3.

In the coal regions of Pennsylvania, where the timber has been destroyed and many of the valleys have been turned into mere sluices and drainways for the black waters of coal mines, the laurel and the rhododendron grow in great profusion, covering valley, hill, and mountain for miles at a stretch. In the early summer, when they are in bloom, they are really splendid in effect. All the mountain seems in blossom, and along the ridges the color is banked up against the blue sky in pink and red clouds.-Van Dyke: Nature for Its Own Sake.

4.

The stranger who would form a correct opinion of the English character must not confine his observations to the metropolis. He must go forth into the country; he must sojourn in villages and hamlets; he must visit castles, villas, farmhouses, cottages; he must wander through parks and gardens; along hedges and green lanes; he must loiter about country churches; attend wakes and fairs, and other rural festivals; and cope with the people in all their conditions and all their habits and humors.-Irving: The Sketch Book.

5.

The functions of the Senate fall into three classes-legislative, executive, and judicial. Its legislative function is to pass, along with the House of Representatives, bills which become acts of Congress on the assent of the President, or even without his consent, if passed a second time by a two-thirds majority of each House, after he has returned them for reconsideration. Its executive functions are:(a) To approve or disapprove the President's nominations of Federal officers, including judges, ministers of state, and ambassadors. (b) To approve, by a majority of two-thirds of those present, of treaties made by the President-i. e. if less than two-thirds approve, the treaty falls to the ground. Its judicial function is to sit as a court for the trial of impeachments preferred by the House of Representatives.-Bryce: American Commonwealth.

6.

One autumn day, when the grapes were ripe, a fox stole into a vineyard. Spread out on the trellises above him were great masses

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of luscious grapes, and he longed for a bunch. He made many a jump, but the grapes were high, and he could not reach them. Tired out at last, he said to himself, "Ugh! I don't care. The grapes are sour anyway!" and made off.-Esop's Fables.

II. Expression of Ideas in Composition.

Read the following compositions:

1.

Those who see the Englishman only in town are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character. He is either absorbed in business, or distracted by the thousand engagements that dissipate time, thought, and feeling, in this huge metropolis. He has, therefore, too commonly a look of hurry and abstraction. Wherever he happens to be, he is on the point of going somewhere else; at the moment he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to another; and while paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how he shall economize time so as to pay the other visits allotted to the morning. An immense metropolis like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. In their casual and transient meetings, they can but deal briefly in commonplaces. They present but the cold superficies of character-its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow.-Irving: Rural Life in England

2.

There it rose, a little withdrawn from the line of the street, but in pride, not modesty. Its whole visible exterior was ornamented with quaint figures, conceived in the grotesqueness of a Gothic fancy, and drawn or stamped in the glittering plaster, composed of lime, pebbles, and bits of glass, with which the wood-work of the walls was overspread. On every side, the seven gables pointed sharply toward the sky, and presented the aspect of a whole sisterhood of edifices, breathing through the spiracles of one great chimney. The many lattices, with their small, diamond-shaped panes, admitted the sunlight into hall and chamber, while, nevertheless, the second story, projecting far over the base, and itself retiring beneath the third, threw a shadowy and thoughtful gloom into the lower rooms.

Carved globes of wood were affixed under the futting stories. Little spiral rods of iron beautified each of the seven peaks. On the triangular portion of the gable, that fronted next the street, was a dial. The principal entrance, which had almost the breadth of a church-door, was in the angle between the two front gables, and was covered by an open porch, with benches beneath its shelter.Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables.

Class discussion.

1. Find a subject for each of the above paragraphs. 2. Show how the paragraphs bear out the definition of a paragraph. 3. Find examples of specific words in the paragraphs. 4. What force have the words "absorbed" and "distracted" as they are used in the second sentence of the first paragraph? 5. What two words in the last sentence of the first paragraph show that the Englishman has two sides to his nature? 6. What details in the second paragraph present a picture of the house? Find expressions which serve as illustrations of the idea. 7. In the pictures given opposite page 81 which is the more faithful to details? Which is the more faithful to the spirit of the scene? What value does the presence or absence of minor details give to the picture? Would Corot have put the reflection of the clouds in the water if he had been painting the scene opposite this page? Give reasons for your answer.

Subjects for written composition.1

Choose one of the following sentences and use it as the first sentence of a one-paragraph theme:—

1. Those who see the boy (or girl) only in school are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of him (or her). 'See "Exposition of Method" page XV.