CHAPTER VI.

HOW WILLIE LEARNED TO READ BEFORE HE
KNEW HIS LETTERS.

HE next day his thoughts, having nothing

particular to engage them, kept brooding

over two things. These two things came together

all at once, and a resolution was the consequence.
I shall soon explain what I mean.

The one thing was, that. Hector had shown con-
siderable surprise when he found that Willie could
not read, Now Willie was not in the least ashamed
that he could not read: why should he be? It was
nowhere written in the catechism he had learnt
that it was his duty to be able to read; and if the .
catechism had merely forgotten to mention it, his
father and mother would have told him, Neither
was it a duty he ought to have known of himself—
for then he would have known it. So why should
he be ashamed?

People are often ashamed of what they need not
be ashamed of. Again, they are often not at all
ashamed of what they ought to be ashamed of, and