Will it not make the children stare as they go by to school? We'll toss the crumbs to them and the robins. But you must hurry and get well, or we cannot do all this. My love to Agnes and Tood. Your affectionate uncle, P. FROM EDWARD FITZGERALD Geldestone Hall, Dear Allen, ... September 9 [1834]. [Your letter] has indeed been a long time coming, but it is all the more delicious. Perhaps you can't imagine how wistfully I have looked for it; how, after a walk, my eyes have turned to the table, on coming into the room, to see it. Sometimes I have been tempted to be angry with you; but then I have thought that I was sure you would come a hundred miles to serve me, though you were too lazy to sit down to a letter. I suppose that people who are engaged in serious ways of life, and are of well-filled minds, don't think much about the interchange of letters with any anxiety; but I am an idle fellow, of a very ladylike turn of sentiment, and my friendships are more like loves, I think. Farewell, my dearest fellow; you have made me very happy to hear from you, and to know that all is so well with you. Believe me to be your ever affectionate friend, E. Fitzgerald. There are times when a few words of sympathy are more welcome than anything else we can send a friend. are to help a friend bear grief, we must first understand his suffering partly, if not wholly. Then, in our expression of sympathy, instead of making him feel worse, we should try to call his attention to some one thing which will give him real comfort. What can we learn from the following letter of Abraham Lincoln? To what extent did he seem to understand the mother's grief? To what extent did he probably comfort her? What words seem to you particularly well chosen? Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts. Dear Madam: Executive Mansion,1 Washington, November 21, 1864. I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln. EXERCISES 177. Write a letter to a friend whom you are not likely to see for a long time. Try to be as entertaining as Gail Hamilton was in this portion of a letter of hers to Whittier : You don't want me to write you a letter, I know, but I will, and you cannot help yourself. . . . Why don't you come and help me kill caterpillars? There are eighty-five thousand millions on our trees. I burn them up first, then I bathe them in kerosene oil, and then I wash it off in soapsuds. I think they rather like it. How they cuddle up together, don't they? But they are nasty little beasts that's all you can say about it; and there's a man and a boy coming, who are going to exterminate them, horse, foot, and dragoons. We have fourteen 1 From "The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln," Vol. II, by permission of The Century Co. chickens that we have taken "to halves." I don't mean that we split them open every morning, but we are going to nurse and nourish them all summer and own one half of the whole number in fee simple. Behold, says the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, the shifts which honest poverty will make rather than beg or steal! Besides, we have eight little chickens of our own all born, and ever so many more that are going to be, if Fate and the other hens do not nip them in the shell. Hitherto Destiny has set her face against them. Their mother has been in a state of constant trepidation. I put fifteen eggs under her, and the number has gradually risen to twenty-three! I should not care if they would all turn into chickens, but that nest has been the scene of so many sharp conflicts that I fear the poor little yolks have not had peace enough to enable them to shape themselves into fuss and feathers. But I am going to keep Mother Hen on it until all hope is abandoned, and we shall see what we shall see. I suspect by this time you are pretty tired, but I am not half done yet. Anybody that is as wise as I am knows what a relief it is to sit down sometimes and be silly. 178. Write a letter of congratulation. 179. (1) Write a friend about an interesting book you are reading. Tell him enough to excite his interest without satisfying his curiosity. Or (2) in a letter to a friend write all you have learned from this chapter about letters of friendship. 180. In a letter to the principal of the school, tell what you have accomplished so far this year in each of your studies. Pay attention to (a) paragraphing, (b) sentence structure, (c) punctuation. Use correspondence paper and inclose your letter in a properly directed envelope. 181. (1) Write for a letter of introduction to a man whom you wish to meet on business; answer your letter. Or (2) write a letter of introduction. Your friend is to be in a distant city, for a fortnight, and you wish her to meet a friend of yours in that city. Answer your letter. 182. (1) To a cousin whom you have never seen, write a faithful account of the town or city in which you live. Give a paragraph to each of the following subjects: location, industries, educational opportunities, character of the inhabitants. Or (2) write a friend who runs a bookstore, telling him whether you think there is a good opening for him in your town or city, or in some town near by. He will be interested in much of the matter in the letter you have just written, and in addition will wish to know about the healthfulness of the city, the value of property, rents, taxes, the cost of living, railroad facilities, the growth of the city, and the opportunity to build up the book trade. 63. Formal Notes. A note that is written in the third person is called a formal note. An invitation sent out by a school, a class in the school, a club, or any group of persons is likely to be in the third person; and we must remember to answer it in the third person. Consider every detail of the forms given below; for example, the writing of the full word instead of using a figure. 1. Mr. and Mrs. William Walker request the pleasure of Mr. Henry Green's company at dinner on Thursday evening, May the third, at seven o'clock. 1017 Avon Street, April twenty-seventh. 2. Mr. Green accepts with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. William Walker's kind invitation to dinner on Thursday evening, May the third, at seven o'clock. 5 Williams Street, April twenty-eighth. 3. Mr. Green regrets that he cannot accept Mr. and Mrs. William Walker's kind invitation to dinner on Thursday evening, May the third. 5 Williams Street, April twenty-eighth. 4. The Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twelve 5. Mr. William H. Brown accepts with pleasure the kind invitation of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twelve, Bristol Conservatory of Music, to attend the Commencement Exercises, Wednesday, June the twentieth, at two o'clock, in Tremont Temple. You will find there is a reason for every bit of information given in both invitations and replies. Why is it desirable in 3 to repeat the words dinner, Thursday evening, May the third, and seven o'clock? In answering this question, take the point of view of the hostess. Do not say, "A previous engagement will prevent." One accepts or sends regrets at the time of writing. Your is used in 4 for the reason that it would cost too much to engrave the name of each person on his invitation. EXERCISES 183. Write a formal invitation to an entertainment. 184. Accept the invitation orally. 185. Decline it in writing. 64. Informal Notes. Most of us seldom have occasion to write a note in the third person. We prefer to write informal notes- those in which we use the first person. Then instead of sending the message in a ready-made form, each one can express himself in his own way; he can be himself. For example: |