2. Write an invitation to a boy or girl friend asking him or her to spend a day with you for some particular purpose, fishing, picnic, etc.

3. Write the reply to the foregoing invitation.

4. Write a letter to your teacher explaining your absence from school.

Compositions on themes in later exercises should frequently be written in the form of letters. Letter-writing is one of the best schools of training in easy and graceful English.

LESSON XXVII.

II. LETTERS OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE (Continued);

TELEGRAMS.

I. Formal Letters, etc.-Letters addressed to strangers on matters of social intercourse differ little in form from purely business letters. The parts of the direction, giving (c) the person addressed and (d) his full address, are frequently placed, not in the introduction, but at the foot of the letter, beginning opposite the signature.

II. Formal Invitations.-Invitations to formal dinners, "at homes," balls, etc., are written and answered in the third person.

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Smith present their compliments to Mr. Edson and request the honor of his company to dinner on Friday evening, the eighth of January, at seven o'clock.

34 Weston Road,
Monday Morning.

Note the position on the page of the place and date of writing. The expression "present compliments" is often omitted. "The honor of the company" is preferred to "the pleasure of "

very formal affairs.

in public and

Mr. Edson accepts with pleas-
ure Mr. and Mrs. Smith's
kind invitation to dinner on
Friday evening at seven o'clock.

144 E. Seventy-ninth St.,
Monday Evening.

The answer of regrets would read:

"Mr. Edson regrets that a previous engagement (absence from town, cir cumstances) will prevent him from accepting," etc.

Mrs. William Welton

At Home

On Thursday, March twenty-fifth, at nine o'clock P.M.

Dancing.

34 Morton Road.

An answer is requested.

In place of "An answer is requested" we frequently use the letters R.S.V.P. Répondez s'il vous plaît, Answer if you please.

An evening "At Home" usually bears the word "Cards," or "Dancing, etc.

III. The Telegram.-The telegram calls for clearness and brevity. The usual length of the message, exclusive of date, address, and signature, is ten words. The form

IV. Composition.-1. Copy exactly, on note-paper, the form of the letter from Fulton Asquith Smith to Walter Horrocks, as above (p. 97). As the body of the letter, have Mr. Smith enquire about the address of Mr. Horrocks's brother in California, to whom Mr. Smith desires to write concerning a relative.

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2. Write, on note-paper, Mr. Horrocks's reply.

3. (a) Write a formal invitation from Dr. and Mrs. Black to Mrs. and Miss Neil, asking them to dinner. (b) Write Mrs. Neil's regrets.

4. Write a friendly letter of thanks for a book loaned, expressing the pleasure it gave; asking for the loan of another.

5. Write, as if on a visit, a letter home, telling of safe arrival and pleasant doings and happenings.

6. Write a postal card while on a journey, telling of some incident of travel.

7. Write a letter to a relative away from home, telling the incidents of home life taking place in his ab

sence.

8. Write a letter to your teacher asking her to excuse you from school on afternoon, because

of

9. Prepare a formal card of invitation to a concert of your school, or society.

10. Write as a telegram of ten words; add date and address:

Your uncle James has come unexpectedly to town and wants your cousin and you to meet him at your address at seven o'clock to go with him to the theatre.

II. Write a telegram of ten words, as if to your sister, telling her some good news.

CHAPTER VII.-MEDIEVAL STORIES.1

LESSON XXVIII.

I. Memorize:-"THE EAGLE."

He clasps the crag with hookèd hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

-Alfred Tennyson.

II. Theme:-BEOWULF AND GRENDEL.

Many hundred years ago there lived a king of the Danes called Hrothgar. This king built a banqueting hall greater than man had ever before heard tell of, and the king and his warriors used to feast in it, and there were heard the sound of the harp and the song of the gleeman rejoicing. But the revelry disturbed and angered a monster-a very fiend, Grendel by name, who dwelt in the misty moors and fens and fastnesses. One night Grendel prowling about the homes of men stole near to see the hall of feasting and found the warrior-troop there sleeping, unmindful of danger. The monster seized and killed thirty of them and hurried. back to his den, exultant. When morning broke the

1 REFERENCES FOR READING. C. G. Child, Beowulf, "Riverside Literature Series 159;" W. H. Frost, Wagner Story Book; J. Baldwin, The Story of Siegfried.

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