e special reason of his anger and
that, having answered, he would settle down to his regular work. I gently
insinuated that I was still ignorant of the matter, and received the reply
quite in keeping with Pitkin's nature, "I bet on Harvard and won."

EXERCISES

1. Read one of Dickens's books and bring to class selections that will
show how Dickens portrays character by use of action.

2. What kind of man is Silas Marner? What leads you to think as you do?

3. Select three persons from _Ivanhoe_ and state your opinion of their
character.

4. Notice the relative importance of plot and character in three magazine
stories.

5. Select some person from a magazine story. Tell the class what makes you
form the estimate of his character that you do. To what extent does the
descriptive matter help you determine his character?

+Theme LXXX.+--_Write a character sketch or a story which shows character
by means of action._

Suggested subjects:--
1. The girl from Texas.
2. The Chinese cook.
3. Taking care of the baby.
4. Nathan's temptation.
5. The small boy's triumph.
6. A village character.
7. The meanest man I ever knew.

(Consider the development of the plot. To what extent have you shown
character by action? Can you make the impression of character stronger by
adding some description?)

+150. History and Biography.+--Historical and biographical narratives may
be highly entertaining and at the same time furnish us with much valuable
information. Such writings often contain much that is not pure narration.
A historian may set forth merely the program of events, but most histories
contain besides a large amount of description and explanation. Frequently,
too, all of this is but the basis of either a direct or an implied
argument. Likewise a biographer may be chiefly concerned with the acts of
a man, but he usually finds that the introduction of description and
explanation aids him in making clear the life purpose of the man about
whom he writes. In shorter histories and biographies, the expository and
descriptive matter often displaces the narrative matter to such an extent
that the story ceases to be interesting.

The actual time-order of events need not be followed. It will often make
our account clearer to discuss the literary works of a man at one time,
his education at another, and his practical achievements at a third.
Certain portions of his life may need to be emphasized while others