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line, from the crater; but the air was so clear, even under the shadow of the smoke, that I could distinctly trace the downward movement of the rivers of lava.

- BAYARD TAYLOR: The Lands of the Saracen.

perceptible, known through the senses; vibration, rapid motion back and forth; postilion, rider of one of the horses which drew the coach; impetus, force with which something is driven; entranced, as if in a dream or trance; suppressed, not uttered freely; instantaneous, in an instant; revelation, a making known, showing forth something before hidden; lurid, giving a ghastly, dull-red light.

Charles Kingsley has explained to you the action of volcanoes. In this selection Bayard Taylor describes an eruption which he once

saw.

Where is Mount Etna? What two things called Bayard Taylor's attention to the mountain? What other thing had he evidently noticed before the vibration and the sound? Describe the two jets of smoke. How does he explain their presence? Meaning of extinct? Picture the group of people. Describe the awful sound.

Try to imagine it all: the noise, the strong smell of sulphur, and the appearance of the mountain. Describe the final explosion and the appearance of the mountain after the shock. What did the column of smoke resemble?

What is the topic sentence of paragraph 4? Can you imagine this beautiful sight? Picture the tree, and after reading the paragraph carefully two or three times try to describe it. Can you explain why the tremors were now less violent? What were the three white streams? What became of the wonderful tree of smoke? The strait referred to here is the Strait of Messina, which separates the island of Sicily from the province of Calabria in the southern part of Italy. Describe the singular appearance of the sky. Do you remember to what Kingsley compared the streams of lava?

You have in these two selections about volcanoes examples of two kinds of writing. Kingsley's writing was to explain, to help

H

you to understand. Such writing is called exposition. Bayard Tay. lor's purpose was to enable you to see the volcano as he saw it. Such writing is called description.

Spelling. Lurid, suppressed, revelation, instantaneous, sulphur.

Word Study. You will be interested in the word spectacle in the sentence, "The sky presented the singular spectacle of two hemispheres of clear blue, with a broad belt of darkness drawn between them." The Latin spect means "seen." Try to find other words containing spic or spect, and notice their meaning.

Keep in a blank book a list of stems, as you learn them, with their meanings; a list of prefixes with their meanings; a list of suffixes with their meanings.

Composition. In writing of any kind, the most important thing is to make yourself understood. You have learned that figurative language often helps us to express our ideas clearly, by comparing things. All comparisons, however, are not figurative. On page 364 you will find the author trying to give you an idea of the enormous distance between the earth and the sun by telling you how long it would take a railroad train to travel from one to the other. If you wanted to give some one an idea of the height of the Great Stone Face, you might compare it with the height of some building you had This method of expression is very common, and if for it, you will find many examples in our ordinary speech, as "busy as a bee," "brown as a berry," "fair as a lily," "clear as a bell," "black as night," etc.

seen.

you look

Write a letter describing something which is peculiar to your part of the country. Address some one living in an entirely different place. Try to make your description clear by comparing it with something you know he has seen. If you live in the south, you might describe a cotton field or an orange grove to some one living north. Or, if things are reversed, describe a snowstorm or a sleigh.

Grammar. To analyze anything is to separate it into its parts. You analyze a word when you tell its stem, its prefix, and its suffix.

UNIV. OF

You analyze a sentence when you separate it into its subject and predicate, and name the modifiers of the different parts. Always begin your analysis of a sentence by telling the kind of sentence.

MODEL FOR ANALYSIS

The little cottage girl looked at me.

Kind, a declarative sentence, because it states or declares.

Entire subject, the little cottage girl.

Entire predicate, looked at me.

Subject noun, girl.

Verb, looked.

Modifiers of the subject noun, the, little, cottage.
Modifier of the verb, at me.

In like manner analyze the following sentences:

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1. The bright sun shines warmly. 2. The green field sleeps in the sun. 3. The small birds twitter cheerfully. 4. My sisters and brothers are sleeping in the churchyard (In this sentence, when you name the subject nouns, tell what kind of subject it is.) 5. The melted lava rises rapidly in the crater.

17

THE SONG OF THE CAMP

"GIVE us a song!" the soldiers cried,
The outer trenches guarding,

When the heated guns of the camps allied
Grew weary of bombarding.

The dark Redan, in silent scoff,

Lay, grim and threatening, under;

And the tawny mound of the Malakoff

No longer belched its thunder.

5

5

10

15

20

There was a pause. A guardsman said,

"We storm the forts to-morrow;

Sing while we may, another day

Will bring enough of sorrow."

They lay along the battery's side,

Below the smoking cannon:

Brave hearts, from Severn and from Clyde,
And from the banks of Shannon.

They sang of love, and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory:

Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang "Annie Laurie."

Voice after voice caught up the song,
Until its tender passion

Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,
Their battle-eve confession.

Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,
But, as the song grew louder,
Something upon the soldier's cheek,
Washed off the stains of powder.

Beyond the darkening ocean burned
The bloody sunset's embers,
While the Crimean valleys learned
How English love remembers.

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