Willie was so eager to learn, however, that he could not rest without doing something towards it.

He bethought himself a little--then ran and got Dr Watts's hymns for children.

He knew "How doth the little busy bee" so well as to be able to repeat it without a mistake, for his mother had taught it him, and he had understood it.

You see, he was not like a child of five, taught to repeat by rote lines which could give him no notions but mistaken ones.
Besides, he had a good knowledge of words, and could use them well in talk, although he could not read; and it is a great thing if a child can talk well before he begins to learn to read.
He opened the little book at the Busy Bee, and knowing already enough to be able to divide the words the one from the other, he said to himself-- "The first word must be _How_.

There it is, with a gap between it and the next word.