If you use any one of the several sites suggested, you will naturally describe it as a picturesque

site.

In this connection the setting and background have a slight difference in meaning from that of placement.

IV. Climax (conclusion or sequel):

As the site is your subject, bring out in the conclusion the purpose for which it is secured. If it is to be built on, the climax (or concluding idea) will be the construction of a house, or other building, upon it.

Suggested Sites.

1. A site at the foot of the low-lying slope of a hill and close beside a sea-fed creek. Can you picture the site—that is, imagine it from the descriptive points?

"Any one

2. A site high up on the mountainside. looking down from its height on one side saw a little shaded town, whose good fortune had been to stay just outside of modern progress, avoiding the tireless rush, the show of fashion, the smoke and dust of the large city. Yet it had many distinguishing features, all of which spoke of wealth and leisure. The sun never shone brighter than on its greensward. Vegetation flourished in its rich soil and the pretty wild flowers gave it color. The one sturdy tree, an elm, which shaded the spot with its foliage-laden branches, had known two hundred or more summers' growth. The mountains rising behind and beyond were robed in azure hues."

Exercise I.

1. Study the two examples and find the feature-points in each.

2. Describe two land sites of your own choosing.

Exercise II.

1. Look up the meanings of the following words:

HOW A HOUSE MAY BE GIVEN LIFE.

A house may be interesting or beautiful in itself, but it cannot reach its highest degree of interest unless there are people associated with it. Therefore bring into your plan some action.

Work out a description of the men building the house, along the following lines: (1) Tell how the men, carts, and horses assemble to begin the work. (2) Tell how the work is begun on the foundations. Describe the greensward being torn away, trees uprooted, and the actual work of digging a hole in the ground for the cellar. This cellar becomes the foundation of the house.

(3) Describe the men at work on the erection of the structure. They may erect a scaffold on which to stand or place bricks or mortar. (4) Then picture the structure as rising story by story and develop it until it takes a distinctive form; continue this development until you present it as a completed structure—a house. Up to this point you have not been describing a house but the process required to build one.

During the process of building the house you will bring into your descriptions the various elements indicating activity. You will describe the men as going back and forth, or placing one brick upon another, or as measuring material—the workmen building the house with here and there men overseeing the work. In your description you can describe the noon hour-the quiet time, the cessation of labor. Exercise your ingenuity in creating scenes belonging to the active work of building. For instance, you may describe the sidewalks as piled high with bricks or stones, or piles of lumber and a bed of mortar defacing the grounds surrounding the site upon which the house is actually built. You are to invent (1) incidents, (2) scenes, (3) types of people-for instance, the bricklayers, the carpenters, the masons, the hodcarriers. Think how each type stands out prominently, is distinctive.

Exercise.

Write a composition in which you describe the activities brought into play in the building of a house structure. Bring out all the feature-points relating to the structure itself, and the feature-points relating to its

process of construction. Make your composition a realistic picture of the scenes and people afforded by the subject.

LESSON IV.

A TYPE OF HOUSE.

THE LIGHTHouse.

The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,
And on its outer point, some miles away,
The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

Even at this distance I can see the tides,

Upheaving, break unheard along its base,
A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides
In the white lip and tremor of the face.

And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
Through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light
With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!

Not one alone; from each projecting cape
And perilous reef along the ocean's verge,
Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,

Holding its lantern o'er the restless surge.

Like the great giant Christopher it stands

Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave,
Wading far out among the rocks and sands,
The night-o'ertaken mariner to save.

And the great ships sail outward and return,
Bending and bowing o'er the billowy swells,

And ever joyful, as they see it burn,

They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.

They come forth from the darkness, and their sails Gleam for a moment only in the blaze,

And eager faces, as the light unveils,

Gaze at the tower, and vanish while they gaze.

The mariner remembers when a child,

On his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink;
And when, returning from adventures wild,
He saw it rise again o'er ocean's brink.

Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same

Year after year, through all the silent night Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame, Shines on that inextinguishable light!

It sees the ocean to its bosom clasp

The rocks and sea-sand with the kiss of peace; It sees the wild winds lift it in their grasp,

And hold it up, and shake it like a fleece.

The startled waves leap over it; the storm
Smites it with all the scourges of the rain,
And steadily against its solid form

Press the great shoulders of the hurricane.

The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din
Of wings and winds and solitary cries,
Blinded and maddened by the light within,
Dashes himself against the glare, and dies.

A new Prometheus, chained upon the rock,
Still grasping in his hand the fire of Jove,
It does not hear the cry, nor heed the shock,
But hails the mariner with words of love.