been selected from subjects actually written upon and will give some hint as to the variety of material that may be used.

EXERCISE II.

SIMPLE INCIDENT.

If you have followed implicitly the few directions given in the preceding exercise and have caught the spirit of the suggestions, the essay you have written may be called an example of simple narration. That is to say, it deals almost exclusively with actions and events, with things that take place in succession in a certain order, and that consume time, no matter how little or how much, in their occurrence. Further, in your essay there are, or should be, no embellishments; leave such things for later work. No irrelevant facts should be given, no unnecessary words should be used. If what you have written shows in any of these respects a deviation from what was desired, rewrite it, adhering as closely as possible to facts and making use of the simplest and most natural language at your command. If you feel that you have already done this as faithfully as you can, take the following skeleton instead and write out in full the incident suggested by it:

Boat shore-boy cipitated water.

prow — calculate -- leap - recoil-pre

Tell the story either in the first person or in the third, from the standpoint of the chief actor or from

that of an eye-witness. As the incident is purely imaginary you will have great freedom in the choice of minor details but will be met by the difficulty of telling them precisely as they might actually happen. Your object will be to make the incident seem entirely real and lifelike, to arouse and hold the reader's interest. Therefore picture to yourself the occurrence as vividly as you can. Then tell it naturally, in the past tense and indicative mode, and with no hint of anything fictitious about it.

The following may be studied as a model of this kind of composition. Do not assume that all the models here given are perfect or even excellent of their kind. Many of them are simply good specimens of work that has been done by students. be that you can produce better.

It may well

ALMOST A RUNAWAY.

As I was passing the post-office yesterday morning a sudden gust of wind caught the corner of my cloak and sent it flapping out wildly behind me. A horse standing by the pavement took fright at the noise and the bright color of the cloak-lining. He wheeled around abruptly, overturning the buggy to which he was harnessed and throwing out its sole occupant, a little boy. I was very much alarmed when I saw that the boy held on to the lines as the horse started to run, and that he and the vehicle were being dragged along dangerously close to each other. Fortunately, at this juncture, a man sprang forward, and seizing the horse by the bridle before he had fairly started, succeeded in checking and quieting him. Little damage had been done. The boy got up, scared but unhurt. I drew my offending garment closer about me and passed on.

currences.

EXERCISE III.

COLORED INCIDENT.

Thus far we have endeavored to confine ourselves to the plainest kind of narration, to the faithful and straightforward relation of real or imaginary ocRead again the model given in Exercise II. Notice how entirely devoid it is of anything foreign to the subject or of anything in the nature of ornament. Every word is necessary, and you feel that every word is true. The writer depends solely upon the inherent interestingness of the story to arouse the interest of the reader. In two places only—in the adverb wildly and the adjective offending is there the slightest approach toward anything extraneous. But even these words, apart from their ornamental office, convey ideas that cannot well be omitted. Now compare with that selection the following:

A DUDE'S DISCOMFITURE.

It was at the Southern Pacific Depot. We were sitting in a car of an outbound suburban train, looking out of the window, waiting for the train's departure. A young fellow, whose dress proclaimed him a "dude," came sauntering down the depot platform, watching the people who were descending from a train that had just arrived. Three girls, talking and laughing merrily together, seemed to absorb his attention. As he passed by he turned his head to watch them, when he was suddenly brought to a standstill by coming into collision with one of the pillars of the arcade. A particularly merry laugh from the girls just then, who may or may not have seen him, made him flush hotly. He glanced up at our car. We at least had seen him, and the row of smiling faces that filled the windows from one end of the car

to the other was not comforting. He hurried away, doubtless reflecting that this is an unsympathetic world.

Here again the writer has told his story for the most part very simply and naturally. But, if you will observe carefully, there is something here that has been inserted not so much for accurate representation as for effect. The climax is heightened and colored just a little, and at the end a bit of gratuitous speculation contributes to a more graceful close. The difference may be compared to the difference produced by the retouching of a photograph. It is just such touches as these that make a part of the difference between the great mass of writing and, that portion of it which usually goes by the name of literature.

Now rewrite your last essay- the incident developed from the skeleton given in Exercise II.-introducing as easily and skillfully as you can, a few of these touches.

MODEL.

A CRUISE.

The other day Will, Fred, Tom, and myself, were out for a ramble in the woods when we came upon a small pond on the bank of which was a raft. It did not take us long to decide that we wanted a ride, and so all four of us stepped aboard and shoved off. Will stood in the "bow" and directed the course of the craft, while the rest of us poled her along from the stern.

The pond was full of reeds and high grass, and was nowhere more than four feet deep. Here and there were old, moss-covered logs or little mounds protruding above the surface of the water.

After poling around in the deepest parts for some time, we decided to go for a cruise entirely around the pond. At one end we found a place where it was very difficult to navigate on account of the shallowness of the water and the great number of

logs. This place we named the Northwest Passage. After much trouble we succeeded in getting through and were going along at good speed when suddenly we struck a stone which our pilot had not seen because it did not reach to the surface. The sudden shock threw Will off, and as there were now three of us on one side and the balancing weight was removed from the other, the raft tipped and we also fell in.

We waded ashore with all possible speed but were afraid to go home in such a plight. Fortunately we had some matches which were not wet, and, having built a fire and sat around it for several hours drying off, we set out for home where we arrived just in time for dinner.

EXERCISE IV.

EMBELLISHED INCIDENT.

When we spoke of faithful and accurate narration as distinguished from a somewhat ornamental style of writing, we did not mean to imply that the latter wanders from fidelity or accuracy. By no means. Such a wandering would, under ordinary circumstances, be quite inexcusable. But there are always very many things which, while perfectly true or existent, are yet not at all essential to the understanding of the incident. For example, in the case of the first incident cited here, "Almost a Runaway," it may have been entirely true that the horse was black, that the buggy was new, that the cloak-lining was scarlet, that the gentleman who caught the horse was lame. But, while the introduction of these facts would have given us a more accurate picture of this particular incident, it would not have helped our understanding of what took place, of the incident itself. In so far, then, these facts are extra