Composition-Rhetoric | Page 6

grandson. They stopped at the well to get a drink, and
when we opened the window, the old man said, "We're just on our way
to mow the back lot and stopped to grind the scythe on your stone. We
broke ours yesterday."
Then he picked up the scythe which in the fog I had taken for a saber,

while the grandson again shouldered his pitchfork musket.
What effect would it have on the interest aroused by the preceding
story to begin it as follows?
"One morning during the Civil War, I saw two of my neighbors,
Grandpa Smith and his grandson, crossing our orchard, one carrying a
scythe and the other a pitchfork."
Why is the expression, "before the fog had lifted," used near the
beginning of the story? Would a description of the appearance of the
house, the barn, or the persons add to the interest aroused by the story?
Is it necessary to add anything to the story?
EXERCISE
In each of the following selections decide where the interest reaches its
climax. Has anything been said in the beginning of any of them which
suggests what the point will be, or which helps you to appreciate it
when you come to it?
1. The next evening our travelers encamped on a sand bar, or rather a
great bank of sand, that ran for miles along one side of the river. They
kept watch as usual, Leon taking the first turn. He seated himself on a
pile of sand and did his best to keep awake; but in about an hour after
the rest were asleep, he felt very drowsy and fell into a nap that lasted
nearly half an hour, and might have continued longer had he not slid
down the sand hill and tumbled over on his side. This awoke him.
Feeling vexed with himself, he rubbed his eyes and looked about to see
if any creature had ventured near. He first looked towards the woods,
for of course that was the direction from which the tigers would come;
but he had scarcely turned himself when he perceived a pair of eyes
glancing at him from the other side of the fire. Close to them another
pair, then another and another, until, having looked on every side, he
saw himself surrounded by a complete circle of glancing eyes. It is true
they were small ones, and some of the heads which he could see by the
blaze were small. They were not jaguars, but they had an ugly look.
They looked like the heads of serpents. Was it possible that a hundred
serpents could have surrounded the camp?
Brought suddenly to his feet, Leon stood for some moments uncertain
what to do. He believed that the eyes belonged to snakes which had just
crept out of the river; and he feared that any movement on his part
would lead them to attack him. Having risen to his feet, his eyes were

above the level of the blaze, and he was able in a little while to see
more clearly.
He now saw that the snakelike heads belonged to creatures with large
oval bodies, and that, besides the fifty or more which had come up to
look at the fire, there were whole droves of them upon the sandy beach
beyond. As far as he could see on all sides, the bank was covered with
them. A strange sight it was, and most fearful. For his life he could not
make out what it meant, or by what sort of wild animals he was
surrounded.
He could see that their bodies were not larger than those of small sheep;
and, from the way in which they glistened in the moonlight, he was
sure they had come out of the river. He called to the Indian guide, who
awoke and started to his feet in alarm. The movement frightened the
creatures round the fire; they rushed to the shore, and were heard
plunging by hundreds into the water.
The Indian's ear caught the sounds, and his eye took in the whole thing
at a glance.
"Turtles," he said.
"Oh," said the lad; "turtles, are they?"
"Yes, master," answered the guide. "I suppose this is one of their great
hatching places. They are going to lay their eggs in the sand."
--Captain Mayne Reid.
Would the preceding incident be interesting if we were told at the
beginning that the boy and the Indian had encamped near a hatching
place of turtles?
2. Not every story that reads like fiction is fact, but the Brooklyn Eagle
assures its readers that the one here quoted is quite true. The man who
told it was for many years an officer of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy Railroad Company in Illinois, and had annual passes