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women were busy with brown nets, laying them out on the short grass of the shore, mending them with netting needles like small shuttles, carrying huge burdens of them on their shoulders in the hot sunlight; others were mending, calking, or tarring their boats, and looking to their various fittings. All was preparation for the new venture in their own waters, and everything went merrily and hopefully. Wives who had not accompanied their husbands now had them home again, and their anxieties would henceforth endure but for a night-joy would come with the red sails in the morning; lovers were once more together, the one great dread broken into a hundred little questioning fears; mothers had their sons again, to watch with loving eyes as they swung their slow limbs at their labor, or in the evenings sauntered about, hands in pocket, pipe in mouth, and blue bonnet cast carelessly on the head.

GEORGE MACDONALD: Malcolm.

I. Describe a schoolmate reciting, with special reference to words of motion.

J. Can you imagine how the different voices described below sounded? Can you express more fully in words how each sounds to you?

1. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well-known air and words :

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !

2. . . . a low, muffled, neutral tone, as of a voice heard through cotton wool. . . .

...

3. The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh.

4.

a thick voice a muddy voice that would have made you shudder- a voice like something soft breaking in two.

5. A voice like the wail of the banshee.

6.

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to hear her wonder and lament and suggest with soft, liquid inflections, and low, sad murmurs, in tones as full of serious tenderness.

7. . . . a voice like a blunt saw going through a thick board.

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8. a hard, sharp, metallic, matter-of-business clink in the accents of the answer, that produces the effect of one of those bells which small tradespeople connect with their shop doors, and which spring upon your ear with such vivacity as you enter that your first impulse is to retire at once from the precincts.

9. He had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.

K. In a few words characterize the most remarkable voice that you have ever heard.

L. What suggestions of sound and stillness do you find in the following? Notice the parts of speech that are most serviceable in producing these suggestions.

Except on the terrace surrounded with a stone parapet in front of the house, where there was a parterre kept with some neatness, grass had spread itself over the gravel walks, and over all the low mounds once carefully cut as black beds for the shrubs and larger plants. Many of the windows had the shutters closed, and under the grand Scotch fir that stooped towards one corner, the brown fir-needles of many years lay in a small stone balcony in front of two such darkened windows. All round, both .near and far, there were grand trees, motionless in the still sunshine, and, like all large motionless things, seeming to add to the stillness. Here and there a leaf fluttered down; petals fell in a silent shower; a heavy moth floated by, and when it settled, seemed to fall wearily; the tiny birds alighted on the walks, and hopped

about in perfect tranquillity; even a stray rabbit sat nibbling a leaf that was to its liking, in the middle of a grassy space, with an air that seemed quite impudent in so timid a creature. No sound was to be heard louder than a sleepy hum, and the soft monotony of running water hurrying on to the river that divided the park.—GEORGE ELIOT: Felix Holt. M. Describe the noise of falling waters, or the sounds heard at a football game, or sounds at night.

N. Describe some busy scene,

a railway station, a market, a street at 6 o'clock P.M., a store on bargain day, so as to make us realize continuous motion.

O. Why are so many colors mentioned in the following?

I was afraid of Miss McKenna. She was six feet high, all yellow freckles and red hair, and was simply clad in white satin shoes, a pink muslin dress, an apple-green stuff sash, and black silk gloves, with yellow roses in her hair. Wherefore I fled from Miss McKenna. KIPLING: The Daughter of the Regiment, in Plain Tales from the Hills.

P. Describe briefly a county fair with special reference to colors. Or

Q. Describe from observation any group of people with special reference to color. Or

R. Describe in a letter to a friend a new and attractive gown that you have seen.

S. Study the advertisements in the electric cars, and decide whether their relative, effectiveness depends to any extent upon words of motion or words of color.

T. Try writing an effective advertisement.

The Point of View.

57. In description of any length beyond a few lines, much depends on the choice of a point from which to make our observations of the thing to be described.

Those who use a camera know that it is important to choose an advantageous spot from which to take the picture. They know that when once the camera is placed, its position must not be changed during the exposure; for any shifting results in overlapping and confusion in the picture. The photographer may, of course, make a series of exposures from different points of view at different angles if he chooses, or at closer and closer range. Taken from a remote point, the object will show only dim general outlines in the picture; taken at closer range, it will show clearly many details that cannot be distinguished in the first picture. One who is making observations with a view to description is much like the photographer. He will choose an advantageous point from which to view the object to be described, and will tell only what can be seen from that point.

He will not commit the absurdity of describing the back of a church while he and his reader stand at the front. He will take his reader with him around the church, where they can both see the back of it. If afterward he wishes to describe the interior of the church, he will invite his reader to go in with him. If the object to be described is distant, he will not speak of it as if it were close at hand. He will not put in details that he cannot see from his point of view, even though he knows they are there; but after describing the impression made by the object as seen from a distance, he will take his reader to a closer point, from which the details that he wishes to mention can be readily seen by both.

In some cases it will be necessary to adopt the

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traveller's point of view, that is, to change the point of view several times, in order to give attention to a series of objects one after the other. The story-writer was at fault who, writing a description of a building from a viewpoint across an open public square, quoted an inscription that was cut in the side wall of the vestibule, as if the inscription could be read at that distance. is always proper to change the point of view, in order that the details that need mention may be seen, but the reader must be made aware of every change. Evidently it is necessary, if we would avoid faults in writing description, to imitate the photographer by making an actual observation of the thing to be described, choosing our point of view so as to justify the introduction of such details as we wish our reader to see.

58.

Assignments on Point of View.

A. In the following selection, what is probably the point of view at the outset? Is the point of view changed? What indicates the change? Is anything mentioned that could not be seen?

I had now come in sight of the house. It is a large building of brick, with stone quoins, and is in the Gothic style of Queen Elizabeth's day, having been built in the first year of her reign. The exterior remains very nearly in its original state, and may be considered a fair specimen of the residence of a wealthy country gentleman of those days. A great gateway opens from the park into a kind of courtyard in front of the house, ornamented with a grass plot, shrubs, and flower-beds. The gateway is in imitation of the ancient barbican; being a kind of outpost, and flanked by towers, though evidently for mere ornament, instead of defence. The front of the house is completely in the old style; with stone-shafted casements, a great bow-window of

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