without doubt, the most
interesting of all forms of discourse. It is natural for us all to be
interested in life, movement, action; hence we enjoy reading and talking
about them. To be convinced that there is everywhere a great interest in
narration we need only to listen to conversations, notice what constitutes
the subject-matter of letters of friendship, read newspapers and
magazines, and observe what classes of books are most frequently drawn
from our libraries.

Narration assumes a variety of forms. Since it relates happenings, it must
include anecdotes, incidents, short stories, letters, novels, dramas,
histories, biographies, and stories of travel and exploration. It also
includes many newspaper articles such as those that give accounts of
accidents and games and reports of various kinds of meetings. Evidently
the field of narration is a broad one, for wherever life or action may be
found or imagined, a subject for a narrative exists.

EXERCISES

1. Name four different events that have actually taken place in your
school in which you think your classmates are interested.

2. Name three events that have taken place in other schools that may be of
interest to members of your school.

3. Name four events of general interest that have occurred in your city
during the last two or three years.

4. From a daily paper, pick out a narrative that is interesting to you.

5. Select one that you think ought to interest the most of your
classmates.

6. Name three national events of recent occurrence.

7. Name three or four strange or mysterious events of which you have
heard.

8. Name an actual occurrence that interested you because you wanted to see
how it turned out.

9. Would an ordinary account of a bicycle or automobile trip be
interesting? If not, why not?

+Theme LXX.+--._Write a letter to a pupil in a neighboring high school,
telling about something interesting that has happened in your own school_.

(Review forms of letter writing. Consider your use of paragraphs.)

+142. Plot.+--By plot we mean the outline of the story told in a few
words. All narratives consist of accounts of connected happenings, in
which action on the part of the characters is naturally implied. The
principal action briefly told constitutes the plot. The simple plot of
Tennyson's _Princess_ is as follows:--

A prince of the North, after being affianced as a child to a princess of
the South, has fallen in love with her