sue a different method from her
mother. She was to learn the letters of the alphabet in regular order,
taking the first two, _a_ and _b_, for her first lesson.
Mary Bell made copies of those two letters for her, with the chalk,
upon the top of the board. She made these letters in the form of
printed and not written characters, because the object was to teach
Bella to read printed books.

"Now," said Mary Erskine to Bella, "you must study _a_ and
_b_ for half an hour. I shall tell you when I think the half hour
is out. If you get tired of sitting at your desk, you may take your
board and your chalk out to the door and sit upon the step. You must
spend all the time in making the letters on the board, and you may say
_a_ and _b_ while you are making the letters, but besides
that you must not speak a word. For every time that you speak, except
to say _a_ and _b_, after I tell you to begin, you will have
to pick up a basket of chips."

Picking up baskets of chips was the common punishment that Bella was
subjected to for her childish misdemeanors. There was a bin in the
stoop, where she used to put them, and a small basket hanging up by
the side of it. The chip-yard was behind the house, and there was
always an abundant supply of chips in it, from Albert's cutting. The
basket, it is true, was quite small, and to fill it once with chips,
was but a slight punishment; but slight punishments are always
sufficient for sustaining any just and equitable government, provided
they are certain to follow transgression, and are strictly and
faithfully enforced. Bella was a very obedient and submissive child,
though she had scarcely ever been subjected to any heavier punishment
than picking up chips.

"Shall I begin now?" said Bella.

"No," replied her mother, "wait, if you like, till Mary Bell has taken
her lesson."

"I don't see how I am going to draw," said Mary Bell, "without any
pencil."

"You will have to draw with the pen," said Mary Erskine. "I am very
sorry that I have not got any pencil for you."

So saying, Mary Erskine took up the picture-book, and began turning
over the leaves, to find, as she said, the picture of a house. She
should think, she said, that the picture of a house would be a good
thing to begin with.

She found a view of a house in the third picture in the book. There
was a great deal in the picture besides the house, but Mary Erskine
said that the house alone should be the lesson. There was a pond n