Lewis remembers the bell signaling the end of class and Mrs. Reardon yelling over the din of chairs scraping back from desks and book banging into bookbags. "Compositions are due tomorrow! Remember, spelling counts! We're not chiseling on stone tablets anymore, use spell check!"
Unlike most of the kids who took this class because it was an easy way to raise their GPA, Lewis wants to be a writer and is learning as much as he can from Mrs. Reardon. He has worked hard on his composition and considers it to be his best work. Now, all that remains is to run spell-check before printing.
He clicks on the spell-check icon and is surprised by the number of words that have been flagged.
The program indicates that the correct spelling for the first word could be "Taws", "Twos", or "Teas". He thinks about the word and its meaning and decides to change it to "It was" instead.
The next word that was flagged could be spelled "billing", "bridling", "brisling", "broiling", or "grilling". He reluctantly chooses "brisling" and moves to the next word. His choices are "smithy", "sloth", "slither", and "slushy". "Slushy" is closest but in choosing it he feels that his original intent is being lost.
At the end of the first paragraph he looks at what is written.
Did gyre and gamble in the waves:
All missy were the borecoles,
And the mom rat's outrage.
He hears Mrs. Reardon telling the class that spelling counts and continues making the recommended changes hoping that she will appreciate the many hours that went into this writing.
This has to be Lewis Carrol. Spell check? Clever! Why not write this passage in the past tense? I tried it, and it seems to work better.
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