A NEWCOMER IN ILLER-STREAM
do it knows that well. Don’t you like the pretty books your father has given you?”
“No, I don’t. They are pretty, but awfully tiresome, Martha,” Cornelli assured her. “There are all kinds of stories and descriptions in them of famous people and discoveries. Father said that he used to love them when he was young, but he was probably different from me. Now I can’t run to the stable any more, nor into the woods as I feel like doing; now I have to sit around all the time and read a book. Oh, I wish nobody had written any books, then nobody would have to read them.”
“But Cornelli, I do not think that this would suit everybody,” Martha said. “Please help me to read a letter I got to-day, and then you will see what an advantage it is to be able to read. I need your help, for I do not understand what is wanted of me.”
Cornelli, taking up the letter, was quite willing to help her dear old friend.
“Who wrote it?” asked the child.
“That is just the thing I cannot read,” Martha answered. "I only know that it comes
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