21. It amused me vastly at times to think that he was of our shrewd Yankee race.—H. James.
22. I know this, that the way Mother Earth treats a boy shapes out a kind of natural theology for him.—Holmes.
23. The aim which Bonaparte avowed as his highest ambition for France, to convert all trades into arts, is being rapidly fulfilled all around us.—Higginson.
24. No man becomes a saint in his sleep.—Carlyle.
25. She taught the youth how to make friends with the crickets and squirrels, and how to call the thrush and the robin to eat from his hand.—Hillis.
26. He will hunt among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me.—Kipling.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE INDIRECT OBJECT
Function.—Many verbs are followed by two substantives, both of which are called objects; for example, “Abbot Samson read his monks a severe lecture.”—Carlyle. “I will tell you a common case.”—De Quincey. “For this did God send her a great reward.”—De Quincey. If we ask the questions read what? will tell what? did send what? the answers are the direct objects of the verbs, namely, a severe lecture, a common case, a great reward.
If we go farther and ask the questions, read a severe lecture to whom? will tell a common case to whom? did send a great reward to whom? the answers are—to his monks, to you, to her. But in the sentences as quoted the preposition to is not expressed, the meaning being evident without it. A word used like monks, you, her, is called the indirect object of the verb. It is not a complement, for the meaning of the verb is complete without it; but it is brought into the sentence by the verb, and is therefore its adjunct.