“What is your objection to grammar, Charles?” said his papa.

“Oh, why—­there is nothing amusing in it.”

“And do you not think there is some other reason for learning, besides being amused?”

“Yes; I think we learn that we may grow wise; but I don’t want to leave off learning, papa; I only want to learn something else, instead of grammar?”

Mr. Barber laughed, and told Charles, that no other kind of knowledge would be of much use to him without grammar, since nothing else would teach him to speak or write like a gentleman.

“Don’t I speak like a gentleman now, papa?”

“You speak pretty well for a little boy, my dear; but you often make mistakes, which we think nothing of now, because we know that when you have learnt a little more grammar, you will know better; but if you were to make such mistakes when you are a man, you would be thought an ignorant person, and not be treated with respect.”

“Can you tell me of any mistakes I make now papa?”

[Illustration:  Little Charles learning geography.]

“Oh yes, I think I could very soon tell you of a great many.  Just now, when you were standing at the window, I heard you say,—­’There goes two white horses!’ now that was a very great blunder, Charles.”

“Was it, papa;—­why?”

“Because it showed that you did not know the difference between singular and plural.”

“But I do know the difference—­singular means one thing, and plural means more than one.”

“Exactly, so now try to find out the blunder.”

Charles repeated the words two or three times, “there goes two white horses;” but he could not find out what was wrong, and after puzzling for a long while, he was obliged to give it up, and his papa said,—­“Suppose you had been talking about those horses before you saw them go by, should you have said, ‘there they goes?’” “No,” said Charles.

“I should have said—­’there they go.’”

“And why should you have said so?”

“Because it is not right to say—­’there they goes’; nobody says so, but very ignorant people indeed; I heard the butcher’s boy say so one day; but then, you know, he is a poor ignorant boy and I dare say has never learnt any thing.”

“How did you know that he was an ignorant boy, Charles?”

“I knew it by his speaking wrong, papa.”

“Then you see it was true what I told you that if you speak wrong, people will directly think you are an ignorant person, as you thought the butcher’s boy.”

“But I should never say, ‘there they goes,’” said Charles, “I know better than that.”

“Ah, Charles,” said his papa, “you must learn a little more grammar, and then you will know that you made exactly the same blunder as the butcher’s boy, when you said, ‘there goes two white horses,’ you should have said, ‘there go two white horses.’”