends, and then begin again when the new paragraph begins, so that those who hear you read, and who are not looking over, may know by the sound of your voice, that you have come to a new paragraph.

Now I will go on with the story, again, beginning at the new paragraph.

Then he began to walk up. He scrambled through the bushes for some time, and at last came out into a smooth, but muddy path. Here, however, he was in no little difficulty, for the path was so slippery that notwithstanding all he could do, he seemed rather to be sliding down, than climbing up.

Here we come to the end of another paragraph. And I wish you to look at the word “down” in the last line. Do you see any thing strange about it? Is it printed like the other words?

Once I asked some children to look at a word printed so, and to tell me what the difference was between it and other words. One said it looked fainter. Another said it looked smaller. A third said it was not printed with good ink. But the true explanation is, the letters of the word are slanting. That is all. It makes the word look a little fainter.

You will see that the letters are different by looking first at the d in “sliding,” which comes before “down,” and then looking at the d in “down.” The d in “sliding” is straight. The d in “down” is slanting; all the other letters in down are slanting. Do you know what this kind of printing is called? It is called Italic.

The word “down” in the story is printed in Italics. The reason why it is printed in Italics is because I wanted you to notice it particularly. It is remarkable that while the man was trying to get up, he should, instead of that, slide down. So I had the word printed differently, that you might notice it particularly. Whenever you are reading and come to any word printed in Italics, you must notice it, and speak it very distinctly, for it is an important word.

Look back in this book and see if you can find some words printed in Italics. When you find one, read the sentence it is in aloud, and speak the word which is in Italics very plain and distinct, and see if you do not understand the sentence better.

You must always read such words very distinctly in all books except the Bible. In the Bible, the words are put in Italics for a different reason, which I cannot explain to you now. Now I will go on with the story.

He at last got over this slippery part of the path, and then came to a place where it was very rocky. Trees and bushes hung over his head, and grew thick all around him, and he began to be afraid that he might meet some wild beast. Presently he looked through the bushes, and saw at a distance among the rocks, some large black thing, and he thought it was a bear. He was very much frightened, and began to scream out as loud as he could, Help, Help, Help.

Do you notice any thing remarkable in those three last words? Are they printed like the other words? Are they printed in Italics? How do they differ from common printing? Can you tell? Do you often see words printed so?

They are printed in Capitals. Capitals are letters shaped differently from other letters. They are generally larger than other letters, but not always. These words are printed in capitals, because they are very important indeed. The man cried, Help, Help, Help, very loud. So we print them in Capitals. If a word is very important, we generally print it in Italics, but if it is very important indeed we print it in Capitals. When you come to a word printed in Capitals, you must generally read it very plain and distinctly indeed. I should like to have you look back to the story of Jonas, and see how the words are printed where the boy said “Whoa.” Can you tell the reason why they are printed so? and can you read them right? But let us go on with the story.

At the same time that he shouted for help so loud, he grasped hold of a tree close by, and began to climb it, by the branches, to get out of the bear’s way. When he got up a little way, he could see over the bushes to the very place where the bear was; he looked there, and saw—what do you think it was?

You see a straight mark printed after “saw.” Do you see it? What do you suppose it is? It is what they call a dash. The reason why I put the dash there, is that I was going to tell you what the man saw, but I suddenly stopped, and asked you what you thought it was. When we suddenly stop in saying any thing, and begin to say something else, we put in a dash. So we use a dash in some other ways. You ought to stop a little when you come to a dash, thus; “He looked there and saw—what do you think it was?” Dashes are generally put in, when we want you to stop a little in your reading. Now for the story again.

He looked, and saw—what do you think it was? Why, it was nothing but an old, black log!!

Do you see two characters at the end of that sentence? They are notes of exclamation. When two of them are put together they mean that what comes before them is very extraordinary and surprising. Should you not think it was very extraordinary and surprising for a man to think he saw a bear, and be frightened and shout help, and climb up into a tree, and find, after all, that it was nothing but a great, black log? It is surprising, and when you read it, you must read it as if you thought it was very surprising, so; “What do you think it was? Why it was nothing but an old, black log!!” You can get your father or mother to show you how to read it, if you do not know.

It was nothing but an old, black log, lying against the rocks. The man felt ashamed. He clambered down, and went to look at the log which had frightened him so. It was as black as a coal.* The man laughed to think that he should have supposed that to be a bear.

Do you see after the word coal, in the last line but one, a little star? Do you know what that star is for? It is to make you look down to the bottom of the page, and there you will find something more about the black wood. When you come to any little star then, when you are reading, you must look down to the bottom of the page, and there you will find another little star, with something printed after it. That which is printed thus at the bottom of a page is called a note.

Other characters besides stars are made for notes. These are some of the characters, § ¶ † ‡. There are not many notes in this book. Perhaps you will find some by and by.

This is all that I have to tell you now about reading. But now I will put in the whole story about the man going up the mountain, and you may see if you can read it all right, and see too, if you remember all that I have explained.