=A Mysterious Person=:—­Imagine a mysterious person appearing in a little town where everybody knows everybody else.  Tell how he (or she) arrives.  How does he look?  What does he do?  Explain clearly why he is particularly hard to account for.  What do people say about him?  Try to make each person’s remarks fit his individual character.  How do people try to find out about the stranger?  Does he notice their curiosity?  Do they ask him questions?  If so, give some bits of their conversations with him.  You might go on and make a story of some length out of this.  Show whether the stranger really has any reason for concealing his identity.  Does he get into any trouble?  Does an accident reveal who he is and why he is in the town?  Does some one find out by spying upon him?  Or does he tell all about himself, when the right time comes?

Perhaps you can put the story into the form of a series of brief conversations about the stranger or with him.

=An Incident of the Civil War=:—­Select some historical incident, or one that you have heard from an old soldier, and tell it simply and vividly in your own words.

COLLATERAL READINGS

The Story of a Bad Boy Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Marjorie Daw and Other People " " "
The Stillwater Tragedy " " "
Prudence Palfrey " " "
From Ponkapog to Pesth " " "
The Queen of Sheba " " "
A Sea Turn and Other Matters " " "
For Bravery on the Field of Battle
  (in Two Bites at a Cherry) " " "
The Return of a Private
  (in Main-Travelled Roads) Hamlin Garland
On the Eve of the Fourth Harold Frederic
Marse Chan Thomas Nelson Page
Meh Lady " " "
The Burial of the Guns " " "
Red Rock " " "
The Long Roll Mary Johnston
Cease Firing " "
The Crisis Winston Churchill
Where the Battle was Fought Mary N. Murfree
The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come John Fox, Jr. 
Hospital Sketches Louisa M. Alcott
A Blockaded Family P.A.  Hague
He Knew Lincoln[2] Ida Tarbell
The Perfect Tribute[3] M.R.S.  Andrews
The Toy Shop[4] M.S.  Gerry
Thomas Bailey Aldrich Ferris Greenslet
Park Street Papers, pp. 143-70 Bliss Perry
American Writers of To-day, pp. 104-23 H.C.  Vedder
American Authors and their Homes,