in the average school. Many teachers, feeling hurried by the demands of a crowded curriculum, hastily give the children a few dim and misty notions and then proceed with a language lesson. A few bright children who easily catch ideas on the fly, and a very few naturally fluent children who can be rather glib without ideas, talk. The other pupils sit in their seats dumb and listless, or else rise in their places only to stammer and stumble or utterly fail. The teacher is either impatient or discouraged, and possibly finds fault with her apparently careless pupils because they are not more attentive. The same children, filled with ideas, will be wide awake, prompt, and eager to tell what they are confident they know.

Let us call attention to another kind of language lesson. This time the exercise is oral, and the special object is to help the boy to stand squarely on his feet and talk in well-defined sentences, stripped of needless connectives, especially "ands." Here again the lesson will be a total failure unless the pupil is full of his subject. But if he has ideas he can be led to move on slowly, by telling one thing and then pausing for a moment before making another statement which he has thought out. In a few months, under skilful training along this line, excellent oral language will be the result in any average schoolroom of the grades we have in mind.

As an illustration, there comes to mind an incident that occurred in a Hartford grammar school a few years ago. A diffident boy in the highest grammar grade was

requested to write a letter giving an account of his vacation. He sat at his desk for some time without writing a word. The teacher, observing him, called the boy to the front of the room and asked him why he did not write. In sullen tones the response came, "I don't know what to write." The teacher made a few suggestions, but still the same answer in the same sullen manner. The boy was evidently honest in the conviction that he hadn't anything to say that was of interest to himself or to anybody else. Under such circumstances the teacher, knowing the character of the boy, felt that it would be unwise to insist that the exercise should be written.

A few days afterwards, however, the class in history reached the battle of Lexington and Concord. The teacher told the pupils to imagine themselves as living in one of these towns at the time of the battle and be prepared to write to a friend a letter dated the day after the British were driven back to Boston. In this letter they were to give an account just as vividly as they could of their personal experiences on the day when these stirring events took place. Very interesting accounts of the battle were placed in the hands of the boy who had few days before been as silent as a statue, and the result awaited with interest. This interest was intensified tenfold, however, when the letter was read. It was full of lifelike pictures, and showed that the writer had in imagination lived amid the scenes which in glowing language he described. The boy had something to say and he said it.

Another exercise of great value is one in which the specific aim is to cultivate fluency. This exercise belongs more especially to the grammar grades. The children knowing well the facts to be narrated, are requested to write as rapidly as they can for ten or fifteen minutes. The time is made short in order that they may not become so tired as to be careless in their work. Very great care about paragraphing and other matters of detail that are of real importance is not here insisted upon. The aim is fluency, and therefore the pupil's efforts should be concentrated upon saying fairly well as much as he can in a given time. He need not be slovenly or careless in doing this, nor will he be if rightly guided. If, however, the teacher fetters him by insisting upon perfection in the mechanical part of the exercise, little good in the direction of fluency will be accomplished. The exercise will be diffuse, and the penmanship will not be the best, but the pupil will be acquiring great facility of expression.

A day or two after he has handed in his exercise, it may be returned to him with the request that he correct it by pruning, re-arranging sentences, and so on. If this exercise is given often in grammar grades the pupils will enter the high school ready to write easily and naturally on subjects they are familiar with. But something more than fluency and accuracy is necessary in the use of their mother-tongue. They need special training, and a great deal of it, in the systematic and logical arrangement of their ideas. To that end paragraphing should be begun

as early as the fourth grade and continued with untiring. persistency through the remaining grades below the high school. The work is by no means difficult. Let us suppose the children are reading with the teacher about the Indians in Higginson's Young Folks' History. Here are the topics that have been used:

the

Name how they look-dwellings - roving habitsstrength and endurance — bravery - dress - food snow-shoe the canoe squaws training children money war dances religion — burial.

bow and arrow and tomahawk —

As the book is read the topics are selected and talked over, the pupils making a list of them in note-books. Whenever they talk about the Indians thereafter these topics are used as a guide. Finally they write, and then each topic has its corresponding paragraph.

Topics for Columbus in Higginson's Young Folks' History of the United States: Birth

early life

people believed about the shape of the earth

what

caused Columbus to believe that he should find India by

sailing west efforts to secure aid

success with Isabella story of the Queen's confessor - sailing for India -fears of the sailors - signs of land-landing on San Salvador visits other islands and returns to Spain other voyages-what he thought of the land he had discovered death and burial.

Topics made from the chapter on De Soto in Children's Stories in American History: Birth and parentage — Child

ments

hood and youth-personal appearance and accomplishDom Pedro sends him to college Isabella De Soto in America-marriage-plans to conquer Florida -description of his army-leaving San Lucas - arrival at Tampa Bay - march to Indian Village - taking possession of it and why - Indian Captives - Ucita - Ucita's reply to De Soto - De Soto's treatment of the Indians effect upon Ucita - Juan Ortiz - brief account of his life among the Indians-De Soto's expedition with Ortiz - De Soto and the princess — the Indian Queen the young guide - gold and silver- De Soto's visit to the sepulchre -taking the princess away - her escape - De Soto and the Indian chief — pearls — dark, sad days — determination to find gold — the great discovery — building the cross and prayer for rain the search continued - De Soto's disappointment- death and burial.

Sketch of Daniel Webster in Strange Stories from History: Birth-early school life and fondness for reading — weakness as a declaimer in school - his private tutor going to college- his extravagance-dislike of farm work school teaching and the study of law.

Lincoln in Poor Boys Who Became Famous: Home in the log cabin — influence of his mother— grief at his mother's death-his mother's funeral- his early reading stepmother's influence upon him-"Life of Washington" loss of the volume-early life after leaving school kindness in a country store — desire to study

life on a flat boat on the Mississippi — rail split