The Diving Bell | Page 3

great time over it," I interrupted, to which the little boy nodded, as much as to say,
"Yes, sir, that's it."
"Did your father send you after this book?" I asked.
"No, sir."
"Did your mother tell you to get it?"
"No, sir. But my mother gave me a shilling, and told me I might buy just such a book as I liked."
"Well, my son," said I, "look here. You have heard Giles read some of the funny things in this almanac, have you not?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you've seen some of the pictures?"
"Yes, sir, all of them."
"Then you know pretty well what the book is?"
"Yes, sir, all about it, and that's what makes me want to buy it."
"Well, you have a right to buy just such a book as you want. But if I were in your place, I would not buy that book; and I'll tell you why. There's a good deal of fun in it, to be sure. No doubt you would laugh over it, if you had it. But you can't learn anything from it. Come, now, I'll make a bargain with you. Here's a book"--I handed him one of the Lucy books, written by Mr. Jacob Abbott--"which is worth a dozen of that. This will make you laugh some, as well as the other book; and it will do much more and better than that. It will set you to thinking. It will instruct, as well as amuse you. It will sow some good seeds in your mind, and your heart, too. It will teach you to be a thinker as well as a reader. It costs a little more than that almanac, it is true. But never mind that. If you'll take this book, and give the gentleman your shilling, I'll pay him the rest of the money. Will you do it? Will you take the Lucy book, and leave the funny almanac?"
He hesitated. He hardly knew whether he should make or lose by the trade.
"If you will do so," I continued, "and read the book, when you get through with it, you may come to my office in Nassau street, and tell me how you was pleased with it. Then, if you say that you did not like Mr. Abbott's book so well as you think you would have liked the book with the funny pictures, and tell me that you made a bad bargain, I'll take back the Lucy book, and give you the almanac in the place of it."
That pleased the little fellow. The bargain was struck. Mr. Abbott's book was bought, and the boy left the store, and ran home.
I think it was about a week after that, or it might have been a little longer, that I heard my name spoken, as I was sitting at my desk. I turned around, and, sure enough, there was the identical boy with whom I had made the trade at the book store.
"Well, my little fellow," I said, "you've got sick of your bargain, eh?" "No, sir," he said, "I'm glad I made it;" and he proceeded to tell me his errand. It seemed that he had been so pleased with the book, that he "wanted a few more of the same sort," as the razor strop man says; and his father had told him that he might come to me, ask me to get all the Lucy books for him.
Now you see how it was with that little fellow, before he read the book I gave him. He had got the notion that a child's book could not be amusing--could not be worth reading--unless it was filled with such nonsense as there was in the "funny book" he called for. He had not got a taste for reading anything else. As soon as he did get such a taste, he liked that kind of reading the best; because, besides making him laugh a little now and then, it put some thoughts into his head--gave him some hints which would be worth something to him in after life.
Now, I presume there are a great many boys and girls, who love to read such nonsense as one finds in comic almanacs, and books like "Bluebeard," and "Jack the Giant Killer," but who, like the youth I met in the book store, could very easily learn to like useful books just as well, and better too, if they would only take them up, and read them.
Why, my little friends, a book need not be dull and dry, because it is not all nonsense. Uncle Frank don't mean to have a long face on, when he writes for young people. He believes in laughing. He likes to laugh himself, and he likes to see his young friends laugh, too, sometimes.
I hope, indeed, that you will find this little book amusing, as well