usually so much interested in what you are saying that it is difficult to pay attention to how you are saying it? As this is probably the case some of the time, it will be a good thing to have an exercise once in a while in which you pay more attention to how you express yourselves than to what you say.

First, have a quick review of sections 44, 49, and 63. Next, let some one of your number tell you a story. It may be some experience of his own, or something he has read or heard. It may even be something he has used before either as a spoken or a written exercise. As he speaks, notice all the mistakes he makes in grammar, all the words he mispronounces, and all the words he misuses.

After

he has sat down tell him all the errors he has made, and some one else will tell you a story, so that you may tell him also all the mistakes he makes. This is a good exercise to come back to occasionally. Every one in the class should have the experience of being thus criticized from time to time. It will make you all more careful.

SPEAKING FROM AN OUTLINE

66. Choose one of the following subjects for composition, or, if you like, select a subject of your own, and make an outline for another experience in speaking.

My Own Home

My First Year at School
My Summer in a Garden
Fun in the Parks

The Best Books I Have Read
Dogs I Have Owned

Our Window Decorations
Spring Plowing and Sowing
Going to Town on Saturdays
Circus Days

Newspapers I Read

Dolls I've Loved and Lost

When you have finished, one of you will write his outline on the blackboard and speak from it. It need not be a very long outline, but the speaker must say enough about each topic. This is a good exercise to keep up for several days, until all in the class have spoken. After each speech the class should offer criticism according to the suggestions in the next section.

EXERCISE IN CRITICISM

67. Answer the following questions:

a. Is the outline in good order?

b. Did the speaker tell all you would like to know about his subject?

c. Did he make any such errors in English as the use of ain't, he don't, It is me, or Him and me did so and so?

d. Did he string his sentences together with and-uh, but-uh, and so-uh?

e. Did he speak distinctly, so that those in the back part of the room could hear easily?

f. Did he stand up boldly before the class, or did he lean on a desk?

g. Can you give him any hints that will help him to do better next time?

OBJECTS

68. Read the following sentences:

1. "The dolphins and the whales waged a fierce warfare with each other."

2. "A boy stole a lesson book from one of his school fellows."

3. "A fisherman, engaged in his calling, made a very successful cast, and captured a great haul of fish.”

4. "But he too had a Cricket on his Hearth.”
5. "Thackleton had brought his leg of mutton.”

6. "For this purpose, he had led little Marygold into the garden."

The verbs in the sentences above express action. At some place after each one of these verbs is a word that tells what the action falls on, or what receives the action. Thus the first sentence would not be complete if you should say, "The dolphins and the whales waged." It is necessary to say that they waged "warfare." This word and words used in this way are called objects. The object, then, is a word upon which the action of the verb falls; in other words, the object is the receiver of the action.

Two cautions are necessary. First, all verbs that have objects are action verbs, like waged, saw, built; or indicate possession, like have and had. Such verbs as am, is, are, and seems express being, not action, as in I am angry, She is kind, They are good people, and He seems ill, and cannot have objects. Second, all action verbs do not have objects; for example, such verbs as go and come express action, but they cannot have objects.

Objects are usually nouns or pronouns.

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

69. You learned in the preceding section that some action verbs, like go and come, cannot have objects. It is possible to wage warfare, or to see a ship or to build a house; but it is not possible to go anything or to come anything. These latter verbs do not express the kind of action that falls upon or can be received by objects named by other words. Verbs that have objects are called transitive verbs. Verbs that express action but cannot have objects are called intransitive verbs. The verbs in the following sentences are intransitive: The organ grinder has gone. Summer will come again. The rain went away. The children are running.

Some verbs are sometimes transitive and sometimes intransitive. Read is such a verb. You may say Mother is reading, and you may say Mother is reading the morning paper. The first sentence is complete, yet "is reading" has no object and is therefore intransitive. In the second sentence "is reading" has an object and is therefore transitive. There are many such verbs.

70. You should now understand very well what objects are and be able to recognize them in sentences. Go back to section 68 and determine the objects. One of the sentences has two verbs, each of which has an object. Which one is it?

Write some sentences containing objects.

Write some sentences containing the verbs run, sweep, read, call, play, and grow, and notice that they are transitive or intransitive, that is, that

they have objects or not, according to the way you use them. Remember, too, that each of the verbs has several forms, any of which you may use. Thus run has the following forms: run, to run, ran, has run, is running, has been running, and others.

MODIFIERS

71. Objects, like verbs and subjects, may have modifiers. Hence there are complete objects and object substantives. Thus in the first sentence in section 68 the words "a fierce" modify the object "warfare." "Warfare" is the object substantive, and "a fierce warfare" is the complete object.

Notice the words "with each other." When you read the sentence, do you associate these words with "warfare" or with "waged"? That is, does this little group of words modify the object or the verb? 72. Write a short composition, or study one you have written before, and determine whether any of the verbs have objects. Also, distinguish between complete objects and object substantives.

After you have each studied a composition of your own in this way, some one will write his own on the blackboard. As he writes, study each sentence; and when he has finished, tell him what sentences have objects in them and what sentences have not. Distinguish between complete objects and object substantives.

COMPOUND OBJECTS

73. Objects, like verbs and subjects, may be compound. If there are three or more, they are