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 THE 
 
 ANTI-SPELLING BOOK; 
 
 A NEW SYSTEM 
 
 OF 
 
 TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ 
 WITHOUT SPELLING. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 AUDRfclSSED TO PARE^'TS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 BULL AND CHURTON, 26, HOLLES-STREET. 
 
 1833.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
 
 NOTICE, 
 
 As there is always a little difficulty in ac- 
 customing the ear to the substitution of one 
 sound for another, some of the readers of the 
 Anti-Spelling Book may possibly mis- 
 conceive, at first, the sounds assigned to the 
 letters in the alphabet for teachers, page 25. 
 The Author is induced to state this, because 
 the very circumstance occurred to one of 
 the numerous friends to whom he submitted 
 his manuscript before publication ; though, 
 the moment th-is friend had heard the 
 sound of the first consonant, he pronounced 
 every other letter correctly. What has hap- 
 pened once, may happen again. Besides, a 
 new system resembles a new piece of ma- 
 chinery : the motion of the wheels is at 
 first stiff; but when the surfaces of the 
 
 g ..'^■■. .r' o *^' 

 
 IV 
 
 cogs are worn down by use, the whole runs 
 smoothly and effectively. Any person, there- 
 fore, entertaining the least doubt as to the 
 sounds designated by the Author, may, on 
 application at the Publishers', hear the se- 
 veral letters pronounced, and receive such 
 further explanation, should any be required, 
 as will in a very few minutes remove every 
 misconception.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 TO iMOTHERS AND GOVERNESSES. 
 
 Ladies, 
 
 1. The early tuition of children being in- 
 trusted chiefly to your care, I beg to submit 
 The Anti-Spelling Book to your particular 
 attention. Its object is to put an end to that 
 method of teaching children to read, which 
 has hitherto prevailed, and to substitute for it 
 a totally opposite system, founded on common 
 sense. 
 
 The system which I propose to you is so plain 
 and simple, that its superiority over the old one 
 cannot fail immediately to strike everybody. 
 But let me first call your attention to a few- 
 facts. 
 
 2. When you begin to teach a child to read, 
 you make him spell every word, that is to say, 
 name every letter in each word. But why ? 
 *' We do it," you say, " because a child would 
 never learn anything if not taught in that 
 way." 
 
 You think, then, that if a chid meets with the
 
 2 THE ANTI-SPKLLING BOOK. 
 
 words haU cat^ hut, urns, lad, he is sure to 
 discover the real sound of each, provided he 
 previously says aitch a tee, see a tee, bee u tee, 
 u ar en ess, ell a dee. You think that the simple 
 syllable or sound hat, is the faithful echo of the 
 three syllables aitch a tee; that see a tee conveys 
 to your ear the sound cat; that bee u tee, 
 ell a dee, very naturally mean but, lad; and that 
 you are en ess is but a shorter and plainer way 
 of saying iirns. 
 
 Very well. But, if I grant you that a child 
 could not say or remember the sounds hat, cat, 
 but, lad, urns, had he not previously uttered the 
 sounds aitchatee, seeatee, beeutee, elladee, youar- 
 eness, I must blame you very much for your 
 negligence and inconsistency towards your 
 children, when they first begin to talk. How 
 culpable must you be in speaking to, or con- 
 versing with them, without spelling ! If a child 
 seven years old cannot say or remember get, 
 though he sees the word with his own eyes, 
 unless he has previously said^ee e tee, how can 
 you expect that a child two years old, not 
 having the word before its eyes, will be able to 
 say or remember it ? 
 
 I hope. Ladies, you will, in future, discharge 
 your duty more carefully ; that you will never 
 speak, nor allow a child to speak, without pre- 
 viously spelling every word ; and that you will 
 converse in the following manner : — 
 
 The Mother : —em ivy my, dee e a ar dear,
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 3 
 
 see aitch i ell dee child, dee o do, en o tee not, 
 double u double ee jjee weep. 
 
 The Child; — tee aitch ee the, en a you jee 
 aitch naugh, tee icy ty, naughty, see a tee cat, 
 aitch a ess has (haz), ess see ar a tee see aitch ee 
 dee scratched, em ivy my, en o ess ee nose (noze). 
 
 3. Now, Ladies, how do you Hke this expedi- 
 tious method of teaching children to speak ? 
 It is the very same you follow in teaching them 
 to read. 
 
 Were I to tell you that there is a mother 
 who, anxious to see more harmony in the vene- 
 rable institutions left us by our wise forefathers, 
 makes use of your spelling system to teach her 
 child to speak, would you believe me ? No, in- 
 deed. You would tell me, that nature never 
 produced such a sample of folly ; and that the 
 most stupid of mothers would be sensible that 
 by training, in this way, a child eighteen months 
 or two years old, she would soon stultify and 
 make him almost an idiot. 
 
 4. It is certainly a justice we owe to teachers 
 to say, that they are a little more rational than 
 the mother alluded to. She, by beginning so 
 early to torture the brains of her child, destroys 
 its mind ; but teachers delay carrying on the 
 same operation until the child is strong enough 
 to bear it. Besides, as soon as the little scholar 
 has done spelling with you, he is allowed to 
 return to nature ; he therefore soon forgets your 
 unknown tongue, and recovers the right use of his
 
 4 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 senses, which you had perverted. Thus, if you 
 were to bind a young and weak shrub, and keep 
 its head down for a length of time, you would 
 surely pervert its nature and render it a crooked, 
 creeping thing. Such, however, would not be 
 the case with a fine and vigorous shrub, pro- 
 vided you bound and kept its head down only 
 for a short time ; because the moment you set 
 it free, it would, by resuming the natural 
 direction of its growth, recover its strength 
 and beauty. 
 
 5. It may be said by the most sapient among 
 the teachers of youth : " Children succeed in 
 learning to read with the spelling system; — a 
 proof that it works well." 
 
 But I positively deny that they succeed by 
 means of the spelling system. I say, on the 
 contrary, that they succeed in spite of that 
 system. If you met a man with his feet chain- 
 ed, and he told you that he had walked five 
 miles with his fetters on, you would, according 
 to your own line of argument, immediately con- 
 clude that his having walked five miles was 
 entirely owin^- to his being chained, and ex- 
 claim, " The system of shackling a man's feet 
 works as well as tlie spelling system, therefore 
 let us load the legs of our children with fetters, 
 or put them into the boots and great-coats of 
 their great-grandfathers, and they will surely 
 run the faster." But, take the fetters from this 
 man, and without them he will walk twenty
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 5 
 
 miles In the same space of time that he took 
 to walk five with them. For the same reason, 
 do not imprison the legs of your children in the 
 boots of their great-grandfathers. 
 
 Now I as positively deny the necessity of a 
 child's naming every letter in each word in 
 order to read it properly, as I deny the necessity 
 of his giving the description of an animal as the 
 only means of telling its name. 
 
 6. Suppose you saw a father pointing out a 
 cat to his son, and making the child repeat 
 after him — 
 
 "A little, nimble, domestic animal, half afoot 
 high, with four legs, two ears, a fine tail, when 
 not cut off, mustachios longer than those of any 
 royal duke ; killing, when not too well fed, rats 
 and mice ; quarrelling with dogs, as Whigs do 
 with Tories ; sometimes playful and innocent as 
 a country girl ; at others, grave as a parson and 
 consequential as a stock-exchange politician ; 
 always candid as a lawyer ; and honest and 
 upright as a member of a select vestry — cat'' 
 
 You would approach such a man, and say to 
 him : " My good sir, leave off your prosing ; it 
 tends only to confuse your child. Pronounce at 
 once the word cat: for his ear having been suc- 
 cessively struck with the sounds Tory, Wliig, 
 parson, laiuyer, stock-exchange politician, and 
 member of a select vestry, it would not be extra- 
 ordinary, if, on your again asking him the name 
 of the little animal, he were to answer, a Whig, 
 B 3
 
 b THE ANTI-SPELLI>iG BOOK. 
 
 a lawyer, or any other term you might have 
 uttered ; — a blunder he would certainly not have 
 committed, had he heard only the word cat. 
 
 7. " The spelling system," a Blue-stocking 
 will say, " may be liable to many objections, 
 but we cannot do without it. Were my boy and 
 girl not compelled to spell every word before 
 they pronounced it, how would they learn ortho- 
 graphy ? How could they correctly write even 
 a single sentence ?" Very true I Madam. I 
 admire your foresight vastly ; I had forgotten 
 that your boy and girl were to write sentences 
 at five or six years of age, and even before 
 they could possibly know how to form pothooks 
 or hangers. But, how is it. Madam, that you, 
 who are so wise, have not thought of first teach- 
 ing your children geometry ? — because their 
 power of drawing geometrical lines well, would 
 no doubt assist them in writing pothooks and 
 hangers. 
 
 8. I appeal to your good sense, to your kindly 
 feelings, and ask you, whether it is right to torture 
 a child five or six years old, by making him learn 
 to spell words which he v* ill be unable to write 
 until he is seven or eight ? Are you sure that 
 he will ever reach that age ? — and if he do not, 
 what remorse would you not feel at having 
 embittered, to no purpose, the short days of a 
 sweet and innocent being ? 
 
 The proper time for a child to learn spelling 
 is, when he is learning to write. These two 
 things ought not to be separated.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING ROOK. 7 
 
 Do you know, Ladies, the sad consequences 
 of that tbohsh practice of never doing a thing 
 at the proper time, and of doing it in spite of 
 common sense ? Children toil very hard, are 
 made very miserable, and learn scarcely any- 
 thing ; and the right use of their senses is so 
 much perverted by education, that they often 
 continue through life victims to the grossest 
 delusions. 
 
 Let us not wonder that children, trained in a 
 system of tolly and falsehood, afterwards form 
 so deplorable a race of men. Let us not wonder 
 that so many of them believe they will be belter 
 lodged, fed, and clothed, provided they succeed 
 in burning the houses, the corn, and the goods 
 of their neighbours ; that some speak an un- 
 known tongue, in order to be more clearly un- 
 derstood ; and that others cannot feel comfort- 
 able in their carriages, unless ^*hey bespatter 
 the ragged, starving wretches who drag their 
 weary limbs along the pavement. 
 
 9. Had you a complete alphabet, and were 
 you to name each letter by the sound it has in 
 words, I should have no objection to your 
 making children spell ; as the naming of letters 
 would necessarily lead to the right pronuncia- 
 tion of words. But such cannot be the case 
 in the English language, because, not only is the 
 alphabet very defective, but nicknames are 
 given to almost all the letters. 
 
 10. You have been taught that the English 
 alphabet contains twenty-six letters ; that five
 
 8 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 of them, a, e, i, o, it, are vowels, and the re- 
 maining twenty-one, consonants ; that of these 
 twenty-one, w and ?/ are consonants when they 
 begin a word, and votvels when they end it, as 
 Jacques, in the play of Moliere, is a steward in the 
 morning, and a cook in the evening ; or, to speak 
 more classically, as the lady, who was a goddess 
 in heaven, was a she-devil in the other place. 
 But are iv and y really consonants when they 
 begin a word? I humbly contend that the 
 double capacity attributed to these letters, is 
 one of those fallacies which are handed down 
 from generation to generation, and taken for 
 granted without due examination. With sub- 
 mission therefore to wiser heads than mine, I 
 cannot but consider w and y vowels in every 
 case. W, at the beginning of a word, has the 
 sound of 00 in too ; and ?/, in the same situation, 
 that of i in pin. Both, I grant, are silent 
 in some words : — but does it hence follow that 
 they are consonants? If so, the same rule will 
 apply to every other silent vowel ; though I very 
 much doubt that you would venture, for in- 
 stance, to term the a in tea a consonant. 
 
 Let us now examine whether the twenty-six 
 letters are sufficient for the English language. 
 
 11. A letter is a figure representing a sound. 
 If the sound be pure and self-existent, the letter 
 is called a vowel; but if the sound be obtained 
 only with the help of the e mute, or any other 
 vowel, the letter is called a consonant. Such 
 being the case, the language which has a
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 9 
 
 greater variety of sounds, has, or ought to have, 
 a greater number of letters or signs. 
 
 12. Now, if you were asked how many dif- 
 ferent sounds you have in English, you would 
 perhaps answer twenty-six, as a consequence of 
 your twenty-six letters. But your reply would 
 be wrong, since your alphabet gives but twenty- 
 three different sounds. " How is that ?" you 
 naturally say. The explanation is easy. You 
 have three useless letters — h, q, y : — k and g 
 having the same sound as c, and ?/ the same as i. 
 
 But is it really true that you have only twen- 
 ty-three different sounds ? You have at least 
 thirty five, and even thirty-eight, as you will 
 perceive by-and-by. Therefore you ought to 
 have thirty-five or thirty-eight different figures 
 or letters. So much for the wisdom of our 
 forefathers. 
 
 10. Of these thirty-five or thirty-eight sounds, 
 twenty are represented by consonants, which 
 are, 6, <?, d, f, g, h, j, /, w, w, p, r, s, t, v, z, 
 ch, sk, fh\ tK-. But, as you have only sixteen 
 original signs, you are obliged to join two figures 
 together, to divest them of their primitive or 
 genuine sound, in order that they may assume a 
 new and different one, — which new sound would 
 be indeed better represented by a single figure 
 or letter ; for it is not necessary for me to tell 
 you, that the sounds the, she, are as simple as 
 the sounds be, me, and that the ch in chat is as 
 simple as the c in cat. 
 
 14. Nevertheless, though you divest each of
 
 10 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 these two combined letters, of its original sound 
 or name, in order to consider them as a single 
 one producing a new and different sound, you 
 are, in consequence of your ill-judged method 
 of spelling, so inconsistent as to compel a child 
 to call these two very letters by names or sounds 
 which no longer belong to them. So much 
 for the wisdom of your own teachers, and of 
 such of their pupils as imitate them. 
 
 15. Again, in the word pleasure, the s has a 
 sound which is not represented by any English 
 letter, for it assumes that of the French j; 
 thus, the last syllable oi' jjleasure has the same 
 sound as the last syllable of the French word 
 7)ia-jeu7\ So much again for your wisdom in 
 making a child utter the sound ess to obtain the 
 French sound ^e. 
 
 16. If it were admitted that the sound of « in 
 ape is pretty nearly the same as that of e in 
 bed, the sound of e in me as that of i in give, 
 the sound of o in move as that of u in bull, you 
 would have fifteen sounds represented by vowels; 
 but if it be pretended that those sounds, which 
 I have supposed alike, are not so, you have 
 then eighteen sounds given by seven signs, viz. 
 
 Four . . by . . a Three . . by . . u 
 
 Three . . by . . e One . . by . . w 
 
 Two . . by . . i One . . by . . ou 
 
 Four . . by . . o 
 
 17. There is but little harm in representing 
 a sound by two consonants, provided you do not
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLTNG BOOK. 11 
 
 make a child, in spelling, call each of them hy its 
 old nickname, and you take care to tell him that 
 these two consonants or figures are. in such case, 
 to be considered but a single one; having been 
 employed by our ingenious ancestors and their 
 worthy posterity, only because they had not been 
 able to invent a single figure which could answer 
 the same purpose. 
 
 But there is great evil in having only five 
 vowels or signs to represent sixteen sounds — in 
 having, for instance, a single a to represent four 
 different as or sounds. Such poverty of signs 
 is a great defect, for which the useless letters 
 ^, q, yy, make but poor amends. 
 
 To supply such deficiency, I have been obliged 
 to distinguish, by a peculiar sign, the different 
 sounds of the same vowel. 
 
 18. I have said that letters in the English 
 alphabet are almost all called by nicknames, or 
 distinguished by sounds different from those 
 they have in words. I will take c and g as 
 instances. 
 
 Do you not give to the consonant c the name 
 of see^ which is the natural sound of 5, as heard 
 in the first syllable of secret^ whilst the natural 
 sound of that consonant is the same as that ob- 
 tained by A, or 9' ? and is not such false appel- 
 lation a nickname ? 
 
 Do you not call by the name of jee — a sound 
 peculiar to^, as heard \n jeer, jilt, jet — the conso- 
 nant g, the real sound of which is that heard in 
 go, got, get 9 Is there a more glaring falsehood
 
 12 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 than that which teaches children, in spite of 
 their ears, ihsitjee o tee makes got, whilst the 
 selfsame ^"ee o tee may, by cutting off all the e's, 
 be reduced, if you like, iojot? 
 
 Is there any thing better calculated to make 
 children speak without minding what they say, 
 than to tell them ihatjee e tee, which, by being 
 reduced to a single sound, might perhaps make 
 Jet, is however get ? 
 
 19. I will say no more about the spelling 
 system, convinced, as I am, that you must now 
 be sensible of its stultifying influence. And as 
 that absurd and mischievous practice was the 
 fruit, not of your own invention, but of the col- 
 lective wisdom of the enlightened lords of the 
 creation, you have no personal interest in up- 
 holding it ; on the contrary, its overthrow, if 
 effected by you, would secure you the respect- 
 ful love, high admiration, and sincere gratitude 
 of future generations. 
 
 20. I have now, ladies, to explain to you my 
 own plan ; but before I do so, allow me to re- 
 quest that you will entirely divest yourselves 
 of all prejudice, of every fallacious notion you 
 may have imbibed, even though it should have 
 descended to you from antediluvian wisdom. 
 May I also beg that, in the perusal of this 
 address, you will have no other guide than your 
 reason ; that you will believe only in the evi- 
 dence of your own senses, and examine ^M^xy 
 thing by yourselves. Above all, be not, I be-
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 13 
 
 seech you, afraid to proclaim opinions different 
 from those which, until now, have been enten- 
 tained by your sapient guides, in matters of 
 education ; because, if you pursue this course, 
 you are sure to be right. Were it not so, it 
 would have been to no purpose that God had 
 gifted you with that high spirit of wisdom, which 
 your slanderers call contradiction. Let men 
 become wise and deserving, and they will find 
 amiable supporters in you ; as I trust I shall do, 
 and that you will continue to honour me with a 
 favourable hearing. 
 
 21. It is now, ladies, well understood that you 
 will not make the children spell or name the 
 letters of a word before they utter it. And, in 
 fact, why should you persist in following a course 
 so contrary to nature and common sense ? 
 
 22. You know that we make use of speech to 
 convey, to the minds of other people, the idea of 
 any thing which we are desirous of communi- 
 cating; and that the sound cat^ for instance, 
 when it strikes our ears, produces the same ef- 
 fect on our mind as if our eyes had actually be- 
 held the little creature known by this name. 
 But as we cannot always be in the company of 
 those persons to whom we are anxious to com- 
 municate our thoughts or sensations, wTitten 
 words have been adopted as a medium of inter- 
 course between us and our absent friends. 
 
 23. Now, each written word, taken as a whole, 
 is, in some measure, the likeness of the thing 
 
 c
 
 14 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 it represents. This proposition, strange as it 
 may appear at first, is nevertheless so true that 
 as I have ah'eady observed, the word cat placed 
 before our eyes, depicts to our fancy the animal 
 it names. 
 
 But how can a written word represent a thing 
 or tell its name, if you divide that word into 
 three of four parts ? What likeness can you find 
 between the sound see and the word cat'^ 
 What likeness do you find between eith-sr a or 
 tee and cat 9 
 
 The Axti-Spelling Book consists of two 
 parts. We begin with the first. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 24. No. 1, or the first lesson, contains the 
 twenty-six letters of the alphabet. The best 
 mode of teaching children their alphabet, is to 
 begin with two or three letters only, to which 
 you successively add one or two more, and begin 
 the whole again. By this method the child adds 
 to his stock of knowledge, and forgets nothing of 
 what he knew before. 
 
 :25. It appears rather extraordinary that a 
 child, who, in an hour, could learn the names of 
 twenty-six soldiers, and afterwards call each of 
 them by his right name, should require many 
 days to learn the twenty-six letters of the alpha- 
 bet. Such, however, is the case ; and the rea-
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 15 
 
 son is, that there is nothing attractive to chil- 
 dren in the shapes of the letters. 
 
 It has been thought that the attention of 
 children to their letters might be kept up by 
 means of wood-cuts. I question very much the 
 success of such a method, because the little 
 learners are always much more inclined to look 
 at the pictures than at the letters. As children, 
 in general, are fond of drawing lines, give them 
 a pencil, and let them imitate, as well as they 
 can, the shape of each letter. For this purpose, 
 a board containing the alphabet will be given 
 with the Anti-Spelling Book ; and the young 
 scholars may, at their ease, and without spoiling 
 their book, put that alphabet upon the table, then 
 place a sheet of thin paper over it, and thus 
 draw the letters. Be assured that this is the 
 best method of impressing a distinct recollection 
 of each letter on the minds of cliildren. 
 
 26. Take care you do not harass the pupil. A 
 lesson often minutes is perhaps too much at first. 
 
 27. When a child has got over the tedious 
 task of learning his letters, he must begin to 
 read, which he will do in No. 2. In that lesson 
 he becomes acquainted with the compound 
 consonant M, and the e mute, printed in an 
 italic character, to distinguish it from the e 
 which is sounded as in me. If this e mute, 
 without which I could not do, be excepted, 
 you will see that I give only words in which 
 the vowels have their primitive sound ; the only
 
 16 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 one, in fact, with which the child is jet ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 28. You must read first, and make the child 
 read after you ; and if the word consists of many 
 syllables, read it syllable by syllable. 
 
 29. From No. 2 to No. 13, the child becomes^ 
 progressively acquainted with all the different 
 sounds given by the vowels ; and as I have 
 marked each sound by a distinctive sign, it 
 will be easy for him to distinguish one from the 
 other. 
 
 30. From No. 13 to No. 18, the child pro- 
 gressively learns the compound consonants c/c, 
 sli, and the consonants which have two different 
 sounds. 
 
 31. In No. 18, I alter my plan, and begin by 
 omitting progressively the signs which have 
 been used to distinguish the different sounds of 
 the same vowel. The teacher is directed to 
 give the pupil, at each lesson, a very clear 
 explanation, by which he will be able to dis- 
 tinguish, without any mark, the different sounds 
 of the same vowel. 
 
 32. You will see that as far as No. 24, I 
 have not given a single word in which an arbi- 
 trary combination of vowels or consonants is 
 found ; and that, except in No. 2, I have endea- 
 voured to give, not unconnected words, but 
 short and very easy sentences. I have done so, 
 because it is well known that the same indivi- 
 dual, who will require an hour to learn a certain
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. . 17 
 
 number of unconnected words, would learn them 
 in five minutes, if they were given to him ar- 
 ranged so as to form one or more sentences, 
 convejang a clear meaning, plain ideas, or an 
 interesting fact. 
 
 33. You now perceive the great difference 
 between my plan and the old one. In every 
 spelling-book there are from ten to twenty or 
 thirty pages of unconnected words, heaped to- 
 gether without choice or design, so that the 
 most arbitrary and difficult combinations of let- 
 ters are found in the very first pages, and a 
 formidable array of words the meaning of which 
 a child cannot possibly understand. 
 
 34. In Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, I pro- 
 gressively introduce the words most in use, in 
 which there is an arbitrary combination of 
 letters, such as yes, you, who, could, might, 
 would, &c. 
 
 35. Such is the first part of the Anti-Spell- 
 ing Book ; and I think that, on close examina- 
 tion, it will be found that I have proceeded on a 
 plan by far more simple, easy, and rational than 
 that which has been hitherto adopted. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 36. Letters which are not sounded, are print- 
 ed in italics, as in ha/f, vaght, loved. 
 
 37. In combined vowels, as ea, ei, ie, (ic. the 
 
 c 3
 
 18 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 vowel which is not sounded, is also printed in 
 italics, and then the other is sure of its pri- 
 mitive sound, as in great, sea, died, beheve, 
 which are pronounced as if spelt ffrate, see, dide, 
 beleve. 
 
 38. The sign (') is placed over the com- 
 bined vowels ea and ey, to give them the sound 
 of the e, which is heard in bed, as in he' ad, 
 valle'y, pronounced Md, valle. 
 
 39. The sign (') is placed over the com- 
 bined vowels au, aw, ou, to give them the sound 
 of the a in all, as in skw, tkuffht, thought, which 
 are pronounced as if spelt sd, tat, that. 
 
 40. The sign (") is used on the combined 
 vowel ou to give it the sound of the u in but, as 
 in young, pronounced yung. 
 
 41. In many instances, I have placed at the 
 bottom of the page, the pronunciation of words 
 which consist of an arbitrary combination of 
 letters, as enough, e-nuf. 
 
 4'2. When the same combination of letters 
 occurs in the same lesson, I do not repeat the 
 sign ; it is the business of the teacher to refer 
 the child to the sign already given. 
 
 43. At the end of each chapter I have writ- 
 ten a dialogue, for the purpose of again bringing, 
 to the child's notice, the words with an arbitrary 
 combination of letters, which he has already 
 seen. I have done so in order to discover whe- 
 ther he recollects them, notwithstanding their 
 being divested of every sign.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 19 
 
 44. The signs and italic letters are progres- 
 sively omitted ; and at each lesson the teacher 
 is directed to give his pupils a very clear expla- 
 nation by which they will be enabled to know 
 the real sound of all the different combinations 
 of letters. 
 
 45. Every rule being liable to exceptions, 
 whenever any exception occurs, the teacher 
 ought to ask the child which rule is violated. 
 
 I have but little to add. It is well known 
 that the progress of children, in their studies, 
 depends on the application they are willing to 
 bestow, and that they bestow none when the 
 matter they are reading has no attraction for 
 them. I have therefore selected from " The 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainments" the most in- 
 teresting tales, in order to allure them on, and 
 thus excite and keep their attention alive. 
 
 I have not given the tales as they are in the 
 original, but in a plainer and more simple style. 
 I have omitted all trifling circumstances, short- 
 ened long sentences, and imparted more rapidity 
 to the narrative. This I have done to suit the 
 taste of children, who, until they are grown 
 men, and have become great talkers, prefer a 
 multiplicity of interesting facts, to a variety of 
 high-sounding words ; and perspicuity in its 
 greatest simplicity, to the richest and most 
 ornate confusion. 
 
 I have selected very entertaining tales, and 
 not passages from the Bible, because children,
 
 20 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 being unable to understand the wisdom and ex- 
 cellence of Holy Writ, cannot like or read it 
 with pleasure. 
 
 Parents and teachers of enlightened piety 
 will, I am sure, approve of this, and thank me, 
 for not making children dislike religious sub- 
 jects, from which they will derive so mwch 
 benefit when they come to years of maturity. 
 
 I shall now conclude b}'^ saying, that a child 
 taught to read with this book, and according to 
 ray directions, will know more in one month 
 than he could possibly acquire in three, if taught 
 according to the Spelling System. And let it be 
 observed, that the child who spells, only begins 
 to read, when, in consequence of having so fre- 
 quently seen the same word, he, at last, recollects 
 its true sound, in spite of the deceitful sounds 
 he previously utters. 
 
 To those feio Pare?its and Teachers ivho, 
 heiffg gifted ivith superior judgment, are 
 able to see the advantages oj any improve- 
 menti and are ready to adopt it. 
 
 Most honoured Contemporaries, 
 
 46. It is a pleasing task for me to address 
 the following lines to you, confident, as I am, 
 that you will not only be able fully to under-
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 21 
 
 Stand my plan, but even to improve it wherever 
 it may be found defective. 
 
 You know, that if the alphabet of a language 
 were complete or perfect, and each letter called 
 by the sound it has in words, any one would be 
 able to read as soon as he knew the letters. 
 But the deficiency of the English alphabet is no 
 reason, you will grant, for puzzling and deceiv- 
 ing children with improper names or sounds. 
 I therefore propose to you to call letters by 
 their right or natural names. 
 
 " Gracious heaven !" will young and lovely 
 mothers exclaim, "if, since the beginning of the 
 creation of letters, our most celebrated lexico- 
 graphers, grammarians, orthoepists, and philo- 
 logists, have been unable to find out the natural 
 names of letters, who will do it ?" Yourselves, 
 Ladies. 
 
 You are no doubt surprised at this ; you were 
 quite unconscious of having sufficient ability for 
 such a task ; it is perhaps the first time you 
 hear that, notwithstanding the high notions you 
 justly entertained of your extraordinary merit, 
 you were still valuing yourselves beneath your 
 deserts. But, I will show you by-and-by, that 
 you are really cleverer than you thought 
 yourselves. 
 
 47,. You have been taught that the vowel e 
 has two different sounds ; the long, as in be, me, 
 and the short, as in bed. But Avhat are you 
 doing with the e in name, hate ? This letter is
 
 22 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 at least something. Let us call it by its known 
 name, e mute, without minding whether this 
 appellation be correct oi* not. Be only so kind 
 as not to forget the sound of this e mute, which, 
 though treated with disdain by grammarians, is 
 nevertheless the chief, and most important and 
 useful of vowels, as you will presently perceive. 
 You know, that a consonant sounds only with 
 the help of a vowel ; but, what you are perhaps 
 not aware of, is, that the vowel, with the help of 
 which a consonant is pronounced, comes always 
 after, and never before it. " That cannot be," 
 you all exclaim, " since we name the letters f, 
 1, m, n, s, eff^ ell, em, en, ess, and the vowel is 
 always placed first." My friends, be not so 
 hasty ; for you will find, on closer examination, 
 that in the nickname eii, the consonant n sounds 
 not with the help of the e short which precedes 
 it, but with the help of the e mute which is 
 pronounced after it, though not writtep. 
 
 48. Pronounce attentively pin. Now, by 
 what means do you obtain, in this word, the 
 sound of n ? It is not, surely, with the help 
 of the i, which belongs to p, but with the help of 
 the e mute. By what means do you obtain the 
 sound of /^ in help 9 You are here compelled to 
 confess that it is with the aid of the e mute. 
 Again, pronounce carefully — pine. Has not 7i, 
 in this word, the same sound as in pin ? Do 
 you not perceive that the difference, which 
 exists in the pronunciation of these two words,
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 23 
 
 arises merely from the ?, which is short in pin 
 and long in pine. 
 
 Be still pleased to pronounce mtentweXy discord. 
 What is the sound or natural name of s in this 
 word ? It is se, you will reply, pronounced with 
 the help of the e mute, and giving the same 
 sound as that obtained by the two last letters of 
 mon-se. 
 
 What is the sound or natural name of c in 
 cat ? It is ke you say, the same sound as that 
 obtained by the two last letters of ta-^e. 
 
 49. You now plainly see that you have disco- 
 vered the natural names of the consonants, 
 which are, with the help of the e mute, be, ke, 
 de, ne, she, &c. 
 
 30. We must call e, ke, and not se, because ke 
 is its primitive or natural sound. It is true, 
 that before e and i, c is pronounced se ; but it is 
 no fault of the letter, if it be placed where it has 
 no business, and where we ought to see s. 
 
 51. The primitive, or natural sound of ^, is 
 that which is heard in mug, or in get; but as in 
 some words it takes the sound of^' before e and 
 i^ as in generous, gin, I have, in order to save chil- 
 dren a great deal of trouble, had the g, which 
 before e and i sounds like /, printed in italics. 
 
 52. As the consonants h, x, th, have each two 
 different sounds, one of them is also printed in 
 italics. 
 
 It would, indeed, have been much better, had 
 different types been invented to represent the
 
 24 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 different sounds of the same letter, and the g in 
 give^ the ih in tliat^ and the x in fox, been distin- 
 guished from the^ in genius, the th in thing, and 
 the X in example. 
 
 But so reasonable and excellent an improve- 
 ment can be properly introduced by none but an 
 illustrious writer, or an influential printer : my 
 own task is merely to give a better method of 
 teaching children to read with the present 
 alphabet, and actual system of orthography, 
 deficient as they are. 
 
 53. I think it unnecessary for me to repeat, 
 that the double consonants ch, sh, th, are 
 to be considered single consonants. With re- 
 gard to the double vowels, or the vowels re- 
 presented by two figures, as oo, ee, on, ow, you 
 will acknowledge the propriety of also consi- 
 dering them single vowels. In fact, is not the 
 sound of ee in see as simple as that of e in me, 
 the sound of oo in too as simple as that of u in 
 full; the sounds of ou, ow, in out, now, as simple 
 as that of i in life 9 
 
 34. The combined vowels ou and oiv, have in- 
 deed several different sounds, but their primitive 
 or genuine sound is that heard in house, cow. 
 
 55. I will now give a complete alphabet of 
 both the consonants and the vowels. 
 
 56. You will call each vowel by the sound it 
 has, in the following table, in the word next to it. 
 
 57. With regard to the consonants, you will 
 be able to convince the most bigotry-ridden, 
 that, with the lielp of the e mute, each consonant
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 25 
 
 is rightly called by the sound it has in the words 
 next to it in the following table, whether it be fol- 
 lowed by the e mute or not ; and that, accord- 
 ing to common sense, such sound is its real name. 
 
 58. ALPHABET FOR TEACHERS. 
 
 THE CONSONANTS. 
 
 b 
 
 he 
 
 tub, tube 
 
 n 
 
 ne 
 
 sun, none. 
 
 c 
 
 ke 
 
 cat, back. 
 
 P 
 
 pe 
 
 up, rope. 
 
 ch 
 
 che 
 
 church. 
 
 q 
 
 ke 
 
 quick. 
 
 d 
 
 de 
 
 bed, bode. 
 
 r 
 
 re 
 
 for, rare. 
 
 f 
 
 fe 
 
 if, life. 
 
 s 
 
 se 
 
 cat5, mouse. 
 
 g 
 
 ge 
 
 dog, get. 
 
 sh 
 
 she 
 
 fish, shame. 
 
 g 
 
 j^ 
 
 jud^e, gin. 
 
 t 
 
 te 
 
 hat, hate. 
 
 h 
 
 he 
 
 home. 
 
 th 
 
 the 
 
 that, with. 
 
 h 
 
 — 
 
 ^our. 
 
 th 
 
 the 
 
 month, thmg. 
 
 J 
 
 je 
 
 just. 
 
 V 
 
 ve 
 
 five, very. 
 
 k 
 
 ke 
 
 cake. 
 
 X 
 
 kse 
 
 fox. 
 
 1 
 
 \e 
 
 mill, mile. 
 
 X 
 
 gze 
 
 ea:?ample. 
 
 m 
 
 me 
 
 home, ham. 
 
 z 
 
 ze 
 
 breeze. 
 
 
 
 THE 
 
 VOWELS. 
 
 
 
 
 a ape. 
 
 
 i 
 
 idle. 
 
 
 
 a art. 
 
 
 1 
 
 pin. 
 
 
 
 a at. 
 
 
 
 
 no. 
 
 
 
 a all. 
 
 
 
 
 nor. 
 
 
 
 e me. 
 
 
 
 
 not. 
 
 
 
 e bed. 
 
 
 o 
 
 do. 
 
 
 
 ee see. 
 
 
 00 
 
 book. 
 
 
 
 e life. 
 
 
 ou 
 
 out.
 
 *26 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 ow 
 
 how. 
 
 w 
 
 we, sweet. 
 
 u 
 
 duke. 
 
 y 
 
 by- 
 
 u 
 
 but. 
 
 y 
 
 yet. 
 
 u 
 
 biill. 
 
 
 
 59. The right way of pronouncing the letters 
 of the alphabet according to this new method, 
 will, perhaps, be more easily understood by 
 those who are a little conversant with the 
 French language ; but it must not, however, be 
 inferred that such mode of naming letters 
 is exclusively peculiar to that language ; for 
 were it so, I have not the least doubt that 
 many of my patriotic friends would never adopt 
 it. In order, therefore, that they should not be 
 deterred by national pride from following the 
 dictates of their own unbiassed good sense, I 
 have great pleasure in informing them that so 
 rational a method is no more French than Chi- 
 nese, and that it belongs to all languages. It is 
 certain that, in all languages, the consonants are 
 pronounced with the help of the e mute, written 
 or not, after them ; and in all languages, letters 
 ought to be named by the sound they have in 
 words. 
 
 60. This wise practice which I recommend to 
 you, is by no means a discovery of mine. The 
 people of France were made acquainted with it, 
 two hundred years ago, but refused to adopt 
 it ; fearing, probably, that a method entirely 
 founded on good sense or reason, had originated
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 27 
 
 with the English, whose faith in some of the 
 most ancient and debasing absurdities had, at 
 that time, begun to waver. 
 
 61. Many of the French people of our days 
 have, it is true, adopted this new method of 
 naming letters. But, because they are right in 
 this case, is it a reason that you should continue 
 to be wrong? — and do you think that your acting 
 as simpletons, when they happen to display good 
 sense, will necessarily show your superiority 
 over them ? 
 
 Why should you be less wise than your na- 
 tive foxes, which, though as superior to those 
 of France as you may be to the people of that 
 country, are yet not ashamed to eat fowls, not- 
 withstanding their French neighbours having, for 
 centuries, been in the habit of doing the same 
 thing — whenever they could get any ? 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 62. Whether you choose to teach children to 
 call letters by their old nicknames, or by the 
 sounds they have in words, the plan of the 
 Anti-Spelling Book will equally answer your 
 purpose. But I must very particularly request 
 those who continue to adhere to the old system 
 of naming letters, to read over again, and very 
 attentively, not only paragraphs 18, 21, 24, 
 25, 26, 28, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, but even 
 paragraphs 51, 52, 53, 54, and 56 of this
 
 28 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 address or introduction, because such reading 
 will entirely put them in the right method of 
 teaching children to read. 
 
 63. With regard to those parents and teachers 
 who, whether for want of good sense, or from un- 
 willingness to examine any thing which puts them 
 out of their way, doggedly persist in wading 
 through the mud accumulated during ages of 
 darkness and error, let them continue to make 
 their children spell: yet, under such rough hands, 
 the innocent and sweet little creatures will, in 
 spite of that injudicious system, learn better and 
 faster by this book than by those generally used. 
 For, if we compare the book which a child is obli- 
 ged to peruse, before he gets at the knowledge 
 of reading, to the distance a traveller is obliged 
 to walk in order to arrive at a given place, who 
 will deny that notwithstanding you persevere in 
 chaining the feet of the traveller, he will, by 
 taking the road which I have made smooth and 
 straight for him, arrive sooner than he would 
 have done, had he been compelled to pursue 
 your own steep, rugged, and slippery path ? 
 
 64. Now, in case any of my friends should 
 be inclined to blame me for praising so warmly 
 and so sincerely this little book, I beg to inform 
 them that I have done so for three good reasons, 
 which are : 
 
 First. That its superiority can be demon- 
 strated as clearly, as that the fine roads of Eng- 
 land are safer and better than the bad ones
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 29 
 
 on the Continent, where a free-born Briton is 
 often in danger of breaking his neck. 
 
 Secondly. That though this Uttle book may 
 appear new, there is, nevertheless, nothing in it 
 which had not, now and then, in some coun- 
 try or other, been suggested by eminent philo- 
 sophic writers ; and that, of course, no credit is 
 due to me for what I have done. 
 
 Thirdly. That modesty is allowed only to a 
 man of great merit, to one who has written a 
 good original book ; and that, such being the 
 case, this amiable quality, were I possessed of 
 it, would betray in me the most ridiculous pre- 
 tensions. 
 
 d3
 
 THE 
 
 ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 1. 
 
 a, b, c, d. 
 
 e, f, g, h, i. 
 
 j, k, 1, m, n, o. 
 
 p, q, r, s, t, u, V, 
 
 w, X, y, z. 
 
 THE VOWELS. 
 
 a, e, i, o, u
 
 32 THE AM1-SPELUT<G BOOK. 
 
 2. — e, e the. 
 be, me, be. 
 I like pure wine. 
 I like my borse. 
 take care of* tbe fire, 
 dogs bite. 
 
 • Tell the child that in of, the/ sounds like v, and that 
 q/is pronounced ov, 
 
 S.—\, 1. 
 I like milk, 
 take a bit of pie. 
 I will go home. 
 tbe borse is + lame, 
 tbe dog is blind, 
 the ape is sly. 
 
 'I'ell the child that the s of is sounds like z. 
 
 4. — a, a, a. 
 1 want a fat bare, 
 tbe ox is m the park, 
 tbe cat kills rats, 
 tbe dog barks.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 33 
 
 5. — a, a, a a. 
 Jam^s IS a tall and dark man. 
 all cMs dre sly. 
 
 6. — e, ^, e. 
 giv^ me a pen, mine is bad. 
 I hav^ fM the cat, ind the dog. 
 the tu-lips in the gar-d^n, ire fin^. 
 
 7. — o, o. 
 I want to go to the park, 
 do not move at all, I b6g. 
 
 8. — o, li. 
 Jam^s h^s * a fin^ blill. 
 give me a gUss fiill of win^, and not 
 
 of wa-t^r.t 
 my dar-ling, go to b6d : do ; it is 
 
 lat^. 
 
 * Tell the child that in has the s sounds like x. 
 
 t Some orthoepists assign, to the e in water, the sound 
 of u in cup ; but, in our humble judgment, this is a vul- 
 garism, and we therefore agree with those who pronounce 
 the e in water, master, supper, and similar words, like the e 
 in father.
 
 34 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 9. — u, li, u. 
 a tub^ IS not a t€ib. 
 a duck IS not a duk^. 
 I want a cup fiill of pur^ milk, 
 do not put that small mug on the 
 
 ta-bl^. 
 the far-mer lik^s win^ b6t-ter than 
 
 wa-tir. 
 
 10. — ee, oo. 
 
 my fa-th^r is a meek man. 
 
 my poor sis-t6r is lam^ in the left foot. 
 
 a goos^ is run-ning in the street. 
 
 ll.-y, y. 
 
 stand by me. 
 
 do not go y6t ; it is too soon. 
 
 that boy is v^ry idl^ ; I am sor-ry for 
 it. 
 
 my cat is la-zy ; he is good for noth- 
 ing.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 35 
 
 12. — oil, ow. 
 do not go out so soon. 
 I want t6i pounds, 
 our hous^ is very small, 
 a fly is as* proud to stand on a dung- 
 hill as a king to sit on a throne, 
 16t us go now. 
 I like flow-6rs very much. 
 
 * Tell the child that in as the 5 sounds like z. 
 
 13,— ch, sh. 
 a fjood child is o-be-di^nt. 
 it IS a sham^ to be la-zy. 
 fish liv^ in wa-ter. 
 our church is very fme. 
 I see a sheep be-hind a biish. 
 
 my sweet child, g6t up ; it is lat^. 
 a man of^e-ni-us hks been mad^ no- 
 bl^ by god him-s61f.
 
 3b THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 giYe the boy a glass of ^in. 
 
 that fin^ book is a gift of my fa-ther. 
 
 our hous^ IS v^ry large, 
 
 a ^i-ant is a v6ry tall man. 
 
 15. — h, h, X, X. 
 a swift horse can run ten miks in an 
 
 hour. 
 the fox IS v6ry cun-nYng. 
 we must set a good e^-ample. 
 
 16,— th, tk 
 give me that tlimg, 
 I do not tlimk that a mon^^ h^s gone 
 
 by- 
 
 I6nd me a sheet of Mick pa-p^r. 
 
 come with me. 
 
 are we going thi-ther ? 
 
 17. — ca, CO, cu, ce, ci.* 
 Kt is cold this mor-ning. 
 
 * Tell the child that c sounds like s before e, i.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 37 
 
 the cu-rat^ of the par-ish is a good and 
 
 nic^ man. 
 a cell is a very small room, 
 the cit-y of Ion -don is al-most twic^ 
 
 as lar^'^ as the cit-y of par-is. 
 the cat, if not too well f^d, will kill 
 
 the mice. 
 
 18, — a horse.f 
 
 I w^ill take care of the horse, 
 our boy is lame of the left foot, 
 the duke's ape broke its leg last week. 
 I like pure wine b^t-ter than pure 
 wa-t6r. 
 
 t Tell the child that e at the end of words is mute, or 
 silent, except in the little words he, he, me. she., the, and 
 that henceforth the e mute or silent, at the end of words 
 will be no longer printed in italics. 
 
 19.— a little fire.t 
 chil-dren, take a bit of pie, and drink a 
 glass of wine. 
 
 :|: Tell the ciiild that i sounds, not as \nfire, but as in little, 
 E
 
 38 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 my lad do not pick up that flow-6\ 
 my fa-ther looks pale ; I hope he is 
 not ill. 
 
 a reed looks like a small stick. 
 if we run so quick we shall tire our- 
 selves. 
 
 in the words or syllables where it is followed by a single 
 consonant, as in lit, pin, and in the words or syllables 
 where it is followed by two or three consonants, as in sick, 
 hill, kills ; and that henceforth the sign which has been 
 used to distinguish the i in big from the i in Jire, will be 
 omitted. 
 
 There are exceptions to this rule, such as child, mildy 
 live, give, ^c, but do not speak of them now ; wait until 
 some of them occur. 
 
 20. — The mind, the spring.* 
 
 fr6nch-m6n find frogs v^ry good, 
 a bad king is called a ty-rant. 
 I feel cheer-fiil in the spring, 
 ma-ry piit the nap-kin on the table, 
 
 and bring the piid-ding. 
 we must mind the th'mg we are do-ing. 
 my sis-ter is v6ry kind to me. 
 
 * Tell the child that in the combination ind, i sounds as 
 lufire, and that in the combination ing, i sounds as in pin.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 39 
 
 21. — a fat hare.* 
 a cat can run as fast as a hare, 
 my lad, take care of the cake, 
 do not call me Jack ; it is not my 
 
 name. 
 t/mnk god, my fa-ther is very well, 
 how far is do-v^r from Ion-don ? 
 l^t us shake hands. 
 I am going home ; good-bye. 
 
 * Tell the child that a sounds as in ape, hare, when the 
 single consonant which comes after it is followed by e mute. 
 There are, however, a few exceptions, as are, have. 
 
 That a sounds as in far in the words where the r, which 
 comes after a, is followed by another and a different conso- 
 nant, as in park. 
 
 That a sounds as in cat in the words where a is followed 
 only by a single consonant which is not r, or is followed by 
 two consonants, as in back, hand. But if the two conso- 
 nants were // or It, then a would sound as in all, salt. 
 
 22, — I am going to bed.t 
 
 a blind man wish-ing to cross a brook, 
 fell in-to it. 
 
 t Tell the child that e sounds as in bed, in the words 
 where it is followed by a single consonant, as in le^, pen^ or
 
 40 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 a ben that stood on the branch of a 
 tree, see-in g a wolf, fled not, and 
 ac-ted very prli-dent-ly. 
 
 I do not care for a fine dress. 
 
 my neck is stiff; I do not jest. 
 
 by two, as in neck, tell, and that henceforth no sign will h 
 used to distinguish this e from the two others. 
 
 23. — a duck is not a duke.* 
 
 pure wine is as good in a mug or a 
 cup as in a fine glass. 
 
 I like to see the sun shine. 
 
 a fly from the moon see-ing a nut- 
 shell, took it for a big ship. 
 
 look how the duck is run-ning. 
 
 I am very hungry ; I want my sup- 
 per. 
 
 * Tell the child that h sounds as in duke when the single 
 consonant which comes after it is foUow-ed by e. 
 
 That u sounds as in cup when it is followed only by a 
 single consonant, as in mug, sun, or when it is followed by 
 two consonants, as in cluck, just, church. 
 
 That u sounds as in bull in the words where u is followed 
 by II, and in a few others.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 41 
 
 I like a bit of fun as well as any body 
 else. 
 
 shut the gate of the park, or the horse 
 will run out. 
 
 I am going to church, but I will 
 re-turn soon, and, at any rate, be- 
 fore noon. 
 
 it is our du-ty to love a good and 
 just man. 
 
 a mule is not so fine as a horse. 
 
 24. — yes, you, your, yours.* 
 
 how do you do, my child ; are you 
 
 well? 
 yes, sir, I am very well, I thsnik you. 
 will you let me see your book ? 
 yes, sir, look at it. 
 you have a pret-ty hat ; mine is not so 
 
 fine as yours. 
 
 * Tell the child that you sounds like the vowel u. 
 e3
 
 42 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 take care, child, or you will cut your 
 
 fiug-er. 
 will you do* a thiug for me ? 
 yes, I will. 
 
 * Tell the child that the two dots will no longer be put 
 over the o that sounds as in do. 
 
 25. — they, their, theirs.f 
 I have seen your hor-ses ; they are 
 
 in-deed very fine, 
 ma-ry, give the chil-dren their din-ner. 
 yes, sir, I will. 
 
 t Tell the child that in they, their, the combinations ey 
 and ei have a sound nearly resembling the vowel a — iha, thare. 
 
 26. — who, w^hom.l 
 the boy who is good, is a hap-py boy. 
 for whom is that cake ? for my bro- 
 ther, 
 who has seen my book ? not I. 
 to whom have you given a pen ? 
 
 + Tell the child that who, whom, sound as if spelt h'6 
 horn, or hoo, hoom.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 43 
 
 27. — what, which .'^ 
 
 what have you done with the pen 
 
 which I gave you ? 
 I have done no-^7^ing with it ; some- 
 
 bo-dy who wan-ted it has taken it. 
 what has be-come of the lit-tle dog 
 
 which you had not long a-go ? 
 we have gi-ven it to a lit-tle boy whom 
 
 we like very much, and who is a 
 
 ve-ry good child. 
 
 * Tell the child that ivhich is pronounced as if spelt 
 hivtch, or hooich. 
 
 28. — where, when, why.| 
 
 where is your sis-ter ? she is in her 
 
 room, 
 why do you not come with me ? I 
 
 cannot, 
 when are you go-ing to town ? 
 
 t Tell the child that ichere, u-hen, rvhy, are pronounced 
 as if spelt hwaYe, huen, hu'i, or hooare, hooen, hooi.
 
 44 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 29- — could, would, should.* 
 my lad, come here, and tell me what 
 
 you would like I should do for 
 
 you. 
 I want no-thing, then you shall 
 
 have it. 
 would you come, should I invite you? 
 
 per-haps. 
 why are you so late ? I could not 
 
 come soon-er. 
 could you do such a work in a week ? 
 
 oh, yes ! I //^ink I could do it in 
 
 less, 
 our garden is very large.f 
 
 * Tell the child that could, should, would, are pronounced 
 as if spelt ciid, sh'ud, u'ud, or cood, shood, wood. 
 
 t Tell the child that henceforth the g soft in large will be 
 printed with the same type as the g hard in garden. 
 
 30. — may, mighty 
 my broth- er is a good man ; you may 
 trust him. 
 
 t Tell the child that the combination ay has a sound 
 something like a — ma; and that might sounds as if spelt mils.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 45 
 
 I wish my sis-ter would come, that 
 
 you might see her. 
 may I of-fer you an-o-ther glass of 
 
 wine? 
 is it pro-per that I should do such a 
 
 thing ?* 
 
 * Tell the child that henceforth the th, which sounds as in 
 thing, will be no longer printed in italics. 
 
 ROMAN CAPITALS. 
 
 ABCDEFGHIJKLM 
 NOPQRSTUVWXYZ. 
 
 ITALIC CAPITALS. 
 
 A B CDEFGHIJKLM 
 NOPQRSTUVWXYZ, 
 
 SMALL ITALICS. 
 
 ahcdefghij 
 k I m 71 o p q r 
 
 s t -u V w X y z.
 
 46 
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 
 A TABLE 
 
 
 Of the arbitrary combimUion of 
 
 letters to be found 
 
 
 in the Second Part. 
 
 
 Real 
 
 
 Real 
 
 Spelt 
 
 sound. 
 
 Spelt. 
 
 sound. 
 
 *ai, 
 
 a, 
 
 tailor, 
 
 talur. 
 
 *ay, 
 
 a, 
 
 day, 
 
 da. 
 
 mt, 
 
 a, 
 
 becaz^se. 
 
 becaze. 
 
 kw, 
 
 a, 
 
 saw, 
 
 sa. 
 
 e'a, 
 
 e, 
 
 head. 
 
 hed. 
 
 ca, 
 
 a, 
 
 great, 
 
 grate. 
 
 e«, 
 
 ee, 
 
 sea, 
 
 see. 
 
 eiy 
 
 ee, 
 
 percezve. 
 
 perseev. 
 
 ei, 
 
 a, 
 
 veil. 
 
 vale. 
 
 e'y, 
 
 e, 
 
 vail e'y, 
 
 valle. 
 
 *ey, 
 
 a, 
 
 they. 
 
 tha. 
 
 ew, 
 
 u. 
 
 few, 
 
 fu. 
 
 iew, 
 
 u. 
 
 view. 
 
 vu. 
 
 le, 
 
 ee, 
 
 beheve. 
 
 beleev. 
 
 ie, 
 
 h 
 
 died. 
 
 dide. 
 
 ia^it, 
 
 he, 
 
 mght, 
 
 nite. 
 
 &, 
 
 n, 
 
 /mife. 
 
 nife. 
 
 0«, 
 
 0, 
 
 road. 
 
 rode. 
 
 ou, 
 
 u, 
 
 colour 
 
 colur. 
 
 ou, 
 
 00, 
 
 youth. 
 
 yooth. 
 
 ow, 
 
 0, 
 
 discoz^rse. 
 
 discorse. 
 
 vught 
 
 , at, 
 
 tho?^£;-^t, 
 
 that. 
 
 OIV, 
 
 0, 
 
 felloz^'. 
 
 fello. 
 
 ZVTy 
 
 rj 
 
 ?^;rong, 
 
 rong. 
 
 * The combinations ( 
 
 li, ay and eu, 
 
 though they have not 
 
 the perfect sound of a, f^ive asound so much like it, that orlho- 
 
 epists generally 
 
 use the vowel a to express the sound of these 
 
 combinations. 
 
 

 
 THE SECOND PART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Story of the Little Hunch-back. 
 
 Lesson I. 
 
 In a large town there was' a tai-lor^ that had 
 a hand-some wife, whom he loved, and who loved 
 him much. 
 
 One 3 day- as he was at work, a little hunch- 
 backed'' man came and sat down at the shop- 
 door'S and be-gan to sing. 
 
 The tailor was ple«sed^ to he«r^ him, and took 
 him in-to his house, to make his wife mer-ry. 
 
 * Tell the child that in was the 5 sounds like z — tvaz. 
 ^ Tell the child that ai and ay sound almost like a : — 
 talur, da. 
 
 3 wun. '» hunch-bakt. ^ dore. ^ pleezd. "^ heer. 
 
 Lesson IL 
 
 The tai-lor, his wife, and my lord Hunch- 
 back sat down to sup-per, and had a huge fish 
 set be-fore them. 
 
 But the little fe\-\ow hav-ing swal-lot^ed a
 
 48 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 large bone, died ' in a few" minutes/ not-with- 
 stand-ing all that the tailor and his wife could 
 do to pre-vent it. 
 
 These'' good peo-ple^ were much a-larmed at 
 the de'athe of the little Hunch-back, cheef-ly" as 
 it had hap-^ened ^ in their house. 
 
 ' dide. 
 
 2 Tell the child that the combination ew sounds like u — fa. 
 
 ^ min-its. * The s sounds like z — theze. 
 
 ^ deth. ' cheef-ly. * hap-pnd. 
 
 Lesson III. 
 
 In or-der to get rid of the corpse, the tai-lor 
 and his wife took it, one by the feet and the 
 oth-er by the he 'ad, ' and car-rzed - it to the 
 house of a Jew'' doc-tor who lived close by. 
 
 They knocked * at the door,^ from which a 
 steep pair^ of stairs as-cen-ded to the room of 
 the phy-si-cian.'^ 
 
 As soon as they had knocked*, the ser-vant 
 maid^ came down with-out a light,^ and o- 
 pening the door, asked^ what they wan-ted. 
 
 1 hed. 2 car-rid. 
 
 ^ Ask the child the sound of ew, and show him note ^, 
 Lesson 11. * nokt. 
 
 5 Call the attention of the child to the word door. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of az, and show him vole ^, Lesson L 
 
 ' Tell the cliild that ph sounds XxV^f—fixish-an. 
 
 ^ Tell the child that the combination ighl has the sound of 
 \\.e — lite. 
 
 9 A&kt.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 49 
 
 Lesson IV. 
 
 " Go up," said the tai-lor, " and tell your 
 mas-ter that we have hr^mghV him a man who 
 is very ill, and wants his ad-vice." 
 
 "Here is some-thing," he ad-ded, put-ting a 
 p2ece'^ of mon-e'y into her hand, "for he doc- 
 tor's trouble. "3 
 
 While* the ser-vant was gone to ac-quaint* 
 her mas-ter with the wel-come news,^ the tailor 
 and his wife nim-bly con-veyed' the hunch- 
 backed^ corpse to the he'ad of the stairs, and 
 le«v-ing it there, ran off. 
 
 The doc- tor was^ trans-por-ted with joy, and 
 be-ing paid^ be-fore hand, thoughV^ he had got a 
 good pa-tient," who ought not to be neg-lect-ed. 
 
 * br^t. ^ peese. ^ truble. 
 
 * hwilg. ^ Ask the sound of ai. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of ew. ^ con-vade. ^ hunch-bakt. 
 ^ Ask the sound of s in was. ^^ that. " pa-shent. 
 
 Lesson V. 
 
 There-fore, with-out stay-ing' for the light,- 
 the doc-tor went to the stair-head in such 
 haste, that he stum-bled a-gainst the corpse, 
 and kicked 3 it down. 
 
 At last the maid came with a light, and 
 when he sat^* that the stum-bling block he had 
 
 * Ask the sound of ay and ai. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination ight. ^ kikt. 
 
 ** Tell the child that the combination aw has the sound 
 u as heard in all. 
 
 F
 
 50 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 kicked down was a dead man, he was very mucli 
 ter-ri-fied.^ 
 
 " Un-hap-py man that I am," said he, " why 
 did I come down with- out a light ! I have kill- 
 ed the per-son who was hvouffht to me to be cured. 
 Mer-cy on me, I shall be dragged out of my 
 house as a mur-der-er." 
 
 But, not-with-stand-ing the per-plex-i-ty he 
 was in, he took the pre-caz«-tion® to shut his door. 
 
 ^ t6r-ri-fide. 
 
 Lesson VI. 
 
 Then the doctor took the corpse into his 
 wife's room; up-on which she swooned a-way. 
 " A-las !" said she, when she had re-cov-ered, 
 "we are ut-ter-ly ruined', un-less we a-dopt 
 some ex-pe-di-ent to turn the corpse out of our 
 house, this night.- 
 
 " Be-yond all ques-tion,^ if we har-bour it 
 here till mor-ning, our lives must pay for it. 
 
 "By what means'* did you kill this man?" 
 
 " That is not the ques-tion," ^ re-plied^ the 
 Jew ;^ our business^ now is to find out a rem- 
 e-dy for such a shoe-king ac-ci-dent. 
 
 * rli-ind. ^ Ask the child the sound of the combination 
 ighf. ^ kwes-chun. * meens. ^ re-plide. 
 ^ Ask the sound of eu;» "^ blz-nes. 
 
 Lesson VIL 
 The doctor and his wife con-sul-ted to-geth-er 
 how to get rid of the corpse, that night.' He 
 * Ask the sound of the combination ighl.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 51 
 
 could find noth-ing in his head ; but his wife,who 
 was more cun-ning or more wise ^ than he, said : 
 
 " A thought strikes me : let us th.TQiv^ the 
 corpse down the chim-ney "* of the Turk, our next 
 door neigh-bour." ^ 
 
 This neigh-bour was a gro-cer, who sold oil, 
 but-ter, su-gar,*^ cheese,^ tea,' cof-fee, and tal- 
 lo?^ ; and ev-er-y day he cursed ® the rats and 
 mice, which made sad havoc among his stores. 
 
 The Jew-ish doc-tor ap-pro-ving the ad-vice of 
 his wife, they took the little Hunch-back up to 
 the roof of the house, and put-ting a rope un-der 
 his arm-pits, let him down the chimney into the 
 gro-cer's room, and did it so dex-ter-ous-ly that 
 he stood up-right^ against the wall as if he had 
 been a-live. 
 
 ' Tell the child that the s of ivise and cheese sounds like 
 z — cheeze, wize. ^ thro. 
 
 * Tell the child that the combination ey has two different 
 sounds : the one nearly resembling a, as in they, prey, which 
 are pronounced tha, pra ; and the other c, as in money, 
 valley, honey, which are pronounced mun-ne, val-U, hun-ni. 
 
 •* na-bur. ® shug-ur. '' tee. ^ curst. 
 
 9 Ask the combination ofight. 
 
 Lesson VIII. 
 
 When they found he stood firm, they pul-led 
 up the rope and left him in that pos-ture. They 
 had scarce-ly got down into their room, before the 
 gro-cer en-tered his, hav-ing just come from a
 
 o2 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 wed-ding fe«st,' with a Ian-tern in his hand. He 
 was sur-prisf?d,^ when by the light of his Ian-tern, 
 he de-scried 3 a fig ure stand-ing up-right in his 
 chim-ney ; and ap-pre-hen-ding it was a rob-ber, 
 he took up a cane, and com-ing up to the Hunch- 
 back, " Ah !" said he, " I thought it was the 
 rats and mice that ate my but-ter and tal-lo?t?/ 
 but it is you, you httle rogue, who come dowi 
 the chim-ney ^ to rob me. 
 
 • feest. 2 sur-prized. ^ de-scridg. '* tal-lo. 
 
 * Ask the child what are the two sounds of the combina- 
 tion ey. 
 
 Lesson IX. 
 
 "1 ques-tion' if ever you will come back 
 a-gain up-on the same er-rand." Hav-ing thus 
 spoken, he be'at ^ him se-vere-ly with his cane ; 
 and the corpse having fallen down, the gro-cer 
 redoubled 3 his h\oivs\ but ob-serv-ing^ that the 
 bod-y did not move, and then per-ce2-ving ^ it was 
 a corpse, fe«r ^ suc-ceed-ed his ang-er. 
 
 " PFretch that I am !" he said ; ^'^ I have 
 killed 7 a man ! I have car-rfed my revenge too 
 far ; ac-curs-ed be the oil that gave oc-ca-sion 
 to my com-mit-ting so crim-i-nal an act." 
 
 In fine he stood pale and thun-der-struck ; he 
 thought^ he saw'' the of-fi-cers of jus-tice,'" al- 
 
 ' kwes-chun. ^ bet. ^ re-dubld. 
 * Tell the child that in observing, s sounds like z^ 
 ob-zer-ving. ^ per-see-ving. ^ feer. "^ kild. 
 ^ Tell tlie child that the combination ought sounds like at. 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination aw. '° jus-tis.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 53 
 
 re'ad-y come to drag him to con-di^n" pun-ish- 
 ment ; and he knew not what res-o-lu-tion'^ to 
 take. 
 
 '* con-dine. '^ rez-o-lu-shun. 
 
 Lesson X. 
 
 The gro-cer had not ob-served^ the little 
 man's hunch whilst he was bea-ting ^ him ; but 
 the mo-ment he per-ceived^ it, he ut-tered'' a 
 thousand^ im-pre-ca-tions a-gainst him. 
 
 " Ah ! you crook-ed Hunch-back, I wish you 
 had rob-bed*' me of all my oil, and I had not 
 found you here. 
 
 " Had it been so, I should not be so per- 
 plexed^ as I am now, on ac-count of you and 
 your hunch." 
 
 Having ut-tered ^ these words he took the lit- 
 tle crook-ed man up-on his shoz^lders,^ and car- 
 reed ^ him out of doors, to the end of the street, 
 where he set him up-right,io a-gainst a shop. 
 Ha-ving done so, he returned home with-out 
 look-ing be-hind him. 
 
 ^ Ask the child the sound of s in observed. ^ bee-ting. 
 
 3 Tell the child that the combination ei has different 
 sounds, the two commonest of which are e as in perceive, 
 which is pronounced as if spelt perseev ; and a, as in their, 
 which is pronounced as if spelt thare. 
 
 * ut-terd. * thou-zand. ^ robd. 
 
 ' per-plext. ^ shol-ders. ^ car-rid. 
 
 '" Ask the child the combination of ight. 
 F 3
 
 54 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XI. 
 
 A few' mi-nutes^^ be-fore day -break, ^ a chris- 
 tian* mer-chant who was very rich, hav-ing 
 spent the whole night ^ in de-baz^ch-ery, came 
 out of his house to go to bathe. 
 
 Thouf/k^ drunk, he was sensible that the 
 night was far spent, and that the people' would 
 quick-ly be sum-moned to pray-ers,® which be- 
 gin at day-break.3 
 
 There-fore he quick-ened his pace to get to 
 the bath in time, lest a Turk should meet him 
 in his way to the mosque,^ and take him to 
 pri-son,'" as a drunk-ard. 
 
 As he came to the end of the street he leaned " 
 a-gainst the shop where the gro-cer had put the 
 hunch-backed corpse ; and the little man fell 
 up-on him. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination ew. 
 
 ^ See Lesson II. note ^. ^ brake. '^ cris tian. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination ight. 
 
 ^ tho. "^ peeple. ^ Ask the sound of ay. ^ mosk. 
 
 •° pn-zn. '' leend. 
 
 Lesson XIL 
 
 The mer-chant, think-ing it was a rob-ber 
 who had come to at-tack him, knocked ' down 
 my lord Hunch-back, and cried - out " th/eves !" ^ 
 
 The out-cry a-larmcd the watch-man, who 
 came up im-me-di-ate-ly, and find-ing a Chris- 
 
 ' nokt. •' cridf. ^ theevs.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 55 
 
 tian* be«-ting a Turk: " What rea-son^ have 
 you," said he to the mer-chant, " to a-buse ^ a 
 Mus-sul-man in this man-ner ?" 
 
 " He in-ten-ded to rob me," the mer-chant 
 re-plied, " and threw him-self up-on me." 
 
 " If he did," said the watchman, " you have 
 re-venged your-self suf-fi-cient-lyf releose him." 
 
 * See Lesson XL note •*. 
 
 ^ reezn. ^ abuze. "^ suf-fish-ent-ly. 
 
 Lesson XIII. 
 
 At the same time the watch-man stretch-ed 
 out his hand to help little Hump-back up, but 
 ob-serv-ing ' he was de'ad :- ''Is it thus," said he, 
 " that a Chris-tian dares to kill a Mus-sul-man ?" 
 
 He seized ^ the Chris-tian, and car-r?ed him to 
 the sher-iff, who kept him in cus-to-dy till the 
 judge was ready to ex-am-ine^ him. 
 
 In the me«n ^ time, the Chris-tian mer-chant 
 grew® so-ber; and the more he re-flec-ted up-on 
 his ad-ven-ture,^ the less could he con-ceive ^ 
 how the bloif's, given with his fist on-ly, could 
 have killed the little man. 
 
 The judge hav-ing he'ard the re-port of the 
 watch, and viewed^ the corpse, in-ter-ro-ga-ted 
 the Chris-tian mer-chant, who could not de-ny 
 the crime, thoifffh he had not com-mit-ted it. 
 
 * Ask the sound of s in olserving. ^ ded. 
 
 3 Ask the child what are the two most common sounds 
 of the combination ei. 
 
 * egz-am-in. ^ meen. ^ Ask the sound of the combina- 
 tion €7v, "^ iid-ven-chur^. ^ vude.
 
 56 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XIV. 
 
 But the judge con-sid-er-ing that Kttle Hump- 
 back was one of the roy-al buf-foons, would 
 not put the Chris-tian to death' till he >^new 
 the sul-tan's ple'a-sure. To this end he went to 
 the pal-ace, and having ac-quain-ted the sultan 
 with what had happened,^ re-ceived ^ the fol-low- 
 ing an-szf7er : * — 
 
 " I have no mer-cy to show ^ to a Chris-tian 
 that kills a Mus-sul-man ; go, do your of-fice." ^ 
 Up-on this the judge or-dered a gib-bet to be 
 e-rec-ted, and sent cri-ers all o-ver the city to 
 pro-claim that a Chris-tian was a-bout to be 
 hanged for kil-ling a Mus-sul-man. 
 
 ^ deth. 2 hap-nd. 
 
 ^ Ask which are the two most usual sounds of the com- 
 bination ei. * an-ser. 
 
 5 Tell the child that the combination ow has two dif- 
 ferent sounds : that of ou, as heard in out, as in how, now, 
 town, which are pronounced as if spelt hou, nou, toun ; and 
 that of 0, as heard in no, as in grow, grown, owing, which 
 are pronounced as if spelt gro, grone, o-ivg. 
 
 6 of-fis. 
 
 Lesson XV. 
 
 The merchant was brought' out of jail to 
 the foot of the gal-lows ; ^ and the hang-man 
 having put the rope a-bout his neck, was go- 
 ing to turn him off, when the gro-cer, break-ing 
 ihroifffh^ the crowd, made up to the gib-bet, 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination owg/ii. 
 2 gal'lus. ' throo.
 
 THE ANTl- SPELLING BOOK. 57 
 
 and call-ed to the hang-man to stop, say-ing that 
 the Christian had not com-mit-ted the murder, 
 but him-self had done it. 
 
 Upon this, the sher-ifF, who at-tend-ed the ex- 
 e-cu-tion, ' in-ter-ro-ga-ted the gro-cer, who 
 told him ev-er-y cir-cum-stance of his kil-ling 
 little Hump-back, and con-vey-ing^ his corpse 
 to the place where it was found by the Chris- 
 tian merchant. 
 
 * ex-e-cu-shun. 
 
 •^ Ask the two different sounds of the combination ey. 
 
 Lesson XVI. 
 
 The grocer having pub-lick-ly charged him- 
 self with the death of the little hunch-backed ' 
 man, the sher-ifF could not a-void do-ing the mer- 
 chant jus-tice.- 
 
 " Let the Chris-tian go," said the sher-ifF to 
 the hang-man, " and hang this man in his 
 stead, since it ap-pe«rs by his own^ con-fes-sion 
 that he is g?/il-ty." 
 
 The hang-man then re-leased'' the mer-chant, 
 and put the rope round the grocer's neck ; but 
 just as hewas go-ing to turn him off, he heard ^ 
 the voice of the Jew-ish doc-tor, who at the 
 same time ap-proached^ the gal-lows,' en- 
 treat-ing^ him to suspend the ex-e cu-tion. 
 
 ^ See Lesson J. note *. ^ jus-tis. 
 
 ^ Ask what are the two sounds of the combination ow. 
 
 * releest. ^ herd. ^ ap-prochd. 
 
 "^ See Lesson XT. note ^ ^ en -tree- ting.
 
 58 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XVII. 
 
 The Jewish doctor, bow-ing to the judge, said, 
 " My lord, this grocer you are about to hang is 
 not guilty ;' all the guilt lies at my door. 
 
 " Last night, a man and wom-an, un-known 
 to me, came to my house with a sick man, and 
 on their knoc-king,- my maid went, wdth-out a 
 light, to o-pen the door. She spoke to them, re- 
 ceived ^ a piece of mo-ney,^ and came to me. 
 
 " But whilst she was de-liv-er-ing her mes- 
 sage,^ they con-veyed the sick per-son to the 
 stair-head, and then ran a-way. 
 
 " With-out wait-ing for my ser-vant to light a 
 can-die, I got up, and wa/k-ing in the dark to 
 the stair-head, I hap-pened to stum-ble upon the 
 sick per-son, and threw him down-stairs. 
 
 " On look-ing at him, I saw that he was dead, 
 and that it was the crook-ed Mus-sul-man. 
 
 ' g'l-ty. 
 
 ^ Tell the child that in words beginning- with kn, k is 
 always silent, and that knock-ing and knife are pronounced 
 as if spelt nock-ivg, nife. 
 
 3 Ask the two most common sounds of the combination ei. 
 
 * Ask the two different sounds of the combination ey, 
 
 ^ mes-sidje.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 59 
 
 Lesson XVIII. 
 
 " My wife and I took the corpse, con-veyed ' 
 it to the roof of the grocer's house, and let it 
 down the chim-ney.^ The grocer taking this 
 little man for a thief,^ beat him, and con-elu- 
 ded he had killed him." The chief-jus-tice, be- 
 ing per-sua-ded that the Jewish doctor was the 
 mur-der-er, gave or-ders to the ex-e-cu-tion-er 
 to seize * him, and to re-le«se the grocer. 
 
 But the tailor having ap-peared ^ at the very 
 in-stant, said to the judge : — 
 
 * See Lesson IF. note "^ . 
 
 ' Ask the two different sounds of the combination ey. 
 3 theef. 
 
 * Ask the two most common sounds of the combination ex. 
 
 * ap-peerd. 
 
 Lesson XIX. 
 
 " My lord, you have nar-row-ly ' es-caped ta- 
 king a-way the life of these - three in-no-cent 
 men. It is I who am to an-swer ^ for the death 
 of the crook-backed man. 
 
 " Yes-ter-day, to-wards the eve-ning, little 
 Hunch-back came to my door half-drunk. As I 
 was dis-posed"* to be mer-ry, I in-vit-ed him to 
 pass the eve-ning with me. He ac-cep-ted ; we 
 
 * Ask what are the two different sounds of the combina- 
 tion ow, ^ Ask the sound of 5 in theie. 
 
 3 an-s6r. ^ dis-pozd.
 
 60 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 sat down to supper, and I gave him a plate of 
 fish. 
 
 '' But alas I a bone stuck in his throat,^ and 
 ihoitffh my wife and I did our ut-most to re- 
 lieve^ him, he died in a few minutes. His 
 de'ath af-flic-ted us ex-treme'-ly, and for fear^ of 
 being charged with it, we car-ried ^ the corpse 
 to the house of the Jewish doctor, and knocked ^ 
 at the door. 
 
 " The maid having opened it, I de-sired '° her 
 to go up and ask her mas-ter to give his ad-vice 
 to a sick person. She went, and I carried 
 Hunch-back up-stairs, and then de-par-ted with 
 my wife. 
 
 " The doctor came from his room with-out a 
 light, and having, by accident, thrown " the 
 corpse down-stairs, na-tu-ral-ly '^ thought '^ that 
 he was the cause ^* of Hump-back's death. 
 
 No sooner had the tailor ce<:/sed sper/king 
 than he, the Jewish doctor, the grocer, and the 
 Christian merchant, were sent for by the Sultan, 
 who par-doned them. 
 
 •^ throte. ^ re-leeve. ' feer. ® car-nd. 
 
 ^ Ask the child the sound of the combined consonants 
 kn, and tell him that it is the same as that of n alone. 
 
 '** Tell the child that in desired s sounds like z. 
 
 " Ask the two different sounds of the combination ovj. 
 
 '2 na-chu-rally. 
 
 ^^ Ask the sound of the combination ought. 
 
 ^* Tell the child that the combination au gives the same 
 sound as that produced by the combination aw — w hich sound 
 is a ; and that author, because, are pronounced as if spelt 
 athur, becdze.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 61 
 
 Lesson XX. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 James and Francis. 
 
 James. Who knocks at the door ? 
 
 Francis. Has any body knocked ? I will go 
 and open the door. 
 
 J. Do not go, my brother has opened it. 
 
 F. Let us talk of the story of the little hunch- 
 back. How do you like it ? 
 
 J. I am well pleased with it. I pity the poor 
 little fellow, who died in a iQ\\ minutes, from 
 having swallowed a bone. 
 
 F. The tailor and his handsome wife were 
 very much alarmed at his death, because it 
 had happened at their house. But let me ask 
 you a few questions, to ascertain whether you 
 thoroughly remember the story. By what means 
 did they get rid of the corpse ? 
 
 J. They carried it to the house of a Jewish 
 physician who lived just by, and knocked at 
 the door. The servant maid came to them 
 without a light, and asked what they wanted. 
 The tailor replied that they had brought a sick 
 man, and gave her a piece of money for the 
 doctor's trouble. She went to acquaint her 
 master with the w^elcome news, and the tailor 
 conveyed the corpse to the head of the stairs, 
 and leaving it there, ran off with his wife. 
 
 G
 
 62 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 F. What did tlie Jew do ? 
 J. Being paid beforehand, he thought he had 
 found a good patient, who ought not to be neg- 
 lected ; and coming out in a great hurry without 
 a light, he kicked or knocked the corpse down 
 stairs. 
 
 F, I think he must have been very much ter- 
 rified when he saw that the man brought to him. 
 to be cured was dead ; for he thought he had 
 himself killed him. What did he do next ? 
 
 J. Though much perplexed, he took the pre- 
 caution to shut his door, and conveyed the 
 corpse to his wife's room. She fainted at the 
 sight. 
 
 F. What did the wife say, after she came to 
 her senses ? 
 
 J, She said : " We must not harbour this 
 corpse in our house ; we must turn it out, this 
 very night, or we shall be utterly ruined." And 
 as she was wiser or more cunning than the doc- 
 tor, she added, " A thought strikes me ; let us 
 throw the corpse down the chimney of the Turk 
 our next door neighbour." This they executed 
 very dexterously. 
 
 F. What was the trade of the Turk, their 
 next door neighbour ? 
 
 J. He was a grocer ; he sold sugar, tea, 
 cheese, and tallow. 
 F. W^as he at home ? 
 
 J. No, he was at a wedding feast, and came 
 home late. He was much surprised when, by 
 the light of his lantern, he descried a man stand-
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 63 
 
 ing upright in his chimney. "Ah !" said he, 
 approaching the chimney, " I thought it was 
 the rats and mice that ate my cheese and tallow, 
 but I now see the thief." 
 
 F. What did he afterwards ? 
 J. Having spoken thus, he beat the supposed 
 thief, and the corpse having fallen down, he re- 
 doubled his blows ; but observing that the body 
 did not move, and then perceiving it was a corpse, 
 fear succeeded his anger. 
 
 F. What resolution did he take to avoid the 
 punishment he feared ? 
 
 J. He took the little crooked corpse on his 
 shoulders, carried it out of doors before the 
 break of day, and set it upright against a shop. 
 F, What next happened ? 
 J. A Christian merchant having leaned against 
 the shop, Hunch-back fell upon him, and the 
 merchant knocked the corpse down, crying out, 
 " Thieves !" 
 
 The watchman having come, said. What rea- 
 son have you to abuse this man ? The mer- 
 chant replied, " As he intended to rob me, he 
 threw himself upon me."_ 
 
 " Release him ; you have revenged yourself 
 sufficiently," said the watchman ; but perceiving 
 that the little man was dead, he seized the 
 Christian and carried him to prison. 
 
 The judge, who heard the report of the 
 watch, and viewed the corpse, wishing to take 
 no steps till he knew the Sultan's pleasure, went
 
 64 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 to him, and received this answer : " I will show 
 no mercy." And the merchant was brought out 
 of jail to the foot of the gallows. 
 
 F. Was he hanged ? 
 
 J. No, because the grocer, breaking through 
 the crowd, came up to the gibbet and charged 
 himself with the death of Hump-back. 
 
 F. What next happened ? 
 
 J. The judge said to the hangman, "Release 
 the Christian, and hang this man in his stead, 
 since it appears, by his own confession that he 
 is guilty." 
 
 F. Was the grocer hanged ? 
 
 J. No. The Jewish physician approached the 
 gallows, and entreated the judge to release the 
 grocer, saying, " All the guilt lies at my door," 
 
 F. Was the Jewish physician hanged ? 
 
 J. No. The tailor having made his way 
 through the crowd, appeared before the judge 
 and said, " You have narrowly escaped taking 
 away the life of these good people ; it is I who am 
 to answer for the death of the crook-backed man. 
 
 " Yesterday, towards the evening, being dis- 
 posed to be merry, I invited him to sup with 
 me. A bone stuck in his throat, and though 
 my wife and I did our utmost to relieve him, he 
 died in a few minutes : such was the cause of his 
 death." 
 
 F. Was the tailor hanged ? 
 
 J, No: he was pardoned, and this was but 
 just, as he was not guilty.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 65 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Lesson XXI. 
 The Story of the BHnd Man. 
 
 I WAS born at Bag-dad ; I had a pret-ty for- 
 tune left me by my fa-ther and mo-ther, who 
 died at a short time from each ' oth-er. 
 
 Though I was then young, I was, how-ev-er, 
 so sa-ving, and Hked ^ mo-ney so much, that I 
 would not have given a pen-ny to a poor man. 
 
 In or-der to in-crease my rich-es, I pur-chased^ 
 eigh-ty* cam-els, with which I un-der-took to 
 carry mer-chan-dise^ to Bas-so-ra. 
 
 One^ day as I was re-tur-hing from that cit-y 
 with my cam-els un-lo«-ded, I went by a new 
 ro«d. Af-ter having trav-el-led some time, I met 
 with good pas-tu-rage, and made a halt to let 
 my camels graze. 
 
 While I was res-ting, a der-vish came and sat 
 down by my side. 
 
 We talked^ at first of a great' many in-dif- 
 fer-ent things; then the der-vish told me that 
 
 * Tell the child that the combination ea has two different 
 sounds: e or ee, as in meat, pence, speak, which are pro- 
 nounced as if spelt mete, pece, spekc, or meet, peece, speek ; 
 and a, like that in ape, as in forbear, great, which are pro- 
 nounced as if spelt forbare, grate. This sound, it is true, 
 is shorter in some words, and becomes e, as in head, head 
 (hed, bred). But the nature of a sound is not changed by 
 its being shorter. 
 
 2 liket. 3 pur-chaset. * e-1^. ^ Tell the child 
 
 that in merchandise, s sounds like z. ^ wun. "^ Takt. 
 G 3
 
 66 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 he knew® of a trea-sure a little way off, and that 
 a thou-sand^ camels could not carry half i*^ of it 
 away. 
 
 This good news sur-prised and charmed me ; 
 and, being trans-por-ted with joy, I em-braced " 
 the der-vish, and said : 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combined consonants kn. 
 ^ Ask the sound of s in thousand. 
 ^°haf. " em-braset. 
 
 Lesson XXII. 
 
 " Good der-vish, I know you val-ue not the 
 rich-es of this world ; there-fore of what ser-vice' 
 can the know-ledge of this treasure^ be to you ? 
 You are a-lone, and can-not take much of it 
 away. 
 
 " Show^ me where this treasure is ; I will lo«d 
 all my camels with as much money as they are 
 able to carry, and in re-turn for your fa-vour* 
 I will pre-sent^ you with one of them." 
 
 The der-vish, though he saw^my av-a-rice,'was 
 not an-gry at my un-reason-able® pro-po-sal.^ 
 But he replied : 
 
 " You must be sen-si-ble, broth-er, that what 
 you of-fer me is noth-ing in com-pa-ri-son to the 
 kind-ness you ask. 
 
 "I may choose '" wheth-er I will com-mu-ni- 
 
 * SLT-vis. 2 Ask the child what are the two different 
 sounds of the combination ea. ^ Ask the two different 
 sounds of the combination ow. " fa-vur. ^ pre-zent. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination aiv. "^ iiv a-ris. 
 pro-po-
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. b7 
 
 cate my se-cret to you or keep the treasure to 
 my-se]f. But what I have told you is suf-fi- 
 cient" to let you know my good in-ten-tions 
 towards you. 
 
 " I am still wil-ling to o-blige you, and make 
 your for-tune ; but here is my proposal, which 
 is by far more just than yours ; and it de-pends 
 upon you to ac-cept or re-fuse"^ it. 
 
 "You say that you have eighty'^ camels; I 
 am ready'* to take you to the place where the 
 treasure lies, and we will load your camels with 
 as much gold and jew-els as they can carry. 
 
 " suf-flsli-ent. ^'^ refuze. ^^S^ee Lesson XXI. 7iote *. 
 ''• Ask the child what are the two different sounds of the 
 combination m. 
 
 Lesson XXIII. 
 
 " But then you must let me have forty of 
 them, and you may take the oth-er forty with 
 you; af-ter which we will sep-a-rate, and each' 
 go his way." 
 
 I ac-cep-ted the pro-po-sal,- and gath-ered all 
 my camels to-gether. After having trav-el-led 
 some time we came to a val-ley, the en- trance 
 of which was so narrow that two^ camels could 
 not go a-breast.' 
 
 That val-ley was formed by two high moun- 
 tains. When we had reached the mid-die of it, 
 the der-vish said to me : 
 
 1 Ask the child what are the two different sounds of the 
 combination ea. ^ Ask the sound of 5 in proposal. ^ to.
 
 G8 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 "Stop your camels and make them kneeP 
 down, that we may load them the ea-si-er : * the 
 treasure is in this place." 
 
 I did as the der-vish bid me, and then went 
 to him. He had light-ed a fire, into which he 
 cast a per-fume, and pro-nounced^ three words, 
 which I did not un-der-stand. 
 
 There im-medi-ate-ly a-rose' a thick cloud, 
 which soon sep-ar-a-ted ; and then a large rock, 
 which stood in the mid-die of the plain ^ be-twixt 
 the two moun-tains, o-pened like two fold-ing 
 doors, and ex-posed^ to our view'" a mag-nif-i- 
 cent pal-ace full of gold and jew-els. 
 
 * Remind the child that in words beginning wish kn, k 
 is always silent. ^ e-zi-er. 
 
 6 pronounst. "^ Ask the sound of 5 in arose. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination ai, ay. ^ ex-pozed. 
 
 '0 Tell the child that the combination iew has the same 
 sound as the combination eiv. 
 
 Lesson XXIV. 
 
 We fil-led our sacks, and load-ed our camels 
 with jewels and gold, af-ter which the der-vish 
 re-turned to the treasure and brought' from it 
 a small box, which he showed me, and which 
 con-tained on-ly a kind of po-ma-tum. 
 
 The der-vish used- the same cer-e-mo-ny to 
 shut the treasure as he had done to open it, 
 and away we went. 
 
 I put my-self at the head of the for-ty camels 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination ought, 
 ' Ask the sound of s in used.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 69 
 
 which I had re-served ^ for myself, and the der- 
 vish put himself at the head of the rest. 
 
 We trav-el-led to-geth-er until we came to 
 the great road* where we were to part, the der- 
 vish to go to Bas-so-ra, and I to Bag-dad. Hav- 
 ing there em-braced each oth-er, the der-vish 
 went one way and I, an-oth-er. 
 
 But I had not gone many yards, be-fore en-vy 
 and in-grat-i-tude invaded my heart.^ I be-gan 
 to de-plore the loss of my forty camels, and 
 still more the riches with which they were load- 
 ed;* and I re-solved** to take them back from 
 the der-vish. 
 
 For this pur-pose, I first stopped^ my own 
 camels, and af-ter-wards ran af-ter the der-vish, 
 call-ing him as loud as I could. 
 
 ^ re-zen'd. 
 
 * Tell the child that the combination oa sounds in general 
 like the o of rope, and that road, load, are pronounced as if 
 spelt rode, lode ; oa sounds, it is true, like a in broad, and. 
 a few other words. 
 
 5 hart. 
 
 Lesson XXV. 
 
 The dervish, hear-ing' my voice, and see-ing 
 me com-ing to him, stopped^ his camels and 
 waited for me. When I had come up with him, 
 I said, — 
 
 " Broth-er, I had no soon-er par-ted from you, 
 
 ' Ask the child the two different sounds of the combina- 
 tion ea. ' See Lesson XXIV. note "^ .
 
 70 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 than a thought came into my head, and I am 
 very anxious^ to com-mu-ni-cate it to you. 
 
 " You are a good der-vish, used to hve in 
 peace, and in-tent only upon ser-\ ing God. You 
 know not what trouble you have brought upon 
 your-self, by taking charge of so many camels. 
 If you would follow my ad-vice, you would be 
 sat-is-fied with thir-ty ; and I assure you that 
 you will find it still trouble-some enough* to 
 man-age^ them. Be-lieve" what I tell you, and 
 you will find yourself all the better for it." 
 
 "I begin to think you are right,*' re-plied® the 
 der-vish, who found he was not able to re-fuse' 
 me. " Choose any ten camels you please and 
 take them." 
 
 I set ten a-part, and put them in the road * to 
 fol-low my others. 
 
 I could not have i-mag-ined that the der-vish 
 would have been so easi-ly ^ per-sua-ded to part 
 with his camels ; and this ex-ci-ted my cov-e- 
 toUs-ness still more, and made me be-lieve that 
 it would not be a hard mat-ter to get ten more. 
 
 ^ ank-shus. ^ e-nuf. ^ man-idge. 
 
 ^ Tell the child that tlie combination ie has two different 
 sounds : c, or ee, as in chief, relieve, which are pronounced 
 as if spelt chefe, releve, or cheef, releev ; and i, like that 
 heard in idle, as in died, replied, which are pronounced as 
 if spelt dide, replide. Tell him that if the sound e is not 
 good in a word, he must try the sound i, and he will dis- 
 cover that it is the right one. 
 
 ' Ask the sound of s in refuse. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination oa. ^ e-zeTv.
 
 THE AMI-SPELLING BOOK. 71 
 
 Lesson XXVI. 
 
 There-fore, in-stead of thank-ing him for his 
 present,' I said to him again : " Brother, the 
 in-ter-est I take in your repose^ is so great, 
 that I can-not re-solve to part with you, with- 
 out de-si-ring you to con-sid-er, once'^ more, how 
 dif-fi-cult it is to gov-ern thir-ty loaded,* camels 
 especially* for you who are not used to such work, 
 I ad-vise** you to return me back ten more." 
 
 My dis-cowrse had the de-sired ef-fect, and 
 the der-vish, with-out any hes-i-ta-tion, gave me 
 ten more camels. 
 
 I was not, how-ev-er, yet sat-is-fied,7 and I de- 
 sired him to give me also the other twen-ty he 
 had. He gran-ted them to me with a good 
 grace, say-ing : 
 
 " Make a good use of them, and re-mem-ber 
 that God may take a-way riches as well as give 
 them, if we do not as-sist the poor." 
 
 Though^ I had my forty camels re-turned to 
 me, and was rich-er than any mon-arcA upon 
 earth, still I was not satisfied, but said to the 
 der-vish : 
 
 " Brother, what will you do with that little 
 box of po-ma-tum ? Such a tri-fle is not worth 
 your car-ry-ing away. I there-fore desire you 
 
 * prez-6nt. ^ Ask the sound of 5 in repose. 
 ^ wunse. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination oa. ^ spesh-al-lj. 
 ^ Ask the sound of 5 in advise. ' Ask the two different 
 
 sounds of the combination ie. ^ tlio.
 
 72 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 will make me a present of it ; for what oc-ca- 
 sion has a der-vish for pomatum, who has re- 
 nounced^ the van-i-ties of the world?" 
 
 ^ renounst. 
 
 Lesson XXVII. 
 
 The der-vish, who saw that I was de-ter-mined 
 to have it, no matter by what means,' and that 
 I was strong-er than he, readily gave it to me. 
 
 When I had the box in my hand, I opened 
 it, and look-ing at the pomatum, said to the 
 dervish, " You will not, I am sure, refuse to tell 
 me the par-tic-u-lar use of this pomatum." 
 
 " The use of it is very sur-pris-ing- and won- 
 der-ful," re-plied the dervish. "If you ap-ply a 
 little of this pomatum round your left eye,^ and 
 upon the lid, you will see all the treasures con- 
 tained in the bosom" of the earth ; but, if you ap- 
 ply it to your right eye, it will make you blind." 
 
 *'• Take the box," «oid I to him, " and apply 
 some of this pomatum to my left eye : you 
 un-der-stand how to do it bet-ter than I ; for I 
 long to make a trial of a thing which seems so 
 
 in-cred-i-ble.' 
 
 I ac-cor-ding-ly shut my left eye, and the 
 dervish ap-plied ^ the pomatum. 
 
 When he had done so, I opened my eye, and 
 saw^ all the treasures in the earth. 
 
 1 Ask the two different sounds of the combination ea. 
 
 2 Ask the sound of s in srirprisinp. ^ I. * bo-zfim. 
 5 Ask the two different sounds of the combination ie. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination mv.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 73 
 
 But as I was o-bliged, all the while, to keep 
 my right eye shut with my hand, a thing that 
 tired me, I de-sired the der-vish to apply some 
 of the pomatum to that eye also. 
 
 Lesson XXVIII. 
 
 " I am ready to do it," said he, " but you know 
 I have already told you that it will make you 
 blind." 
 
 As I sus-pec-ted, on the con-tra-ry, that it 
 would give me the pos-ses-sion' of all the riches 
 I had seen, I pos-i-tive-ly'^ in-sis-ted upon his 
 do-ing it. 
 
 " I will then sat-is-fy you," he said ; and 
 he applied a little pomatum to my right eye, 
 which I kept shut ; but, alas ! when I came 
 to open both my eyes, I could see nothing ; I 
 was quite blind. 
 
 " Oh !" good dervish," said I to him, " res-tore 
 me my sight." 
 
 " Mis-er-a-ble^ wretch!"* he replied, "you 
 have been right-ly served; you are a des-pi- 
 ca-ble mi-ser, and de-serve' no pit-y." And he 
 went away with all my camels. 
 
 * poz-zesh-un. ^ Ask the sound of s in positively. 
 ^ Ask the sound of 5 in miserable. 
 
 * Tell the child that in words beginning with tvr, w is 
 always silent, and that wretch, wrapt, wrong, are pronounced 
 as if spelt retch, rapt, ro)7g. 
 
 * Ask the sound of s in miser and in desei-ve.
 
 74 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XXIX. 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 Francis. What do you think of the miser, or 
 blind man ? 
 
 James. I think he was a miserable wretch, 
 who was rightly served, and deserved no pit}'. 
 
 F. What did he do to increase his riches? 
 for you know he liked money above every thing. 
 
 J. He purchased eighty camels, with which 
 he undertook to carry merchandize to Bassora. 
 
 F. What happened to him, one day, as he 
 was returning from that city with his camels 
 unloaded ? 
 
 J. Having met with good pasturage on his 
 road, he made a halt, and while he was resting, 
 a dervish came to him. They talked at first of 
 a great many indifferent things, and then the 
 dervish told him that he knew of so great a 
 treasure that a thousand camels could not carry 
 half of it away. 
 
 F, What did the merchant do ? 
 
 J. Charmed with this good news, which sur- 
 prised him very much, he embraced the dervish, 
 and said to him, ^' I know you do not value the 
 riches of this world ; show me where this treasure
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 15 
 
 lies, and, in return for your kindness, I will pre- 
 sent you with one of my camels loaded with gold." 
 
 F, Was not his proposal very unreasonable ? 
 
 J. It was indeed. But though the dervish 
 saw the merchant's avarice, he replied to him : 
 " I may, if I choose, refuse to show you the place 
 where the treasure lies ; but I am ready to make 
 your fortune, on condition that I shall have 
 forty of your camels." 
 
 F. Did the miser refuse that proposal ? 
 
 J, By no means. He gathered up all his 
 camels, and they went into a valley, the entrance 
 of which was so narrow that two camels could 
 not go abreast. 
 
 Having arrived at the place, the merchant 
 made his camels kneel down, in order that they 
 might load them the easier. 
 
 The dervish lighted a fire, pronounced a few 
 words, and the earth opened, and exposed to 
 their view large heaps of gold and jewels. 
 
 They loaded their camels, embraced each 
 other, and separated. 
 
 F. What did the merchant do after they had 
 parted ? 
 
 J. As he was a miser, and had of course a 
 very bad heart, he resolved to take back his 
 forty camels from the dervish. 
 
 For that purpose he stopped, his own camels, 
 and running after the dervish, said to him, " You 
 are not used to manage camels ; I advise you to
 
 76 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 give them back to me." His discourse had the 
 desired effect ; and, not yet satisfied, he asked 
 the dervish for a httle box which he had in his 
 bosom ; and you know how, by means of this 
 box, the miser became bhnd, — a just punishment 
 for his wicked ingratitude.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 77 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Lesson XXX. 
 
 What is that thing which takes the col-our i 
 of them who look upon it, which men can-not 
 do with-out, and which of itself has neither- 
 body nor colour? — It is water. 
 
 What is the thing which has neither door 
 nor foun-da-tion, and which is filled with yel-low 
 and white ? — It is an egg. 
 
 In a cer-tain gar-den there is a tree : this 
 tree bears twelve bran-ches ; upon each branch 
 there are thir-ty leaves, and upon each leaf four ' 
 fruits,-^ three of which are in the sun, and one* 
 in the shade. 
 
 This tree rep-re-sents the year: the twelve 
 branches are the months ; the thirty leaves are 
 the days ; the four fruits are the four meals, of 
 which three are made by day and one by night. 
 
 ^ Tell the child that the combination ou has five different 
 sounds : the first as in out, pou7id, our ; the second, in the 
 combination ou^ht, sounds like a, as in hought, thought, 
 which are pronounced bat, that : the third sounds like ii, 
 or 00, as in you, youth, which are pronounced as if spelt 
 yoo, yooth ; the fourth sounds like m, as in favour, indus- 
 trious, young, colour, which are pronounced as if spelt, 
 favur, in-dus-tri-us, yung, col-ur ; and the fifth like o, as 
 in though, court, discourse, which are pronounced as if spelt 
 tho, cort, discorse. 
 
 2 ne-ther. ^ froots. '' wun. 
 H 3
 
 78 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 What creature is that which is corn-posed of 
 seven dif-fer-ent animals, and in-hab-its des-o- 
 late places ? 
 
 It is the grass-hop-per, which is com-posed of 
 seven animals ; for it has the head of a horse, 
 the neck of an ox, the wings of an eagle, the 
 feet of a camel, the tail of a ser-pent, the horns 
 of a stag, and the body of a scor-pi-on. 
 
 What thing is that whose ^ covering is armed^ 
 with darts, which wears 7 a black vest, a yel-low^ 
 shirt, whose moth-er lives more than a hun-dred 
 years, and which is liked ^ by all children ? — It is 
 a ches-nut. 
 
 What is sweeter than hon-ey? — The love of a 
 mother for her child. 
 
 5 hooz. 
 
 6 Tell the child that there are many words ending in ed 
 in which the e is silent, as in armed, pulled, returned, 
 which are pronounced as if spelt armd, pulld, re-turTid. 
 That there are other words ending also in ed, in which 
 not only the e is silent, but the d sounds like ^ as in con- 
 vinced, passed, looked, asked, which are pronounced as if 
 spelt cuiL-vinst, past, lookt, askt. 
 
 ' Ask. the two different sounds of the combination ea. 
 " Ask the two different sounds of the combination ow.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 79 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Lesson XXXI. 
 
 The Fig Woman. 
 
 An old woman who sold figs brought one day, 
 be-fore the ca-di of Erze-riim, a young * man all 
 trem-bling, who seemed not a-bove six-teen, and 
 was ex-treme-ly beau-ti-ful.- 
 
 " Sir," said she to the ma-gis-trate, " I de- 
 mand jus-tice of you a-gainst this young ras-cal ; 
 and judge if I have not a suf-fi-cient reason ^ to 
 corn-plain of him. 
 
 " This mor-ning he came to me to know how 
 much I would take for as many figs as he could 
 eat during the day. I be-gan to make my calcu- 
 lation. Perhaps, said I to my-self, he may be 
 able to eat a hun-dred, or a hundred and fif-ty at 
 most. 
 
 " Well, my pretty youth," ' said I, " you 
 shall give me five shil-lings. We struck the 
 bar-gain, and he be-gan, and swal-lowed fifty. 
 
 " I trem-bled to see him a-gain ; but about 
 two Aours af-ter he came again, and ate up a 
 hundred of the finest I had. 
 
 ^ Ask the five different sounds of the combination ou. 
 ' bu-ti-fiil. 3 reezn.
 
 80 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 " This made me al-most mad ; but think-ing 
 it would be his last time, I was sit-ting qui-et-ly 
 in my shop, when he came a third time, and 
 swal-lowed all I had in my bas-ket, or-der-ing 
 me to get him more, be-cause'' he would return 
 in half an hour. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combination an. 
 
 Lesson XXXII. 
 
 " I was so a-mazed that I could make him no 
 an-swer, and had hard-ly re-cov-ered from my 
 sur-prise, when, behold! my gentle-man comes 
 again, and in-sists pos-i-tive-ly that I shall sup- 
 ply him with more figs." 
 
 The judge could hardly for-bear laugh-ing " 
 at the old woman's sto-ry. " Why would you," 
 said he to the young man, " cheat this good 
 woman? Is it not e-nough- that you have 
 emp-tied^ the whole basket, without de-si-ring 
 her to pro-vide you with more ? There is no 
 justice in this con-duct of yours." 
 
 The young man made no an-swer, but stood 
 mute like a crim-i-nal going to pun-ish-ment. 
 On which the ca-di as-sumed a more lof-ty 
 tone. 
 
 " I see," said he, " by your not making any 
 
 ' laf-ing. 2 e.j^iif_ 
 
 ^ Ask^lie two different sounds of the combination ie.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 81 
 
 re-ply, that you are one of those vag-a-bonds 
 who go about swin-dling and dis-turb-ing the 
 publick peace.* 
 
 " In order to teach you to live more ^on- 
 est-ly for the fu-ture, I will have you flogged 
 im-me-di-ate-ly." 
 
 " Ah ! Sir," cried the young man, on hear- 
 ing this sen-tence, " I am not what you take 
 me for. Sus-pend, I beseech you, the ex-e- 
 cu-tion of your orders, and grant me the fa- 
 vour* of speak-ing with you in pri-vate, and 
 I am per-sua-ded you will re-voke this se-vere 
 sen-tence." 
 
 * Ask the two different sounds of the combination ea. 
 
 * Ask the five different sounds of the combination ou. 
 
 Lesson XXXIII. 
 
 The cadi, who only in-ten-ded to frighten 
 the youth, took him into his closet,' and was 
 in the ut-most sur-prise to find in man's clothes "^ 
 one of the most beau-ti-ful young la-dies in all 
 Erze-rum, and whose father was a viz-ier. 
 
 " Sir," said she to the cadi, " I am right-ly 
 served'^ for my cu-ri-os-i-ty. I have two broth- 
 ers, who are twins, ex-act-ly like one another, 
 
 ' clozit. - clozp. 
 
 3 Ask the child what are the three different sounds of ed 
 when it ends a word.
 
 82 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 and people tell me that I have all their fea- 
 tures. Now, one of them, for a little pas-time, 
 and to tease this old woman, made a bar-gain, 
 as she told you, and by re-liev-ing' each other 
 in eat-ing the figs, they emp-tied the basket. 
 
 " I too had a mind to see the farce, and there- 
 fore de-sired one of my brothers to lend me his 
 clothes, which he did. And I, coming to the 
 fig-woman, who took me for him, teased her so 
 long, and carried the jest so far, that she raised 
 a mob, and has brought me. Sir, before you. 
 
 "1 hope, therefore, that you will not now make 
 me un-der-go the pun-ish-ment j^ou have threa- 
 tened me with ; and I must en-treat^ you to let 
 me go home as soon as pos-sible, lest my ab- 
 sence should be known to my fam-i-ly. 
 
 Fair young lady, said the cadi to her, I will 
 not be so se-vere upon you; but take care 
 another time not to be so cu-rious : and he sent 
 her back to her friends."^ 
 
 ' Ask the two different sounds of the combinations ie. 
 2 Ask which are the two sounds of the combinations ea. 
 ^ f rends.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 83 
 
 Lesson XXXIV. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 Francis. What is the thing which has neither 
 body nor colour ? 
 
 James, It is water. 
 
 F. What is the thing which is filled with 
 yellow and white ? 
 
 J, It is an Q^^. 
 
 F. What is the thing which is represented 
 by a certain tree, which bears thirty leaves on 
 each branch, and four fruits on each leaf? 
 
 J. The year. 
 
 F. What is that whose covering is armed 
 with darts, and which wears a yellow shirt ? 
 
 J. A chesnut. 
 
 F. Let us talk of the fig-woman, and the 
 pretty youth, the beautiful young man who hap- 
 pened to be a very handsome young lady in 
 man's clothes. 
 
 J, The judge could hardly forbear laughing 
 at that curious story : however, he said gravely. 
 Why would you cheat this good woman ; is it 
 not enough that you have emptied her basket ? 
 To teach you to live more honestly for the 
 future, I will have you well flogged. 
 
 The poor girl, hearing the judge's sentence, 
 was very much frightened. But having ob- 
 tained the favour of speaking to him in his closet, 
 he sent her back to her friends.
 
 84 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 F. I should have been pleased to have seen 
 the two young rogues, who, by relieving each 
 other in eating the figs, teased the old woman so 
 much. 
 
 J. They ought to have paid double, and the 
 good woman herself would have laughed at the 
 joke.
 
 THE ANTI-SPFLLING BOOK. 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Lesson XXXV. 
 The Story of Hassan Al-hab-al. 
 
 Sir, in order that you may the better under- 
 stand by what means I arrived at the happi- 
 ness I now enjoy, I must first speak to you of 
 two intimate friends,' citizens of Bagdad, now 
 alive, to whom, after God, the author of all 
 good, I owe my prosperity. 
 
 These two friends are called, the one Saadi 
 and the other Saad. Saadi, who is very rich, 
 has always been of opinion that no man can be 
 happy in this world without great riches, and 
 that riches are the fruit^ of wisdom. 
 
 Saad is of another opinion : he agrees that 
 something is necessary to live upon ; but main- 
 tains that there is no happiness without virtue, 
 and that a fool who is mean and selfish will 
 grow^ richer than a very wise man who has a 
 good heart.'' 
 
 One day as they were conversing upon this 
 subject, Saadi said : " men are only poor because 
 they are idle and vicious."^ "I do not think 
 so," replied Saad, "for I know many people 
 
 * frends. ^ froot. 
 
 3 Ask the sound of the combination ow, 
 
 * hart. ^ vhh'Vs. 
 
 I
 
 86 THE ANTI- SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 who are good, sober, and industrious,^ and 
 who, notwithstanding their good qualities, are 
 very poor." 
 
 ^ Ask what are the five different sounds of the combina- 
 tion ou. 
 
 Lesson XXXVI. 
 
 " How can you account for that ?" asked 
 Saadi. 
 
 "I can easily account for it," Saad replied, 
 " since there are a great many good and clever 
 people who cannot get work." 
 
 " But," returned Saadi, " you will agree with 
 me that, if an industrious man had a little 
 sum of money to begin business ' with, or to 
 improve his condition, he would be sure to 
 succeed." 
 
 " I grant," replied Saad, " that in many cases 
 a little sum of money would prevent the ruin'^ 
 of a man, and enable him to succeed ; but I am 
 of opinion that the wealth of those who have 
 grown very rich is due rather to chance than 
 to their industry." 
 
 While thus conversing, they happened to 
 pass through the street where I was at work 
 in my stall. They came to me, saluted me, 
 and Saadi asked me my name. 
 
 I returned their salute, and answered Saadi's 
 question as follows : 
 
 ' biznes. - roohi.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 87 
 
 " Sir, my name is Hassan, but on account of 
 my being by trade a ropemaker, I am com- 
 monly known by the name of Hassan Al- 
 habal." 
 
 Lesson XXXVH. 
 
 " Well, Hassan !" said Saadi, " how long have 
 you been a ropemaker ?" " Thirty years," I 
 replied. " As," observed Saadi, " a man may 
 live well by his trade, I suppose that by this 
 time you have saved a great deaP of money." 
 
 " I have not," I replied, " saved a single 
 penny ; and I think myself very lucky when I 
 can get bread ' for my wife and children." 
 
 " But," said Saadi, " were I to make you a 
 present'^ of two hundred pounds, would you not 
 make a good use of it? and do you not believe^ 
 that with such a sum you could soon become 
 rich ? " Sir," I answered, " without presuming 
 too much on myself, I dare say that a much 
 less sum would be enough* to help me to be- 
 come rich." 
 
 The generous^ Saadi pulled a purse out of 
 his pocket, and putting it into my hands, said : 
 
 ' Ask which are the two sounds of the combination ea. 
 
 - prez-ent. 
 
 ^ Ask which are the two sounds of the combination ie. 
 
 * e nuf. 
 
 ^ Ask the five different sounds of the combination on.
 
 88 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 " Here are two hundred pounds for you ; I 
 hope they will prove the beginning of your 
 fortune." And he and his friend pursued their 
 walk. 
 
 My joy was so great that 1 could not find 
 words to express my gratitude to my benefac- 
 tor. I tried to resume my work, but could 
 think of nothing but my money. 
 
 Lesson XXXVIIL 
 
 Having no box at home in which I could lock 
 my money up, I thought of hiding it in the 
 folds of my turban. 
 
 For that purpose I went home. I laid aside 
 ten pounds for present wants, and, without being 
 seen by my wife and children, I wrapped ' the 
 other piece s in the folds of my turban. 
 
 As my family had not eaten meat - for a long 
 while, I went to the market and bought ^ some- 
 thing for supper. 
 
 As I was carrying the meat in my hand, a 
 famished kite flew"* upon it, and would have 
 taken it aw ay, had I not held it very fast. 
 
 1 Remind the cliild that in words beginning with wr, 
 w is silent. 
 
 '■* Ask which are the two sounds of the combination ea. 
 
 3 Ask the sound of the combination ought. 
 
 * Ask the sound of the combinations ew and ieiv.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 89 
 
 But from a sudden effort which I made, my 
 turban fell off, and rolled upon the ground. 
 The kite immediately let go the meat, and 
 pouncing upon my poor turban, seized and flew 
 away with it, thus robbing me of my newly ac- 
 quired wealth. 
 
 I uttered such loud cries, that I almost 
 frightened all the men, women,^ and children 
 in the neighbourhood ; 6 they joined their shouts 
 and cries to mine, to make the kite quit its 
 prey. But, alas ! we soon lost sight of the hun- 
 gry bird. 
 
 ^ wim-in. ® na-bur-hood. 
 
 Lesson XXXIX. 
 
 I returned home very melanc/ioly at the 
 loss of my turban and money, and was obliged 
 to htiy a new turban, which diminished the 
 sum I had taken for immediate wants. My 
 family and I lived a little better for a short 
 time with the remainder of the ten pounds, 
 after which we again fell into our former state of 
 poverty. 
 
 I did not, however, repine. *' God," I 
 said, " was pleased to give me riches when I 
 the least expected them, and he has also taken 
 them away : His will be done !" 
 
 About six months after this misfortune, Saad 
 said to Saadi : " Let us call on Hassan, and see 
 I 3
 
 90 
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 what use he has made of the two hundred sove- 
 reigns ' you gave him." 
 
 " With all my heart,"- replied Saadi ; " and I 
 am confident we shall find a great change in 
 his appearance and fortune ; we shall hardly 
 know 3 him again." 
 
 The two friends* having turned the corner of 
 the street in which I lived, and Saad perceiv- 
 ing me at a distance, said to Saadi : 
 
 "I see Hassan, but can discern^ no change 
 in his person ; for he is as ill-dressed^ as he was 
 when we saw him before. His turban, I think, 
 looks a little better ; that is all the difiference 
 I can perceive. 
 
 ^ suv-er-ins. 
 
 - hart. Tell the child that this word is an exception to 
 the rule established in note S Lesson XX f. 
 
 ^ Tell the child to give the two sounds of the combi- 
 nation ow. 
 
 * /rends. Tell the child that this word is an exception 
 to the rule established in 7iote ^ Lesson XXF. 
 
 2 diz-era. ^ See note ^, Lesson XXX. 
 
 Lesson XL. 
 
 With regard to Saadi, he was so amazed ' at 
 seeing so little alteration in my person, that 
 he could hardly speak when he came up to 
 me. 
 
 » See note ^ Lesson XXX.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 91 
 
 " Well, Hassan," said Saad, " have you been 
 very successful ?" " Alas ! gentlemen," I re- 
 plied, " I am sorry to say that I have not." And 
 I related my extraordinary adventure with the 
 kite. 
 
 Saadi would not at first believe ^ me ; but 
 Saad took my part, and Saadi, being at last con- 
 vinced of the truth of my misfortune, pulled 
 out his purse, made me another present of two 
 hundred sovereigns, which he recommended 
 me to put in a safer place, and then went away 
 with his friend. 
 
 As soon as they were gone I left off my 
 work and went home, but finding neither my 
 wife nor children within, I pulled out my 
 money. 
 
 1 put ten pieces by, wrapped the remainder 
 in a handkerchief and hid it in a great earthen 
 pot full of bran, which stood in a corner. 
 Having thus put my money ^ in a place where 
 I imagined that neither my wife nor my chil- 
 dren would look, I returned to my stall. 
 
 ^ Ask the sound of the combination ie. 
 
 2 Ask the two different sounds of the combination ey.
 
 92 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XLI. 
 
 My wife came home soon after I had gone to 
 work, and a sandman passing in our street, 
 crying, " Sand, any sand," she called him. 
 
 The sandman having come to her, she said, 
 " I want some sand, but as I have no money, 
 I will give you, if you like, some bran in ex- 
 change." 
 
 The sandman asked ^ to see the bran. My 
 wife showed - him the pot. The bargain was 
 soon struck, and the sandman took the pot and 
 bran along with him. 
 
 I came home to dinner soon after. Hav- 
 ing sat doAv n, I looked ' at the place where the 
 pot of bran usually stood, and was very mucli 
 surprised at not seeing it. 
 
 I hastily asked my wife what was become of 
 it. She told me the bargain she had made with 
 the sandman, which she thought a very good 
 one. 
 
 "Ah! unhappy woman," I exclaimed, "you 
 do not know the injury you have done me, 
 yourself, and our children. You thought only 
 of selling the bran ; but with it you have 
 given away a hundred and ninety sovereigns 
 
 ' See Lesson XXX. note ^. ^ shode.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 93 
 
 which Saadi and his friend again made me a 
 present of, this morning, and which I placed at 
 the bottom of the pot." 
 
 Lesson XLII. 
 
 As my wife had never before seen that sand- 
 man, and had no hope of seeing him again, she 
 became hke one stark mad, when she knew 
 the evil she had brought upon us through ' igno- 
 rance. 
 
 I did all I could to moderate her grief, and 
 tQ prevail on her to bear our loss patiently. 
 
 After a very, very long period had elapsed, the 
 two friends came to see me again, in order to as- 
 certain how far I had improved my circumstances 
 and grown rich. 
 
 I was terribly concerned when I perceived 
 them at a distance, and had almost a mind to 
 hide myself. I however went on with my work, 
 as if I did not see them, and did not lift up 
 my eyes till they were just by me, and had 
 saluted me. 1 related to them my last misfor- 
 tune, and told them that 1 was as poor as ever. 
 
 Then Saad, picking up a bit of lead which 
 he saw in a corner of the street, gave it to me, 
 saying : " Take this bit of lead ; it may by 
 chance prove the origin of your fortune." 
 
 » Ask the child what are the five different sounds of the 
 combination ou.
 
 94 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 Lesson XLIII. 
 
 Saadi burst out laughing^ at Saad; but the 
 latter said : " 1 am well aware that all rich 
 men pretend that their wealth is owing to 
 their superior abilities and conduct ; but as 
 I know a great many fools who have acquired 
 immense riches, I am compelled to think that 
 most people owe their fortune and success to 
 blind chance, and not to their merit. 
 
 " I should not therefore wonder," continued 
 he, "to hear one day that Hassan, without 
 growing wiser, or more industrious, has be- 
 come one of the richest men in Bagdad." 
 
 So saying, Saad took Saadi's arm, and they 
 left me. I put the bit of lead into my pocket. 
 
 On the following night, it happened that a 
 fisherman, a neighbour- of ours, who was mend- 
 ing his nets, was in want of a bit of lead. 
 As it was too late to buy any, he said to his 
 wife, " Go, my dear, to our neighbours, and 
 ask if any of them can give me a bit of 
 lead." 
 
 The wife went from door to door on both sides 
 of the street, but could not get any. 
 
 * laf-ing. 
 
 2 Ask the child what are the five different sounds of tae 
 combination ou.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 95 
 
 Lesson XLIV. 
 
 The fisherman seemed much concerned,' and 
 scratching his head, asked her if she had been 
 to Hassan Alhabal's. " No, indeed," his wife 
 rephed ; " it is too far off, and I should have 
 had the trouble for nothing, for they never have 
 any thing when one wants it." 
 
 " No matter for that," said the fisherman, 
 " you must go there ; for though you have called 
 on them a hundred times before to no purpose, 
 you may now, perhaps, get what we want." 
 
 The wife, grumbling all the way, came and 
 knocked at my door, and waked me out of a 
 sound sleep. 
 
 I asked her what she wanted. "Hassan," 
 said she, as loud as she could bawl, " my hus- 
 band wants a bit of lead to mend his nets with ; 
 and if you have such a thing, we should be very 
 much obliged to you for it." 
 
 I immediately recollected the bit which Saad 
 had given me, and told my neighbour that if 
 she would stay a moment my wife would give 
 her what she wanted. 
 
 " My dear," said I to my wife, " get up, take 
 a bit of lead which you will find in my pocket, 
 and give it to this good woman." 
 
 ' Ask the child what are the three different sounds of cd 
 endino" a word.
 
 96 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 The fisherman's wife received that bit of 
 lead with the greatest demonstration of joy, and 
 promised my wife, that in return for our kind- 
 ness we should have the first cast of the nets. 
 
 Lesson XLV. 
 
 The fisherman was so much rejoiced to see 
 the lead which he little expected to get, that 
 he confirmed the promise his wife had made. 
 He mended his nets, and next morning went 
 to fish. 
 
 At the first throw he caught but one fish, 
 about a yard long, and thick in proportion. He 
 afterwards had many successful casts ; but of all 
 the fish he took, the first was the largest. 
 
 When the fisherman had done fishing, he 
 went home, and immediately after came to me 
 with a large fish in his hand. "Neighbour," 
 said he, " my wife promised yours, last night, 
 whatever fish I should catch at my first throw. 
 It has pleased God to send me no more than 
 this one, which, for the kindness you did us, 
 I desire you to accept: it is but a trifling 
 present, as all my other casts were very suc- 
 cessful." 
 
 " Neighbour," I replied, " the bit of lead 
 which I gave you was a mere trifle, and ought 
 not to be valued at so high^ a rate. Neigh- 
 
 1 Tell the child that the combination igh has the sound of 
 i heard in idle.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 97 
 
 bours should assist each other with what they 
 have. I should have expected the same kind- 
 ness from you had I stood in such a need. I 
 I will not refuse your present, as I am persuaded 
 you give it freely ; and I return you my most 
 hearty- thanks." 
 
 After these compliments I took the fish, and 
 carried it home to my wife. "Here," said I, 
 " take this fish which the fisherman has made 
 me a present of, for the little bit of lead we gave 
 his wife last night. 
 
 " I believe it is all that we can expect from 
 the present Saad made me yesterday." I then 
 told my wife what had taken place between my 
 two friends and me. 
 
 2 Tell the child that the pronunciation of this word is an 
 exception to the rule laid down in Lesson XXI. 
 
 Lesson XL VI. 
 
 My wife was very much startled at seeing 
 so large a fish. " What would you have me do 
 with it ?" said she ; " our gridiron is only fit to 
 broil small fish ; and we have not a pot big 
 enough to boil it." 
 
 " That is your business," I answered ; " dress 
 it as you please ; I shall like it either way." 
 So saying I returned to my work. 
 
 In cutting the fish my wife found a large 
 diamond, which, when she had washed it, she
 
 98 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 took for a bit of glass. She had indeed heard of 
 diamonds before, but had never seen one. She 
 gave it to the children for a plaything. 
 
 At night, when the lamp was lighted, and 
 the children were slill playing with the diamond, 
 they perceived that it gave light, when my 
 wife, who was dressing our supper, stood be- 
 tween them and the lamp; upon which they 
 snatched it from one another to look at it. 
 
 But as children always squabble, my wife and 
 I took no notice of them at first ; for the great 
 ones who came to sup with us gave the diamond 
 to the youngest, and all was quiet. 
 
 After supper, when the children came together 
 again, they began to make the same noise, and 
 I called to the eldest to know what was the 
 matter. 
 
 He told me it was a bit of glass which gave 
 light when his back was to the lamp. I bade 
 him bring me the bit of glass, and trying the 
 experiment myself, it appeared to me so ex- 
 traordinary that I asked my wife where she 
 got it. She told me she had found it in gutting 
 the fish. 
 
 I resolved to make a further trial of its 
 virtues ; and having desired my wife to put 
 the lamp inside the chimney, I found that the 
 supposed glass gave so great a light that we 
 could see to go to bed without the lamp. This 
 I extinguished, and placed the bit of glass upon 
 the chimney to light us instead. " Look," said I ;
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 99 
 
 " this is another advantage that my friend Saad's 
 piece of lead procures us ; it will save us the 
 expenseof oiL" 
 
 Lesson XL VII. 
 
 When the children saw that the lamp was 
 out, and the bit of glass supplied its place, 
 they shouted, and made such a noise, that it 
 was enough to alarm the whole neighbourhood. 
 The next morning, without thinking any more 
 of the glass, I went to my work as usual. 
 
 I was hardly gone, when the wife of a very 
 rich Jew, a jeweller, and our next door neighbour, 
 came to mine to complain of having been dis- 
 turbed out of her first sleep. 
 
 " Good Rebecca," said my wife, " I am very 
 sorry for what has happened, and I hope you will 
 excuse it. You are aware it was the children, 
 and they, you know, will laugh and cry for any 
 thing. I will show you what was the occasion 
 of all the noise." Saying so my wife showed 
 her the diamond, and told her how she happened 
 to have it. 
 
 The jeweller's wife, who knew every kind of 
 jewel, examined the diamond, and returning it 
 to my wife, said : " I believe it is a bit of glass ; 
 but as it is more beautiful than common glass, 
 and I have just such another piece at home, I 
 will buy it if you will sell it,"
 
 100 THE ANTI -SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 The children, on hearing this, wept, and beg- 
 ged of their mother not to part with their play- 
 thing ; and to quiet them she promised she 
 would not. 
 
 Mrs. Rebecca, being thus thwarted in her 
 bargain by my" children, went away, whispering 
 to my wife that she should be glad to have it. 
 She ran to her husband, who was at the bazaar, 
 and told him of the discovery she had made. 
 The Jew sent back his wife to mine to treat. 
 Mrs. Rebecca accordingly came to my wife, and 
 offered her twenty sovereigns for the pretended 
 bit of glass. 
 
 My wife, finding the sum so considerable, 
 would not make any bargain, but told her she 
 could not part with it till she had spoken to 
 me. 
 
 They were still talking at the door when I came 
 home to dinner, and my wife informed me that 
 her neighbour offered her twenty sovereigns for 
 the piece of glass she had found in the fish, 
 and asked me if I would sell it. I returned no 
 answer, thinking of the fortune Saad had pro- 
 mised me. 
 
 The Jewess, fancying that the low price she 
 had offered was the reason I made no reply, 
 said, " 1 will give you fifty, neighbour, if that 
 will do." 1 told her that I expected a great 
 deal more. " Well, neighbour," said she, " I 
 will give you a hundred," " That wi-ll not do," 
 I replied.
 
 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 101 
 
 She looked again at the piece of glass, and 
 said, " I will give you five hundred, but am 
 very much afraid my husband will be very angry 
 with me for offering so much." 
 
 Lesson XL VIII. 
 
 This new offer gave me some notion of the 
 value of my diamond, and I told her I would 
 have a hundred thousand sovereigns. 
 
 She confirmed me in my resolution by being 
 so eager, and by coming up to fifty thousand, 
 which I refused. " I can offer you no more," 
 she said, " without my husband's consent ; he 
 will be at home at night, and I beg the favour 
 of you not to dispose of it before he has seen 
 you." This I promised. 
 
 At night the Jew came to me. " Neighbour 
 Hassan," said he, " I desire you would show me 
 the diamond your wife showed to mine." I gave 
 it to him. As it was pretty dark, and my lamp 
 was not lighted, he presently knew by the light 
 the diamond cast, and by the lustre it had, that 
 his wife had made him a true report. He 
 looked at it, and admired it a long time. 
 
 " Well, neighbour," said he, " my wife offered 
 you fifty thousand sovereigns : come, I will give 
 you twenty thousand more." 
 
 " Neighbour," said I, " your wife can tell you 
 that I value my diamond at a hundred thousand, 
 and I will not take a farthing less." He haggled
 
 102 THE ANTI-SPELLING BOOK. 
 
 a long time with me, in hopes that I would make 
 some abatement ; but finding me determined, 
 he came up to my price. 
 
 Having sold my diamond, I found myself 
 very rich. I bought a good house, where I live, 
 very happy, with my family, and I agree with 
 my friend Saad that great riches are owing more 
 to chance than to wisdom and industry, and that 
 we deserve them only in proportion as we make 
 a good use of them, and relieve the poor. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 pniNTTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEV, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 B 000 002 232 7 
 
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