Cousin Lucy's Conversations

“Well,” said Lucy, “we will.”

“I mean to go now and see if there is a box,” said Royal; “it is just light enough.”

So Royal went off out of the room.

“Miss Anne,” said Lucy, “how much does a real boat cost?”

“I don’t know, exactly, how much,” said Miss Anne.

“I don’t suppose I should have money enough to buy a boat, even if we had a deep brook to sail it in,” added Lucy.

“I don’t know,” said Miss Anne; “how much money have you got?”

“I have not got but a little; it is a dollar, or else a half a dollar; or a sixpence; I don’t know exactly. Royal has got more than I.”

Miss Anne merely said, “Has he?” and then the conversation dropped. She had just taken her seat at her work table, and began to be busy.

“I wish I knew of some way that I could earn money,” said Lucy. “Do you know of any way, Miss Anne?”

“What did you say?” asked Miss Anne.

“Don’t you know of some way that I could earn money?”

“Why, I don’t know; earning money is rather hard work, as I’ve heard people say. I believe young ladies generally earn money by teaching.”

“Well,” said Lucy, “if I could only get any scholars.”

“Why, you must be your own scholar; teach yourself to read. Come, I think that will be an excellent plan.”

“Can I earn any money so?” said Lucy.

“Yes, I should think so. It would take you three months, at a school, to learn your letters, and three months is twelve weeks. Now, I suppose that your father would have to pay about sixpence a week for you to go to school, and that would make twelve sixpences; and I presume he would be willing to give you as much as eight of the sixpences, if you would learn to read yourself.”

“Why not all the twelve?” asked Lucy.

“Because you would not do quite all yourself. Somebody would have to answer your questions, and show you what the letters were, at first; so that you could not do it all yourself. I should think that perhaps you might earn eight out of the twelve sixpences. That would be one sixpence for every three letters.”

“Well,” said Lucy, “I mean to try.”

“If you think you would like to try,” said Miss Anne, “I’ll form a plan for you, so that you can begin to-morrow.”

Lucy said she should like to try, and accordingly Miss Anne reflected upon the subject that evening, endeavoring to contrive some plan by which Lucy might sit down by herself and study her letters, half an hour every day, until she had learned them all. She thought of a plan which she hoped might answer pretty well; and the next morning she made preparations for carrying it into execution.

First she got Lucy’s little table, and set it near one of the windows in her room; she also put her little chair before it. Then she got a large flat pin-cushion, and put upon the table.

“Why, Miss Anne!” said Lucy, who stood by looking at all these preparations, “what is the pin-cushion for? I never heard of studying with a pin-cushion.”

“You’ll see,” said Miss Anne. “I am going to have you learn to read on the pin-cushion method.”

Then Miss Anne opened an ebony box, which she had upon her table, and took out a very large pin, and also a stick of red sealing-wax. She carried these into the kitchen, Lucy following her; then she lighted a lamp, and melted some of the sealing-wax, and stuck it upon the head of the pin, turning it round and round, and then warming it, and pressing it with her fingers, until at last she had made a little ball of sealing-wax, about as big as a pea, which covered and concealed the original head of the pin.

“There,” said Miss Anne, “that is your pointer.”

“Let me take it, Miss Anne,” said Lucy. “I want to take it.”

Miss Anne handed the pointer to Lucy, and she looked at it carefully, as she walked slowly along back into Miss Anne’s room. When she got there, Miss Anne took it, and stuck it into the pin-cushion, and requested Lucy not to touch it.

Then she went and found some of the scattered leaves of an old picture-book, which had once been Royal’s, but was now nearly worn out and almost destroyed. She took one of these leaves, and spread it out upon the pin-cushion. Then she seated Lucy before it, and put the pointer in her hands.

“Now, Lucy,” said she, “what letter do you know?”

“I know o the best,” said Lucy.

Then Miss Anne pointed to the upper line, and in the third word there was an o.

“There,” said she – “prick it with your pointer.”

Lucy pricked through the o with great force, so as to sink the pin for half its length into the pin-cushion.

“That will do,” said Miss Anne. “Now look along until you find another o.”

Lucy found one about the middle of the line.

“Now,” said Miss Anne, “prick him too, – only do it gently, so as just to put the point in a little way; and when you are doing it, say, o.”

Lucy did so. She pressed the point of the pin through the letter, and at the instant that it went through, she said, o.

“Now,” said Miss Anne, “the plan is for you to go on in that way. Look all through that line, and prick every o you can find. Then take the next line, and the next, and so on regularly through the whole, and prick every o. After you have done, put the pointer into the pin-cushion, and the pin-cushion into your drawer. Then set your chair back, and bring the paper to me.”

Lucy was very ready to go on with this work. In fact, while Miss Anne was speaking, she had found another o, and was just going to prick; but Miss Anne stopped her, and told her that it was not rulable to begin to obey her orders until she had finished giving them.

At last, Miss Anne went out of the room, and left Lucy at her work. Lucy pricked away, very industriously, for nearly half an hour. She had then got almost to the bottom of the page. There she found a capital o, thus, O, at the beginning of a sentence; and she did not know whether she ought to prick such a one as that or not. While she was considering, she heard Royal’s voice in the entry way, calling her.

Lucy answered, in a loud voice,

“Here I am, Royal, – here, in Miss Anne’s room.”

Royal advanced to the door of Miss Anne’s room, and looked in. He had his cap on, and seemed to be in haste.

“Come, Lucy,” said he, “let’s go and make our boat.”

“Well,” said Lucy, “just wait till I have pricked two more lines.”

“Pricked,” said Royal, – “what do you mean by pricking?”

Royal came up to the little table where Lucy was at work, and looked over her shoulder, while she explained to him what she was doing.

“I am going to find every o there is on this page, and prick them all. I have pricked down to here already, and now I have got only two lines more to prick, and then I shall come out.”