Sometimes there may be two, and sometimes several sub-topics. Never use any letter if there is only one topic. When there is only one topic under any heading, you should simply write the topic out.
2. Second main topic
(a)
(b)
(c), etc.
Use as many main topics as you need to tell the story or to include the substance of what you are outlining.
One can have no appreciative idea of an Indian village, unless he has been permitted to come across the prairie through a hot summer's sun, and suddenly discovers one nestled under the broad shade trees, beside a clear running stream, in a green valley. How pleasant the grass then looks; how refreshing the bright waters, and how cozy the tall lodges, with their shaded verandas of thickly interwoven boughs!
All day long we had toiled over the scorching plain, through clouds of grasshoppers that often struck us in the face with sufficient force to make the skin smart for several minutes. Once we had seen a mirage of a beautiful lake, fringed with trees and surrounded by green pastures which invited us to pursue its fleeting shadows, but we knew all about these deceptions by sad experience, and pushed steadily on over the burning sands.
These mirages often deceive the weary traveler of the desert. Suddenly the horseman sees a river or lake, apparently just ahead of him, and he rides on and on, hoping to come up to it. For hours it lies before his eyes, and then in a moment disappears, leaving him miles and miles out of his way in the midst of desert sands. Men have ridden all day striving to reach the beautiful river just before them, and then at night have turned back to plod their weary way to where they had started from in the morning.
The mirage we had seen was most delightful, representing a clear lake, with trees, meadows, and villages nestling on its shores, but it scarcely equalled the reality of the scene when, late in the afternoon, we ascended a rise in the prairie, and saw below us a wide stream lined with green trees, and on its banks a large Indian encampment.
The ponies pricked up their ears and neighed with pleasure as they smelt the water, and our own delight was unbounded. We halted for a moment to admire the beautiful prospect. Through the majestic trees slanting rays of the sun shivered on the grass! Far away, winding like a huge silver-serpent, ran the river, while near by in a shady grove stood the village with the children at play on the green lawns not made by hands. The white sides of the teepees shone in the setting sunlight, and the smoke curled lazily upward from their dingy tops. Bright ribbons and red grass, looking like streamers on a ship, fluttered from the lodge-poles, and gaudily dressed squaws and warriors walked about, or sat on the green sod under the trees.
Near the village were hundreds of horses and ponies, with bright feathers flaunting in their manes and tails as they cropped the rich grass of the valley.