lent phrase being used in prose.

(2) _Objective possessive_, as shown in the sentences,--

Ann Turner had taught her the secret before this last good lady
had been hanged for _Sir Thomas Overbury's_ murder.--HAWTHORNE.

He passes to-day in building an air castle for to-morrow, or in
writing _yesterday's_ elegy.--THACKERAY

In these the possessives are equivalent to an objective after a verbal
expression: as, _for murdering Sir Thomas Overbury_; _an elegy to
commemorate yesterday_. For this reason the use of the possessive here
is called objective.

(3) _Subjective possessive_, the most common of all; as,--

The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display.
--ADDISON.

If this were expanded into _the power which his Creator possesses_,
the word _Creator_ would be the subject of the verb: hence it is
called a subjective possessive.

61. This last-named possessive expresses a variety of relations.
_Possession_ in some sense is the most common. The kind of relation
may usually be found by expanding the possessive into an equivalent
phrase: for example, "_Winter's_ rude tempests are gathering now"
(i.e., tempests that winter is likely to have); "His beard was of
_several days'_ growth" (i.e., growth which several days had
developed); "The _forest's_ leaping panther shall yield his spotted
hide" (i.e., the panther which the forest hides); "Whoso sheddeth
_man's_ blood" (blood that man possesses).

[Sidenote: _How the possessive is formed._]

62. As said before (Sec. 56), there are only two case forms. One is
the simple form of a word, expressing the relations of nominative and
objective; the other is formed by adding _'s_ to the simple form,
making the possessive singular. To form the possessive plural, only
the apostrophe is added if the plural nominative ends in _-s_; the
_'s_ is added if the plural nominative does not end in _-s_.

Case Inflection.

[Sidenote: _Declension or inflection of nouns._]

63. The full declension of nouns is as follows:--

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

1. _Nom. and Obj._ lady ladies
_Poss._ lady's ladies'

2. _Nom. and Obj._ child children
_Poss._ child's children's

[Sidenote: _A suggestion._]

NOTE.--The difficulty that some students have in writing the
possessive plural would be lessened if they would remember there are
two steps