It will be observed that the paragraph just quoted is not purely descriptive, but that it contains something of narration as well. A single sentence of pure description is the following, to be found on page 88: “So rapid was the progress of the light vessels that the lake curled in their front in miniature waves and their motion became undulating by its own velocity.”

The following, from page 90, is a brief argument in conversational form, the elementary form of debate:

“Get you then into the bottom of the canoe, you and the colonel; it will be so much taken from the size of the mark.”

“It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to dodge, while the warriors were under fire!”

“Lord! Lord! that is now a white man’s courage! And, like too many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason. Do you think the Sagamore or Uncas, or even I, who am a man without a cross, would deliberate about finding a cover in a scrimmage when an open body would do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up their Quebec, if fighting is always to be done in the clearings?”

“All that you say is very true, my friend; still, our custom must prevent us from doing as you wish.”

Good selections to use for the purposes described and good subjects for compositions are the following from Journeys Through Bookland:

For Narration:

  1. 1. Stories from The Swiss Family Robinson, Volume III, page 99.
  2. 2. The Story of Siegfried, III, 410.
  3. 3. The Death of Hector, IV, 364.
  4. 4. Tom Brown at Rugby, V, 469.
  5. 5. The Recovery of the Hispaniola, VII, 352.
  6. 6. The Adventure of the Windmills, VII, 438.
  7. 7. The Adventure of the Wooden Horse, VII, 467.
  8. 8. The Battle of Ivry, VIII, 76.

For Description: