4.

A Trip Down the River.
What we saw going down.

What we saw coming home.

5. The Party.

4.

The occasion of the party and the guests.
The games we played.

The supper.

Rewrite the following, making the sentences either simple or complex. Underline the subordinate elements in the rewritten sentences.

I. The kitchen of the inn was of spacious dimensions; it was hung round with copper vessels; these were highly polished; it was decorated here and there with a Christmas green.

2. A deal table extended along one side of the room; the table was well scoured; on it stood a cold round of beef and other hearty viands.

3. Travelers of inferior order were preparing to attack this repast; others were smoking and gossiping; they sat on two high-backed oaken settles beside the fire.

4. Trim housemaids hurried backwards and forwards; they were under the direction of a fresh, bustling landlady.

5. Soon there drove up to the door a post-chaise; a young gentleman stepped out of it; his face seemed familiar

to me.

6. I moved forward to get a nearer view; his eye caught mine.

7. It was Frank Bracebridge; he was a good-humored young fellow; I had traveled with him on the continent.

8. We approached the house; we heard a sound of music from one end of the building.

9. The servants were intent upon their sports; we had to ring repeatedly.

IO. The squire came out to meet us; he was accompanied by his two sons; one was an officer in the army; the other was an Oxonian; he was home from the university.

SECTION VII. THE TOPIC SENTENCE

One can hardly say too often that the purpose of writing is to make your thought clear to someone else. Suppose you have your plan in mind; now, one way of making it clear to the reader is to state in a sentence near the beginning of each paragraph what topic that paragraph treats of. Such a sentence is called the topic sentence. You have noticed how readily you can follow the words of a minister or a lecturer who announces in such a topic sentence what he is going to discuss. The topic sentence does not, of course, always occur just at the beginning of the paragraph, although that is generally the best place for it.

Exercises.

I. Examine the topic sentences in the following selections:

I.

Little dramas and tragedies and comedies, little characteristic scenes, are always being enacted in the lives of the birds, if our eyes are sharp enough to see them. Some clever observer saw this little comedy played among some English sparrows, and wrote an account of it in his newspaper. It is too good not to be true: A male bird brought to his box a fine, large, goose feather, which is a great find for a sparrow and much coveted. After he had deposited his prize and chattered his gratulations over it, he went away in quest of his mate. His next door neighbor, a female bird, seeing her chance, quickly slipped in and seized the feather-and here the wit of the bird came out, for, instead of carrying it into her own box, she flew with it to a near tree and hid it in a fork of the branches; then

went home, and when her neighbor returned with his mate. was innocently employed about her own affairs. The proud male, finding his feather gone, came out of his box in a high state of excitement, and with wrath in his manner and accusation on his tongue rushed into the cot of the female. Not finding his goods and chattels there as he had expected, he stormed around a while, abusing everybody in general and his neighbor in particular, and then went away as if to repair the loss. As soon as he was out of sight the shrewd thief went and brought the feather home and lined her own domicile with it.

"Sharp Eyes," John Burroughs.

2. There are names which carry with them something of a charm. We utter them, and, like the Prince in the "Arabian Nights," who mounted the marvelous horse and spoke the magic words, we feel ourselves lifted from the earth into the clouds. We have but to say "Athens," and all the great deeds of antiquity break upon our hearts like. a sudden gleam of sunshine. We perceive nothing definite; we see no separate figures; but a cloudy train of glorious men passes over the heavens, and a breath touches us, which, like the first warm wind in the year, seems to give promise of the spring in the midst of snow and rain. "Florence!" and the magnificence and passionate agitation of Italy's prime sends forth its fragrance toward us like blossom laden boughs, from whose dusky shadow we catch whispers of the beautiful tongue.

"The Life of Michael Angelo," Norman Grimm.

2. Find the topic sentences in the following:

I. To what extent the birds or animals can foretell the weather is uncertain. When the swallows are seen hawking very high it is a good indication; the insects upon which they feed venture up there only in the most auspicious weather. Yet bees will continue to leave the hive when a storm is imminent. I am told that one of the most reliable weather signs they have down in Texas is afforded by the ants. The ants bring their eggs up out of their under