whiskers; he was small and shabby and looked like an old postman.

Reckless with despair, Duke jumped into the basket, landing in a dishevelled posture which he did not alter until he had been drawn up and poured out upon the floor of sawdust within the box. There, shuddering, he lay in doughnut shape and presently slumbered.

I

FORCEFUL VERBS

Read the following paragraph taken from a story called The Fourth in Salvador written by O. Henry, one of America's greatest writers of short stories:

We stopped on the street corner and fired a dozen or so rounds. When we made that noise things began to liven up. We heard someone pattering up a side street and here came General Dingo on a white horse with a couple of hundred brown boys dragging guns ten feet long. General Dingo spurred his old white plug up, and the soldiers scuttled along with him. There were guns going off around the town and soon we heard that cannon go "Boom!" And then men began to skim along the edge of the plaza, dodging in among the orange trees and houses. We certainly had things stirred up in Salvador.

Do you notice how the vividness of the paragraph is increased by the use of forceful verbs? Note how exactly suited the following verbs are to the actions which they describe: pattering, dragging, spurred, scuttled, skim, dodging, stirred.

Bring to class a paragraph from a magazine or story. List ten strong verbs from it. Read your list of verbs to the class.

In the course of your reading make a habit of noting unusual and forceful verbs.

142. CONJUGATION OF VERBS

Verbs are changed in form, or inflected, to show voice, mood, tense, person, and number.

Conjugation is the regular arrangement of all the forms of the verb in all the modes and tenses.

If you will fix these verb forms in your memory you will always have something to guide you when you are in doubt about the exact use of a verb.

I

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE

INDICATIVE MOOD

Principal Parts: Present, be. Past, was.

been.

Singular

1. I am

Perfect Participle,

Plural

We are

You are
They are

We were

You were
They were

We shall be
You will be
They will be

We have been
You have been
They have been

We had been
You had been
They had been

We shall have been
You will have been
They will have been

Present being

PARTICIPLES

Past been Perfect having been Principal Parts: Present, see. Past, saw. Perfect participle.