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Rollo Learning to Read

Chapter 16: THE FLY’S MORNING WALK.
By Jacob Abbott
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Children & Young Adult ReadingTeaching & Education

About This Book

A collection of short, child-centered episodes follows a young boy's gradual progress in learning to read under family guidance. Chapters mix simple instructional sequences with practical advice about habits, perseverance, and the method of teaching letters and words. Repetition, staged lessons, and regular practice underline the pedagogical approach, while brief moral and amusing tales illustrate vocabulary and everyday concepts. Interspersed scenes of play, chores, small mishaps, and animal anecdotes provide context for reading exercises. The overall tone blends firm instruction with gentle encouragement to make early reading disciplined yet engaging.

THE FLY’S MORNING WALK.

Once there was a little fly with broad, thin wings and round body and two great eyes. When he waked up in the morning, he found he was standing on the wall, and he thought he would go and find something for breakfast.

He flew down upon the table, and then crept along. First he found a little grain of sand, and said he, “I wonder if this is good to eat.” So he reached out his long proboscis to it, and tried to taste of it, but he found it was dry and rough and hard. “Oh, no, no, no,” said he, “this is not good to eat.”

Then he walked along a little farther, and came to some dust. And he said, “I wonder whether this is good to eat.” So he reached out his long proboscis to it, and tried to taste of it; but he found it was dry and insipid, and it stuck all over the end of his proboscis, and he said, “Oh, no, no, no, this is not good to eat.”

Then he went along until he came to a pin, and he said, “I wonder whether this is good to eat.” So he reached out his long proboscis, and tried to taste of it, but it was smooth and hard and round, and he could not taste of it at all. And he said, “Oh, no, no, no, this is not good to eat.”

Then he went round to the point of the pin, and he said, “I wonder whether this is good to eat”; but as soon as he touched his long proboscis to it, it pricked the end of it, and he started back and said, “Oh, no, no, no, this is not good to eat.”

Then he went along a little further, and came to a crack in the table, and he said, “I wonder whether there is any thing here good to eat.” So he reached down his long proboscis into it, and got it pinched in, so he cried out, “Oh, oh, oh, this is not good to eat.”

Then he went along a little further, and by this time he began to be very hungry, and presently, he saw a very small thing lying on the table, and he walked up to it, and began to feel of it with his long proboscis, and found it tasted very sweet and good. It was a little piece of a sugar-dog, which a boy had dropped there, and he said, “Oh, yes, yes, yes, this is very good to eat.” Thus at last the little fly found some breakfast.