“I SHALL never know this long lesson,” said George Nelson. “I wish there were no such book, then I wouldn’t have to get lessons from it.”
“What is the matter, George?” asked his grandma, who then entered the room.
“Oh, this lesson!” said George. “I’m sure I can’t learn it. Just look! Both of these long columns, and I don’t know one word!”
“Well, never mind that; you will soon know every word, if you only keep patiently at it. And then, only think how much more you will know! I wonder if my white pigeon wouldn’t help you.”
“Your pigeon, grandma! I didn’t know you had any pigeons.”
“I haven’t now; but when I was a little girl, my brother had a pair of beautiful pigeons given him. One was white, the other black. He told me I might call the white one mine. They were both very tame, and would eat corn from our hands. What pleased us most was, that they seemed to know us both; for my brother’s pigeon would go and take the corn out of his hand, while mine always came to me. Well, I was going to tell you how mine helped me to get my lesson.”
“Did it really help you, grandma?”
“Yes; and it will help you just as it did me.”
“I’m sure I wish it would,” said George.
His grandma smiled and continued:
“One morning, I was sitting near the window trying to get my spelling lesson. It seemed so hard, that I was sure I could not learn it. I sat there a long time, wishing I knew it, so that I could run out and play. The sun was shining bright, and it looked so pleasant out of doors.”
“All at once, I saw my pigeon fly up to its house, and then in a short time, it flew down again to the street. I watched to see what it was doing. It picked up a piece of straw, and flew up as it had done before, and then returned to get another. It did so for a long time.”
“It was building its nest; wasn’t it, grandma?” asked George.
“Just so; it would fly up with a piece of straw, sometimes with quite long pieces, and when it would get about half way up to the window, the straw would drop down, and then it would go right down after it and pick it up again. I saw it get one piece up three times, and the third time, it reached the window safely.”
“Just then, my eyes fell on my book. I thought how much my pigeon had done, while I had been doing nothing; and yet it had only took one straw at a time. My lesson did not seem so long now. I very soon knew the whole of it.”
“My lesson looks easier already, grandma. I shall only have to learn one word at a time, and I’ll soon know all of them.”
George set to work in good earnest, and in a short time he had learned it perfectly.
“Now, George,” said his grandma afterwards, “do you think you will remember the pigeon?”
“Oh, I’m sure I shall,” said George, laughing. “And when I come to the longest words, I’ll do as the pigeon did when the straw fell, I’ll go at them again!”
