Besides, he had a good knowledge of words, and could use them well in
talk, although he could not read; and it is a great thing if a child can
talk well before he begins to learn to read.

He opened the little book at the Busy Bee, and knowing already enough to
be able to divide the words the one from the other, he said to himself--

"The first word must be _How_. There it is, with a gap between it
and the next word. I will look and see if I can find another _How_
anywhere."

He looked a long time before he found one; for the capital H was in the
way. Of course there were a good many _how's_, but not many with a big
H, and he didn't know that the little _h_ was just as good for the mere
word. Then he looked for _doth_, and he found several _doth's_.
Of _the's_ he found as great a swarm as if they had been the bees
themselves with which the little song was concerned. _Busy_ was scarce;
I am not sure whether he found it at all; but he looked at it until he
was pretty sure he should know it again when he saw it. After he had
gone over in this way every word of the first verse, he tried himself,
by putting his finger at random here and there upon it, and seeing
whether he could tell the word it happened to touch. Sometimes he could,
and sometimes he couldn't. However, as I said, before the day was over,
he knew at least a dozen words perfectly well at sight.

Nor let any one think this was other than a great step in the direction
of reading. It would be easy for Willie afterwards to break up these
words into letters.

It took him two days more--for during part of each he was learning to