him not a little. Beneath this picture the bugs appeared as:

A BOY AND A DOG

There they were, the three little bugs which always accompanied

the little ape.

And so he progressed very, very slowly, for it was a hard

and laborious task which he had set himself without knowing

it--a task which might seem to you or me impossible--learning

to read without having the slightest knowledge of letters or

written language, or the faintest idea that such things existed.

He did not accomplish it in a day, or in a week, or in a

month, or in a year; but slowly, very slowly, he learned after

he had grasped the possibilities which lay in those little bugs,

so that by the time he was fifteen he knew the various

combinations of letters which stood for every pictured figure

in the little primer and in one or two of the picture books.

Of the meaning and use of the articles and conjunctions, verbs

and adverbs and pronouns he had but the faintest conception.

One day when he was about twelve he found a number of

lead pencils in a hitherto undiscovered drawer beneath the

table, and in scratching upon the table top with one of them

he was delighted to discover the black line it left behind it.

He worked so assiduously with this new toy that the table

top was soon a mass of scrawly loops and irregular lines and

his pencil-point worn down to the wood. Then he took another

pencil, but this time he had a definite object in view.

He would attempt to reproduce some of the little bugs that

scrambled over the pages of his books.

It was a difficult task, for he held the pencil as one would

grasp the hilt of a dagger, which does not add greatly to ease

in writing or to the legibility of the results.

But he persevered for months, at such times as he was able

to come to the cabin, until at last by repeated experimenting

he found a position in which to hold the pencil that best