Notice in the following selection the different ways in which several ideas have been brought into the same sentence without rendering the meaning obscure:—­

Loki made his way across a vast desert moorland, and came, after three days, into the barren hill country and among the rugged mountains of the South.  There an earthquake had split the rocks asunder, and opened dark and bottomless gorges, and hollowed out many a low-walled cavern, where the light of day was never seen.  Along deep, winding ways, Loki went, squeezing through narrow crevices, creeping under huge rocks, and gliding through crooked clefts, until he came at last into a great underground hall, where his eyes were dazzled by a light that was stronger and brighter than the day; for on every side were glowing fires, roaring in wonderful little gorges, and blown by wonderful little bellows.

+Theme VIII.+—­Write a story suggested by one of the following subjects:—­

1.  School in the year 2000. 2.  The lost door key. 3.  Our big bonfire. 4.  Kidnapped. 5.  A bear hunt. 6.  A mistake in the telegram. 7.  How Fido rescued his master.

(Can you render the meaning more clear by uniting short sentences into longer ones, or by separating long sentences into shorter ones?  Can you omit any ands?  How many of the sentences begin with the same word?  Can you change any of those words?  Pick out the words which show the subordinate relation of some parts to others.  Do all of the incidents in your story seem probable?)

+19.  Conversation.+—­It must not be inferred from the preceding section that short sentences are never to be used.  They are quite as necessary as long ones, and in some cases, such as the portraying of strong emotion, are more effective.  Even a succession of short sentences may be used with good results to describe rapid action.  In conversation, also, sentences are generally short, and often grammatically incomplete, though they may be understood by the hearer.  Sometimes this incompleteness is justified by the idiom of the language, but more often it is the result of carelessness on the part of the speaker.  The hearer understands what is said either because he knows about what to expect, or because the expression is a familiar one.  Such carelessness not only causes the omission of words grammatically necessary, but brings about the incorrect pronunciation of words and their faulty combination into sentences.

You speak much more often than you write.  Your habits of speech are likely to become permanent and your errors of speech will creep into your written work.  It is important therefore that you watch your spoken language.  Occasions will arise when the slang expressions that you so freely use will seem inappropriate, and it will be unfortunate indeed if you find that you have used the slang so long that you have no other words to take their place.  An abbreviated form of gymnasium or of mathematics may not attract attention among your schoolmates, but there are circles where such abbreviations are not used.  By watching your own speech you will find that some incorrect forms are very common.  Improvement can be made by giving your attention to one of them, such as the use of guess, or of got, or of don’t and doesn’t.