told Lucy what his mother had said, and they concluded to read until the
rain should cease, and that then Rollo should go out into the garden.

They began to read; but their minds were so much upon the pea-pod boats,
that the story did not interest them very much. Besides, children cannot
read very well aloud, to one another; for if they succeed in calling all
the words right, they do not generally give the stops and the emphasis,
and the proper tones of voice, so as to make the story interesting to
those that hear. Some boys and girls are vain enough to think that they
can read very well, just because they can call all the words without
stopping to spell them; but this is very far from being enough to make a
good reader.

Rollo read a little way, and then Lucy read a little way; but they were
not much interested, and thinking that the difficulty might be in the
book, they got another, but with no better success. At last Rollo said
they would go and get their mother to read to them. So they went
together to her room, and Rollo said that they could not get along very
well in rending themselves, and asked her if she would not be good
enough to read to them.

"Why, what is the difficulty?" said she.

"O, I do not know, exactly: the story is not very interesting, and then
we cannot read very well."

"In what respect will it be better for me to read to you?" she asked.

"Why, mother, you can choose us a prettier story; and then we should
understand it better if you read it."