7. I observed, at dinner-time, that some of the persons at the table held out their tumblers to the servant, and said something which sounded to me like _O_. 8. I often heard this word; and every time it was spoken, _water_ was brought, or poured out, or something was done with _water_. 9. I then made up my mind that this word that I thought was O meant water; and I found out afterwards that I was right, except that I did not spell it right. 10. This I discovered by means of the Bible, from which the family used to read. 11. It was a very large one, with very large letters; and as I was very fond of hearing them read, and of looking over the book while some one was reading aloud, I noticed that whenever the reader came to the letters e, a, u, he called them O; and thus I found out that water, in their language, was called O, but was spelt e, a, u. 12. In the same manner, I found out the words, or names, which they gave to bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and lemons, and pine-apples. 13. And now, perhaps, you may be able to find out how the little Spanish girl, mentioned in the last lesson, learned the meaning of English words that she had never heard until she came to live in the family where nothing but English was spoken. 14. She was obliged to listen, when any one spoke, and watch to see what was wanted; and in the same manner in which I found out the meaning of O, and what to call bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and other fruits, she learned to call things by their English names. 15. But, in order to do this, she was obliged to listen very attentively, to try to remember every new name that she learned; and, by so doing, in less than a year she could talk almost as plainly as any one in the house. 16. It was very easy for her to learn the names of things, because she heard them spoken very often. Such words as _chair_, _table_, _water_, _sugar_, _cake_, _potato_, _pudding_, and other words which are the names of things she could see, she learned very quickly. 17. But such words as _come_ and _go_, or _run_ and _walk_, and the little words _to_ and _from_, and _over_ and _under_, or such words as _quickly_ and _slowly_, and many other words of the same kind, she could not learn so easily. 18. In the next lesson perhaps you will find out how she learned the meaning of these words. LESSON IX. _The same subject, continued._ [Illustration] 1. There was a small family living very near to your residence, my young friends who are reading this lesson, consisting of the father, the mother, and four young children. 2. The oldest was a boy of twelve years old, the next was a little girl of about eight, the third was another pretty little girl of six, and the youngest was an infant boy, only nine months old. 3. As you may well suppose, the baby, as he was called, was the delight, not only of the father and the mother, but also of his elder brother and his two sisters.