eached, then the writer will find that he can
approach the movement of the thought most nearly by using these means.

Description and Narration.

_A valuable accessory to narration is description;_ in truth,
description for its own sake is not frequently found. The story must
be somewhere; and it is more real when we know in what kind of a place
it occurs. Still it is not wise to do as Scott so often has
done,--give chapters of description at the beginning of the story.
Rather the setting should be scattered through the story so that it is
hardly perceptible. At no time should the reader halt and realize that
he is being treated to a description. Even in the beautiful
descriptions by Stevenson quoted in the next chapter, the work is so
intimately blended with the story that the reader unfortunately might
pass over it. A large part of the pleasure derived from the best
stories is supplied by good descriptions, giving a vivid picture of
the setting of the story.

Description has another use in narration beside giving the setting of
the story; it is often used to accent the mood of the action. In "The
Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe, much of the gloomy foreboding is
caused by the weird descriptions. Hawthorne understood well the
harmony between man's feelings and his surroundings. The Sylvan Dance
in "The Marble Faun" is wonderfully handled. Irving, in "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow," throws about the story a "witching influence," and
long before the Headless Horseman appears, the reader is quite sure
that the region abounds in "ghosts and goblins," dwelling in its
"haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted
houses." The danger in the use of description for this purpose is in
overdoing it. The fact is, as Arlo Bates says, "the villains no longer
steal through smiling gardens whose snowy lilies, all abloom, and
sending up perfume like incense from censers of silver, seem to rebuke
the wicked." Yet when handled as Stevenson and Irving handled it,
description assists in accenting the mood of the action.

Characters few, Time short.

_The number of characters should be few_ and the time of the action
short. Pupils are not able to handle a large number of persons. There
is, however, a stronger reason for it than incapacity. A young person
would have great trouble in remembering the large number of persons
introduced into "Little Dorrit." Many of them would always remain
entire strangers. Suc