thought to be
conveyed will result in an equally dismal failure. All the words,
phrases, and ideas in the following are the writer's own, but the effect
is practically the same as in the preceding story:

|The scene and the occasion were both inspiring. The |
|music was furnished by the birds, which were at |
|their best on this bridal day. A meadowlark called |
|to his mate across the lake, asking if he might come|
|and join her. A brown thrush in a tree on the hill |
|near by sent forth across the water a carol full of |
|love and melody such as a Beethoven or a Chopin |
|would strive in vain to imitate. The hills were |
|dressed in their prettiest robes of green. The water|
|was quiet. Nature was at her best. And the bride and|
|groom, both in tastiness of dress and in spirits, |
|were in harmony with nature. |

The writer, too, in striving after a definite tone must be equally
apprehensive of unintended suggestions caused by an unfortunate
closeness of unrelated ideas. This fault was illustrated in a story by
an Iowa reporter who wrote that "Lon Stegle took Mrs. Humphrey and a
load of hogs to Santo Monday," and of an unwitting Pennsylvania humorist
who said, "Audry Richardson, while visiting his sweetheart in Freedonia
last Sunday sprained his arm severely and won't be able to use it for
ten days or two weeks." If the tone of the story is meant to be
dignified, unintended humor may make the presentation absurd.

=138. Varied Sentence Length.=--The story tone is greatly affected also
by the length of the sentences. If one's sentences are unnecessarily
long, the effect will be heavy and tiresome. If they are markedly short,
the result will be a monotonous, choppy, jolting effect, like a flat
wheel on a street-car. The bing-bing-bing style just discussed is an
illustration of the latter. The writer should aim at a happy medium,
with simple constructions and a tendency toward shorter sentences than
in other kinds of writing. Twenty words make a good average sentence
length. It is necessary to remember that one's stories are read not only
by the literati, but by the uneducated as well. One must make one's
style, therefore, so fluent, so easy, that a man with a speaking
vocabulary of five hundred words can read and enjoy all one writes.

=139. Condensation.=--The value of condensation of expression need not
be discussed at length h