THE CHIMNEY SWEEP

November 1

Yesterday afternoon I went to the girls' school building, near ours, to give the story of the boy from Padua to Silvia's teacher, 'who wished to read it. There are seven hundred girls there. Just as I arrived they began to come out, all greatly rejoiced at the holiday of All Saints and All Souls; and here is a beautiful thing that I saw :

Opposite the door of the school, on the other side of the street, stood a very small chimney sweep, his face entirely black, with his sack and scraper, with one arm resting against the wall, and his head supported on his arm, weeping copiously and sobbing. Two or three of the girls of the second grade approached him and said, "What is the matter, that you weep like this?" But he made no reply, and went on crying.

'Come, tell us what is the matter with you and why you are crying," the girls repeated. And then he raised his face from his arm —a baby face—and said through his tears that he had been to several houses to sweep the chimneys and had earned thirty soldi, and that he had lost them, that they had slipped through a hole in his pocket, and he showed the hole,- and he did not dare to return home without the money.

"The master will beat me," he said, sobbing; and again dropped his head upon his arm, like one in despair.

The children stood and stared at him very seriously. In the meantime other girls, large and small, poor girls and girls of the upper classes, with their portfolios under their arms, had come up; and one large girl, who had a blue feather in her hat, pulled two soldi from her pocket and said, "I have only two soldi; let us make a collection."

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"I have two soldi, also," said another girl, dressed in red; we shall certainly find thirty soldi among the whole of us ; and then they began to call out: "Amalia! Luigia! Annina! soldo. Who has any soldi? Bring your soldi here!"

A

Several had soldi to buy flowers or copy books, and they brought them; some of the smaller girls gave centesimi; the one with a blue feather collected all and counted them in a loud voice, 'Eight, ten, fifteen!"

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But more was needed. Then one larger than any of them, who seemed to be an assistant mistress, made her appearance and gave half a lira; and all made much of her. Five soldi were still lacking.

"The girls of the fourth class are coming; they will have it," said one girl. The members of the fourth class came, and the soldi showered down. All hurried forward eagerly; and it was beautiful to see that poor chimney sweep in the midst of all those many-colored dresses, of all that whirl of feathers, ribbons, and curls. The thirty soldi were already obtained and more kept pouring in; and the very smallest, who had no money, made their way among the big girls and offered their bunches of flowers, for the sake of giving something. All at once the portress made her appearance, screaming, "The Signora Directress [the head mistress]!"

The girls made their escape in all directions, like a flock of sparrows; and then the little chimney sweep was visible, alone, in the middle of the street, wiping his eyes in perfect content, with his hands full of money; and the buttonholes of his jacket, his pockets, his hat, were full of flowers, and there were even flowers on the ground at his feet. - EDMONDO DE AMICIS, Cuore "

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EXERCISE 2

PRACTICING COLLOQUIAL CONTRACTIONS

In speaking we properly enough use contractions that we should not use in formal connected writing, and, as you have already discovered, many of these contractions are necessary in reporting conversation. Most of the common ones are contractions of the verb with its pronoun subject or with not. These are correct in familiar conversation;

indeed, conversation without them is likely to sound rather stiff and stilted. One word sometimes used instead of some of these contractions is not a word in good use. This is the word ain't, or its other form, hain't. These are never right and should have been dropped before you finished even three years of school. (See Appendix A.)

is n't
[I]'m not

Instead of ain't or hain't say are n't

has n't
have n't

A. Here are the most common contractions with the most common verbs and pronouns : 1

1

he 'll

she 'll

they'll

By this time you should make no mistakes in the spelling of

contractions.

Use each of these contractions in a sensible sentence to help make a verb phrase. Write these sentences and use in them some of the verbals (from the last two problems) which you have been learning to spell. Underline the verb phrase in each sentence and classify it if you can. Let some of your sentences be interrogative and some declarative. In class dictate to each other for board work some of each kind to be written as quotations, with the he said sometimes before and sometimes after the quoted sentences.

Be sure in this exercise to have your verbs singular or plural to agree with the number of the subject. Which is plural, has n't or haven't?

B. Substitute the right contraction for ain't in each of these sentences.

1. He ain't going. 2. Ain't he a good one? 3. I ain't seen him lately. 4. We ain't ready yet. 5. Ain't you going? 6. It ain't raining now. 7. Ain't I invited? (There is no good contraction to be used here.) 8. Ain't you been in yet? 9. I ain't sure. 10. Ain't they foolish, though? 11. Dinner ain't even begun. 12. Ain't you done the dishes yet?

EXERCISE 3

PRACTICING AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE SENTENCES

What is the difference between saying "I'm ready" and saying "I'm not ready"? In the first sentence you predicate your readiness affirmatively; in the second you predicate it negatively, —that is, you deny that you are ready. The negative is the exact opposite of the affirmative. A sentence that denies the predication is called negative. Other sentences are called affirmative. The sentence-word for the affirmative is yes; that for the negative is no. Each of

these words takes the place of a whole sentence sometimes. (See Rule 6, page 265, for punctuation.)

The most common negative is not; and, as you have already seen, this is frequently contracted into n't. No is the other common negative. Most of the other negatives are compounds of not and no with other words. What does each of these negative words mean: never, none, nothing, nobody, neither? Two negatives that only partly deny are hardly and scarcely.

If you use not to deny a predication, do not use any other of these negative words in the same predication. The so-called double negative is incorrect nowadays (see Appendix A); for example, "I didn't know nothing about it." What are the two negatives here? In what two ways may you make this remark correct, using only one negative word?

Make these affirmative sentences negative and the negative sentences affirmative, and correct any double negatives that you find, as well as other mistakes, giving your

reasons.

1. I found it. 2. I have found it. 3. He saw me. 4. Did you see me? 5. Have n't you seen him lately? 6. He was sitting on the wet ground. 7. I did n't get none. 8. He wasn't lying still. 9. Mother has n't lain down to rest today. 10. That was a pretty sight. 11. There were three eggs left. 12. There wasn't any sugar in the jar. 13. There is n't a match in the house. 14. There are n't any matches left. 15. We didn't bring none. 16. We have n't brought any. 17. He has n't gone yet. 18. Has she gone to the station? 19. Have n't they written home at all? 20. They ain't got the shadow of an excuse. 21. There ain't no sense in it. 22. Don't he want none? [Look sharp here!] 23. Doesn't there seem to be none there? 24. He wants a good shaking! 25. We want our dreams to come true. 26. She wants a blue hair ribbon. 27. Johnny wants a new knife. 28. They never seen nothing at