deep and terrible before the fated group were conscious of it. The house and all within it trembled: the foundations of the earth seemed to be shaken, as if this awful sound were the peal of the last trump. Young and old exchanged one wild glance and remained an instant pale, affrighted, without utterance or power to move. Then the same shriek burst simultaneously from all their lips:

The simplest words must intimate, but not portray, the unutterable horror of the catastrophe. The victims rushed from their cottage, and sought refuge in what they deemed a safer spot, where, in contemplation of such an emergency, a sort of barrier had been reared. Alas! they had quitted their security and fled right into the pathway of destruction. Down came the whole side of the mountain in a cataract of ruin. Just before it reached the house the stream broke into two branches, shivered not a window there, but overwhelmed the whole vicinity, blocked up the road and annihilated everything in its dreadful course. Long ere the thunder of that great slide had ceased to roar among the mountains the mortal agony had been endured and the victims were at peace. Their bodies were never found.

The next morning the light smoke was seen stealing from the cottage chimney, up the mountain-side. Within, the fire was yet smoldering on the hearth, and the chairs in a circle round it, as if the inhabitants had but gone forth to view the devastation of the slide, and would shortly return to thank Heaven for their miraculous escape. All had left separate tokens by which those who had known the family were made to shed a tear for each. Who has not heard their name? The story has been told far and wide, and will forever be a legend of these mountains. Poets have sung their fate.

There were circumstances which led some to suppose that a stranger had been received into the cottage on this awful

night, and had shared the catastrophe of all its inmates; others denied that there were sufficient grounds for such a conjecture. Woe for the high-souled youth with his dream. of earthly immortality! His name and person utterly unknown, his history, his way of life, his plans, a mystery never to be solved, his death and his existence equally a doubt,-whose was the agony of that death moment?

EXERCISES

1. LIMIT each of the following general subjects in such a way as to make it suitable for a theme of about three hundred words:

Balloons.

Newspapers.

Municipal government.
Bees.

The Olympic games.
American universities.

Politics.

Labor unionism.
The theater.
Department stores.
Arctic explorations.
Japan.

2. Outline the plan of the following:

a.

How to make New Varieties of Plants. b. Franklin's Account of his Early Studies. The Influence of the Press in America.

C.

3. Analyze the paragraph structure in any one of the selections illustrating expository writing, from the point of view of,

α. The position of the topic sentence.

The methods used in developing the topic.

C.

The placing of the emphasis.

d. The use of parallel structure.

e.

The means used to effect transitions.

4. Develop the following paragraph topics in such a way as to produce a coherent theme on the subject, College Spirit:

a. What college spirit is.

b. Ways in which it may properly manifest itself.

C.

Its value, both to the student and to the college.

5. Discuss the paragraph structure in any one of the selections used to illustrate descriptive and narrative composition, from the point of view of unity and coherence.

6. Outline the plan of each of the following paragraphs:

a. The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects, to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, is transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. He hears new modes of expression. His mind is enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, and of manners. But men may travel far, and return with minds as contracted as if they had never stirred from their own market-town. In the same manner, men may know the dates of many battles and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no wiser. Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign countries. More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the king, has hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the Guards reviewed, and a knight of the garter installed, has cantered along Regent Street, has visited St. Paul's, and noted down its dimensions; and has then departed, thinking that he has seen England. He has, in fact, seen a few public buildings, public men, and public