I hastily picked up the children and threw them upon the bank, and then
strode out, and tried to shake myself, as I have seen a Newfoundland dog
do. The shake was not a success--it caused my trouser's legs to flap
dismally about my ankles, and sent the streams of treacherous ooze
trickling down into my shoes. My hat, of drab felt, had fallen off by the
brookside, and been plentifully spattered as I got out.

+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.--We will put the first paragraph
above into single sentences.

1. The whistles completed, we were marched with music to the place. 2. The
"Jacks" grew in this place. 3. It was a place low, damp, and boggy, with a
brook hidden away under overhanging ferns and grasses. 4. Boys delight in
such a place.

Find the subject noun (or pronoun) and the predicate verb in each of the
four sentences above. Does _the whistles completed_ make complete sense?
You learned in Lesson 16 that some forms of the verb do not assert--cannot
be predicates. Does _brook hidden_, in 3, contain a predicate? What can you
say of _hidden?_ Find a noun in 3 used to complete the predicate and make
the meaning of the subject plainer. What group of adjectives modifies
_place_? Tell why these three adjectives are separated by commas. What long
phrase describes _place_?

Find the first verb in the second paragraph of the selection. What is the
object complement of this verb? _That bore the "Jacks"_ does what? The
pronoun _that_ stands for _plant_. _The plant bore the "Jacks,"_ standing
by itself, is a complete sentence; but by using _that_ for _plant_ the
whole expression is made to do the work of an adjective. What conjunction
joins on another expression that by itself would make a complete sentence?