Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye,

I watched that wretched man,

And since, I never dare to write

As funny as I can.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

The printer's office boy used often to be called the printer's devil. Who is speaking here? Put stanzas 2 and 3 in your own words. Give the various stages through which the servant passed, from the first grin to the final fit. How many strong accents in the first line of each stanza? in the third? in the second? in the fourth? Do you know of any other humorous poems written by Holmes? Have you read Aunt Tabitha?

Grammar. - You have learned that a modifier of the predicate may be either one word or a group of words. Name all the predicate modifiers in the following sentences. You can find them if you will put how, when, where, or how much after each predicate and then answer the questions you have made; thus, (1) trembled how?

1. The Congo chief trembled violently. 2. Mrs. Temple screamed loudly. 3. Sir John Moore died bravely. 4. They started early. 5. We led the chief homeward. 6. He walked there quietly. 7. Columbus sailed westward. 8. Slowly and sadly we laid him down. 9. We buried him darkly at dead of night. 10. His corse to the rampart we hurried. 11. You must work more and talk less.

All single words that modify the predicate in this way are called adverbs. All predicate modifiers, whether single words or groups of words, are called adverbial modifiers. You will see that adverbs are added to verbs to make the meaning more definite, much as adjectives are added to nouns and pronouns.

Fill each blank with an adverb that will tell how, when, where, or how much :

1. He traveled how? 2. They went home when? 3. The curate fell how? 4. The negro feared how much? 5. The man

lives where? 6. I never can go where? when? 7. I saw him peep where ?

Supply adverbs for the following verbs: ran (how, when, where, how much), talked, slid, learned, leave.

"And is there nothing yet unsaid
Before the change appears?
Remember, all their gifts have fled
With those dissolving years."

"Why, yes;" for memory would recall
My fond paternal joys;

5

10

15

20

The household with its noise

And wrote my dream, when morning broke,

To please the gray-haired boys.

What lines

How many accents in the lines of this poem? rhyme? Is it built on the same plan as the preceding?

Give the meaning of this poem, stanza by stanza, in your own words. Throughout the author is continually speaking figuratively, instead of literally, and sometimes you may be puzzled to see just what he means. A little hard thinking will solve the puzzle for you in every case, though you will be helped by knowing that spoils of age (stanza 2) means whatever precious things he has won during a long life. Spoils means things captured in battle. In stanza 4 sped means "has proved successful," as if the wish were an arrow that had flown toward the mark and reached it. The gray-haired boys are the companions of his youth, now as old as he.

Composition. In writing a description you wish to give your reader a clear picture of what you are describing. In order to do this, you must have this clear picture in your own mind; so that the first rule to follow in descriptive writing is to learn all that you can about the thing you wish to describe. The first and generally the best way to do this is by observing it carefully; if this is impossible, read or inquire about it until you have learned all you possibly can. After you have done this, make up your mind which things will give the best idea of the object to one who has not seen it. Make a good descriptive sentence about each of these. Read them over carefully, and see if you could make them any clearer by contrasting or comparing with something else.

Read the following descriptions of persons. Do they make you see the person described? Has the author made use of comparisons? of figurative language? Which description seems to you the best?

The two Rugby boys, page 82; the little cottage girl, page 86; Ernest, page 33; Mr. Gathergold, page 10; the squire, page 45.

Notice that a good description is one that describes especially the features that make that person or thing different from others. Note the description of the squire's eyebrows (page 45).

Write a letter to a friend who lives at a distance, describing some one you actually know and admire. Before writing, ask yourself these questions: What things make this person I am going to describe different from other people? How many things shall I describe? Can I make my picture any clearer by using contrast or comparison?

22

OUR FRONTIER MARKSMEN

[Audubon was a Swiss who traveled widely in America after the Revolution, at a time when the country west of the Alleghanies was scarcely settled at all, studying the birds, of which he made the most accurate and beautiful paintings that had ever been produced. The latter part of his life was spent on the shores of the Hudson, at a spot now known as Audubon Park, in the upper part of New York City. His great love for birds, his wonderful sketches of them, and the intimate knowledge of them which he acquired through long years of study in the forests and fields, have associated his. name forever with the birds of North America. Daniel Boone was a famous Kentucky hunter in the days when that state was still a wilderness.]

BARKING off squirrels is delightful sport, and in my opinion requires a greater degree of accuracy than any other. I first witnessed this manner of procuring squirrels while near the town of Frankfort. The performer