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1. Many years ago, when I lived in a small town, near the Merrimac
river, a little Spanish girl came to board in the same house.

2. She could speak very well in her own language; but the people in her
country speak a language very different from ours: and when she first
began to speak, she heard nothing but Spanish words; and she learned no
other.

3. She could not speak a word of English, and did not understand a word
that was spoken to her by any of the family.

4. Her parents were very rich, but they placed her in the family, that
she might learn to speak English.

5. She had no dictionary to turn to, to look out the meaning of words;
and if she was hungry, she could not ask for bread, and if she was
thirsty, she could not ask for water, nor milk, nor tea, for she did not
know the meaning of either of the words, _water_, _tea_, nor _milk_.

6. Perhaps you would be puzzled to tell how she could learn to speak
English, if she had no one to teach her, and had no dictionary to inform
her about the words.

7. But it was not many days before she could say "_bread_," if she was
hungry, and "_water_," if she wanted to drink; and I was very much
surprised to find how soon it was, at the dinner-table, she could ask
for meat, or potato, or pudding; and, at tea-time, for tea, or milk, or
sugar, or butter, or bread.