Be careful to make the proper changes in person and tense.

1. Supper was announced shortly after my arrival. 2. Misery loves company. 3. Iron floats in mercury. 4. The grime and sordidness of the House of the Seven Gables seem to have vanished. 5. Nothing is to be seen. 6. Straws show which way the wind blows. 7. I remained undecided whether or not to follow my servant. 8. Rest of mind and body seems to have reëstablished my health. 9. The fortifications consist of a simple wall overgrown with grass and weeds. 10. Fire is a good servant but a bad master. 11. Not a cheer was heard; not a member ventured to second the motion. 12. The most rigid discipline is maintained. 13. Without our consent, such an expedition cannot legally be undertaken. 14. The newspapers will happily save me the trouble of relating minute particulars.

15. The ringing of bells is at an end; the rumbling of the carriages has ceased; the pattering of feet is heard no more. 16. My mind has been much disturbed, and too agitated for conversation. 17. While all this is taking place within the Towers, vast bodies of people are assembling without. 18. The spelling and handwriting are those of a man imperfectly educated. 19. I have an unconquerable repugnance to return to my chamber. 20. I like to see a man know his own mind.

2. Change into a direct statement each clause that is in the indirect discourse. Mention the construction of the clause (as subject, object, etc.).

1. The booming of a gun told them that the last yacht had rounded the lightship. 2. All of a sudden she thought she heard something move behind her. 3. Though they spoke French fluently, I perceived that it was not their native language. 4. I soon found that, in making the acquaintance of the young man, I had indeed made a valuable acquisition. 5. I thanked him, but said that Dr. Johnson had come with me from London, and I must return to the inn and drink tea with him; that my name was Boswell, and I had travelled with him in the Hebrides. 6. I discovered that he was wonderfully fond of interfering with other people’s business. 7. I had heard that he had been unhappy, that he had roamed about, a fevered, distempered man, taking pleasure in nothing. 8. I had observed that the old woman for some time past had shown much less anxiety about the book. 9. I learned that times had gone hard with her. 10. I perceived that the objects which had excited my curiosity were not trees, but immense upright stones.

11. That no man can legally promise what he cannot legally perform is a self-evident proposition.—Mackintosh. 12. That there are some duties superior to others will be denied by no one. 13. It can hardly be doubted that the highest obligation of a citizen is that of contributing to preserve the community. 14. Reports had been brought back that six Christians were lingering in captivity in the interior of the country. 15. If it be true that, by giving our confidence by halves, we can scarcely hope to make a friend, it is equally true that, by withdrawing it when given, we shall make an enemy.—Prescott. 16. He concluded with the assurance that the whole fleet would sail on the following day. 17. Pen protested that he had not changed in the least.

3. Write five sentences in which indirect discourse is expressed by an infinitive clause ([§ 435]).

EXERCISE 53
([§ 436], [p. 176])

1. Change each of the sentences quoted at the end of [§ 436] into one of the other two passive constructions described in that section.

2. Write ten sentences in each of which a clause in the indirect discourse is the subject of a passive verb.

EXERCISE 54
([§§ 438–439], [pp. 177–178])

1. Explain the use of shall, should, will, or would in each instance. Change the indirect discourse to the direct.