The bags came through all right. Cousin Will took the tickets and arranged to have them taken up to the house.

Missionaries in Western Africa have been assured by mothers that they at times avoided their own sons lest they should kill them in order to have their service in another life.

She could not seriously embrace [an ill-chosen word] the conviction that Alicia was determined to disobey her, and in order to bring her to a right understanding she underwent a system of persecution. [Re-cast the whole.]

She was taller than Sir George Harper's second daughter, but she was two years older.

Witness said that his wife's father came to his house and he ordered him out but he refused to go.

Father Prémare was quite shocked, and said he could only explain it by concluding that the devil had practised a trick to annoy his friends the Jesuits.

After my poor father's death the good gentleman took me because he was a captain in his regiment and gave me education.

There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased.

Mr. Bosworth presents his compliments to Mr. Caldecott. I have got a hat which is not his; if he has got a hat which is not yours no doubt they are the missing ones.

His treatment by the barrister who had so shamefully abused the questionable privilege of his profession to question his integrity was not only forgiven but even justified by his generous victim.

Her own story was that she had a quarrel with the deceased about her wages, and that she seized the deceased by the throat and she fell, and when she got up she was looking for something to strike her with, and upon this she struck the deceased a blow on her throat and she fell and died almost immediately.

...

...

Orlando confessed that he was the fond lover to whom he spoke and asked Ganymede to give him the good counsel he talked of. Ganymede answered that he came of as good parentage as he did. . . . While Orlando was answering that he knew not what to think, Ganymede entered and asked the Duke if he brought his daughter whether he would consent to her marriage with Orlando.

A father who brought his boy to the police court complained that he got up and ran away before he was out of bed.

Mistakes cannot be rectified after they have left the shop.

There are indeed but very few who know how to be idle and innocent or have a relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; every diversion they take is at the expense of some one virtue or other, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly.

The custom of the manor hath in both cases so far superseded the will

of the lord that provided the services be performed or stipulated for by fealty he cannot in the first instance refuse to admit the heir of his tenant upon his death, nor in the second can he remove his present tenant so long as he lives.

He told his friend that if he did not feel better in half an hour he thought that he had better go home.

The grand jury found true bills against them, and though they threw every obstacle in the way of the proceedings they were successfully carried through.

At the lower end of the hall is a large otter's skin stuffed with hay which his mother ordered to be hung up in that manner, and the knight looks upon it with great satisfaction because it seems he was but nine years old when his dog killed him.

Mr. J. J. J. applied for a summons against a milkman for disturbing a congregation of which he was a member, by the noise he made on Sundays while selling milk.

Relative Pronouns.

234. The ambiguity which may arise when a Relative Clause is badly placed has already been exemplified. Equal ambiguity may arise when a sentence contains two or more Relatives referring to different Nouns; as

The Earl of Falmouth and Mr. Coventry were rivals who should have most interest in the duke who loved the earl best but thought the other the wiser man who supported Pen who disobliged all the courtiers even against the earl who contemned Pen.

The first who relates to the Earl of Falmouth and Mr. Coventry, the second to the duke, the third to the other' (Mr. Coventry), the fourth to Pen, and the fifth to the Earl of Falmouth. The sentence is somewhat improved by division; thus:

The Earl of Falmouth and Mr. Coventry were rivals for the interest of the duke, who loved the earl best but thought the other the wiser man. Though Pen disobliged all the courtiers Mr. Coventry supported him even against the earl who contemned him.

235. A Relative Pronoun may be avoided

(1) By using a Conjunction; as

With Relative.

The boy drove away the birds that were eating the corn.

With Conjunction.

The birds were eating the corn and the boy drove them away.

as

(2) By converting the Relative Clause into a Participial Phrase;

With Relative.

I feel like one

With Participle.

I feel like one treading alone some deserted banquet-hall.

as

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted.

(3) By converting the Relative Clause into a Prepositional Phrase;

Reconstruct the following sentences, omitting the Relative Pronouns :

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

A stone that is rolling gathers no moss.

That is a difficulty which cannot be surmounted.

The labour that we delight in physics pain.

The man hath perfect blessedness that walketh not astray.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns whose arms

Are hired to bear their staves.

Those are mountain-peaks which no man has yet scaled.
His power which was unparalleled was used with moderation.

The cannon blast

That just now passed

Hath awakened ten thousand men.

I backwards flew to its billowy breast

Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest.

Inconsistent Numbers.

236. Avoid inconsistency in the Numbers of Pronouns.

In historical novels and plays we often find the same person addressed in the Singular in one sentence and in the Plural in a neighbouring sentence; as in the following examples :

(1) Proud damsel thou shalt be as proudly encountered. Know then that I have supported my pretensions to your hand in the way that best suited my character.

(2) Gold will purchase you pleasure; to misuse us could only bring thee remorse.

(3) Hear me ere you answer and judge ere you refuse. The Templar loses, as thou hast said, his social rights.

237. A similar inconsistency is sometimes seen in sentences containing Collective Nouns; as

The meeting was [Sing. agreeing with meeting] very disorderly; they [Plural] clamoured for a change of government.

Often it matters not whether a Collective Noun be treated as Singular or as Plural, but no Collective Noun should be treated as Singular and as Plural.

As has already been stated, it may be used for child, baby, animal, and the names of animals generally, but a Masculine or Feminine Pronoun may be used when necessary or desirable. Care should, however, be taken to avoid such a mixture of genders as the following sentence exemplifies :

One day we were watching him [a cat] lying on the grass when it caught

a mouse.

Exercise 95.

Correct each of the following sentences in two ways:

(a) Thy praise deserves a better tongue than mine to speak and bless thy name. Is this the gentleman whose friendly service you commended to me?

As I have a violent affection for thee, my dear Straddle, if you will follow my advice I promise you, on my honour, to forgive you.

Art thou he whom I have selected for this glorious undertaking, and dost thou talk of revenge? You have, it seems, reconciled your conscience to robbery.

Though as a Christian thou art obliged, and we advise thee to forgive thy

enemy, never trust the man who hath reason to suspect that you know he hath injured you.

I do not desire to bear thee company, and I have still hopes to have the pleasure of seeing you go without me.

So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee.

(b) The army suffers much from their unprotected condition.

The Jewish nation was sunk in idolatry when they were roused to repentance by Elijah.

The nation rejoice when its fleet is victorious.

The mob are dispersed by the police; it scatters in all directions.

The crew is discontented and they are not to be trusted.

The crowd were on the whole well behaved, but a few persons in it were disorderly.

Parliament has met to elect their Speaker.

The board is going to pass a resolution to censure their clerk.

The class are not fond of Tom, though they know he is the cleverest boy in it.

The committee disable him and maintains its right to do so.

The jury were divided in its opinion.

The nation enforces their laws.

(c) We have a pretty cat. We like to see her playing with its kittens. The shepherd ran after a sheep and caught it just as she was jumping over a hedge.

Each cow knows its own stall. The hen is feeding its chicks. 'cluck!'

They are lowing for their calves.

She calls them around her with a

The parrot is on its perch. She is crying' Pretty Polly.'
The lark is singing its song of joy. She is almost out of sight.

238. The most frequent and perhaps the most disagreeable inconsistency is the use of Plural Pronouns for such words as anybody, nobody, everybody, one; for Singular Nouns separated by or or nor, and for Singular Nouns qualified by such Adjectives as each, every.

(1) If it had been anybody but the odious duke they should not have had you.

(2) Nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort. (3) Everybody breakfasts when and where they please.

(4) Many a one has gone out of the world no wiser in many respects than when they came into it.

(5) Both displayed great feats of gallantry, nor did either Bois-Guilbert