word that will make the sentence mean the same as it meant before. III. TELLING TRUE STORIES 1 IV. WRITING A TRUE STORY Write the story of the time that you were frightened by some harmless thing. Think of a good title for your story. Think out each sentence before you write it. When you have finished, read your story through, to see if you have told the whole story clearly; then read it again, to see if you have used capitals and marks of punctuation in the right places. V. WHEN I GROW UP: A STUDY Over the hills and far away, A little boy steals from his morning play, EUGENE FIELD 1 Note to the teacher: See Manual, page 156. A STUDY LESSON 187 Why did the little boy run away from his morning play? Do you not suppose it was very quiet under the blossoming apple tree? There he could think undisturbed. There he could dream of "the things to be." What did the little boy want to be when he grew to be a man? Read the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines. Perhaps the little boy grew up to be a soldier and fought for the right and proved that he was a good, brave soldier. Perhaps he never became a soldier; but, perhaps in a quiet, busy life, he proved that he was a good, brave, true, and honest man by helping the weak, working for the right, speaking the truth, and being honest in all his dealings. Do you ever go off by yourself and think quietly of what you will do when you grow up? If you never have, you may think now of what you would like to be when you are a man or a woman. Remember that it does not make so much difference what work you do as how well you do it. "The servant who sweeps a room thoroughly is more to be praised than the king with all his wealth who rules unjustly." Learn this little memory gem: If I were a cobbler, I'd make it my pride If I were a tinker, no tinker beside VI. WHEN I GROW UP: A WRITTEN Write a short composition, telling what you, want to be when you grow up. Write your title correctly. Think a whole sentence before you write one word. How should every sentence begin? How should every sentence end? VII. A GOOD BOOK TO READ Turn to the list of one hundred good books on page 355. How many of these books have you read? Which one are you reading now? Which one are you going to read next? Which one do you like best? Prepare to tell your classmates in a one-minute talk about your favorite book. Tell the title of the book, the author, what it is about, and why you like it. Try to make your account so interesting that everyone who has not read the book will be eager to do so. THE APOSTROPHE SHOWING POSSESSION 189 VIII. THE HARDEST WORDS TO SPELL1 Have you thoroughly mastered the hundred spelling "demons," the little words that you are using every time you write? You will find these little demons all together on pages 360, 361. IX. THE APOSTROPHE SHOWING We have already studied the use of the apostrophe (') to show when letters have been omitted in contractions, as in we'll and don't. In the title, The General's Story, there is an apostrophe between the word "General" and the letter s. This apostrophe is not used to show that a letter or letters have been omitted. "General's" means belonging to the general; that is, the story was told by the general, not by Tom, Fred, or Mary, or anyone else. The apostrophe and s added to the word "General" show possession or ownership. Words that have an apostrophe and s added, showing possession, are called possessives. What is the possessive in each of the following sentences? What is possessed, or owned? 1 Note to the teacher: See Manual, page 159, for suggested test and study lessons. (a) Fred's book was lost. ("Fred's" is a possessive. possessed.) (b) He left it at Tom's house. "Book" is the thing (c) Tom's mother found it under the sofa. (d) "This is Fido's work," she said. (e) "These pages have been torn by a dog's teeth." Write in a column all the possessives in the above sentences, and opposite each possessive write the name of the thing possessed or owned, like this: The apostrophe and s ('s) are added to the name of a person or thing to show ownership or possession. X. TWO USES OF THE APOSTROPHE The following is part of a conversation that took place on Christmas eve between Scrooge, an old miser, and his clerk, Bob Cratchit: "You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose," said Scrooge. "It's not convenient, and it's not fair," said Scrooge. "If I was to stop half a crown for it, you'd think yourself ill used, I'll be bound. And yet you don't think me ill used when I pay a day's wages for no work." The clerk observed that it was only once a year. |