e," should be, It is _more_ than a month
since.

478. "Vegetables were _plenty_," should be, Vegetables were _plentiful_.

479. "We both were _very disappointed_." This is an incomplete expression:
say, _very much_, or _very greatly_. No one would think of saying, "We
both were _very pleased_."

480. "It is I who _is_ to receive the appointment:" say, who _am_ to
receive; _who_ is in the first person, and the verb of which it is the
subject must be in the same.

481. Never say _biscake_, for _biscuit_.

482. "Passengers are _not requested_ to let down the chains, before the
boat is fastened to the bridge." [From a printed regulation on one of the
New-York and Brooklyn ferry-boats.] The reading should be, "Passengers
_are requested not to let down_ the chains."

483. "How will you _swap_ jack-knives?" _swap,_ although it is a word
familiarly used in connection with "jack-knives," is a term that cannot
lay the least claim to elegance. Use some other of the many mercantile
expressions to which trade has given rise.

484. "He's put his nose to the _grin-stone_ at an early age." [A remark
usually made by old ladies, suggested by the first marriage among their
grandsons.] Say, _grind-stone_. A _grin-stone_ implies a stone that
"grins," whereas, especially in this instance, the "nose" fulfills that
office.

485. The importance of punctuating a written sentence is often neglected.
Space does not permit the giving of rules on this subject, in this book.
Business correspondence is generally blemished by many omissions of this
character; for example, "Messrs G Longman & Co have recd a note from the
Cor Sec Nat Shipwreck Soc informing them of the loss of one of their
vessels off the N E Coast of S A at 8 P M on the 20 of Jan." A clergyman,
standing in his pulpit, was once handed a slip of paper, to be read in the
hearing of the congregation, which was intended to convey the following
notice: "A man going to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the church."
But the sentence was improperly punctuated, and he read, "A man going to
see his wife, desires the prayers of the church!"

486. "The knave thereupon commenced rifling his _friend's_ (as he called
him) _pocket_:" say, "The knave commenced rifling the _pocket of his
friend_, as he facetiously called him." The possessive case, and the word
that governs it, must not be separated by an intervening clause.

487. "I owe _thee_ a heavy debt of gratitude, and _you_ will not pe