There was a young lady in the farther corner of the cab, buried to her nose in a fur coat.  At intervals she shivered and pressed a fluffy muff against her face.  A glimmer from the sleet-smeared lamps fell across her knees.

Down town flew the cab, swaying around icy corners, bumping over car tracks, lurching, rattling, jouncing, while its silent occupants, huddled in separate corners, brooded moodily at their respective windows.

Snow blotted the glass, melting and running down; and over the watery panes yellow light from shop windows played fantastically, distorting vision.

Presently the young man pulled out his watch, fumbled for a match box, struck a light, and groaned as he read the time.

At the sound of the match striking, the young lady turned her head.  Then, as the bright flame illuminated the young man’s face, she sat bolt upright, dropping the muff to her lap with a cry of dismay.

He looked up at her.  The match burned his fingers; he dropped it and hurriedly lighted another; and the flickering radiance brightened upon the face of a girl whom he had never before laid eyes on.

“Good heavens!” he said, “where’s my sister?”

The young lady was startled but resolute.  “You have made a dreadful mistake,” she said; “you are in the wrong cab—­”

+Theme XX.+—­Write a theme using one of the subjects below:—­

  1.  A personal incident.
  2.  The advantages and disadvantages of recesses.
  3.  Complete the story commenced in the selection just
     preceding.

(Make a note of the different ideas you may discuss.  Which are important enough to become topic statements?  Which may be grouped together in one paragraph?  In what order shall they occur?  After your theme is written, consider the paragraphs.  Does the definition apply to them?  Are any of them too short or too long?)

+43.  Reasons for Studying Paragraph Structure.+—­A knowledge of the way in which a paragraph is constructed will aid us in determining the thought it contains.  There are several methods of developing paragraphs, and usually one of these is better suited than another to the expression of our thought.  Attention given to the methods used by others will enable us both to understand better what we read, and to employ more effectively in our own writing that kind of paragraph which best expresses our thought.  Hence we shall give attention to the more common forms of paragraph development.

+44.  Development by Giving Specific Instances.+—­If you hear a general statement, such as, “Dogs are useful animals,” you naturally think at once of some of the ways in which they are useful, or of some particular occasion on which a dog was of use.  If a friend should say, “My dog, Fido, knows many amusing tricks,” you would expect the friend to tell you some of them.  A large part of our thinking consists of furnishing specific instances