Paragraph the following so that the paragraphs will represent the divisions in thought. If there are any topic sentences, underline them.
1
I have often noticed that every one has his own individual small economies, careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction, any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance. An old gentleman of my acquaintance, who took the intelligence of the failure of a Joint Stock Bank, in which some of his money was invested, with a stoical mildness, worried his family all through a long summer's day because one of them had torn (instead of cutting) out the written leaves of his now useless bankbook. Of course, the corresponding pages at the other end came out as well, and this little unnecessary waste of paper (his private economy) chafed him more than all the loss of his money. Envelopes fretted his soul terribly when they came in. The only way in which he could reconcile himself to such a waste of his cherished article was by patiently turning inside out all that were sent to him, and so making them serve again. Even now, though tamed by age, I see him casting wistful glances at his daughters when they send a whole inside of a half-sheet of note paper, with the three lines of acceptance to an invitation written on only one of the sides. I am not above owning that I have this human weakness myself. String is my foible. My pockets get full of little hanks of it, picked up and twisted together, ready for uses that never come. I am seriously annoyed if any one cuts a string of a parcel instead of patiently and faithfully undoing it fold by fold. How people can bring themselves to use India-rubber bands, which are a sort of deification of string, as lightly as they do I cannot imagine. To me an India-rubber band is a precious treasure. I have one which is not new—one that I picked up off the floor nearly five years ago. I have really tried to use it, but my heart failed me, and I could not commit the extravagance. Small pieces of butter grieve others. They cannot attend to conversation because of the annoyance occasioned by the habit which some people have of invariably taking more butter than they want. Have you ever seen the anxious look (almost mesmeric) which such persons fix on the article? They would feel it a relief if they might bury it out of their sight by popping it into their own mouths and swallowing it down; and they are really made happy if the person on whose plate it lies unused suddenly breaks off a piece of toast (which he does not want at all) and eats up his butter. They think that this is not waste. Now, Miss Matty Jenkins was chary of candles: We had many devices to use as few as possible. In the winter afternoons she would sit knitting for two or three hours—she could do this in the dark or by firelight—and when I asked if I might not ring for candles to finish stitching my wristbands, she told me to "keep blind man's holiday." They were usually brought in with tea, but we burnt only one at a time. As we lived in constant preparation for a friend who might come in any evening (but who never did), it required some contrivance to keep our two candles of the same length, ready to be lighted, and to look as if we burnt two always. The candles took it in turns; and then, whatever we might be talking of or doing, Miss Matty kept her eyes habitually fixed upon the candle, ready to jump up and extinguish it and light the other before they had become too uneven in length to be restored to equality in the course of the evening.
—Adapted from Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford.
2
Dear Madam:
We are sorry to say that we have no more house coats No. SP62 in size 38 at $4.50. As we advertised, SP62 is not a regular stock number, but represents a collection of $5, $6, and $7.50 coats remaining after the holiday sales and reduced to insure their being sold before spring. At the opening of the sale there were only a few coats in size 38, and they were sold almost at once. In our catalogue, pages 68 to 71 inclusive, you will find descriptions of all our stock house coats. On page 68 you will see No. 450HC, our regular $4.50 coat. If you would like us to send you one of these in size 38, we shall forward it to you at once. However, if you would like a $5, $6, or $7.50 coat, you will, no doubt, send us the difference in price on receipt of this letter. Of course, the more expensive garments are made of better materials, but all our coats show the same excellent workmanship. The best way for you to get the exact shade of trimming that you wish is to send us a sample of the goods that you would like to match. We assure you that we shall take all possible care to send you the proper color.
Yours truly,
Exercise 211
Paragraphs may be developed in different ways. For example, if you were going to write on the process of making a layer cake, you would explain in detail the different ingredients in the mixture, the proportion of each, and the steps in the process before the product could be sold as a layer cake.