A SPIDER IN DIFFICULTY.

Now, then, in peacefull possession of what was justley its own, it waited three days with the utmost impacience, repairing the breeches of its webb, and taking no sustainance that I could percieve. At last, however, a large blue fly fell into the snare, and struggled hard to get lose. The spider gave it leave to entangle itself as much as posible, but it seemed to be too strong for the cob-web. I must own I was greatly surprised when I saw the spider immediately saly out, and in less than a minute weave a net round its captive, by which the motion of its wings was stoped, and when it was fairly hampered in this manner, it was siezed and draged into the hole.

In this mander it lived, in a precaryous state, and nature seemed to have fited it for such a life; for upon a single fly it subsisted for more than a weak. I once put a wasp into the net, but when the spider came out in order to seize it as usual, upon percieving what kind of an enemy it had to deal with, it instantly broke all the bands that held it fast, and contribeted all that lay in its power to disengage so formidable an antigonist. When the wasp was at liberty, I exspected the spider would have sat about repairing the breaches that were made in its net; but those, it seems, were ireperable, wherefore the cobweb was now entirely forsaken, and new one began, which was completed in the usual time.

I had now a mind to try how meny cobwebs a single spider could furnish; wherefore I destroied this, and the insect set about another.

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CHAPTER III.

CAPITALIZATION.

RULES FOR THE USE OF CAPITALS.

1. Every sentence, every line of poetry, and every direct quotation should begin with a capital letter.

2. The pronoun I and the interjection O should always be written in capitals.

3. Names and titles of the Deity, of Jesus Christ, and of the Trinity should begin with capitals.

4. Pronouns referring to the Deity or to the Saviour should be capitalized when used without an antecedent; or where, with an antecedent, other pronouns are used. EXAMPLE. - O Thou that hearest prayer!

5. All proper names and all adjectives formed from proper names should begin with capitals.

EXAMPLES. -Boston, Washington, Ciceronian.

6. Titles of honor should begin with capitals when they are applied to a particular person, or precede a name, or occur in formal address.

EXAMPLE.

Governor Smith.

7. Names of races, countries, and districts should be capitalized.

EXAMPLES. Creole, Yankee, Hoozier, the North, Trans-atlantic.

8. Compound titles should have both parts capitalized. Attorney-General, Vice-President, Rear-Admiral.

EXAMPLES.

9. State, when referring to one of the United States, is capitalized.

10. Words used for the Bible should be capitalized.

EXAMPLES. - The Scriptures, the Word, the Gospels, etc.

11. Names of sects and parties should begin with capitals.

EXAMPLES.Republican, Presbyterian.

12. Names of things personified, and of important events and things, should be capitalized.

EXAMPLES. - The Revolution, the Senate.

13. Titles of books, pictures, etc., should begin with capitals; and all nouns and other important words in them should be capitalized.

EXAMPLE.

Drill Book in English.

Exercise 1.

Justify the use of capital letters in the following:

1. God, Creator, Father, the Almighty, Infinite One, Supreme Being, Parent of Good.

2. O Thou that hearest the mourner's prayer!

3. The Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Lake Ontario, Broadway, New York City (but the city of New York), January, Monday, Elizabethan, African, Indian.

4. Catholic, Episcopalian, Universalist, Mahometan, Jew.

5. The Governor of Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston, the Duke of Burgundy, the Prince of Wales.

6. The States of the Union, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Plymouth Colony, the State of New York, the states of Europe.

7. President Eliot, Lieutenant Maury.

8. Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself.

9. The Reformation, the Middle Ages, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Magna Charta.

10. Brother Jonathan, Aunt Mary, Cousin John.

11.

It entereth not his thoughts that God
Heareth the sufferer's groan;

That in His righteous eye their life

Is precious as his own.

12. He was a quick fellow, and, when hot from play, would toss himself in a corner, and in five minutes be deep in any sort of book that he could lay his hands on if it were Rasselas or Gulliver, so much the better; but Bailey's Dictionary would do, or the Bible with the Apocrypha in it. Something he must read when he was not riding the pony, or running and hunting, or listening to the talk of men. All this was true of him at ten years of age: he had then read through Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, which was neither milk for babes nor any chalky mixture meant to pass for milk; and it had already occurred to him that books were stuff, and that life was stupid. His school-studies had not much modified that opinion; for though he "did" his classics and mathematics, he was not preeminent in them.

Exercise 2.

Justify the use of capitals in the following:

DEATH OF PAUL DOMBEY.

When Paul saw him, he stretched out his hand, and said "Good by!"

"Good by, my child!" cried Mrs. Pipchin, hurrying to his bed's head. "Not good by ?"

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For an instant, Paul looked at her with the wistful face with which he had so often gazed upon her in his corner by the fire. "Ah, yes," he said, placidly, "good by! Walter dear, good by !" turning his head to where he stood, and putting out his hand again. "Where is papa ?"

He felt his father's breath upon his cheek, before the words had parted from his lips.

"Remember Walter, dear papa,” he whispered, looking in his face, "remember Walter. I was fond of Walter!" The feeble hand waved in the air, as if it cried "good by !" to Walter once again.

"Now lay me down again," he said; "and, Floy, come close to me, and let me see you!"

Sister and brother wound their arms around each other, and the golden light came streaming in, and fell upon them, locked together.

"How fast the river runs between its green banks and the rushes, Floy ! But it's very near the sea. I hear the waves. They always said so!"

Presently he told her that the motion of the boat upon the stream was lulling him to rest. How green the banks were now, how bright the flowers growing on them, and how tall the rushes! Now the boat was out at sea, but gliding smoothly on. And now there was a shore before him. Who stood on the bank?

He put his hands together, as he had been used to do at his prayers. He did not remove his arms to do it, but they saw him fold them so behind her neck.

"Mamma is like you, Floy. I know her by the face! But tell them that the print upon the stairs at school is not divine enough. The light about the head is shining on me as I go !"

The golden ripple on the wall came back again, and nothing else stirred in the room. The old, old fashion! The fashion that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The old, old fashion-Death!