“Jack is singular number, of course,” said Mr. Noun, “for there is only one Jack mentioned; and it is third person, for you are talking about him, not to him, and, of course, he is not talking of himself; my words never do that.”
“Oh,” said Dr. Verb, “then Jack is third person singular, is he? then gave is third person singular, too; and it is an active verb, and has an Objective Case. ‘Jack gave what?’ a cry—cry is the objective, governed by the active verb gave; so an extra mark for me, please Serjeant Parsing.”
“All right,” said the learned Serjeant. “A is the next word.”
“Mine,” said little Article.
“Loud,” continued Serjeant Parsing.
“Loud is mine,” said Adjective; “it qualifies cry—tells what sort of a cry he gave.”
“Good,” said Serjeant Parsing; “now, cry.”
“Mine,” said Mr. Noun; “a common noun this time, and Objective Case; but it does not lose a mark, as it is governed by an active verb, not by a preposition.”
“For,” continued Serjeant Parsing.
“Mine, sir,” said Conjunction; “it joins the sentences. ‘Jack gave a loud cry,’ for ‘lo! a tiger appeared before him.’”