my poor little
friend was but little better than a barn. Choose only such details as
emphasize the barn-like appearance of the home. There is but one room.
Remember where you are standing; and keep in mind the effect you wish
to produce.

7. Using a moving point of view, describe an interior. Do not have too
many rooms.

8. Furnish the room described in number four to suit your taste. Tell
how it looks. Remember that a few things give character to a room.

9. Describe your childhood's home as it would look to you after years
of absence.

10. Using a paragraph of the obverse, describe the appearance of the
house from which you were driven by the cruelty of a drunken father.

11. Describe a single tree standing alone in a field. It will be well
for the teacher to read to the class some descriptions of
trees,--Lowell's "Birch" and "Oak," "Under the Willows," and some
stanzas from "An Indian Summer Reverie." Holmes has some good
paragraphs on trees in "The Autocrat." Any good tree descriptions will
help pupils to do it better than they can without suggestion. They
should describe their own tree, however.

12. Describe some single flower growing wild. Read Lowell's
"Dandelion," "Violet, Sweet Violet," Wordsworth's "Daisy," "The
Daffodils," "The Small Celandine," and Burns's "Daisy." These do not
so much describe as they arouse a feeling of love for the flowers
which will show itself in the composition.

13. Describe a view of a lake. If possible, have your point of view
above the lake and use the paragraph of comparison.

14. Describe a landscape from a single point of view. Read Curtis's
"My Castles in Spain" from "Prue and I," many descriptions in "An
Inland Voyage" by Stevenson, and "Bay Street" by Bliss Carman in "The
Atlantic Monthly."

15. Describe your first view of a small cluster of houses or a small
town.

16. Approach the town, describing its principal features. Keep the
reader informed as to where you are.

17. Describe a dog of your own.

18. Describe a dog of your neighbor's. Before the description is
undertaken read "Our Dogs" and "Rab" by Dr. Brown; "A Dog of Flanders"
by Ouida. Scott has some noble fellows in his novels.

19. Describe a flock of chickens. There are good descriptions of
chickens in "The House of the Seven Gables" and in "Sketches" by
Dickens.

20. Describe the burning of your own home. Be careful not to narrate.

21. Describe a stranger you met on the street to-day. It i