will have many advantages over his city cousin. He has seen tires set, a spoke mended, axles greased; he knows shafts, tongue, whipple-tree, hub, felloes, and linchpin. But these words carry no definite idea to most city-bred children.

Remember that words alone are a small possession. The dictionary definition of any common object is the least desirable way-though often a necessary way to learn the word. To see the object first, then to hear its name, and, last, to have many associations with that object and name, is the logical method for knowing a thing thoroly and well.

In order to show you how special vocabularies often occur in verse or in prose, making word pictures more lifelike, or vivid, I give you here a few illustrations where a vocabulary naturally suited to the subject in hand has been appropriately used.

Till the brain begins to swim;
Work- work work

Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
Seam, and gusset, and band,
Band, and gusset, and seam,

Till over the buttons I fall asleep

And sew them on in a dream!

From "The Song of the Shirt," by Thomas Hood.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat

The soldiers' last tattoo;

No more on Life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,

And Glory guards, with solemn round,

The bivouac of the dead.

From The Bivouac of the Dead," by Theodore

O'Hara.

An hour passed on

- the Turk awoke;

That bright dream was his last;

He woke -to hear his sentries shriek,

"To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!"
He woke to die midst flame, and smoke,
And shout, and groan, and sabre stroke,

And death-shots falling thick and fast
As lightnings from the mountain-cloud;
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud,
Bozzaris cheer his band:
Strike till the last armed foe expires;
Strike-
Strike for the green graves of

for your altars and your fires;

your

God, and your native land!

sires

;

From Marco Bozzaris," by Fitz-Greene Halleck.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!

From "The Building of the Ship," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.*

EXERCISES

I Mental: Look thru your readers, observing in every selection how the vocabulary is to a certain extent suited to objects, places, and persons.

* Reprinted by permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company, authorized publishers of Longfellow's works.

Written In your wordbooks, list gradually, day by day, such words as would probably belong to the vocabularies of the following, beginning with those you know most about:

NOTE: These lists may be begun singly, several at once, or even all together, a word or two being added from day to day, as new knowledge confers special terms suited to the different subjects.

In making each vocabulary list, try to omit in it as far as is possible the terms which would occur in any other. The farmer uses so many terms belonging solely to the farm, that one need not include in his list those which belong also to the blacksmith or to the carpenter.

III

Oral (upon some future date, duly assigned): Recount to the rest of the class as fully as possible what you would do, or would like to do, in case you were some one worker named in the above list. Include in this recital all the terms listed under this head in your wordbook.

IV Written: The same.

V Oral: Name in class, from memory if possible, the various occupations practiced in turn by Robinson Crusoe alone on his island.

NOTE: See Appendix for notes upon lessons.

Gamarra is a dainty steed,

Strong, black, and of a noble breed,

Full of fire, and full of bone,

With all his line of fathers known;

Fine his nose, his nostrils thin,

But blown abroad by the pride within!
His mane is like a river flowing,
And his eyes like embers glowing
In the darkness of the night,

And his pace as swift as light.

Look,- how 'round his straining throat
Grace and shifting beauty float!

Sinewy strength is on his reins,

And the red blood gallops through his veins.

From The Blood Horse," by Bryan Waller Procter ("Barry Cornwall ").

CHAPTER III

SLANG

If I should solemnly warn you never to use slang words of any kind, “because they are not proper," I fear you might shrug your shoulders and say to yourselves, "Oh, we hear that every day"! Perhaps, too, some of you might even say, "We don't like to be 'proper'"! Hence, I shall try to say something new to you on this subject, hoping that this something new will be both interesting and easily remembered.

And my first word to you is this: If you will use slang — and I can hardly hope that you will drop the habit instantly upon my request-I beg that you will, at the least, avoid (1) coarse, or indecent, slang; (2) silly slang; and (3) profane slang. In case you have any slang term at your command which you are sure does not come under any one of these three heads, I, for one, shall not greatly blame you if it occasionally slips into your speech. But most popular slang- if the truth shall be told-does come under one or other of these heads. The largest part of all, in origin at least, is coarse and low; a large portion of it is silly; and another great part is profane.

Much of the current slang begins upon the stage of the comic theatre. A laughable situation, a practical joke, sometimes a coarse song, starts an expression upon a comet-like career. A few persons understand its origin and know its allusions. To others it is about as meaningless as a word of Greek or of Latin. Nevertheless, it is passed on, as if it were a choice morsel to the tongue ; for in words, as in other things, we are all eager to be in the fashion. Soon the word or the phrase will come to have a popular