ENVY, HATRED, AND MALICE.
[SENTENCE-MAKING.]
BY J. R. SEVER.
Harry Penwright came home from school one day grumbling, and with a frown on his brow.
"Another composition," he said, crossly. "I wish we never had any compositions at all to write. I don't see what good they are, anyway."
Harry grumbled himself out of temper at first; but finding at length that grumbling was not likely to help him do his task, he took the better course of seeking his father's advice on the matter. His father explained to him the necessity of training boys and girls to express their ideas in simple, well-chosen language, and to write with ease and entertainingly on all topics. Then he explained an exercise called "sentence-making" which he used to have at school when a boy, and which he said might help Harry to write compositions more readily, while it would at the same time afford him a pleasant pastime.
Harry was eager to begin the new exercise, and he got the big dictionary from the library table and brought it to his father.
The latter, pleased at his awakened interest, said: "I will select some words at random from the dictionary, and you must try and combine them into sentences. Now if you are ready, we will have our first exercise in sentence-making."
While his father turned over the pages, Harry copied down the following words: Intrusts, Idle, Account, Merits, Follow, Strict, Cultivate, Excel.