7. So also, when a certain animal, having two large horns and a long tail, and which is milked every night and morning, passed by, you heard some one say _cow_; and in this way you learned what the word _cow_ means.
8. So also, when water falls from the sky in drops, little children hear people say it rains; and thus they find out what _rain_, means.
9. Now, when anybody asks you what any word means, although you know it very well, yet it is a very hard thing to tell what it means,--that is, to give a definition of it,--as you will see by the little story I am about to tell you.
10. A teacher, who was very anxious to make his scholars understand their lessons, once told them he had a very hard question he wished to ask them, and that he would let the one who answered the question best take the head of the class.
11. This teacher never allowed any of his pupils to speak to him without first raising his right hand above his head, to signify that the child had something to say; and when any child raised his hand in this way, if he was not busy, he called upon the child to say what he wished.
12. In this way he prevented the children from troubling him when he was busy; and in this way he also prevented them from interrupting each other, as would be the case if several of them should speak at once.
13. On the day of which I am about to speak, he said to them, Now, children, I have a very hard question to ask you, that does not require you to study, but only to think about it, in order to answer it well; and the one who gives me the best answer shall go to the head of the class. The question is this: _What is a bird?_
14. Before they heard the question, they looked very sober, and thought their master intended to puzzle them, or to give them a long sentence to commit to memory. But as soon as they heard the question, they began to smile among themselves, and wonder how their teacher should call that a hard question.
15. A dozen hands were immediately raised, to signify that so many of the children were ready to answer it.
16. Well, John, said the teacher, your hand is up; can you tell me _what a bird is_?
17. John immediately rose, and standing on the right-hand side of his seat, said, A bird is a thing that has two legs.