Rover. I think I shouldn't mind the boys and the stones, if only I could run free. I'd show my teeth and growl,

and that would settle the boys.

Tyke. Yes, and you'd have the policemen after you, or, worse still, the dog-catcher. Did you ever hear what the dog-catcher does with

stray dogs that lose
their tempers?

Rover. No, what is it?

Tyke. Well, they tell me that

he takes you to a place

where they shut you
into a cage with other

dogs that nobody owns.

Then they put you into a

Rover.

close room and turn on an evil smelling stuff, and you get sleepy and sick, and then you don't know anything more, and then they bury you.

That is awful.

Tyke. And then we poor dogs are often hungry and cold. Sometimes we have to find our food in ash-barrels and gutters. In cold weather we have no warm nest, like yours, to sleep in. We shiver until, but what's that smell?

Rover. A mole, I do believe! Come, come.

[Exeunt.

This dialog is to be read aloud several times with different children taking the parts of Rover and Tyke.

Extend the dialog by adding another conversation between the dogs as they sit down to rest again. Did they catch the mole? Imagine that they talk about their masters and their homes. The class may decide what is to go into the dialog. The dialog should be repeated several times.

Perhaps the teacher will read to you Burns's "Twa Dogs."

35. WRITTEN LESSON

Write a part of the dialog between Rover and Tyke that you made in Lesson 34. Follow the models in Lessons 28 and 34.

36. LANGUAGE LESSON

PARAGRAPHS

A group of sentences about a single subject or topic makes a paragraph. If you made a number of sentences describing the picture in Lesson 1, these sentences would form a paragraph. In order to make a good paragraph, the sentences must be arranged carefully so that the listener or reader can follow from one to the other. Often the first sentence tells what the paragraph is to be about. At the close of Lesson 10, some children were asked to tell the whole story of the picture. This story might make a single oral paragraph. When it was written in Lesson 11, it would make a single written paragraph. If a story is a long one, several paragraphs may be needed; but if the sentences are about a single subject, they may be put in one paragraph.

Make oral paragraphs on the following topics, remembering (1) that all the sentences must be about one topic, and (2) that they must be carefully arranged in order. Each topic is to be tried by several children, and the paragraphs criticised by the teacher.

1. The Picture, Little Teacher, Lesson 1.

2. The Picture, Children Masquerading, Lesson 10. 3. The Poem, What the Winds Bring, Lesson 19.

4. The Picnic Party, Lesson 25.

5. How to Use a Dictionary, Lesson 30.

How is a paragraph indicated in printing, or in writing?

The Larks and the Farmer

37. ORAL LESSON

THE LARKS AND THE FARMER

31

Down in Mr. Brown's meadow, near the brook, the lark had

found a quiet place for her nest. come four downy little larks.

Out of the speckled eggs had The mother was kept busy all

day finding worms and insects enough to satisfy their appetites. One day, on her return to the nest, the little ones said, "O, Mother, we must move away at once.

the grass in the meadow to-morrow."

Mr. Brown is going to cut

"How do you know?" said the mother-lark.

"We heard him ask his son to go to his neighbor, Mr. White, and have him come to help cut the grass to-morrow."

"In that case," said the mother, "we need not move. There

is time enough yet.”

The next day when she returned to the nest, the little larks cried out eagerly:

"Because we heard Mr. Brown send his son over to his brother, to ask him to help cut the hay."

"Then," said the old lark, "we need not hurry."

On the third day the little larks said to their mother:

"Don't you think we had better move away?"

"What have you heard?" said she.

"We heard Mr. Brown say to his son that since his neighbors and his relatives would not help cut the hay, he and his son must begin at once and cut it themselves."

"Then," said the wise old lark, "it is high time to move."

to help him? Why did the old lark say they need not

move? When did the old lark decide to move? Why? What does this fable mean? Can you invent another title for it?

Let several pupils tell the story aloud, and have the class decide whether anything important has been left out, and who has told the story best. Who used the fewest ands?

38. WRITTEN LESSON

Think the story through carefully. Then write it in your own words. So far as there is time, the stories will be read aloud and criticised for the following points: Is the story well told? Is anything important omitted? Are things told in the right order? Would you change anything in the story? Which stories are told best?

39. LANGUAGE LESSON

A paragraph is a division that gives one part of the story, or one of the speeches made by the characters.

The first word of a paragraph begins a little to the right of the margin. In writing begin the first word of a paragraph about one inch to the right of the margin. This is called Indention.

How many paragraphs are there in the story in Lesson 13? What is each paragraph about?

Look up the stories in Lessons 16 and 37 and tell what the paragraphs in them are about.

Select all the plurals that occur in the story in Lesson 37. What is the singular of each? Give the plural for every singular noun in the story.