An old road mender was standing near a heap of stones, his shovel dropped and his hands raised.  As we came near he made a sign to speak.  Lord Blantyre drew the rein a little.  “To the common, to the common, sir!  She has turned off there.”

I knew this common very well.  It was, for the most part, very uneven ground, covered with heather and dark-green bushes, with here and there a scrubby thorn tree.  There were also open spaces of fine, short grass, with ant-hills and mole turns everywhere—­the worst place I ever knew for a headlong gallop.

We had just turned on to the common, when we caught sight again of the green habit flying on before us.  My mistress’s hat was gone, and her long brown hair was streaming behind her.  Her head and body were thrown back, as if she were pulling with all her remaining strength, and as if that strength were nearly exhausted.  It was clear that the roughness of the ground had very much lessened Lizzie’s speed, and there seemed a chance that we might overtake her.

While we were on the highroad, Lord Blantyre had given me my head; but now, with a light hand and a practiced eye, he guided me over the ground in such a masterly manner that my pace was scarcely slackened, and we gained on them every moment.

About halfway across the common a wide dike had recently been cut and the earth from the cutting cast up roughly on the other side.  Surely this would stop them!  But no; scarcely pausing, Lizzie took the leap, stumbled among the rough clods, and fell.

—­Anne Sewell:  Black Beauty.

+Theme XXIII.+—­Write a brief narrative giving unity to the paragraphs by means of the time relations.

Suggested subjects:—­

1.  An adventure on horseback. 2.  A trip with the engineer. 3.  A day on the river. 4.  Fido’s mishaps. 5.  An inquisitive crow. 6.  The unfortunate letter carrier. 7.  Teaching a calf to drink. 8.  The story of a silver dollar. 9.  A narrow escape. 10.An afternoon at the circus. 11.A story accounting for the situation shown in the
   picture on page 90.

(Do you need more than one paragraph?  If so, is each a group of sentences treating of a single topic?  Can the reader follow the thread of your story?  Leave out details not essential to the main point.)

+47.  Order of Details Determined by Position in Space.+—­The order of presentation of details may be determined by the position that the details themselves occupy in space.  In description we wish both to give a correct general impression of the thing described, and to make certain details clear.  The general impression should be given in the first sentence or two and the details should follow.  The effectiveness of the details will depend upon their order of presentation.  When one looks at a scene the eye passes from one object to another near it; similarly when one is recalling the scene the image of one thing naturally recalls that of an adjoining one.  A skillful writer takes advantage of this habit of thinking, and states the details in his description in the order in which we would naturally see them if we were actually looking at them.  By so doing he most easily presents to our minds the image he wishes to convey.