of 1812, or in Lossing's Story of the American Navy, or Horace Scudder's Bodley Children. Read the poem again aloud. Explain the meaning of kedge, ensign, meteor, harpies, hulk, vanquished. Explain the expressions, "The meteor of the ocean air," "the harpies of the shore," "the eagle of the sea." Commit the poem to memory. Do you What can you tell of Oliver Wendell Holmes? know any other of his poems: "Union and liberty," "Contentment," "Ode for Washington's Birthday," "The One Hoss Shay," "The Chambered Nautilus"? 162. WRITTEN LESSON SENTENCE BUILDING Write five sentences, using the following nouns as simple subjects, and adding one or more adjectives as modifiers of each subject. 1. ensign 2. frigate 3. squadron 4. sails 5. waves Write five sentences, using the following verbs as simple predicates, and adding other words as modifiers of each verb. Do not use any of the subjects that you used in the exercise above. 1. waved 2. danced 3. sweep 4. knelt 5. shall feel Exchange papers. First mark all mistakes in capitals, punctuation, and spelling with a X. Does each of the first five sentences contain the given noun as simple subject with an adjective as modifier? If so, write a C after the sentence. If not, write a W. Mark the last five sentences in the same way. Return the papers. Study your mistakes. crosses? How many W's? How many Lie or Lay 163. LANGUAGE LESSON LIE OR LAY 147 Lie, lies, lying, apply to anything that reclines or rests. Lay, lays, laying apply to putting or placing something. Lay is also the past form of lie, so, I lay may mean I was reclining. Laid is the past form of lay, meaning put or place, and never means to rest or recline. Laid is also the form of lay used with has, have, or had. with has, have, or had. Lain is the form of lie used Supply the blanks with the proper form lie, lies, lay, or laid. Name five sentences using lay, meaning to put or place. Name five sentences using lay, the past tense of lie. Make three sentences using laid; three using lain. For an additional lesson, use the forms of lie and lay and of other troublesome verbs in a game as described in Lesson 110. 164. ORAL LESSON AN UNFINISHED STORY Out in the country, one of the common amusements of the boys is to wander in groups through the woods and fields looking for any kind of excitement they may find. They generally take a dog or two with them, and the dog often contributes to their amusement. The boys fish, hunt for birds' nests, find snakes in bushes and under stones, and chase squirrels or rabbits. One of our American poets, James Whitcomb Riley, spent his boyhood in the country in Indiana, and has written many poems of boy life there. Here is a short one that describes such an incident as he may have often seen. 'Rabbit in the cross-ties. Punch him out — quick! Git a twister on him With a long prong stick. Watch him on the south side Hi! There he goes! Sic him, Tige! The cross-ties are logs such as are used to put under the rails on a railroad. "Tige" is the name of the dog, being short for Tiger. Now can you make out the whole story? Imagine the whole scene, and describe it as clearly and definitely as you can. Invent details when you think they are necessary to make the story good. 165. WRITTEN LESSON Write out the story you have built up in Lesson 164. Each pupil may make a story to suit himself. 166. LANGUAGE LESSON Exchange compositions, and criticise them, as in Les son 127. This picture is from a painting by Rosa Bonheur, a famous French woman who lived from 1822 to 1899. She was very fond of animals, and spent much of her time outdoors among her friends, or studying wild animals in the zoological gardens. She became one of the most skillful painters of animals who have ever lived. Among her paintings are some that you should know : "The Horse Fair," "A Noble Charger," "Coming from the Fair," "An Old Monarch" (a lion), " Meditation " (a donkey). Study the picture carefully so that you can give a brief oral description of it. Does it show a happy family? Are there other pictures of animals in this book? What are they? Can you find one by Sir Edwin Landseer, another famous painter of animals? Writers often make pictures in words of objects, animals, scenes, and persons. These word pictures are called descrip tions. Try to give in a few sentences a description of the lions in the picture, or of some animal that you know. Interesting books about animals are Dr. John Brown's Rab and his Friends, Sewall's Black Beauty, London's The Call of the Wild, and White Fang, Ollivant's Bob, Son of Battle, Pierre Loti's Lives of Two Cats, Kipling's Jungle Books. 168. WRITTEN LESSON AN EXERCISE IN DESCRIPTION Select one of the following topics for description. Think carefully of the details that will make the picture clear to you and to your reader. Don't say merely that a thing is fine, or pretty, or ugly. Tell, instead, the thing that makes it fine, or pretty, or ugly to you. For example: He is almost as high as my "My dog is a handsome animal. waist, and his body is long and slender. His long hair is brownish red, and so soft and silky that it glistens in the sunlight. His head is small, his jaws long and narrow, and his eyes are bright and friendly. When he looks at you, it almost seems as if he were smiling and saying, 'Come and have a romp with me.'" Choose one of these subjects and describe it: In these exercises, a question is followed by several anFill in the blanks with the correct words. swers. |