A written story may differ much from one that is told. In telling a story, especially if it is told to a number of persons, the events must be made the main thing. It is heard but once, and if the thread of the story is lost, interest is gone. But written stories are to be read at leisure, and we may go back and re-read if we wish. In them commonplace events may be made entertaining by the use of interesting details, bits of description, and by little asides that show how the writer feels about the events he is narrating. Some of the best story writing is in the form of letters.

Exercise 74. A Story

Has the author of the following letter made a vivid story? If she has, you will feel, when you have read it, as if you had really taken part in what she tells about.

A Christmas Tree

[Mr. Stewart was obliged to make a winter trip to Boulder, and Mrs. Stewart and her little daughter Jerrine expected to have a dull Christinas on the lonely Wyoming ranch. But two women, who were good neighbors, though they lived miles away, decided to prevent this, and went on December 21 to make a holiday visit at the Stewart home.

Through Gavotte, a French shepherd, Mrs. Stewart and her guests learned that two women, whose husbands had gone to look for work, were left alone with their children in some cabins of a deserted logging camp far up the mountains, and that one woman was very sick.

In the following paragraphs from a letter, Mrs. Stewart tells how she and her friends had a happy Christmas themselves and gave one to the poor forlorn creatures in the desolate clearing.]

After we debated a bit we decided we could not enjoy Christmas with those people in want up there in the cold. Then we got busy. It is sixty miles to town, although our nearest point to the railroad is but forty, so you see it was impossible to go to town to get anything. You should have seen us! Every old garment that had ever been left by men who have worked here was hauled out, and Mrs. O'Shaugh-nessy's deft fingers soon had a pile of garments cut. We kept the machine humming until far into the night, as long as we could keep our eyes open.

All next day we sewed as hard as we could, and Gavotte cooked as hard as he could. We had intended to have a tree for Jerrine, so we had a box of candles and a box of Christmas snow. Gavotte asked for all the bright paper we could find. We had lots of it, and I think you would be surprised at the possibilities of a little waste paper. He made gorgeous birds, butterflies, and flowers out of paper that once wrapped parcels. Then he asked us for some silk thread, but I had none, so he told us to comb our hair and give him the combings. We did, and with a drop of muci-lege he would fasten a hair to a bird's back and then hold it up by the hair. At a few feet's distance it looked exactly as though the bird were flying. I was glad I had a big stone jar full of fondant, because we had a lot of fun shaping and coloring candies. We offered a prize for the best representation of a "darkey," and we had two dozen chocolate-covered things that might have been anything from a monkey to a mouse. Mrs. Louderer cut up her big plum pudding and put it into a dozen small bags. These Gavotte carefully covered with green paper. Then we tore up the holly wreath that Aunt Mary sent me, and put a sprig in the top of each green bag of pudding. I never had so much fun in my life as I had preparing for that Christmas.

At ten o'clock the morning of the twenty-fourth we were on our way up the mountain side. We took shovels so we could clear the road if need be. We had dinner at the old camp, and then Gavotte hunted us a way out to the new one, and we smuggled our things into Molly's cabin so the children should have a real surprise. Poor, hopeless little things ! Theirs was, indeed, a dull outlook.

Gavotte busied himself in preparing one of the empty cabins for us and in making the horses comfortable. He cut some pine boughs to do that with, and so the children paid no attention when he cut a small tree. In the meantime we had cleared everything from Molly's cabin but her bed; we wanted her to see the fun. The children were sent to the spring to water the horses, and they were all allowed to ride, so that took them out of the way while Gavotte nailed the tree into a box he had filled with dirt to hold it steady.

There were four women of us, and Gavotte, so it was only the work of a few moments to get the tree ready, and it was the most beautiful one I ever saw. Your largest bell, dear Mrs. Coney, dangled from the topmost branch. Gavotte had attached a long, stout wire to your Santa Claus, so he was able to make him dance frantically without seeming to do so. The hairs that held the birds and butterflies could not be seen, and the effect was beautiful. We had a bucket of apples rubbed bright, and these we fastened to the tree just as they grew on their own branches. The puddings looked pretty, too, and we had done up the parcels that held the clothes as attractively as we could. We saved the candy and the peanuts to put into the little stockings.

As soon as it was dark we lighted the candles, and then their mother called the children. Oh, if you could have seen them! It was the very first Christmas tree they had ever seen and they didn't know what to do. The very first present Gavotte handed out was a pair of trousers for eight-year-old Brig, but he just stood and stared at the tree until his brother next in size, with an eye to the main chance, got behind him and pushed him forward, all the time exclaiming, "Go on, can't you! They ain't doin' nothin' to you!" Still Brig would not put out his hand. He just shook his towsled, sandy head, and said he wanted a bird. So the fun kept up for an hour. Santa had for Molly a package of oatmeal, a pouud of butter; a Mason jar of cream, and a dozen eggs, so that she could have suitable food to eat until something could be done.

After the presents had all been distributed we put the phonograph on a box and had a dandy concert. We played "There were Shepherds," "Ave Maria," and "Sweet Christmas Bells." Only we older people cared for those, so then we had "Arrah Wanna," "Silver Bells," "Rainbow," "Red Wing," and such songs. How delighted they were! Our concert lasted two hours, and by that time the little fellows were so sleepy that the excitement no longer affected them and they were put to bed; but they hung up their stockings first, and even Molly hung up hers too.

Elinor Rupert Stewart.1

Exercise 75. Study Of The Story

Make an outline of the story by writing a few words to show what each paragraph is about. This outline shows the plot.

Tell in a few words the main facts of each paragraph, omitting details. (See Exercise 49). Write the main facts of the fifth paragraph in a single sentence. Which does more to make Mrs. Stewart's letter interesting, the plot or the little details that you have omitted?

Make a list of well-chosen words. Which ones should you not have thought to use? Try to think of others as good.

Topics For Compositions

1. Christmas morning in the mountain camp. Imagine what happened the morning after the Christmas Eve you have just read about, and see how interesting you can make your story.

2. A letter describing a Christmas in a mining camp, on a western prairie, on a southern plantation, or in a city tenement house.

3. The prettiest Christmas tree I ever saw.

4. Giving Christmas presents. This topic is very indefinite. It might serve as a subject for many different sorts of compositions. Give a more definite subject to the one you write; for example, (1) How we give Christmas presents at our house; (2) The best kind of Christmas presents to give; (3) Whom we like to give Christmas presents to.

1 Used by special arrangement with the Houghton Mifflin Company.

5. Making a Christmas gift.

6. Farther on in the letter that you have read a part of, Mrs. Stewart says: "We all got so much out of so little. I will never again allow even the smallest thing to go to waste."

Take this for a topic: How I "made something out of nothing."

7. My favorite holiday. Explain.

8. A visit to a city just before Christmas. Let it be a description of your own visit or that of some one else, - for example, a mother of a family, a small child, a stranger in the city, a boy or girl who has a certain amount of money to spend.

9. A public Christmas celebration.

10. A Christmas gift to the family. Tell of a gift that would give pleasure to every member of the household.

11. Write a brief, clear, accurate, and catchy advertisement for the article.

12. The best Christmas present I ever received.