LIST OF SUBJECTS FOR NARRATIVE COMPOSITION. Our Picnic. Narrate the incidents simply and accurately - amusements mishaps. Tell about the weather - - trees-flowers-birds. Time of luncheon labor to get it — return. A Hunt for Wild Flowers. Tell where you went — kind of flowers sought for - where each kind grew date of finding them. Describe any unusual onesname some not yet in blossom - any interesting fact or story about the flowers should be given. Read The Procession of the Flowers, in Out-Door Papers, by Thomas W. Higginson. A Visit to the Mill-Pond. Size - location - depth. Smooth water-why? Character of soil at bottom. Kinds of fish caught in the pond. water plants trees about the margin. poles shallow water—why? A Walk in the Woods. frogstadLittle fish in Note the difference made by the season in the trees and flowers. Birds that were seen - birds' nests- animals - flowers. Coolness and quiet. Use and value of woods — rapid disappearance of our native forests - effect of such disappearance upon our climate. Read A Forest Hymn, by William C. Bryant. How We Went Nutting. Appearance of trees in autumn. how they were gathered incidents of the undertaking— success — pleasure of it. Other nut-gatherers beside man. A Fishing Excursion. To what place - kind of fish caught — size — fishing-tackle used bait - success or failure. Quote from The Complete Angler, by Izaak Walton. Story of the Bird's Nest in the Apple Tree. young birds. Read The Tragedy of the Nests, by John Burroughs. How We Camped Out. Who first suggested - who organized - how many in the party. How much planning was necessary — outfit — what was forgotten. How expectation and realization compared. Who did the cooking. Amusements — mishaps. Visit to a Dry Goods Store. Time spent people seen articles for sale - clerks - custom ers - summer goods - winter goods-store windows. One School Day. Relate in proper order all the different occupations of the day. How I Spent Saturday. ८ Narrate the events of the day, telling the little things. Do not simply say you rose in the morning, ate your breakfast, worked or played, as the case may be; but tell the trifles that made up the day's occupations, and make the narrative as interesting as you can. Take Hawthorne's Note-Books as a model.. NOTE. It is not supposed that the notes under the given subjects are at all exhaustive; they are simply to suggest a few things which may be said. Nor is this intended as a complete list of subjects, each member of the class can doubtless find some one subject as well adapted to him as any of these, but these indicate the type. The subjects may be assigned by the teacher, or the pupils may select for themselves. Not less than two original narratives should be written before any other work is undertaken. SUGGESTIONS TO THE WRITER. Use no abbreviations in written composition; they are permitted only in bills, legal documents, and statistics. Especially avoid the abbreviation of and. Use nice and about very little. Nice has been used in so many meanings that it now expresses none accurately. Exercise care to make your manuscript look as well as possible; dot your i's, cross your t's, put a period at the end of all declarative sentences; never omit the hyphen when a word is divided at the end of a line, or a caret when you wish to supply a word left out. If you are a poor speller, begin to train your mind to retain the pictures of words. Keep a dictionary at hand, and consult it. EXERCISE II. - QUICK WORK IN NARRATION. Pupils write in class for twenty minutes upon the same subject, then each reads what he has written. Each pupil takes a different subject and writes for twenty minutes, then each reads what he has written. LESSON III. - CONDENSATION OF LONG STORIES. EXERCISE I. ORAL REPRODUCTION. The pupils are to relate one or more of the following stories. This exercise, in order to be useful, should be brief, only the main points in the stories being given. SUGGESTIONS TO THE SPEAKER. Stand erect when speaking, and stand still. Avoid excessive use of and. This is a common fault. Do not say ah after words. Vary the forms of your sentences. unfinished. Do not leave a sentence Never use "says he" for "said he," nor "I says, says I" for "I said." Avoid the use of why, now, and well, as introductory words for your sentences. The word very frequently weakens an adjective instead of strengthening it. Pupils should read one of these poems carefully and retell it in Henry W. Longfellow. Henry W. Longfellow. Henry W. Longfellow. Robert Browning. Robert Browning. Alfred Tennyson. Alfred Tennyson. Alfred Tennyson. Lord Byron. Sir Walter Scott. Lord Macaulay. John G. Whittier. John G. Whittier. Elizabeth B. Browning. Joaquin Miller. Constance F. Woolson. William Cullen Bryant. SUGGESTIONS TO THE WRITER. In paraphrasing a poem try to catch the spirit of it, whether it is heroic, tragic, humorous, or pathetic. Be careful to narrate the events in their proper order; and in order that you may do this easily, take mental note of them when reading the poem. Most of these are dramatic poems and have some point of culminating interest; in your reproduction take care to bring the interest to a climax. NOTE. There should be at least one oral and one written exercise in paraphrasing these poems. Among so many it is probable that at least two are within the reach of each pupil. Pupils should take notes of the principal points in the narrative, and from these, either tell or rewrite the story in their own words. THE BOSTON MASSACRE. The sunset It was now the fifth of March, 1770. music of the British regiments was heard as usual throughout the town. The shrill fife and rattling drum awoke the echoes in King Street, while the last ray of sunshine was lingering on the cupola of the Town House. And now all the sentinels were posted. One of them marched up and down before the Custom House, treading a short path through the snow and longing for the time when he would be dismissed to the warm fireside of the guard-room. Meanwhile, Captain Preston was perhaps sitting before the hearth of the British Coffee House. In the course of the evening there were two or three slight commotions, which seemed to indicate that trouble was at hand. Small parties of young men stood at the corners of the streets or walked along the narrow pavements. Squads of soldiers who were dismissed from duty passed by them shoulder to shoulder, with the regular step which they had learned at drill. Whenever these encounters took place it seemed to be the object of the young men to treat the soldiers with as much incivility as possible. "Turn out, you lobster-backs!" one would say. "Crowd them off the sidewalks!" another would cry; redcoat has no right in Boston streets." 66 a 66 "O you rebel rascals!" perhaps the soldiers would |