St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 1/First Reader
In the First Reader.
By Malcolm Douglas.
“And are the lessons hard?” she asked, While spreading jam on thickly.“Hard, mother? I should say they were!” He answered very quickly.
“We 've reading, writing, ’rithmetic, And spelling—that ’s another.The teacher said, ‘Add twelve and nine’— I almost had to, mother!”
“Almost!” his puzzled mother said, Half wondering if he knew it.“Yes, almost—for she asked me to; Only—I could n’t do it!”