My dear Mrs. Wilson,—
My mother wishes me to write you that we are planning to take a drive to Chester on next Tuesday, and should be very glad to have you with us. We are to leave at nine o'clock, so that we may be at the Chester Hotel in time for dinner.
I hope that is not too early an hour for you, and that we may have the pleasure of your company on that day.
Very sincerely yours,
Margaret Hunt.Hilltop Lodge, Wis.,
January 14, 1906.Exercise 79.—The following letters should be written on note paper or on paper ruled to that size:—
1. Write an acceptance to the above invitation.
2. Write a note to a friend of your mother's, saying that your mother is slightly indisposed and cannot keep an engagement. Write a suitable answer.
3. Write a note to a friend of your father's, asking him in your father's name to join a fishing party; a whist club; a hunting expedition; to be one of a theater party.
4. Write a note to a friend, boy or girl, asking him or her to go to the theater with you, to come and spend the day with you, to come to a party you are giving, to attend some athletic contest with you, to go for a day's tramp with a party of friends, to play at a concert, to take part in a debate or entertainment, to lend you a book, to give you the address of a friend, to join with you in forming a club among your friends.
5. Write a note to a friend, thanking him for having helped you in an entertainment, for having lent you a book, for having done a service to a friend, for any favor shown you.
6. Write a note to your teacher, explaining your absence from school, asking her to send word to you about the lessons done in your absence; asking her to excuse you early from school, giving some specific reason; asking her for the date of the first day of school following a vacation; asking if you may be a few days late in returning to school; asking her to be present at a meeting of one of your societies; inviting her to your house for dinner.
7. Write a note to the principal of your school, asking him to be present at an entertainment given by your grade, at a spelling match, at a debate, or any special event in your class room; asking him to excuse you from drawing, on account of weak eyes, or from any other study, giving reasons; asking him to give you a letter of introduction to the principal of the new school to which you are about to go; asking him to be a judge in some contest in your class room; thanking him for having acted as judge.
48. Formal Invitations.—These are written and answered according to certain fixed forms and in the third person.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller request the pleasure of Mr. Albert Knight's company at dinner on Wednesday evening, the tenth of March, at half past seven o'clock.
221 West Long Street,
Friday morning.Mr. Albert Knight accepts with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. Miller's kind invitation to dinner on Wednesday evening at half past seven o'clock.
44 Park Place,
Saturday morning.Mrs. William Morris
Miss Morris
At Home
On Wednesday, March tenth,
from four until six o'clock.23 Grant Avenue.
Extremely formal invitations, especially to public and semi-public functions, are often impersonal in form, as in the following:—
The Annual Concert
of the
Elementary Schools of St. Joseph, Michigan,
will be held in the
Assembly Room of the High School,
Tuesday evening, May twentieth,
at eight o'clock.
You are cordially invited to be present.The President and Members of the School Board request the honor of your company at the formal dedication of the New High School, on Wednesday, November third, at half past three o'clock.
Exercise 80.—I. Study these forms and copy them accurately on note paper. Write a formal invitation from Captain and Mrs. Arthur Elliott to Mrs. Alice Johnson for dinner; from Mrs. Henry White to Mr. and Miss Kellogg for an evening at home. Write acceptance and regret for each.
II. 1. Prepare a card for a semi-public reception given by your school, by your church, by a club or society.
2. Prepare a card for a school concert, exhibition of school work, exhibition of work in Physical Culture; for a play given by the school Dramatic Society; for a May Festival given by the Eighth Grade; for the laying of a corner stone of a new schoolhouse, of a church, of a public building of any kind.
49. Telegrams.—In a telegram clearness is the first quality to be sought. Because of the cost of sending, the telegram is usually limited to ten words, excluding the address and signature, and this brevity renders it difficult to state all that you wish clearly, and makes it an exercise in ingenuity to condense the information you wish to give without making it hard to understand.
For instance, you wish your brother, who is visiting in another town, to meet you at a certain train on Monday and spend the day hunting with you, if the weather is good. You would word your telegram in some such way as this:—
September 9, 1906.
Mr. Peter Whiting,
Danfield, Md.Meet me eight thirty, ready for hunting, if weather favorable.
John Whiting.