“Humph,” snorted Ella, “you needn’t think I want to come back.  I
    don’t want nothing more to do with you, either.”

Miss Bartelme often lets the family fight things out among themselves; for in this way, far more than by definite questioning, she learns the attitude of the girl and the family toward each other, and indirectly arrives at most of the actual facts of the case.

    “How would you like to go into a good home where some one would love
    you and care for you?” asked the judge.

    “I don’t want nobody to love me.”

    “Why, Ella, wouldn’t you like to have a kind friend, somebody you
    could confide in and go walking with and who would be interested in
    you?”

    “I don’t want no friends.  I just want to be left alone.”

“Well, Ella,” said the judge, patiently, ignoring her sullenness, “I think we shall send you back to Park Ridge for a while.  But if you ever change your mind about wanting friends let us know, because we’ll be here and shall feel the same way as we do now about it.”

To explain to readers of the Kansas City Star how a bloodhound runs down a criminal, a special feature writer asked them to imagine that a crime had been committed at a particular corner in that city and that a bloodhound had been brought to track the criminal; then he told them what would happen if the crime were committed, first, when the streets were deserted, or second, when they were crowded.  In other words, he gave two imaginary instances to illustrate the manner in which bloodhounds are able to follow a trail.  Obviously these two hypothetical cases are sufficiently plausible and typical to explain the idea.

If a bloodhound is brought to the scene of the crime within a reasonable length of time after it has been committed, and the dog has been properly trained, he will unfailingly run down the criminal, provided, of course, that thousands of feet have not tramped over the ground.

If, for instance, a crime were committed at Twelfth and Walnut streets at 3 o’clock in the morning, when few persons are on the street, a well-trained bloodhound would take the trail of the criminal at daybreak and stick to it with a grim determination that appears to be uncanny, and he would follow the trail as swiftly as if the hunted man had left his shadow all along the route.

But let the crime be committed at noon when the section is alive with humanity and remain undiscovered until after dark, then the bloodhound is put at a disadvantage and his wonderful powers would fail him, no doubt.

INCIDENTS.  Narrative articles, such as personal experience stories, confessions, and narratives in the third person, consist almost entirely of incidents.  Dialogue and description are very frequently employed in relating incidents, even when the greater part of the incident is told in the writer’s own words.  The incidents given as examples of narrative beginnings on pages 135-37 are sufficient to illustrate the various methods of developing incidents as units.