and friends. The last number on the program was a May-Day dance given by sixteen of the girls of the school. All voted the celebration a great success.

A. B. T.

81. Value of retelling by expanding. Retelling by expanding is a step toward original composition. The student develops in his own way the ideas suggested by the author. It is like taking a pencil sketch, which some one else has made, and producing from it a finished picture, using one's own taste as to colors and tones, lights and shades.

82. General directions for retelling by expanding.

1. Read the selection so carefully that you could, if required, tell in your own words everything important that the author has said.

2. Make an orderly list of all the points as told by the author.

3. Make a list of the interesting things which are omitted; as, for example, time, place, names of persons, occupations, historical events leading to the incident, and the consequent conclusion. Try to supply whatever of importance the original story leaves to the imagination of the reader.

4. From the two lists make an outline from which you will write.

Use the

5. Expand each main topic into a paragraph. best words at your command, carefully avoiding the exact forms of expression used in the original story.

6. Read over what you have written, to see if you have told too much about one topic, or not enough about another. Improve any paragraphs that need change.

7. Be careful to connect the paragraphs in such a way that the story will not seem disjointed. If the change from one topic to another is too abrupt, try to connect the parts more smoothly. This may often be done by using such expressions as nevertheless, on the other hand, meanwhile, however, in spite of all this.

EXERCISE
I

Expand each of the following short sentences into a clear and well-constructed long sentence:

1. Tom Fifield won the game by his "home run.”

2. Grace rode out to Bronson on her bicycle this afternoon.

3. Frank is in the workshop making a bookcase for his mother.

II

Expand each of the following complex or compound sentences into three related sentences:

1. Fred earned fifty dollars while he was in Florida.

2. The house is brilliantly lighted, the rooms are decorated, and everything is in readiness for the arrival of the guests.

3. It is a familiar proverb that "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

SUGGESTION. State the proverb in non-figurative language; then tell how the truth which it states has been illustrated in the experience of one or more persons.

III

Expand each of these sentences into a paragraph of about two hundred words:

1. A fireman rescued a child from a burning building.

3. The girls decorated the hall for the festival.

IV

Expand this sentence into a story consisting of three related paragraphs:

Edith Foss had a Hallowe'en party at her house last night.

SUMMARY

83. In dealing with groups of related sentences, or paragraphs, great care should be given to the form of the work. Capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, margins, and indenting, - all need attention.

There are three ways of reproducing another person's thought: by retelling the thought closely, by condensing, and by expanding. Retelling closely teaches exactness of thought and writing, helps us to appreciate the merits of the best authors, and enlarges the writer's vocabulary. It is especially useful in making translations. Condensing helps the pupil to select the essential ideas of an author, to connect them properly, and to express them concisely and forcibly. This work is especially useful in taking notes, in making outlines, and in answering examination questions. Expanding allows the writer to supply omitted details, and this is a long step towards original composition.

CHAPTER IV

EXPRESSION OF THE PUPIL'S OWN THOUGHTS

Thought is the first faculty of man; to express it one of his first desires; to spread it his dearest privilege. - ABBÉ RAYNAL.

84. Telling one's own thoughts. Practice in retelling another person's thoughts has helped the pupil in the task of telling his own thoughts. In expressing his own ideas he will now have occasion to use the same methods of expression that he has seen used by the writers whose thoughts he has retold.

85. The art of writing well may be learned. Some pupils find the effort to write their own thoughts difficult at first and uninteresting. Perhaps they even say, "Some people are born to write, and then they will write; other people, like me, are not born to write, and then they can't write." It is true that great authors are born, not made; but it is equally true that any one may acquire a certain skill in writing. And this skill is so valuable that no pupil should begrudge the labor necessary to attain it.

86. Essentials of learning to write. The essentials of learning to write are these:

1. Having thoughts to express.

2. Study of the principles of effective expression.

3. Practice.

87. How to get thoughts to express. Some pupils, when asked to write their own thoughts on any subject, either ask a schoolmate or friend what to say, or copy from a book. These are uninteresting and lazy ways of getting ideas. Books are often helpful in showing the relation of facts already known, or in furnishing additional facts, but it is not their office to furnish the language or all the ideas for a composition.

How then should the student get his ideas? When possible, he should use his eyes and ears to observe the facts for himself. He may think that he now sees everything that there is to be seen in his range of vision; but perhaps he mistakes staring for seeing. There is danger of going through the world so carelessly that one sees little except what is forced on one's sight.

Next to the sense of sight, the sense of hearing furnishes the most facts. There is a difference in the readiness with which different people hear, just as there is a difference in the clearness with which they see. In most cases, however, the differences in acuteness of hearing are due to differences in the habit of attention to sounds, especially to familiar ones. One may hear sudden, loud, or unexpected sounds, but utterly fail to hear the rushing of the brook or the singing of the birds. The test of what is really heard is not what "goes in at one ear and out at the other," but what can be remembered of the meaning of those passing sounds. What one has really heard one can afterwards tell or write about.

In order to have thoughts to tell, the student should also think about what he has seen or heard until he has very definite ideas about it. Often when he says that he does