ROLLO LEARNING TO READ

BY ROBERT J. BURDETTE


When Rollo was five years young, his father said to him one evening:

"Rollo, put away your roller skates and bicycle, carry that rowing
machine out into the hall, and come to me. It is time for you to learn
to read."

Then Rollo's father opened the book which he had sent home on a truck
and talked to the little boy about it. It was Bancroft's History of the
United States, half complete in twenty-three volumes. Rollo's father
explained to Rollo and Mary his system of education, with special
reference to Rollo's learning to read. His plan was that Mary should
teach Rollo fifteen hours a day for ten years, and by that time Rollo
would be half through the beginning of the first volume, and would like
it very much indeed.

Rollo was delighted at the prospect. He cried aloud:

"Oh, papa! thank you very much. When I read this book clear through, all
the way to the end of the last volume, may I have another little book to
read?"

"No," replied his father, "that may not be; because you will never get
to the last volume of this one. For as fast as you read one volume, the