"
I wish that I could look over your shoulder as you are reading, and ask you
whether there is anything you want to have explained. Ah, well! I cannot,
and, perhaps, if I could I should not explain to you nearly so well as
father or mother would. Only be sure you ask questions, if there is
anything you do not understand, that you may have it made plain to you.
I once told my children about a little girl I knew, who very much wanted to
know things, but sometimes she went on ever so long without knowing, just
because she was too proud to ask; she could not bear for people to find
out that she did not know all that she thought a child of her age ought
to know. But children of any age cannot know things without being taught,
and so it came to pass that this child grew to be quite a big girl without
knowing how to tell the time. Once, when her mother said, "Run and tell
me what o'clock it is," Lucy ran off as quickly as if she knew all about
it, and then she stood at the foot of the stairs and looked at the clock,
and wondered why one hand was still and the other moved, and how grown-up
people knew what time it was by just looking at their watches for half a
minute. Before she had found out any of these puzzling things, all at once
Lucy heard her mother's voice calling, "Lucy, Lucy," and she ran back to
her in a great hurry.
When asked why she had been so long, this poor, proud child made some
excuse.
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