CHAPTER!"

Manya Singing
WHY not? Why not? Why not? Why shouldn't
Manya be allowed to read? She didn't ask the
question. She would not think of asking her
gentle, beautiful mother why not; she only
puzzled her own little stubborn head where a pair
of bright, grey-blue eyes looked penetratingly out
from under a shock of yellow hair.
It was always like that! She had only to say:
"Mayn't I read?" or to put out a hand towards a
book and someone would be sure to say: "Manya
dear, run into the garden" or "You haven't been
to see your doll all day" or "Build me a house
with those lovely new blocks." Manya knew all
their wiles. Reading was naughty—naughty for
her, but not for Bronia; and yet she could read
and Bronia couldn't. It was very puzzling and
apparently all the fault of the day when she had
snatched a book from Bronia. She hadn't meant
anything wrong. Bronia had asked her to play
with the cardboard letters when they had nothing
to do in their uncle's orchard except lie on the
grass and move the bits of cardboard into words.
Then one day, after they-came, home, their father
had said to Bronia: "Let's see how the reading has
got on." Bronia had stood with the open book,
spelling the words and stumbling over them. So