4. The old woman lived in a little cottage, and it stood on the edge of the woods.
5. I was walking along the country roads, and I saw some wild strawberries.
6. The little boy carried a bundle, and it seemed very heavy.
7. The night was chilly, and we built a fire in the grate.
8. I wished to pass away the time, and I read a newspaper.
9. He was very ambitious, and he wished to become President.
10. She struck a match, and it burned with a feeble light.
3. Variety in the Use of Sentences:—All your sentences must be simple, or complex, or compound; but there is no reason why you should use one of the three kinds in preference to another. If you examine a passage which you think interesting, you will be quite likely to find that some sentences are simple, some complex, and some compound. The variety is pleasing. If all the sentences had been of one kind, the result would have been decidedly monotonous.
Pupils sometimes ask whether they should use long sentences or short sentences. This question is really answered in the preceding paragraph, for a simple sentence is usually shorter than a complex or a compound sentence. The fact is that what we like is variety. Until you are more experienced in composition, it will be well for you, in general, to use comparatively short sentences,—that is, sentences of not more than twenty-five or thirty words. You should feel at liberty, however, to follow your own taste in such matters, provided that your sentences are not regularly of about the same length and about the same form, so that your writing is lacking in variety.