Before beginning to write, make a list of at least ten prepositions that you think could well be used in your description. It will help if you write the noun after the preposition.

In preparing to write on the first subject, How the Brook Flows, perhaps you would make a list of prepositions, with the nouns following, something like this:

Just reading the phrases given above brings to the mind many pictures of the little brook flowing to join the river.

2. Find the prepositions in The Brook's Song, page 256, and tell the words between which each preposition shows the relation, as:

"From " shows the relation between "haunts" and "come."

V. CONJUNCTIONS 1

66 With me will I take Sir Lancelot and Sir Torre and Sir Gawain and Sir Tristram."

In choosing the knights to accompany him on his journey, King Arthur connects their names with the word "and.”

"Sir Lancelot or Sir Percivale shall hold the lists."

1 Note to the teacher: Many supplementary exercises are suggested in the Manual, page 209.

In appointing either Sir Lancelot or Sir Percivale to hold the lists, King Arthur uses the word "or" to connect their names.

"Neither Sir Lancelot nor Sir Percivale, but Sir Galahad shall bear my message."

In rejecting the services of Sir Lancelot and Sir Percivale and in choosing Sir Galahad, King Arthur connects their names with the words "nor" and "but."

Words that connect or join other words are called conjunctions.

"Conjunction" means a joining together.

In the above sentences the conjunctions join words to words.

Read the following paragraphs:

"Therefore," said Arthur, "take thou Excalibur, my good sword. Go with it to yonder waterside. When thou comest there, I charge thee throw my sword into that water. Come again and tell me what thou seest."

"Therefore," said Arthur, "take thou Excalibur, my good sword, and go with it to yonder waterside and when thou comest there, I charge thee throw my sword into that water and come again and tell me what thou seest."

How many sentences are in the first paragraph? in the second?

COMBINING SENTENCES

289

What conjunction is used to join the short sentences of the first paragraph into the one long sentence of the second paragraph?

Conjunctions, then, may be used to join groups of words, as well as single words.

A word used to join a word or group of words to another word or group of words is called a conjunction. Conjunctions make up one of the eight Parts of Speech.

VI.

COMBINING SENTENCES

Read the following sentences:

1. One day Tom went fishing. It was a bright day. It was a sunny day.

2. One bright, sunny day Tom went fishing.

Does not the last sentence tell all that the first group of sentences tells? Which sounds better? Compare the following:

1. One day Tom was skating. He fell. He cut his head. He cut his head on a bit of ice. The ice was sharp.

2. One day as Tom was skating, he fell and cut his head on a bit of sharp ice.

Which do you like better?

Here are some sentences taken from pupils' compositions. Try to combine each group of

sentences into a single sentence that will tell all that the group tells.

(a) Once there was a beautiful princess. She lived in a far-away country.

(b) We rowed home in the twilight. We were hungry. We were tired. Everybody was happy. Everybody had had a good time.

(c) The Indian crept through the bushes. He came to a little house. It was in a clearing in the forest.

(d) Once there was a little girl. She lived with a cruel woman. Her home was in the Land of Shadows.

It was far away from here.

(e) The old man sat by the fire. He was dreaming. He dreamed of the days that were long past. He dreamed of the days when he was young.

VII. COMBINING SENTENCES IN A

STORY

Rewrite the following story, combining into single sentences each group of sentences marked with letters (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e).

The Fox and the Grapes

(a) One day a fox was walking through a wood. He was hungry. He was looking for something to eat. (b) He saw a bunch of grapes. They were growing on a vine. The vine was high.