Mrs. Lismore. I have often thought with you, Emma, and supposed that term, like many others, misapplied, for want of examining into the justice of so degrading an epithet.

+23.  Improbability.+—­Up to this point we have been concerned with relating events that could exist, though we knew that they did not.  We may, however, imagine a series of events that are manifestly impossible.  There is a pleasure in inventing improbable stories, and if we know from the beginning that they are to be so, we enjoy listening to them.  Such tales are more satisfactory to young persons than to older ones, as is shown by our declining interest in fairy stories as we grow older.

By limiting the improbability to a part of the story, it is possible to give an air of reality to the whole.  Though the conditions described in a story about a trip to the moon might be wholly impossible, yet the reader for the time being might feel that the events were actually happening if the characters in the story were acting as real men would act under similar circumstances.  In stories such as those of Thompson-Seton, where the animals are personified, the impossibilities are forgotten, because the actions and situations are so real.  In fairy stories and similar tales neither characters nor actions are in any way limited by probability.

+Theme X.+—­Write a short story suggested by one of the subjects below.  Make either the characters or their surroundings seem real.

  1.  A week in Mars.
  2.  Exploring the lake bottom.
  3.  The cat’s defense of her kittens.
     (a) As told by the cat.
     (b) As told by the dog.
  4.  How the fox fooled the hound.
  5.  Diary of a donkey.
  6.  A biography of Jack Frost.

(Correct with reference to meaning and clearness and two other points to be assigned by the teacher.)

+24.  How to Increase One’s Vocabulary.+—­In your daily work do what you can to add words to your reading vocabulary, and especially to increase your writing vocabulary.  In the conversation of others and in reading you will meet with many new words, and you should attempt to make them your own.  To do this, four things must be attended to:—­

1. Spelling. Definite attention should be given to each new word until its form both as written and as printed is indelibly stamped upon the mind.  In your general reading and in each of the subjects that you will study in the high school you will meet unfamiliar words.  It is only by mastering the spelling of each new word when you first meet it that you can insure yourself against future chagrin from bad spelling.  A part of the time in each high school subject may well be devoted to the mastering of the words peculiar to that subject.

2. Pronunciation. The complete acquisition of a word includes its pronunciation.  In reading aloud and in speaking, we have need to know it, and faulty pronunciation is considered an indication of lack of culture.