38.  Few in number, and that number rapidly perishing away through sickness and hardships; surrounded by a howling wilderness and savage tribes; exposed to the rigors of an almost arctic winter,—­their minds were filled with doleful forebodings.

39.  List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest.

40.  In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
     Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre
     Lay in the fruitful valley.

41.  Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, and the wherefore?

CONTRACTED SENTENCES.

[Sidenote:  Words left out after than or as.]

365.  Some sentences look like simple ones in form, but have an essential part omitted that is so readily supplied by the mind as not to need expressing.  Such are the following:—­

     “There is no country more worthy of our study than England [is
     worthy of our study].”

     “The distinctions between them do not seem to be so marked as
     [they are marked] in the cities.”

To show that these words are really omitted, compare with them the two following:—­

     “The nobility and gentry are more popular among the inferior
     orders than they are in any other country.”

     “This is not so universally the case at present as it was
     formerly.”

[Sidenote:  Sentences with like.]

366.  As shown in Part I. (Sec. 333). the expressions of manner introduced by like, though often treated as phrases, are really contracted clauses; but, if they were expanded, as would be the connective instead of like; thus,—­

“They’ll shine o’er her sleep, like [as] a smile from the west
[would shine]. 
From her own loved island of sorrow.”

This must, however, be carefully discriminated from cases where like is an adjective complement; as,—­

“She is like some tender tree, the pride and beauty of the
grove;” “The ruby seemed like a spark of fire burning upon her
white bosom.”

Such contracted sentences form a connecting link between our study of simple and complex sentences.

COMPLEX SENTENCES.

[Sidenote:  The simple sentence the basis.]

367.  Our investigations have now included all the machinery of the simple sentence, which is the unit of speech.

Our further study will be in sentences which are combinations of simple sentences, made merely for convenience and smoothness, to avoid the tiresome repetition of short ones of monotonous similarity.

Next to the simple sentence stands the complex sentence.  The basis of it is two or more simple sentences, which are so united that one member is the main one,—­the backbone,—­the other members subordinate to it, or dependent on it; as in this sentence,—­