in theirs. Think what you have or do in your section of the country or in your town that is different from what the other pupils know in their own section. Plan your letters to cover the principal points of interest to your distant readers, and perhaps divide these topics among you, so that more details can be given about each topic. Try to make the readers really see your town and its characteristic industries, pleasures, and possessions. Let each make an outline for his letter, or all plan an outline together, so that the letters that are sent may be as clear, interesting, and complete as possible. Be accumulating details for your letters while you go on with the next exercises. Here is a sixth-grade letter from Portsmouth, New Hampshire; you should, of course, be able to write much better ones. Is it well-planned? Does each paragraph make a single point? Does each paragraph lead on to the next? Do you like the beginning? the ending? Are enough details given about each topic? Are there other things about Portsmouth that you should like to know? Is the letter-form perfect? If Margaret had had only one or two topics about Portsmouth to discuss, how could she have made them more interesting? Dear Friends: Portsmouth, New Hampshire To help us in our sixth-grade geography work we send letters to different parts of the country. We describe our city, hoping to receive in reply interesting descriptions of other places. I have decided to send my letter to Minneapolis, because I want to know more about your flour mills and your beautiful parks. Portsmouth is a small city, having eleven thousand people. It is a delightful place to live in, as the streets are quiet, and well shaded by beautiful trees. We have many historical buildings, since our city was founded in 1623. Tourists like to visit the "Old Jackson House," built in 1664, also the "Warren House,” where Lafayette was entertained. Our finest old mansion is, the "Langdon House," in which Washington was a guest. It is still owned and occupied by the Langdon family. Our Piscataqua River, which is really an arm of the ocean, is very deep and wide, with so swift a tide that our harbor is never blocked with ice. Across the river, in Kittery, is the Portsmouth Navy Yard, where many of our citizens are employed. The dry dock is one of the largest and finest in the world, being excavated out of the solid rock. It was in the general store building at the yard that the Japanese and Russian envoys held the Peace Conference of 1905. The building now has a fine tablet in memory of the signing of the treaty. Portsmouth has two shoe factories, a very large button factory, some excellent dry goods and provision stores. There are eight public-school buildings including a fine high school. Our school was named for William Whipple, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Another is named for Admiral Farragut, who died at our Navy Yard. There are eleven churches, the most interesting to tourists being St. John's Episcopal, which is very old, and the Christ Church, where the Russian envoys held their Thanksgiving service. Perhaps you will visit Portsmouth some time while you are staying at York Beach, Rye Beach, or the Isles of Shoals. We have a good trolley service to all beaches, and a steamer runs twice each day in summer to the Isles of Shoals. Yours sincerely, Margaret Adams EXERCISE 2 WRITING FROM DICTATION A LETTER FROM FRANCE Here is a letter written to America by a little French girl, Odette Gastinell, aged about fourteen, of the Lycée · Victor Duruy, which is perhaps the best expression by anyone, young or old, of the nearness of those who honor and understand each other, even though thousands of miles separate them. This letter is worth learning by heart. Write it from dictation or from memory, supplying the heading, salutation, and close if you wish. It was only a little river, almost a brook; it was called the Yser. One could talk from one side to the other without raising one's voice, and the birds could fly over it with one sweep of their wings. And on the two, banks there were millions of men, the one turned toward the other, eye to eye. But the distance which separated them was greater than the stars in the sky; it was the difference which separates right from injustice. The ocean is so vast that the sea gulls do not dare to cross it. During seven days and seven nights the great steamships of America, going at full speed, drive through the deep waters before the lighthouses of France come into view; but from one side to the other hearts are touching. EXERCISE 3 REVIEWING SENTENCES AND PRACTICING PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION In the little poem by Stevenson quoted below classify the sentences as declarative or interrogative and find the essential elements in those the pattern of which is familiar. If you have not already done so, make an outline for a complete topical recitation on the sentence, which shall include all you now know. In reciting follow the outline. Notice the punctuation of the names used in addressing the foreign children. These are set apart from the sentence by commas.1 Here you have a series of such names; how is the series punctuated? Write the last stanza from dictation or memory, punctuating it correctly, and capitalizing it and arranging the lines as Stevenson arranged them. What mistake in grammar does this child make ? Rule D. Capitalize the first word of every line of poetry. Do some people keep the childish attitude of superiority expressed here and display it all their lives? FOREIGN CHILDREN Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, Little frosty Eskimo, Little Turk or Japanee, O! don't you wish that you were me? You have seen the scarlet trees And the lions over seas; You have eaten ostrich eggs, And turned the turtles off their legs. Such a life is very fine, But it's not so nice as mine; You have curious things to eat, 1 See page 242. Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, Little Turk or Japanee, O! don't you wish that you were me? EXERCISE 4 LEARNING TWO LAWS OF GOOD AMERICANS Here are the ninth and tenth. laws of the code for American children which won the five-thousand-dollar prize offered for the best such code. Perhaps you are already familiar with this code and know how well it shows the ideal of American manhood and womanhood towards which the boys and girls of America are striving. It is based on that of the Boy Scouts and several other codes. These last two laws sum up all the rest and express some of the ideas which you have been thinking about in this problem. You should learn them by heart, if you can honestly say them, and keep reviewing them until they are part of you. Do not try to memorize too much at once, but talk the points over and have them all stored away before the end of the term. By the way, kind comes from the same root as kin. In reciting these laws speak every word as beautifully as you can. THE LAW OF KINDNESS The Good American is Kind. In America those who are of different races, colors, and conditions must live together. We are of many different sorts, but we are one great people. Every unkindness hurts the common life; every kindness helps the common life. Therefore: 1. I will be kind in all my thoughts. I will bear no spites or grudges. I will not think myself above any other girl or boy just |