Pupil: In the first stories they were not,—a shipwreck.
Teacher: But in most cases it is a matter of somebody’s treachery. In Sir Patrick Spence who gets drowned?
Pupil: The Scotch nobles.
Teacher: There it is the lords and all those other fine noblemen. As far as the style goes in Lord Ullin’s Daughter, should you say that the story goes rapidly, as rapidly as possible, or should you say that if an old ballad singer were telling the story, there is something that could be left out?
Pupil: I think so.
Teacher: Can you see any group of verses that could be left out without breaking the story up?
Pupil: I think where it described the boat (reads):—
“The boat has left a stormy land,
A stormy sea before her—
When, oh! too strong for human hand,