The squire was as tight a hand to deal with indoors as out; sometimes treating his family as if they were not the same flesh and blood, when they happened to differ with him in certain matters.

SUMMER RAIN.

3. Men begin to look at the signs of the weather. It is long since much rain fell.

The ground is a little dry, and the road is a good deal dusty. The garden bakes.

Transplanted trees are thirsty. Wheels are shrinking and tires are looking dangerous.

Men speculate on the clouds; they begin to calculate how long it will be, if no rain falls, before the potatoes will suffer; the oats, the corn, the grass, - everything.

Rain, rain, rain! All day, all night, steady raining. Will it never stop?

The hay is out and spoiling. The rain washes the garden. The ground is full. All things have drunk their fill.

The springs revive, the meadows are wet; the rivers run discolored with soil from every hill. Smoking cattle reek under the sheds.

Hens, and fowl in general, shelter and plume. The sky is leaden. The clouds are full yet. The long fleece covers the mountains.

The hills are capped in white. The air is full of moisture.

5. What determines the length of a paragraph? Where should you expect to find long and where short paragraphs? Find examples from the magazines at hand to justify your opinions. Bring to the class several consecu tive paragraphs from three or four books or magazine articles, and account for the length of the paragraphs, making any criticism on the paragraphing that you think necessary.

Make proper paragraph-divisions of the following selections:

THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.

1. During the winter of 1664, it had been whispered about that a number of people had died, in some of the unwholesome suburbs around London, of the disease called the Plague. News was not published then, as now, and some people believed these rumors, and some disbelieved them, and they

were soon forgotten. But in the month of May, 1665, it began to be said all over the town that the disease had burst out with great violence in St. Giles's, and that the people were dying in great numbers. The roads out of London were choked up by people endeavoring to escape from the infected city, and large sums were paid for any kind of conveyance. The disease soon spread so fast that it was necessary to shut up the houses in which the sick people were, and to cut them off from communication with the living. The door of every one of these houses was marked with a red cross, and the words, "Lord, have mercy upon us!" The streets were all deserted, grass grew in the public ways, and there was a dreadful silence in the air.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION.

2. A gentleman once advertised for a boy to assist him in his office, and nearly fifty applied for the place. Out of the whole number he, in a short time, chose one, and sent all the others away."I should like to know," said a friend, “on what grounds you chose that boy. He had not a single recommendation with him." You are mistaken," said the gentleman, "he had a great number: he wiped his feet when he came in, and closed the door after him; showing he was orderly and tidy. He gave up his seat instantly to that old man; showing that he was kind and thoughtful. He took off his cap when he came in, and answered my questions promptly and respectfully; showing that he was polite. And he waited quietly for his turn, instead of pushing the others aside; showing that he was modest. Don't you call these things letters of recommendation? I do; and what I can tell about a boy by using my eyes for ten minutes, is worth more than all the fine letters he can bring me."

6. What do you understand by topic-sentences? Of what use are topic-sentences to the reader? To the writer? What ideas would each of the following topicsentences suggest to you? Write a group of such ideas for each topic-sentence.

1. We had not been out (at sea) many days when a violent

storm arose.

2. On the following day we visited the Capitol (at Washington).

3. "During my residence in the country, I used frequently to attend service at the old village church."

4. With the coming of spring the ceremony of house-cleaning begins.

5. The roar of cannon announced that the battle had begun.

7. Taking each of the following subjects write three topic-sentences for as many paragraphs to be developed in regular order. Be prepared to justify the order in which you arrange them, and say to which you would give the fuller treatment.

1. The country fair.

2. Gathering wild flowers.

3. The Old State House in Boston.
4. Government ownership of railroads.
5. A snow blockade.

6. The choice of an occupation.

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8. Look over the magazines at hand, and find the topic-sentences in several of the articles. Bring to the class the topic sentences which you have found, together with a brief outline of the ideas grouped under each.

9. Fill in the blank spaces in the following paragraphs with topic-sentences, writing these topic-sentences in the tone and style of the paragraph.

I.

Does the substantive which we have turned into an adjective imply time only? Or is there not in the word Christmas a finer and more potent quality which we should do well to preserve, even though we anticipate the Yule-tide or let our thoughts run after it? The real Christmas gift will bear bestowal in March or June or November, though if one can link it with the dearer day, and put, too, a little of the delight of anticipation into some one's life, a delight that is given to us all too charily, why it is so much the better.

2.

A carpenter's hammer, in a warm summer's noon, will fret me into more than midsummer madness. But those unconnected, unset sounds are nothing to the measured malice of music. The ear is passive to those single strokes, willingly enduring stripes while it hath no task to con. To music it cannot be passive. It will strive - mine at least will - 'spite of its inaptitude, to thrid the maze, like an unskilled eye painfully poring upon hieroglyphics. I have sat through an Italian opera, till for sheer pain, and inexplicable anguish, I have rushed out into the noisiest places of the quiet streets, to

solace myself with sounds, which I was not able to follow, and get rid of the distracting torment of endless, fruitless, barren, attention! I take refuge in the unpretending assemblage of honest common-life sounds; and the purgatory of enraged musicians becomes my paradise.

3. Previous to the retirement of Hastings from the head of affairs in Calcutta, certain important changes had taken place in the machinery of the Company's government. The concerns of India had begun to assume such colossal proportions, and had become so mixed up with the honor and welfare of the nation, that the propriety of their administration by a single company, although controlled in a measure by the operation of the Acts of 1772, was a subject of grave consideration. The corruption and greed of the officials had long been a matter for criticism; and from a consideration of the subordinate, the public had been naturally drawn to a contemplation of the principals; so that the status of the Company was pretty freely discussed.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PARAGRAPH (continued).

22. The Development of the Paragraph.- Looking upon the paragraph as the development of a single topic, we may next consider how that development is brought about, its means and manner. Owing to the latitude allowed in paragraph development the subject presents many difficulties. It is a noticeable fact that very few writers make really good paragraphs, and consequently we find in most writing a great lack of logical development. Again, many things must be taken into consideration; for instance, the kind of composition, whether it be narrative, descriptive, expository, or argumentative, likewise the position of the paragraph in the theme. is impossible in the space at our command to describe all the methods by which a topic is expanded into a paragraph; but we should keep in mind that the main object is to bring out clearly and effectively the idea of the topic, and that to attain this result all the details in the paragraph should be so arranged as to aid in the process. We shall now consider a few of the more common methods of development. These are not to be thought of as arbitrary, but rather as convenient, and

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