His little face was tense in study, for he had partially
grasped, in a hazy, nebulous way, the rudiments of a thought
which was destined to prove the key and the solution to the
puzzling problem of the strange little bugs.
In his hands was a primer opened at a picture of a little
ape similar to himself, but covered, except for hands and
face, with strange, colored fur, for such he thought the jacket
and trousers to be. Beneath the picture were three little bugs--
BOY.
And now he had discovered in the text upon the page that
these three were repeated many times in the same sequence.
Another fact he learned--that there were comparatively
few individual bugs; but these were repeated many times,
occasionally alone, but more often in company with others.
Slowly he turned the pages, scanning the pictures and the
text for a repetition of the combination B-O-Y. Presently he
found it beneath a picture of another little ape and a strange
animal which went upon four legs like the jackal and resembled
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.
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