German composition

Section 65 Tender, Trusty, and True. V.

Once I read in the Life⁠1 of Dr. Channing, who was one of the best men that ever (je) lived⁠2 (a⁠3 great deal better than David, because he lived⁠4 in a better time), what he once did, when he was a⁠5 boy and saw a⁠6 thing like that. Little Channing was one of the kindest⁠7 and most tender-hearted boys I⁠8 ever heard of. I will tell you a story to show you how⁠9 kind he was, and tender, and true. One day he found in a bush a nest full⁠10 of young birds just out of the shell. Children, did⁠11 you ever see a⁠12 nest full of birds just out of the shell?—little tiny⁠13, downy things⁠14, with⁠15 hardly more feathers than an oyster? The birds which William Channing found, were just of that kind; and when he touched them with his fingers, and felt how soft and warm they were, they all began to gape⁠16, very⁠17 much as you do when I preach⁠18 a very long sermon.

Notes

1 Lebensbeschreibung, f. The Genitive relation must be expressed by the Gen. of the def. art. See S. 10, N. 2. Proper names are not inflected when they are preceded by an article and a common name.—Dr. William Ellery Channing, berühmter amerikanischer Geistlicher und Schriftsteller, wurde im Jahre 1780 zu Newport auf Rhode-Island geboren und starb im Jahre 1842 zu Bennington in Vermont. Seine zahlreichen ausgezeichneten Schriften haben seinen Namen auch in europäischen Kreisen berühmt gemacht. Coleridge, dessen Bekanntschaft er machte, als er im Jahre 1822 England besuchte, war so sehr von ihm eingenommen, daß er ausrief: ‘He has the love of wisdom, and the wisdom of love!’

2 Use the Perfect. See S. 48, N. 2.

3 a great deal = much.

4 lived in = belonged to, an´gehören, which governs the dat.

5 Substitute the adverb noch for the indef. art.

[6] See S. 64, N. 7.

7 best and most tender-feeling.

8 Say ‘of whom I have ever heard’.

9 Say ‘how good, tender and true he was’.

10 voll von erst soeben aus der Schale gekrochenen Vögeln.

11 Use the Perfect.

12 To avoid repetition, turn the words ‘a — shell’ by ‘such (so) young little birds’, and render ‘little birds’ by forming a diminutive of Vogel.

13 zart.

14 Dingerchen.

15 Say ‘almost as naked as an oyster’.

16 ‘to gape’, here den Schnabel auf´sperren.

17 very — do, fast wie ihr den Mund aufsperrt.

18 to preach a sermon, eine Predigt halten.