194. ORAL EXERCISE. Read aloud the following sentences until you can give them with good expression. Then point out the phrases which a beginner might be careless enough to punctuate as sentences. (The beginners who wrote them did make that mistake, but the pointing has been changed to the correct form.)

1. The difference between the faces is great, the first being more thoughtful than the second. 2. The German's face is a very intelligent one, the forehead being high and full. 3. This girl has dark hair and eyes, in general a brunette's complexion. 4. The lips of St. Francis are parted a little, the upper lip looking short and curved. 5. My knife is a very old and good one, the letters I. X. L. being engraved on the blade. 6. Lincoln received but little education, going to school only six months in his life. 7. Lincoln was a poorly dressed boy, his short trousers showing his red ankles. 8. Lincoln wrote on a wooden shovel, I think it was, the shovel being scraped white. 9. Abraham Lincoln was a tall youth, six feet four inches high. 10. Once when President Lincoln visited a navy-yard he picked up an axe by the tip of the helve and held it out straight, by only his thumb and finger. 11. Washington once saved a child from drowning, jumping into a very swift stream to save it. 12. I got along very well in this dress, the fur cap coming clear down over my ears.

195. WRITTEN EXERCISE. Read aloud the following statements until you can give them

smoothly and intelligently. Then copy them, inserting the correct punctuation at the places indicated by the caret (^); each caret stands before a phrase.

Begin the first sentence an inch farther to the right than the others. Fill up the lines of the paper neatly.

SHREWD GUESSING

Λ

A detective guesses shrewdly because he observes closely Λ noting a thousand little facts. A teacher can often tell much about the character of a pupil by his handwriting pupil and teacher being as yet unacquainted. Employers trust their own eyes more than they trust letters of recommendation Λ deciding quickly on the merits of the applicant for a position. One boy says to him, "Yes, sir," instead of "Yes" Ʌ showing a respectful manner of speech. That boy's finger-nails will probably be clean Λ revealing a habit of personal neatHis forefinger will be white rather than yellow ^ indicating the boy's innocence of tobacco. The shrewd employer notes all these facts counting them to the boy's credit. The lad gets the coveted place immediately л in spite of some other fellow's being recommended for it.

ness.

196. WRITTEN EXERCISE. Study the picture called The Cabin Boy's First Voyage. Then copy the statements given below, taking pains not to omit the commas, and finish each phrase according to what you see in the picture.

Place a period at the end of each completed sentence. Read your statements aloud.

THE CABIN BOY'S FIRST VOYAGE

The French painter Haquette has a picture of the departure of a cabin boy on his first voyage. The scene is

The child is

good-bye to his baby brother, putting

lifted up to him by an older sister, a pretty girl with

The sun is low, its last glory shining around

From

the edge of the water a sailor is calling to the boy, Another sailor pushes a boat into the

beckoning

water, exerting

future

Out at sea appears a ship, the

CHAPTER III

STATEMENTS THAT MAY BE WRITTEN AS SENTENCES

197. When we talk, we often talk a series of statements, and in order to understand any one of these the hearer must understand some of the others. There will be several statements about one thing, and in a sense they will all be somewhat dependent on each other for their meaning.

It is just so with the sentences of a written composition. The writer feels that his statements are all about one thing, and are closely related to each other in meaning. This is quite as it should be, for if they were not closely related in meaning, there would be no excuse for writing them. But the beginner, fearing that his statements will seem unrelated and disconnected if he uses periods and capitals, runs them all together. If he employs any mark of punctuation, it is only the comma.

The beginner writes like this:

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"My dog is a spaniel his name is Nep, that stands for Neptune Neptune was the sea-god, we call the dog Nep because he is so fond of the water, he likes to be in it all the time, once he got caught in the weeds and was nearly drowned."

198. This breathless stream of statements sounds childish, does it not? If we are to choose a name for this bad habit of running statements together without periods and capitals, we may call it The Child's Fault in Punctuation.

199. The group of remarks about the spaniel ought to be pointed thus:

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"My dog is a spaniel. His name is Nep. That stands for Neptune. Neptune was the sea-god. We call the dog Nep because he is so fond of the water. He likes to be in it all the time. Once he got caught in the weeds and was nearly drowned."

These sentences are short and jerky, but they are true sentences, and can be read without making the reader gasp for breath.

200. Below are given some parts of school compositions in which the Child's Fault in Punctuation occurs. The first column gives the faulty pointing, the second the correct.