welled out of the hillside.  The setting was all that we could have hoped for,—­great moss-grown rocks wet and slippery, deep shade which almost made us doubt the existence of the hot August sunshine at the edge of the forest, cool water dripping and tinkling.  A half-dozen great trees had been so undermined by the action of the water long ago that they had tumbled headlong into the stream bed.  There they lay, heads down, crisscross—­one completely spanning the brook just below the spring—­their tangled roots like great dragons twisting and thrusting at the shadows.  The water trickled slowly over the smooth rocky bottom as if reluctant to leave a spot enchanted.  A few yards below, the overflow from Indian Spring joined the main stream, and their waters mingled in a pretty little cataract.  We went below and looked back at it.  How it wrinkled and paused over the level spaces, played with the bubbles in the eddies, and ran laughing and turning somersaults wherever the ledges were abrupt.

—­Mary Rodgers Miller:  The Brook Book. (Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.)

2.  Rowena was tall in stature, yet not so much so as to attract observation on account of superior height.  Her complexion was exquisitely fair, but the noble cast of her head and features prevented the insipidity which sometimes attaches to fair beauties.  Her clear blue eyes, which sat enshrined beneath a graceful eyebrow of brown, sufficiently marked to give expression to the forehead, seemed capable to kindle as well as to melt, to command as well as to beseech.  Her profuse hair, of a color betwixt brown and flaxen, was arranged in a fanciful and graceful manner in numerous ringlets, to form which art had probably been aided by nature.  These locks were braided with gems, and being worn at full length, intimated the noble birth and free-born condition of the maiden.  A golden chain, to which was attached a small reliquary of the same metal, hung around her neck.  She wore bracelets on her arms, which were bare.  Her dress was an under gown and kirtle of pale sea-green silk, over which hung a long loose robe, which reached to the ground, having very wide sleeves, which came down, however, very little below the elbow.  This robe was crimson, and manufactured out of the very finest wool.  A veil of silk, interwoven with gold, was attached to the upper part of it, which could be, at the wearer’s pleasure, either drawn over the face and bosom after the Spanish fashion, or disposed as a sort of drapery round the shoulders.

—­Scott:  Ivanhoe.

+Theme XXIV.+—­Write a paragraph and arrange the details with reference to their association in space.

Suggested subjects:—­

1.  Ichabod Crane. 2.  Rip Van Winkle. 3.  The man who lives near us. 4.  A minister I met yesterday. 5.  Our family doctor. 6.  The gymnasium. 7.  A fire engine. 8.  The old church. 9.  The shoe factory. 10.  Some character in the book you are reading.

(Which sentence gives the general impression and which sentences give the details?  Are the details arranged with reference to their real space order?  Should others be added?  Can any be omitted?  Will the reader form the mental image you wish him to form?)