5. A Letter from a girl at boarding-school in New York, or any other large city, to her father at his home in the country.

--

NOTE. The teacher should continue to assign exercises of this kind, varying in each case the conditions of the letter to be written, until the scholar becomes perfectly familiar with all the forms, as prescribed in the preceding rules and observations.

ADDITIONAL EXERCISES.

1. Write a letter to a friend, giving an account of a wedding which took place in church. The following are some of the particulars, which you may give with more or less minuteness, according to circumstances: The attendant minister, and the form used. The appearance, dress, and behavior of the bride. The number of bridesmaids, and any peculiarities in the dress of each. Incidents in the church, after the ceremony was over. The wedding tour proposed.

2. Write a letter to a friend, giving an account of the exercises at the last exhibition in your school. The following are among the particulars that may be noticed, although you are not limited to these. The day on which the exhibition took place, and what kind of weather you had. Name and describe some of the notable persons present. Give a list of the principal exercises, and describe some of them particularly. The names of those scholars who were prominent in the exhibition, and the part taken by each.

3. Write a letter, describing a journey which you once took. The following particulars are suggested: The time of taking the journey, the state of the weather, things

Ι

seen on the way, persons met with, incidents which oc curred on the way, anything, in short, that tended to make the journey agreeable, or disagreeable.

4. A letter to one who was formerly a member of the school, telling the changes which have taken place since he or she left. The following are suggested: New scholars, naming and describing them, and telling whether they are agreeable and studious, or the opposite. New teachers, and any peculiarities in their modes of conducting recitations. New studies, and new regulations. Changes in the school-house, or in the furniture.

5. Write a letter, giving an account of your Sundayschool. Tell where it is kept, on what part of the day, how large it is, what are the principal exercises, what class you are in, who is your teacher, who are some of your classmates, what lessons you study, whether you have a good library, what books you have been reading lately, which of them you found most interesting, and so on.

APPENDIX.

PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALS.

THE principal Points are five; namely,

1. The COMMA,

2. The SEMICOLON,
3. The COLON,

4. The PERIOD,

5. The INTERROGATION, ?

NOTE. For a full illustration of the rules and exercises in

this part of the book, the teacher is referred to my larger work, Composition and Rhetoric," where the subject of Punctuation is treated at length.

Besides the five points just named, several other characters are used for similar purposes. The most common of these are the following:

SECTION I.-The Comma.

The Comma marks the smallest of the grammatical divisions of discourse that require a point.

RULE 1. PARENTHETICAL EXPRESSIONS.

Phrases and single

words, used parenthetically, should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

*

NOTE 1.-Some of the phrases in common use, which require to be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, are the following:

NOTE 2.Some of the single words used parenthetically, and ordinarily requiring to be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, are the following:

1. Gentleness, is in truth the great avenue,to real enjoyment.

*It is not intended that these rules and definitions should be committed to memory by the pupil. They are merely to guide him in correcting the exercises.

†TO THE TEACHER.-1. In these and the other examples for practice which will be given in Punctuation, constant vigilance must be used to prevent the pupils from marking the corrections in the book. A book so marked is valueless for the pur pose of study or instruction. It should at once be destroyed and replaced by a new copy at the expense of the offending party. A stated inspection of the books, for the

2. The locomotive bellows, as it were from the fury of passion.

3. He knows very well,come what may,that the note will be paid.

4. He had, no doubt, great aptitude for learning languages.

5. He went home accordingly, and arranged his business in the manner described.

6. There are in truth,only two things to be considered, namely his honesty and his ability.

7. Come then, and let us reason together.

8. No nation,in short is free from danger.

9. When, however,the hour for the trial came, the man was not to be found.

10. Why, those are the very books you want.

11. I proceed,fourthly, to prove the fact from your own admissions.

12. On the other hand, there is great danger,in delay. 13. We must however,pay some respect to the opinions of one,who has had so large an experience.

14. I have shown how just and equitable the arrangement is; and now what is the fair conclusion?

15. Attend first to the study of arithmetic; and secondly to that of algebra.

16. If I cannot induce you to grant my request, why I shall almost regret having made it.

purpose of preventing this fraud, is as necessary a part of the teacher's duty, as it is to examine the exercises presented.

2. The exercises should not be brought in written out beforehand, but should in all cases be written in the class-room. This should be considered an essential part of the recitation. There is no other way of ascertaining that the pupil makes the corrections from his own independent judgment, and unless he does this, the exercise is a mere waste of time.

3. In most cases, the following will be found a convenient mode of procedure. 1. Let the students seriatim present their books at the teacher's desk for inspection, each book, as presented, being open at the page containing the lesson, and let the books remain there piled, until the lesson is over. 2. Let the teacher dictate the examples, and the students write and correct them, using for this purpose either the blackboards, slates, or paper, according to circumstances.