He caught the significance of words with astonishing ease, but found some difficulty in producing their sound.

He went about it with great patience, however, repeating the hardest words after me until he was able to pronounce them correctly.

But although the work was often tedious we both got much fun out of it.

I had never heard the sound of laughter in that house.

One day I broke its solemn spell by laughing heartily at the grotesque distortion of my cousin's face incidental to the production of a difficult sound.