a stray weed, trimming a border-hedge, or fastening an errant vine upon the wall." Or again your series may consist of dependent clauses: "It was a pleasure to see how he would fit the tid-bits to the puny mouths, how he would recommend this slice of white bread, or that piece of kissing-crust, how genteelly he would deal about the water, with a special recommendation to wipe the lip before drinking." Whatever your series, you should continue your sentence consistently in the way you begin it. You help to make your sentence clear when you form certain parts of it after the same pattern. By putting similar ideas in similar forms, you call attention to their likeness. The important fact to keep in mind this: Do not change your construction unnecessarily; carry out your plan; make the parts fit each other. Exercises I. In the following sentences, name the words, phrases or clauses which correspond in construction, that is, which are in a series. I. If peradventure, reader, it has been thy lot to waste the golden years of thy life-thy shining youth-in the irksome confinement of an office; to have thy prison days prolonged through middle age down to decrepitude and silver hairs without hope of release or respite; to have lived to forget that there are such things as holidays, or to remember them but as the prerogatives of childhood; then, and then only, will you be able to appreciate my deliverance. "The Superannuated Man," Charles Lamb. 2. "I wish the good old times would come again,” she said, "when we were not quite so rich. I do not mean that I want to be poor; but there was a middle state," so she was pleased to ramble on,-"in which I am sure we were a great deal happier. A purchase is but a purchase, now that you have money enough and to spare. Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap luxury (and, Oh! how much ado I had to get your consent in those times!) we were used to have a debate two or three days before, and to weigh the for and against and think what we might spare it out of, and what saving we could hit upon that should be equivalent. A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money that we paid for it. "Do you remember the brown suit which you made to hang upon you till all your friends cried shame upon you, it grew so threadbare, and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which you dragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent Garden? Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to purchase, and had not come to a determination till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday night, when you set off for Islington, fearing you should be too late-and when the old bookseller with some grumbling opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper (for he was getting bedwards) lighted out the relic from his dusty treasurer-and when you lugged it home, wishing it were twice as cumbersome--and when you presented it to me--and when we were exploring the perfectness of it (collating you called it)-and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till daybreak—was there no pleasure in being a poor man?" 3. "Old China," Charles Lamb. That man, I think, has a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, fogic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of Art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. "A Liberal Education," Thomas H. Huxley. 4. And, O my brethren, O kind and affectionate hearts, O loving friends, should you know any one whose lot it has been, by writing or by word of mouth, in some degree to help you thus to act; if he has ever told you what you knew about yourselves, or what you did not know; has read to you your wants and feelings, and comforted you by this very reading; has made you feel that there was a higher life than this daily one, and a brighter world than that you see; or encouraged you, or sobered you, or opened a way to the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed; if what he has said or done has ever made you take interest in him, and feel well inclined towards him; remember such a one in time to come, though you hear him not, and pray for him, that in all things he may know God's will, and at all times he may be ready to fulfill it. "The Parting of Friends," John Henry Newman. 5. Oh the terrible drought! When the sky turns to brass; when the clouds are like withered leaves; when the sun sucks the earth's blood like a vampire; when rivers shrink, stream fail, springs perish; when the grass whitens and crackles under your feet; when the turf turns to dust; when the fields are like tinder; when the air is the breath of an oven; when even the merciful dews are withheld, and the morning is no fresher than the evening. "Locusts and Wild Honey," John Burroughs. 2. In the following sentences, unnecessary changes are made in construction. Rewrite the sentences, correcting such mistakes. I. A cameo cutter works neatly and with quickness. 3. He saw to it that I rode, that I played tennis, and was insistent that I should take exercise in general. 4. Walking in the morning, sleeping in the afternoon, and to go to a concert or a lecture at night suit his taste. 5. Silence maketh a wise man, but to talk much is a sign of a foolish man. 6. He suggested my studying grammar, and that I should take a course in composition. 7. The "Daily Telegraph" began a series of articles to call attention to the situation in the far East, and giving new facts of importance. 8. The writer alleges that fifteen battleships are unfit for service, ten others being only partially supplied with ammunition. 9. The bear killed today furnished a very fine skin, brown, with long hair, and of a uniform color, not mottled. 10. Charles Green is recovering from his attack, and it is also thought that the illness has been beneficial. II. I will not deny that he read and that he studied, nor can his writing be gainsaid, but the question is, what profit has been brought to others. 12. He told him to observe, and to gather material, and planning the composition was insisted upon. PART IV WORDS One reason why most of us do not accomplish more in this world is that it does not occur to us to try; we conceive an ideal, but think we can not reach it. This is particularly the case among students. The boy who thinks he can not learn Latin, or the girl who "can't do" algebra, seldom reaches excellence in the subject. Now, most of us do not try to use words we are not accustomed to use. It scarcely enters our minds that we might have more than one adjective for the idea “pleasant day," or "great man." And if we see such a word as "amateur" or "extraordinary" or "charming," we ignore it because it seems to us unusual. If children associate with people who use the varied riches of their native tongue, they will pick up words without effort. Those who do not have such associates should make the conscious effort to increase their stock of words. Let us note some instances which illustrate this point. The following story is told of the childhood of Sir Walter Scott, by Mrs. Cockburn, who came to call on the family. At the time, the boy was only six years old. He was reading a poem to his mother when I went in. I made him read on; it was the description of a shipwreck. His passion rose with the storm. "There's the mast gone!” says he. "Crash it goes; they will all perish." After his agitation he turns to me, "That is too melancholy," says he; "I had better read you something more amusing." And |