+Paragraphs+.—Does every sentence in the first paragraph aid in picturing the helplessness of the old grandfather? Is the picture complete? Does the second paragraph strongly impress us with the unkindness of the son and daughter-in-law, who ought to have been moved to pity by the old man's condition? Does it contain an unnecessary sentence? In telling how the grandchild unconsciously taught a lesson, a dialogue is introduced, and so what really belongs to one sub-topic is put in the form of two paragraphs. It is customary to make a separate paragraph of each single speech in a dialogue. Read the last paragraph carefully and see whether one could wish to know anything more about the effect of the lesson taught by the child.
Make a framework for this story.
ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.
Make up a short story from your own experience, or from your imagination, and try to profit by the suggestions above. Prepare a framework at the beginning.
+Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph+.
SELECTION FROM BEECHER.
Overwork almost always ends in weakening the digestive organs. There are those who overtax their minds through months and years, forgetful that there is a close connection between overwork and dyspepsia. Everyone should remember that there is a point beyond which he cannot urge his brain without harm to his stomach; and that, when he loses his stomach, he loses the very citadel of health. The whole body is renewed from the blood, and the blood is made from the food taken into the stomach. The power of the blood to renew bone and brain and muscle depends upon a good digestion.
Too little sleep is fatal to health. Perhaps you have to work hard all day; but that is no reason why you should resolve, "If I cannot have pleasure by day, I will have it at night." You are taking the very substance of your body when you burn the lamp of pleasure till one or two o'clock in the morning. God has made sleep to be a sponge with which to rub out fatigue. A man's roots are planted in night, as a tree's are planted in soil, and out of it he should come, at waking, with fresh growth and bloom. As a rule, you should take eight hours of the twenty-four, for sleep.
+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.—In the exercises under the selection from the Brothers Grimm what did you learn about there as used twice in the second sentence above? What does those mean? What long adjective clause is joined to those by who? Does this clause read so closely as not to need a comma before who? Does forgetful describe the persons represented by who? Why is a comma used before forgetful? You learned in a preceding exercise that a noun may do the work of an adverb phrase without the help of a preposition. A noun clause may do the same. The adjective forgetful is modified by the noun clause that … dyspepsia. If we say forgetful of the fact, we see that the noun clause means the same as fact and has the same office. What two long noun clauses aroused to complete should remember? What conjunction introduces each of these clauses? What conjunction joins them together? What mark of punctuation between? If one of these noun clauses were not itself divided into clauses by the comma, would the semicolon be needed? The clause beyond … stomach goes with what word? When … stomach modifies what verb? Classify the sentences of this paragraph as simple, complex, or compound.
+To the Teacher+.—We have here treated informally some difficult points.
Perhaps these may be better understood when the book is reviewed.