something is asserted of the individuals in the group, that is, if the individuals of the group are thought of as acting separately.

EXAMPLE: The sentence, "A flock of birds is flying southward" is correct, because the birds are thought of as flying in one body. "A flock of birds are flying about her head" is also correct, because birds do not fly about a person in one body, but as individual birds flying in different directions.

Show that each verb in the four sentences given above is correctly used.

II. Make sentences, using the following collective nouns as subjects. In each sentence use a verb-form that shows present time, or a form of the verb with have, has, is, or was.

Every country has its own rivers; and every river has its own quality; and it is the part of wisdom to know and love as many as you can, seeing each in the fairest possible light, and receiving from each the best that it has to give. The torrents of Norway leap down from their mountain homes with plentiful cataracts, and run brief but glorious races to the sea. The streams of England move smoothly through green fields and beside ancient, sleepy towns.

The mighty rivers of the West roll their yellow floods through broad valleys, or plunge down dark cañons.1

'Look up pronunciation and meaning in the dictionary.

The rivers of the South creep under dim arboreal1 archways heavy with banners of waving moss. The Delaware and the Hudson and the Connecticut are the children of the Catskills and the Adirondacks and the White Mountains, cradled among the wild forests of spruce and hemlock, playing through a wild woodland youth, gathering strength from numberless tributaries to bear their great burdens of lumber and turn the wheels of many mills, issuing1 from the hills to water a thousand farms, and descending at last, beside new cities, to the ancient sea.

Every river that flows is good, and has something worthy to be loved. But those that we love most are always the ones that we have known best.2

HENRY VAN DYKE.

II. Write a list of words in the dictation that begin with capital letters, and give the rules for their use. Write a list of the plural nouns. Give the general rule for forming the plurals of nouns. Give the rule for the plural of the word tributary.

Give the rule for forming the plural of the word calf as given in the first sentence under Section 5. Tell whether each of the following verbs used in the dictation is singular or plural, and why: leap, run, move, roll, is.

Section 7. Review

Supply the verbs in the following sentences and tell why each verb is singular or plural.

1. The herd of cattle

2. The herd of cattle

running wild.

driven to market.

1 Look up pronunciation and meaning in the dictionary.

2 From Little Rivers. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1895.

Make a list of as many words as you can think of that end in y and form their plural by adding s; and another list of words ending in y that form their plural by changing y to i and adding es.

Write the fifteen nouns ending in f or fe that change the f to v before adding s or es.'

Sentences express statements, commands, questions, and exclamations. Write an example of each as a quotation used as part of a sentence.

If necessary, consult the rules at the end of the book.

CHAPTER XIII

THE STORY OF RIP VAN WINKLE

Section 1. Story Telling

The class may read Irving's "Rip Van Winkle"; or some pupil, or the teacher, may tell the story, and the members of the class may reproduce it.

Section 2. Use of Singular and Plural Verb-Forms with Compound Subjects

I. Study these sentences about Rip Van Winkle and answer the questions that follow them :

1. Rip Van Winkle's faithful friend and constant companion was his dog Wolf.

2. The dog and his master were always together. 3. The father and husband was of little use at home. 4. The husband and wife were always quarreling.

Each subject contains two nouns joined by "and.” A subject that contains two or more nouns or pronouns connected by conjunctions is called a compound subject.

Point out the two sentences in which the two

nouns in the compound subject refer to one person or thing. Are the verbs in these sentences singular or plural?

In which sentences do the two nouns of the compound subject refer to two different persons or things? Are the verbs in these sentences singular or plural?

II. Study the next seven sentences and write their compound subjects and their verbs, arranging them like those in Exercise I of this section.

1. Every hour and every minute of peace was precious to Rip Van Winkle.

2. Neither he nor his wife was without blame.

3. Either he or his dog was always in trouble.

4. No home or school is happy that has a scolding man or woman in it.

5. Where a sharp tongue rules, every boy and girl is to be pitied.

6. Every such home or school is a forlorn place for man, woman, or child.

7. Each person and each animal feels the unhappy influence of such a home.

Observe that the verb is singular in every sentence; and that each sentence is really a compound sentence containing two statements.

Read the sentences aloud as they are written below in full, and tell what was omitted in the first writing:

1. Every hour of peace was precious to him, and every minute of peace was precious to him.

2. He was not without blame, and his wife was not with

out blame.