hundred. He grows restless from that moment, but he is yet alone. The next day, a dozen of the herd look up, from the cropping of the moss, snuffing the breeze. Then the Laps nod to one another, and the camp grows daily more unquiet. At times, the whole herd of young deer stand at gaze, as it were, breathing hard through wide nostrils, then jostling each other and stamping the soft ground. They grow unruly, and it is hard to harness them in the light sledge. As the days pass, the Laps watch them more and more closely, well knowing what will happen sooner or later. And then at last, in the northern twilight, the great herd begins to move. The impulse is simultaneous, irresistible, their heads are all turned in one direction. They move slowly at first, biting still, here and there, at the bunches of rich moss. Presently the slow step becomes a trot, they crowd closely together, while the Laps hasten to gather up their last unpacked possessions, their cooking utensils and their wooden gods. That great herd break together from a trot to a gallop, from a gallop to a break-neck race; the distant thunder of their united tread reaches the camp during a few minutes, and they are gone to drink of the polar sea. The Laps follow after them, dragging painfully their laden sledges in the broad track left by the thousands of galloping beasts a day's journey, and they are yet far from the sea, and the trail is yet broad. On the second day it grows narrower, and there are stains of blood to be seen; far on the distant plain before them their sharp eyes distinguish in the direct line a dark, motionless object, another and then another. The race has grown more desperate and more wild as the stampede neared the sea. The weaker reindeer have been thrown down, and trampled to death by their stronger fellows. A thousand sharp hoofs have crushed and cut through hide and flesh and bone. Ever swifter and more terrible in their motion, the ruthless herd has raced onward, careless of the slain, careless of food, careless of any drink but the sharp salt water ahead of them. And when at last the Laplanders reach the shore their deer are once more quietly grazing, once more tame and docile, once more ready to drag the sledge whithersoever they are guided. Once in his life the reindeer must taste of the sea in one long, satisfying draught, and if he is hindered he perishes. Neither man nor beast dare stand between him and the ocean in the hundred miles of his arrow-like path.

66

Something of this longing came upon the Cossack, as he suddenly remembered the sour taste of the kvass, to the recollection of which he had been somehow led by a train of thought which had begun with Vjera's love for the Count, to end abruptly in a camp kettle." 1

It is not always easy to draw the line between descriptions in narrative form and narratives proper; but usually the reader can reach a decision by asking himself what the writer's purpose is.2 If his purpose is to present a person or a scene to the reader's imagination, the result may safely be called description; if his purpose is to tell of acts or events, the result may safely be called narration.

1 F. Marion Crawford: A Cigarette-Maker's Romance, chap. vii.

2 With this question in mind, the student may profitably examine the citations on pages 270, 271.

CHAPTER IL

NARRATION.

from descrip

tion.

NARRATION, like description, concerns itself with persons or things; but, whereas description tries to show persons or things as they are or as they appear Narration to be, narration tells what they do or what is distinguished done to them. In description, a writer is tempted to use language as if it could do what is better done by painting, sculpture, or music;1 in narration, he is exposed to no such temptation, for words tell a story better than brush, chisel, or musical tones.

a good narra.

As the main purpose of narration is to tell a story, a narrative should move from the beginning to the end, and it should move with method. If the Essentials of action halts, the reader's attention halts with tive. it; if the action is confused or self-repeating, the reader's mind is soon fatigued. MOVEMENT and METHOD, the life and the logic of discourse, are, then, the essentials of a good narrative.

These essentials seem so easy of attainment that people are in the habit of saying, "Anybody can write a story; but in point of fact narration is very difficult, Examples of for few even of those who have a natural gift for story-telling are willing to cast aside everything that would obstruct the flow. To show exactly what is meant

1 See pages 249–251, 256,

narration.

by narration, it would be necessary to give examples of narration that is nothing but narration, and examples of this sort are exceedingly rare. Parts of "Robinson Crusoe" come very near being such; as, for instance, Crusoe's account of his discovery of the footprint in the sand:

"It happened, one day, about noon, going towards my boat, 1 was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor see any thing. I went up to a rising ground to look farther. I went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one, I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. But, after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man.

Another example comes from a recent work by a living author:

"The moon was sinking behind the hills, and the lines of trembling monkeys huddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky fringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink, and Bagheera began to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the centre of the terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all the monkeys' eyes upon him.

"The moon sets,' he said. 'Is there yet light to see?'

"From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops: 'We see, O Kaa!'

"Good! Begins now the Dance the Dance of the Hunger

of Kaa. Sit still and watch.'

Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe.

"He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from right to left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with his body, and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sided figures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never stopping his low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at last the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustle of the scales.

"Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats, their neck-hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered.

6

"Bandar-log,' said the voice of Kaa at last, can ye stir foot or hand without my order? Speak !'

"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!' "Good! Come all one pace nearer to me.'

"The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo and Bagheera took one stiff step forward with them.

"Nearer!' hissed Kaa, and they all moved again.

66 Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and the two great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream.

"Keep thy hand on my shoulder,' Bagheera whispered. Keep it there, or I must back go must go back to Kaa. Aah!' "It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust,' said Mowgli; 'let us go;' and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle.

666 Whoof!' said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. 'Never more will I make an ally of Kaa,' and he shook himself all over.

"He knows more than we,' said Bagheera, trembling. In a little time, had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat.' 'Many will walk that road before the moon rises again,' said Baloo. He will have good hunting — after his own fashion.'" 1

66 6

Even books like those from which the foregoing passages are taken contain many pages that are not purely narrative. To render a story intelligible, there must be some description (as, for instance, in the first sentence of

1 Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book; Kaa's Hunting.