place, people walking about very quietly and talking in whispers, standing close to each other, for that is one of the things which distinguishes a library from other places. So, in writing of both a handsome street and an alleyway, you would be telling the truth if you said that they were both paved and had a gutter on each side, but you would not be making a picture, as you would if you spoke of battered ash barrels and hungry cats in the alley, and of beautiful lawns and pretty romping children in the handsome street. In observing the scene you wish to describe, you should notice everything, looking at a sight long familiar to you with the steady gaze you had to give in order to see what is really on a postage stamp or a dollar bill. You will find that you have looked at the view from your window with the same careless, vacant, absent gaze, lacking real attention, and that you need to fix your mind on observing a landscape or a scene, before you take in a great many details that are essential. But when you come to writing, you should think of each detail before you use it, to see if it brings the picture out more clearly.

3. Use some device for expressing the relation between the different parts of your picture. This is usually done by employing complex sentences made up by means of connecting links, such as near which, above which, around which, etc., and by using such phrases as farther off, nearer by, close at hand, far away, in the distance, high up, directly below, on the other side, beyond, etc. Exercise 112. Describe such of the following as your teacher may indicate:

-

1. What I see from my window at home, at school. 2. View from the highest place to which I ever climbed. 3. View from the top of our house. 4. The most beautiful view I ever saw. 5. How our street looks from our front steps. 6. Across the meadow. 7. How my room looks from the door. 8. The views in the park I like best. 9. View along a country road. 10. Trees along a village street. 11. View along a street in a large city. 12. The inside of our church from where I sit. 13. My class room from my seat. 14. Our kitchen. 15. The inside of a barn. 16. What I can see from the door of a barn. 17. An alleyway in a city. 18. View along the most beautiful street I know. 19. View from the back of a river or lake. 20. Imaginary description of the view I should like best to be able to see from my window. 21. How my room would look if I could have it exactly as I wished. 22. The prettiest parlor I ever saw. 23. How the inside of a public library looks from the door. 24. A view in the woods in the winter. 25. An orchard in bloom. 26. Beside the brook. 27. In the market. 28. Scene in a department store; in a hospital; in a restaurant. 29. A sodawater fountain. 30. A sand pile where children have been playing "keep-house." 31. Any scene at a county fair.

68. Description of Conditions. Read the following description:

The soil is hot and

A cornfield in July is a hot place. dry; the wind comes across the lazily murmuring leaves laden with a warm, sickening smell drawn from the rapidly growing, broad-flung banners of the corn. The sun, nearly vertical, drops a flood of dazzling light and heat upon the field, over which the cool shadows run, only to make the heat seem the more intense. -HAMLIN GARLAND: Main-traveled Roads.

The first sentence of this paragraph states the fact that the author wished to convey to you. All the rest is added to make the conditions seem vivid to you, to

make you feel the heat, smell the rank odor of the corn, and hear the murmur of the leaves. You will notice that this is different from the description in the last lesson, where you have been trying to tell merely how a scene or object looked to you, to make a picture such as an artist might paint. Here you are made to notice odors, motion, noises, and heat, things that a painter would find it difficult to suggest in any picture.

Think how different would be the effect of intense cold on a street in a big city or in the heart of the forest, and you will see that in the effect of given conditions on all kinds of objects you have one of the best methods of portraying a scene.

For instance, in both the country and the city the rapid approach of a thundershower is preceded by black clouds and a high wind. The difference lies in what effect these things have. In the country, the wind tosses the trees wildly about, roars among the branches, scatters the dry leaves in volleys. In the city the arrival of a storm is heralded by a flapping of awnings, little whirlwinds of dust, crowds of people hurrying to shelter or looking up at the sky, and a hasty removal indoors. of everything that would be spoiled by the rain.

Exercise 113. In treating such of the following subjects as your teacher may indicate, try to notice odor, noise, and movement as well as form, color, and position:

1. A very cold day in a city street, in a barnyard full of animals, in our class room, on the playground, in the woods, beside a river or brook, on a street car, in a railway train, at the station. 2. A very rainy day in our garden, in summer, in spring, in autumn, inside a barn, in an attic, in a henyard, in a crowded business

street, on a boat, at the door of a department store, or church, or theater, at a country fair, at a picnic. 3. A snowstorm in the country, in the city. 4. Muddy walking on a country road, in a plowed field, in a city street, on the playground, at the door of our school. 5. A hot night on our piazza, indoors, in a public square, in the woods, in a theater, in a flower garden, in the street in front of our house, at a pleasure resort. 6. A high wind in the country, in the city, in summer, in autumn, in winter, on the harbor or river, at sea, in a tall tower, an attic (this mainly for sounds), in a pasture full of horses, in a group of pine trees, in a cornfield, in a city park, in a city court on wash day.

Exercise 114.

- As a class exercise, try writing on some one subject and comparing the results. See who has been able to produce the clearest impression and why his description is successful. The subjects should be only those of which the whole class has an equal knowledge, e.g. description of some public person who has addressed the school; of the walk to school on a snowy, rainy, or hot day, of the playground at recess time, of the aspect of the halls directly after school is dismissed, of the schoolroom, of any incident which all the pupils saw, a fire in the neighborhood, etc.

excellent

69. Description by Contrast. - Another - Another device in description is contrast. For instance, if you wish to describe the effect made by a day in the woods when rain has frozen in falling and has coated everything with ice, you might begin by making a brief picture of such a day in the city,—every one slipping uncomfortably, horses straining painfully to keep their footing, the wheels of street cars revolving uselessly on an ice-coated track; and then suddenly transfer your description to the woods, where the trees are as though made of glass, every little twig a prism to reflect light, and where the bits of ice falling from the trees tinkle like broken glass on the frozen snow.

Exercise 115.- Describe, by contrasting with each other:

1. A heavy draught horse and a race horse. 2. A canoe and a raft. 3. A Newfoundland dog and a pug dog. 4. Your class room when every one is busy and quietly studying, when every one is just going away, and when it is deserted after school hours. 5. The kitchen of your house on different occasions, — washing, ironing, just before dinner, just after a candy pull, after the work is all done, on a Sunday afternoon. 6. A theater full of people and bright with lights, afterward darkened and deserted except for cleaning women. 7. Our garden at different times of year, in spring, when planting is being done; when I am weeding it on a hot day in summer; when everything, is ripe in autumn; in winter, snow-covered. 8. A grocer's shop in early morning with a sleepy boy sweeping out, and later when full of customers and clerks. 9. An apple tree in blossom; in autumn with ripe fruit; in winter. 10. A brook or river frozen over with skaters on it, and in midsummer with swimmers, etc. 11. The route I generally take to and from school, in the morning (other pupils going to school; business men going to their offices; butcher's carts and grocery and ice wagons); in the afternoon (nurses out with babies, ladies calling, children at play, etc.). 12. A public square in its ordinary aspect, and on the Fourth of July, or Decoration Day, or Election Night. 13. A department store full of shoppers just before Christmas, and early in the morning on a hot summer day, with only the clerks and a few customers. 14. A railway station, quiet and deserted, with only a few travelers waiting silently, and when an important train arrives, bringing a crowd of passengers.

70. Description of Events. In the extract given below there is a certain amount of definite information conveyed, in addition to the pictures presented.

Slowly and mournfully they carried his embalmed body. in a procession of great state to Paris, and thence to Rouen, where his queen was, from whom the sad intelligence of his death was concealed until he had been dead some days.

N