55. The Essentials of a Good Narrative.—In a diary you set down things that happen, for your own information. In letters you try to report events so that they will be understood by the person to whom you are writing and, more than this, so that they will be interesting. In a good narration you write an account of a series of connected events, so that it can be understood by any one at all, and will interest and please the greater number of your readers. It is of course much harder to address an audience whom you do not know than to try to interest people with whose peculiarities you are well acquainted; but, after all, people are very much the same in general likes and dislikes, and there are several broad, simple rules for constructing narrations, or stories, which apply to all readers.

The first thing that everybody wishes to have in a story is perfect clearness and good order. A story is a report of things as they happened, and every one wishes to learn the main events in the order in which they actually occurred. You have probably been annoyed by some one, who, in telling you a story, left out certain important steps, so that you could hardly understand how things came to happen as he related. Notice, for example, what has been left out in the following paragraph:—

As the soldiers were crossing the bridge, they noticed a man running down from a hill shouting to them and waving his arms. They could not hear what he was saying, because a strong wind was blowing away from them. As they were struggling in the water, one soldier noticed a large tree trunk floating down toward them and called to his fellows to try and save themselves by holding on to that.

Of course, so great an omission is rare; but in writing of one event following another, you must take care that your reader is never forced to stop and ask some such question as, "But you haven't told me how the soldiers came to be in the water," as he would on reading the paragraph above.

A well-told fable is often a model for clear and connected simple narration.

A crow sat on a tree, holding in his beak a large lump of cheese. A wily fox, attracted by the delicious smell, came to the foot of the tree and said to the crow, "How splendid you look up there, with your fine black feathers glistening in the sun! I wish I had feathers instead of fur. It is really not fair that you should have all the gifts, beauty and skill, and perhaps even talent. Do you sing as wonderfully as you fly?"

The crow was so pleased by this that he opened his beak wide to show off his voice. The cheese fell to the ground; the fox snapped it up and ate it, saying, "I never tasted such a delicious morsel!" He then ran off, laughing at the crow's vanity and calling over his shoulder, "Learn from this that a flatterer lives at the expense of those who listen to him."

Exercise 92.—Write simply and briefly some of the following fables, using as model the fable just given. Try to keep clear in your mind the exact order of events by imagining the whole story from beginning to end. There are in most of these subjects three or four separate little scenes, which you should try to bring visibly before your mind. It is a good plan to have an outline of the sequence of events, either written or in your head, and then develop each scene clearly and make it lifelike by conversation such as would naturally be used. The following is such an outline, by paragraphs, of a well-known fable:—

I. The old man has many sons who disturb him by quarreling among themselves.

II. On his death bed he calls them about him and gives them some small sticks, asking them if they can break them. The sons readily break them.

III. The old man ties them together tightly and asks his sons again to break them.

IV. They all try in every possible way, but cannot.

V. The old man says that if they will agree among themselves, they will be like the sticks bound together; but if they separate in quarrels, any one can injure them.

1. An ass laden with salt falls down in a stream; before he can rise the salt is dissolved away and his load is much lighter. The next time he crosses the stream he stumbles purposely and falls, but this time he is laden with sponges.

2. Two thieves who had stolen a horse fall to quarreling over who shall have the animal. While they are rolling in the dust fighting, a third thief comes along, jumps on the horse, and makes off with it.

3. An oak speaks contemptuously to a reed of its small size and yielding weakness, and boasts of its own strength and firmness. After a terrible storm the oak is blown down and the reed straightens itself unhurt.

4. A bat is caught by a weasel, who is about to devour it because it is so much like a mouse. The bat says, "I am not a mouse—you are mistaken—I am a bird. See my wings." Later the bat is caught again by a boy who wants to put it in a bird cage. "I am no bird—see my mouse's body." Thus the bat twice saves its life.

5. A cat was changed by magic to a woman. All went well until she saw a mouse run across the floor, when she ran after it and caught it.

6. A wolf in eating rapidly had swallowed a bone, which stuck in his throat. He went to the stork, who pulled it out with her beak, and then asked for pay for the service. The wolf said the stork could consider herself lucky that she had not had her head bitten off.

7. A weasel slipped into a barn through a small hole. There he ate so much grain that he was too fat to go out at the same hole, and was caught by the farmer.

8. The ass, seeing how much petting a little dog gets, tries to imitate its ways, prances about, and attempts to lie down at the feet of his mistress. He is driven back to the stable.

9. A sheep, going away for the day, cautions her little lambs not to open the door to any one, except to her, and she will say Mariati, so that they will recognize her. A wolf, hidden near, overhears the password, knocks on the door, and gives the right word; but the lambs, to be doubly sure, ask to see what color feet he has. They are black and betray him, so that the door is not opened.

56. Autobiography.—There is one form of narration where it is almost impossible to get the events of your story in the wrong order, and that is autobiography, for in this you are telling the facts of your own life as they occurred, from month to month or year to year. In this form, as in narration, however, there is an important principle to bear in mind. Your material must be well chosen; that is, you must select only the important events in your life. Trivial and uninteresting details must be left out. To do this you must use your judgment, and try to put yourself in the place of your reader, and think what he would like to know. (If your great-grandfather had written his autobiography when he was your age, what would you have liked to know of his life? If Pocohontas had written her autobiography, what would most interest you?)

Exercise 93.—I. Write your own autobiography up to the present date, and then continue in the same style, telling the story of your life as you would like best to have it.

II. Write an imaginary autobiography of:—

1. The starch-box after it was empty; a boy made a doll's wagon of it for his little sister. Forgotten in the street, it was picked up by two poor children, and taken home, where an invalid brother made it into a window box for flowers.

2. A gold dollar. Stamped in the mint, sent to the bank, given to a child for a birthday present, sent by her to the missionaries in Africa, lost there, and hung around the neck of a little black child.

3. A drop of rain—all its life from the cloud to the earth, to the brook, to the river, to the sea, back to the cloud again.

4. A knife. Made by Indian hunters, bought by white trappers, used on the plains, slipped into a package of furs sent to Paris to be made up into coats, and then used as a paper-cutter.

5. Similarly, invent stories for a handkerchief, a diamond, a doll, a knapsack, a book, a street car, a lamp, a sword, a tea kettle, a wagon, an old house, a dollar bill, a pencil, a mirror, an old apple tree, a thimble, a high tortoise-shell comb, a saddle, a suit of armor, a chair.

III. Write autobiographies of a cat, a dog, a horse, an elephant, a polar bear, a fox, a rabbit, a canary bird, a hen, a trained pig, a poodle, a mouse, a woodchuck, a squirrel.

IV. Write the account of the course of a river as told by itself, from the time it rises from a spring till it flows into the ocean.

V. Write the autobiography of any statue that you know, from the block of marble to its present place.

57. Biography.—In writing a biography it is not enough to select your facts with good judgment, and to arrange them in the order of their occurrence. A still more careful arrangement is needed, and this is usually provided for by grouping the facts of a life into several main divisions. For instance, in writing your mother's biography, you might make some such general division or outline as the following:—

I. Childhood in New England—village school; on a farm.

II. Boarding-school life. Studies—beginning of interest in history. Visits to school friends in the vacation. The old home is destroyed by fire.

III. Life in New York, as teacher of history in a private school. Summer abroad with several of the pupils.

IV. Early married life in New York; boarding-house, later a small apartment.

V. Removal to suburban town. Children of the family. General character of family life.

Under these various headings you can group all the stories you can induce your mother to tell you of her past life. Without such broad divisions into periods it is impossible to write all the varied facts of a biography in such a manner that your reader gets a clear and connected idea of the course of events.

Exercise 94.—Group into natural divisions the following facts:—

Henry Allen was married in 1875. His father was a lumber merchant. When he retired from business, he wrote an account of his life. As a boy he was fond of out-of-door life. He had three children. When he was a young man, he was sent up into Canada to look after some timber lands of his father's. He stayed there in the woods with the Indians for two years. He was born in 1840. He lived in Portland, Maine, until he was sixteen. When his father died in 1867, he carried on the lumber business. He went two years to Bowdoin College. He was once mayor of Hartford. He lived in Boston from 1856 to 1875. He died in 1900 in Hartford. He brought up his children to know the woods and fields better than schools. He was one of the first people to advocate nature study. He was a very successful business man. He founded a school of forestry. He married a Canadian girl whom he met on a second visit to the forest in 1870.

Exercise 95.—Find out all you can about the life of any older member of your family. See if you can pick out the natural divisions into which these facts fall, and write a brief biography. Do not divide in a conventional way, as into childhood, youth, maturity, and old age, but try to select periods which are separated from each other by some feature peculiar to the individual life you are relating. Sometimes divisions are naturally made by change in residence, sometimes by change in occupation, and sometimes simply by the general character of a life between certain dates. Your own judgment must tell you how best to arrange the facts of the story you wish to tell.

Exercise 96.—I. Write in the same way, the biography (1) of the mayor of your own town, (2) of the President of the United States, (3) of a schoolmate (continuing this in an imaginary account of what you fancy his life may be), (4) of your cook, (5) of your minister, or of any person whom you know well enough to ask the facts of his life, or about whom you can learn through other people.

II. See how complete a biography you can write of either your grandfather or grandmother, or of any of your ancestors about whom you have heard stories, or of any of the early settlers of your town.

III. Then, using the same method of collecting your facts first, and arranging those that naturally fall together in three or four groups, write the story of the life of (1) Joan of Arc, (2) Julius CÆsar, (3) Hannibal, (4) Alfred the Great, (5) Washington, (6) Lee, (7) Lincoln, (8) Thorwaldsen, (9) Giotto, (10) Christopher Columbus, (11) Pocahontas, (12) Whittier, (13) Longfellow, (14) Miles Standish.

58. History.—Read the following account of how the Pilgrims came to Plymouth:—

For nearly twelve years "brave little Holland" had given shelter to the true men and women who, in 1607-1608, were driven out of England by persecution of the bishops because they would worship God in their own way.

After many trials and dangers they came together at Amsterdam in 1608, and formed a little "Independent" church, with Richard Clifton, their old pastor among the Nottingham hills, for their minister, and John Robinson, their teacher, as his assistant.

Governor Bradford tells us, in his Historie, that "when they had lived at Amsterdam about a year they removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city and of a sweet situation," on the "Old Rhine." Clifton was growing old and did not go with them, and Robinson became their pastor.

For eleven years—nearly the whole time of "the famous truce" which came between the bloody wars of Holland and Spain—they lived here, married, children were born to them, and here some of them died.

Most of them had been farmers in England, but here "they fell to such trades & imployments as they best could, valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any other riches whatsoever, and at length they came to raise a competente and comfortable living, but with hard and continuall labor."

But about 1617 these good, brave people of Pastor Robinson's flock became very anxious as to their circumstances and future,—especially for their children,—and at length came sadly to realize that they must again seek a new home. Their numbers had been much increased; they could not hope to work so hard as they grew older, while war with the Spaniard was coming, and would surely make matters harder for them. But the chief reasons which made them anxious to find another and better home were the hardships which their children had to bear and the temptations to which they were exposed. Besides this, they were patriotic and full of love of their God, their simple worship, and their religious liberty. As Englishmen, though their king and his bishops had treated them cruelly, they still loved the laws, customs, speech, and flag of their native land. As they could not enjoy these in their own country, or longer endure their hard conditions in Holland, they determined to find a home—even though in a wild country beyond the wild ocean—where they might worship God as they chose, "plant religion," live as Englishmen, and reap a fair reward for their labors. It was very hard to decide where to go, but at last they made up their minds in favor of the "northern parts of Virginia" in the "New World," across the Atlantic. They found friends to help them both in England and in Holland, and they helped themselves; but even then, owing to enemies, false friends, and many difficulties, it was far from easy to get away, and they had sore trials and disappointments.

And now "the younger and stronger part" of Pastor Robinson's flock, with Captain Miles Standish and his wife Rose and a few others, were to go from Leyden, in charge of Elder Brewster and Deacon Carver, and some were to join them in England, leaving the pastor and the rest to come afterward.

It was a busy time in the Klock Steeg, or Bell Alley, where most of the Pilgrims lived, all the spring and early summer of 1620, when they were getting ready for America. Deacon Carver and Robert Cushman, two of their chief men, were in England, fitting out a hired ship—the Mayflower. But the Leyden leaders had bought in Holland a smaller ship, the Speedwell, and were refitting her for the voyage, an English "pilot," or ship's mate (Master Reynolds), having come over to take charge. (Bradford spells the word "pilott." He was in reality a mate, or "master's mate," as Bradford also calls him—the executive navigating officer next in rank to the master. The term "pilott" had not to the same extent the meaning it has now of an expert guide into harbors and along coasts. It meant, rather, a "deck" or "watch" officer, capable of steering and navigating a ship. He was on board the Mayflower practically what the mate of a sailing ship would be to-day.) Thirty-six men, fifteen women, sixteen boys, four girls, and a baby boy—seventy-two, in all, besides sailors—made up the Leyden part of the Pilgrim company. Of these six went no farther than Plymouth, Old England, though three of them afterward joined the others in New England. Of the fifteen women, fourteen were wives of colonists and one was a lady's-maid. The thirty-six men of Leyden included all who became Pilgrim leaders, except three.

At last they were off, and on Friday, July 21 (31),[1] they said good-by to the grand old city that had been so long their home. Going aboard the canal boats near the pastor's house, they floated down to Delfshaven, where their own little vessel, the Speedwell, lay waiting for them. At Delfshaven they made their last sad partings from their friends, and Saturday, July 22 (or August 1, as we should call it), hoisted the flag of their native land, sailed down the river Maas, and Sunday morning were out upon the German Ocean, under way, with a fair wind, for the English port of Southampton, where they were to join the other colonists.

For three fine days they sailed down the North Sea, through Dover Straits, into the English Channel, and the fourth morning found them anchored in Southampton port. Here they found the Mayflower from London lying at anchor, with some of their own people—the Cushmans and Deacon Carver—and some forty other Pilgrim colonists, who were going with them. Among these our Leyden young people were no doubt very glad to find eight more boys and six girls of all ages, two of them being Henry Sampson and Humility Cooper, little cousins of their own Edward Tilley, who was to take them with him.

For ten days the two ships lay in this port. Trying days for the elders indeed they were. Mr. Weston, their former friend (who had arranged with the merchants to help them, but was now turned traitor), came to see them, was very harsh, and went away angry. The passengers and cargoes had to be divided anew between the ships, thirty persons going to the Speedwell and ninety to the Mayflower. Then the pinnace sprung a leak and had to be reladen. To pay their "port charges" they were forced to sell most of their butter. And there were many sad and anxious hearts. But great times those ten days were for the larger boys and girls, who were allowed to go ashore on the West Quay (at which the ships lay), and for whom every day was full of new sights both aboard the vessels and ashore. "Governors" were chosen for the ships; a young cooper—John Alden—was found, to go over, do their work, and come back, if he wished, on the Mayflower; and all was at last ready. They said what they thought were their last farewells to England, and down the Solent, out by the lovely Isle of Wight, into the broad Channel, both ships sailed slowly, "outward bound."

But twice more the leaky Speedwell and her cowardly master made both ships seek harbor—first at Dartmouth, where they lay ten days while the pinnace was overhauled and repaired, and again at Plymouth, after they had sailed "above 100 leagues beyond Land's End." At Plymouth it was decided that the Speedwell should give up the voyage and transfer most of her passengers and lading to the Mayflower, which would then make her belated way over the ocean alone.

Some twenty passengers—the Cushmans, the Blossoms, and others—went back to London in the pinnace, and after a weary stay of nine days, on Wednesday, September 6 (16), the lone Pilgrim ship at last "shook off the land" and, with a fair wind, laid her course for "the northern coasts of Virginia."—Azel Ames: How the Pilgrims came to Plymouth.

This extract is an example of a narration that is more difficult to write than anything you have yet tried. In writing biographies you write about one person only. In history you write about a great number of persons, and you must hold together in one story a great number of different facts. An outline is, therefore, even more necessary here than in biography. In making your outline you will be helped by the same principle of keeping your occurrences in their natural order that governed you in your biography outlines. Put down a note of the main facts you wish to report, according to the date of their happening. Afterward arrange them in groups according to the connection they may have with each other, but always begin by making sure that they are set down in an orderly fashion. Have the outline before you as you write, and treat the different subjects as they come up.

An outline for the extract given above might be the following:—

I. Introduction:—
A. Explanation of the state of the Puritans in Holland.
B. Driven from England.
C. Settled in Amsterdam.
D. Removed to Leyden.
E. General conditions.
II. Reasons for leaving Holland.
A. They could make no provision for the future.
B. Their children could not be trained as they wished.
C. They loved English ways.
III. Beginning of preparations.
A. Who were to go.
B. Fitting out the boat—conditions of navigation.
C. Number of those embarking.
IV. Departure from Holland.
V. Arrival in England.
A. They join the Mayflower.
B. Delays, at London, at Dartmouth, at Plymouth.
VI. Final departure of the Mayflower alone from England.

Read again the selection with the outline before you and notice how each division is developed. When you have made a good outline, the hardest part of a piece of historical writing is completed.

Exercise 97.—I. Let every one find out all he can about the founding or settling of the town where he lives. Talk over the facts in class, every one contributing what he has been able to learn; then see who can make the best outline and best story or history. (Notice how the two words are really alike.)

II. Go on, investigating the subsequent history of the town, and write that briefly in the same way, bringing in all the stories and interesting incidents you can hear.

III. Write similarly the history of any other town, village, or farming community you know, treating particularly the way in which any conditions general throughout the country affected your subject. For instance, if it is an old town, how it was affected by the Mexican War, the Civil War, any great panic, etc. Mention not only great events in the history of the town,—fires, floods, building of factories, etc.,—but try to give some idea of the general character of the life, whether the interests are chiefly manufacturing, farming, marine, railroad, etc.

IV. Write a brief history of (1) Detroit, (2) St. Louis, (3) New Orleans, (4) New York, (5) San Francisco, (6) Boston, (7) Charlestown, (8) Lawrence, Kansas, (9) Deerfield, Mass., (10) Quebec, (11) St. Augustine, (12) Monterey, California (early Spanish mission), (13) Havana.

V. Using the extract given above as a model, write an account of (1) Penn's treaty with the Indians, (2) The first year of the settlers in Virginia, (3) The taking of Old Manhattan by the English, (4) How La Salle happened to come to this country, (5) How Grant came to be a soldier, (6) The invention and first expedition of the first steamboat, (7) The first railroad, (8) The founding and first journey of the Mormons.

59. Plain Reporting of Facts.—A history gives an account of things that happened some time ago. A newspaper gives an account of things that happened yesterday. The two are different in degree, but not in essential qualities. To give an account of an incident that lasted half an hour and make it clear, connected, and orderly, requires the same principles as to write a report of events that lasted through several years. You must arrange your narrative in the true order, in a story of how a barn was burned, just as in a story of how a town was settled. In the first case, however, this is not quite so easy to do, since many of the events occur almost at the same time. But this very circumstance gives you the clew to an easy grouping of your facts, since you can put those that happen together in the same division. An outline for an account of the burning of a barn is given below:—

I. Discovery of fire.
A. Fire shows through one of the windows.
B. The man of the house runs down the walk toward the barn.
C. The neighbors come running and calling.
D. One man is sent to call the fire department.

[All these facts occur almost simultaneously, and the sentences stating them must be connected or explained by some such phrase as "at the same time," "seeing this," "while this was being done," "at that moment," "meanwhile," etc.]

II. Fighting the fire.
A. The neighbors bring buckets—a line is formed.
B. The owner goes in and brings out the horse and cow.
C. The fire department arrives, connects the hose.
D. The firemen climb on the roof to direct the water; the fire is extinguished.
III. Final condition.
A. Half the hay burned, and two wagons ruined.
B. Horse and cow safe.
C. The barn can be rebuilt without tearing it completely down.
D. There was no insurance.

Exercise 98.—I. Make outlines, following this model, and write a newspaper account of any of the following events. Do not try to describe the occurrence particularly; simply put down as clearly as possible the facts, given in their proper order.

(1) A burglary in the daytime. (2) A rescue of a drowning boy by two playmates. (3) A flood which washes away part of a street-car track—how long cars were delayed, what passengers did, how track was repaired, etc. (4) How a dog, supposed to be mad, frightened an entire neighborhood. (5) The burning of a department store. (6) The dedication of a church, a hospital, an asylum of any kind. (7) A lost child and how he was returned to his parents. (8) An accident to a street car. (9) A runaway. (10) A steeple climber faints away halfway up a steeple, where he hangs suspended by the rope attached to his belt. Tell how he was saved. (11) A bear belonging to a circus escapes, and after roaming about for a day or so is captured by the circus men. (12) A high wind blows down telegraph poles, unroofs barns, and throws trees across the roads. Write an account of the amount of damage done.

II. Write a newspaper account of any event at your school: (1) A commencement day. (2) A reception day. (3) A play or entertainment. (4) A panic over a supposed fire. (5) A boy is locked in and has great difficulty in getting out. (6) A water pipe is broken and stopped by the presence of mind of one of the teachers.

60. Conversation.—In the narratives which you have been writing there has been little if any occasion for conversation. In writing stories or anecdotes in which certain people come into contact with other persons, there is often no better way to give a vivid and interesting account of what happens than to tell what was said. This is equally true of real and of invented stories. People not only show their characters when they speak, but they indicate the course of events. The fact that one favorite form of writing consists entirely of conversation (for that is all that any play is) shows how truthfully and vividly facts can be presented in this way.

Exercise 99.—Try telling in conversational form some of the fables mentioned on page 139, or write in this form the fable of (1) Death and the Woodchopper; (2) The Wolf and the Lamb; (3) The Grasshopper and the Ant; (4) The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse; (5) The Council of the Rats (Who'll bell the cat?); (6) The Fox and the Grapes (this as a monologue, or what the fox says to himself, from the moment he sees the grapes until he gives up trying to secure them).

Exercise 100.—Give a conversation which you think is characteristic and lifelike, such as might have occurred between any two of the following persons. Try to bring out something of the story which naturally comes to your mind in connection with these people.

1. Joan of Arc to her mother the day before she leaves her home to go to the court of the king.

[Suggestions: Her mother laments over the dangers of the road; Joan reassures her—she is to wear armor and be escorted by twenty soldiers. Her mother asks again why Joan wishes to set out. Joan answers by explaining about her "Voices" and her certainty that she is sent by heaven to rescue France.]

[Read the story of Joan of Arc and of the other persons to be treated in this lesson before you begin to write the dialogue.]

2. Two boys of Puritan families about to embark for America on the Mayflower.

3. Christopher Columbus explaining to a friend what his hopes are in seeking out Queen Isabella.

4. A boy and girl in Old Manhattan on Christmas Day, bringing out, if possible, some of the customs of the times.

5. William Tell to his little son before he shoots the apple from his head.

6. The conversation at the christening of the Princess who was afterward to be the Sleeping Beauty, bringing in the arrival and curse of the wicked fairy.

7. Conversation of Hop o' my Thumb's father and mother, when they decide that the children must be left in the woods because they cannot earn enough to feed them.

8. Conversations between the Grecian warriors who fell at ThermopylÆ, the evening before the battle.

9. Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday. Robinson is trying to explain (a) city life, (b) how and why food is cooked, (c) about his own children in England, (d) what winter is like when there is snow and ice.

Exercise 101.—Try in the same way to bring out character by inventing a dialogue between the persons mentioned below:—

1. A gentle elder sister and a little boy, very irritable and cross from a long illness. He wishes to go outdoors to play and is only persuaded to stay in by the promise of a new game.

2. Two little girls playing at dolls. One is very much given to ordering the other about, but finally encounters rebellion.

3. One boy is urging another to go swimming with him. The second boy is afraid and makes all kinds of excuses.

4. A very bright pupil trying to explain a lesson in arithmetic to another who has no head for mathematics.

5. Two little boys playing Indians; one is teaching another how to play.

6. A father, tired and sleepy, and a little child asking questions.

7. Imaginary conversation between a lion and a polar bear, whose cages are side by side in a circus. Each tells the other about his home life when he was free.