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ABOUT THE COAUTHOR

Pat Daniel Jones

Pat Daniel Jones is delighted and honored to assist Gail Tompkins in revising this edition of
Teaching Writing. Pat’s and Gail’s lives intersected at the University of Oklahoma in 1988,
where Gail served as Pat’s major professor as she earned her PhD in language arts education
in 1991. Pat taught fifth through eighth graders for 12 years while she lived in Oklahoma.
Since earning her PhD, Pat has taught at the university level at the University of Houston-
Victoria, Western Kentucky University, and for over 20 years at the University of South
Florida, where she serves as the founding director of the Tampa Bay Area Writing Project.
She also spends many hours on school campuses working with teachers and their students.
Like her mentor, Gail Tompkins, Pat is a teacher’s teacher, serving as major professor to 13
doctoral students and as a committee member on 26 additional committees.
Pat has received numerous teaching awards, including Teacher of the Year at Bethel,
Oklahoma, Schools and Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award at the University of
South Florida three times.
Dr. Daniel Jones has written numerous articles for English Journal, Language Arts, The ALAN
Review, Equity and Excellence in Education, Teaching and Change, Teacher Education and Special
Education, and The Qualitative Report.
Married to Connie Jones, Pat enjoys spending time with their 12 grandchildren, 9 of
whom now live in Tampa. Pat and Connie also volunteer at their local community theater.

vii
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE
With a sharpened focus on differentiating instruction in writing workshop classrooms, the
seventh edition of Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product offers a comprehensive vision
of the strategies that writers use, the writing genres, and the writer’s craft with techniques for
improving the quality of students’ writing.
This text continues to thoroughly examine genres and instructional procedures with a
strong focus on scaffolding instruction to ensure success for all students, including English
learners and struggling writers. The text provides insights on differentiation, technology,
assessment, writing to demonstrate learning, and the six traits of writing along with its
long-standing focus on process and product to offer the best possible preparation for teaching
writing in K–8 classrooms.

NEW TO THIS EDITION!

• For the first time, Teaching Writing is being offered as an eText to provide interactive
opportunities for studying and reviewing what has been learned through online appli-
cations, including the ability to highlight information, navigate back and forth within
the text, watch videos chosen to exemplify or extend text content, and take online quiz-
zes that align to learning outcomes.
• An introduction to writing standards appears at the beginning of each chapter, and
appropriate standards are aligned to the minilessons offered within each chapter.
• New Part One, Chapters 1–6, has been carefully restructured to closely examine the
writing process, writing workshop, and specifics on how to develop writers in primary,
middle, and upper grade classrooms and to assess their progress.
• Reorganized and revised Chapter 6, Writing to Learn, addresses ways teachers can use
writing as a tool for learning through a wealth of activities that ask students to demon-
strate their learning through writing.
• Updated Mentor Texts features list time-honored and newer texts, broken down by
grade level or by topic. Mentor texts are used to teach the writer’s craft, specific genres,
and many instructional procedures, introducing and engaging students in concrete
writing strategies.
• The Digital Toolkit features present in-depth information about technological appli-
cations and new and reliable ways to use technology in writing workshop classrooms.
• Takeaway Checklists fall at the ends of chapters where users can download these prac-
tical instructional guidelines and keep them handy.
• Margin notes link users to videos that exemplify teaching or provide additional teach-
ing support.
• Self-assessment online quizzes end each chapter section. In addition, an end-of-chap-
ter quiz—From Textbook to Classroom—identifies choices for classroom projects
meant to deepen teacher knowledge and provide experiences to sharpen a teacher’s
focus on writing development. Rubrics to judge the quality of these projects can be
found online.

ix
x  Preface

PROCESS AND PRODUCT

Teaching Writing addresses both the process of writing, the recursive stages of the writing pro-
cess and the strategies students use to draft and refine text, and the products of writing, the
compositions that students write. Each chapter in this edition builds from a writing workshop
foundation to clearly articulated instructional procedures, including minilessons, guided
practice activities, suggestions for incorporating technology, techniques for assisting English
learners and struggling writers, and linking assessment to instruction.

Part One: The Process

Early chapters walk you through the stages of the writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and publishing—and explain how to implement writing workshop in K–8 classrooms. In
Part One, you’ll also learn about writing strategies that students use to monitor their writing
and solve problems, the six traits of writing, and ways to assess students’ writing, including
implementing a portfolio program and preparing your students for district and state writing
assessments.
Chapter 6 is now a bridge chapter illustrating the process for using writing to learn and
then offering a plethora of activities for students to demonstrate that learning through writing
paragraphs, letters, compositions, essays, books, or multigenre projects.
These features will guide your learning about the process of writing:
• Minilessons demonstrate how to teach writing strategies and writer’s craft lessons in
writing workshop classrooms.
• Mentor Texts features list recommended books that teachers can use as models when
they’re teaching about each genre.
• Accommodating EL Writers sections provide insight into the most successful methods
for scaffolding the teaching of students who are learning English as they’re learning the
craft of writing.

Part Two: The Product

Part Two chapters focus on writing genres supported by standards and applications in literature,
social studies, science, and other content areas:
• Poetry writing
• Narrative writing
• Biographical writing
• Nonfiction writing
• Writing arguments
In Part Two, you’ll find practical strategies for teaching and assessing each genre of writing
accompanied by abundant illustrative student samples.
There are also special features to guide your learning:
• Step-by-Step features explain the procedures that writing teachers use every day,
including word walls, clusters, and KWL charts.
• Instructional Overview features set benchmarks for students’ achievement for each
genre.
 Preface   xi

• How to Solve Struggling Writers’ Problems features analyze a specific problem, its
causes, and solutions as well as ways to prevent the problem.
• Preparing for Writing Tests features help you prepare students for high-stakes testing
by clearly describing each writing genre, providing prompts to generate a writing sam-
ple, and outlining pitfalls writers may face when writing in specific genres.

AUTHENTIC CLASSROOMS
Nothing beats authentic examples of classroom practice when it comes to truly understanding
classroom application. For that reason, this text provides many opportunities for you to
examine writing workshop classrooms and consider questions that writing teachers often ask.
• Vignettes opening each chapter present an intimate look at teachers who use the spe-
cific instructional procedures described in this text and illustrate how these procedures
play out in the classroom, including the conversations teachers have with real students.
• Artifacts of actual student writing are displayed in each chapter and show how stu-
dents execute what they learn. These examples point out what students understand
and what additional teaching might need to take place.
• Answering Teachers’ Questions About . . . This popular feature poses several chapter-
related questions that teachers frequently ask, and then offers advice from the author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gail’s heartfelt thanks go to the many people who have encouraged her over the years and
provided valuable assistance through each edition of Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and
Product. This text is a reflection of what the teachers and students she worked with in Califor-
nia and across the United States taught her, and is testimony to their excellence. The teachers
and students who are featured in the vignettes at the beginning of each chapter deserve spe-
cial recognition; thank you for welcoming Gail into your classrooms and for permitting her to
share your stories. She especially wants to express her appreciation to the children whose
writing samples appear in the text and to the teachers, administrators, and parents who have
shared writing samples with her as well.
Gail also thanks her reviewers for their insightful comments: Corrine Hinton, Texas A & M,
Texarkana; Melanie Hundley, Vanderbilt University; Angela Kinney, Mount St. Joseph Univer-
sity; Linda Murphree, Wayland Baptist; Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon, Oakland University;
Wayne Slater, University of Maryland. You’ll notice that many of your suggestions are reflected
in this seventh edition.
And to Gail’s editors and the production team at Pearson, she offers her heartfelt thanks.
To Drew Bennett, her portfolio manager, and to Linda Bishop, her development editor, thanks
for your encouragement and support. Gail’s thanks also go to Joan Gill, who successfully
moved this text through the maze of production details, and to Melissa Gruzs, who has again
cleaned up her manuscript and paid unparalleled, careful attention to detail. Gail is grateful.
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Minilessons  28
PART ONE
Check Your Understanding   31
The Process IMPLEMENTING WRITING WORKSHOP   31
Introduce the Writing Process   31
Arrange the Classroom   33
CHAPTER 1
Create a Community of Writers   35
Teaching Writing Today 1 Differentiate Instruction  36
Incorporate Technology  37
Vignette: Third Graders Talk About the Writing
Process  1 Accommodating EL Writers   38
Learning Outcomes  3 Monitor Progress  40
Check Your Understanding   42
THE WRITING PROCESS   4
Stage 1: Prewriting  5 THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Writing
Workshop  42
Stage 2: Drafting  7
Stage 3: Revising  8 ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   42
Stage 4: Editing  13 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
Stage 5: Publishing  15 ABOUT . . . Writing Workshop   43
Check Your Understanding   17
WRITING STANDARDS   17
CHAPTER 3
The Writing Strand   18
Other Strands  19 Developing Strategic
Check Your Understanding   20 Writers 44
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: The Writing
Process  20 Vignette: A First Grader’s Thinking Cap   44
Learning Outcomes  46
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   20
WRITING STRATEGIES   46
ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
ABOUT . . . The Writing Process  21 Elaborating  48
Evaluating  49
Formatting  49
CHAPTER 2 Generating  49
Writing Workshop 22 Monitoring  50
Narrowing  51
Vignette: Sixth Graders Participate in Writing Organizing  52
Workshop  22 Proofreading  53
Learning Outcomes  24 Questioning  55
COMPONENTS OF WRITING WORKSHOP   24 Rereading  55
Writing  25 Revising  55
Sharing  27 Setting Goals  56
Interactive Read-Alouds  27 Self-Regulation of Strategies   56

xiii
xiv  Contents

Capable and Less Capable Writers   57

CHAPTER 5
Check Your Understanding   58
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   59 Assessing Writing 96
Teaching a Strategy   59
Vignette: Claire’s Writing Portfolio   96
Scaffolding Writers  61
Learning Outcomes  98
Writing Workshop  63
CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT   98
Assessing Strategy Use   64
The Instruction–Assessment Cycle   99
Check Your Understanding   66
Assessment Procedures  100
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Developing Strategic
Writers  66 Accommodating EL Writers   107
Check Your Understanding   109
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   66
WRITING PORTFOLIOS   109
ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
ABOUT . . . Developing Strategic Writers   67 Collecting Writing Samples in Portfolios   109
Involving Students in Self-Assessment   110
Showcasing Students’ Portfolios   110
CHAPTER 4 Check Your Understanding   111
The Writer’s Craft 68 LARGE-SCALE WRITING TESTS   111
National Assessment of Educational Progress   112
Vignette: Noah’s “Wicked Cool” Writing   68 Preparing for Writing Tests   112
Learning Outcomes  70 Benefits of Testing   114
THE SIX TRAITS   70 Check Your Understanding   114
Ideas  70 THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Writing
Organization  73 Assessment  114
Voice  75 ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   115
Word Choice  76 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
Sentence Fluency  79 ABOUT . . . Assessing Writing   115
Conventions  80
Presentation  81
Check Your Understanding   82 CHAPTER 6
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   82 Writing to Learn 117
Introducing the Writer’s Craft   82
Teaching the Six Traits   84 Vignette: Fifth Graders Write Pioneer Guides   117
Writing Workshop  90 Learning Outcomes  119

Accommodating EL Writers   90 THE PROCESS: WRITING TO LEARN   119

Assessing the Writer’s Craft   92 Clustering  120
Check Your Understanding   94 Double-Entry Journals  120
KWL Charts  122
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: The Writer’s
Craft  94 Learning Logs  123
Semantic Feature Analysis   124
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   94
Check Your Understanding   125
ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
ABOUT . . . The Writer’s Craft   95 THE PRODUCT: WRITING TO DEMONSTRATE
LEARNING  125
 Contents   xv

Response to Literature Projects   125 ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   167

Thematic Unit Projects   128 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
Multigenre Projects  134 ABOUT . . . Writing Poetry   168
Check Your Understanding   136
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   137
CHAPTER 8
Designing Writing Projects   137
Writing Workshop  137 Narrative Writing169
Accommodating EL Writers   140
Vignette: First Graders Write Stories   169
Assessing Writing in the Content Areas   142
Learning Outcomes  171
Check Your Understanding   142
THE GENRE: NARRATIVE WRITING   171
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Writing to
Plot  172
Learn  142
Setting  174
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to
Characters  175
Classroom  143
Theme  178
ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
Point of View   179
ABOUT . . . Writing to Learn   144
Narrative Devices  179
Check Your Understanding   180

PART TWO INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   181

Introducing the Genre   182
The Product Teaching an Element of Story Structure   182
Guided Practice Activities   182
Writing Workshop  184
CHAPTER 7
Accommodating EL Writers   188
Writing Poetry145 Assessing Narrative Writing   188
Check Your Understanding   190
Vignette: Sixth Grade Poetry Workshop   145
Learning Outcomes  147 THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Narrative
Writing  190
THE GENRE: POETRY   147
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   191
Formula Poems  148
Free Verse  152 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
ABOUT . . . Narrative Writing   191
Syllable- and Word-Count Poems   157
Model Poems  158
Poetic Devices  159 CHAPTER 9
Check Your Understanding   161
Biographical Writing193
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   161
Introducing Poetry Writing   162 Vignette: A Class Biography   193
Writing Workshop  162 Learning Outcomes  195
Accommodating EL Writers   166 THE GENRE: BIOGRAPHY   195
Assessing Poetry  166 Personal Narratives  196
Check Your Understanding   166 Memoirs  198
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Writing Poems   167 Autobiographies  199
xvi  Contents

Biographies  200 ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   245

Check Your Understanding   208 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   208 ABOUT . . . Nonfiction Writing   246
Introducing the Genre   208
Writing Workshop  210
CHAPTER 11
Accommodating EL Writers   212
Assessing Biographical Writing   213 Writing Arguments248
Check Your Understanding   216
Vignette: Second Graders Write Mother’s Day
THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Biographical Cards  248
Writing  216 Learning Outcomes  250
ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   216 THE GENRE: ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING   250
ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS Three Ways to Argue   251
ABOUT . . . Writing Biographies   217 Propaganda  251
Organization of an Argument   252
Types of Argumentative Writing   253
CHAPTER 10 Check Your Understanding   258
Nonfiction Writing218 INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   258
Introducing the Genre   258
Vignette: Seventh Graders Study the Wild West   218 Writing Workshop  259
Learning Outcomes  220 Accommodating EL Writers   266
THE GENRE: NONFICTION WRITING   220 Assessing Argumentative Writing   267
Nonfiction Text Structures   221 Check Your Understanding   267
Nonfiction Features  223 THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Writing
Types of Nonfiction Writing   226 Arguments  268
Check Your Understanding   230 ASSESSMENT: From Textbook to Classroom   268
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES   231 ANSWERING TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS
Introducing the Genre   232 ABOUT . . . Argumentative Writing   269
Nonfiction Writing Techniques   235
Writing Workshop  239
Accommodating EL Writers   242
References 271

Assessing Nonfiction Writing   243

Check Your Understanding   245
Index 281

THE TAKEAWAY CHECKLIST: Nonfiction

Writing  245
SPECIAL FEATURES
Step-by-Step Digital Storytelling [[ch. 8]]   186
Multimedia Projects [[ch. 10]]   241
Revising Groups [[ch. 1]]   11
Interactive Read-Alouds [[ch. 2]]   29
Minilesson [[ch. 2]]   29 Assessment Tools
Think-Alouds [[ch. 3]]   61 A Third Grade Editing Checklist [[ch. 1]]   15
Interactive Writing [[ch. 3]]   62 Status of the Class Chart [[ch. 2]]   40
Word Walls [[ch. 4]]   87 A Writing Process Checklist [[ch. 2]]   41
Rubrics [[ch. 5]]   107 Fifth Grade Writing Strategies Checklist [[ch. 3]]   65
KWL Charts [[ch. 6]]   122 Checklist for Monitoring Writing Skills [[ch. 4]]   93
Semantic Feature Analysis [[ch. 6]]   124 A Self-Assessment Questionnaire [[ch. 5]]   101
Open-Mind Portraits [[ch. 6]]   126 State Report Checklist [[ch. 5]]   104
RAFT [[ch. 6]]   138 A Fifth Grade Rubric [[ch. 5]]   106
Hot Seat [[ch. 9]]   206 Rubric for Assessing Fifth Graders’ Oregon Trail Guides
Data Charts [[ch. 10]]   236 [[ch. 6]]  142
Venn Diagrams [[ch. 10]]   238 Third Graders’ Self-Assessment [[ch. 8]]   189
Second Grade Personal Narrative Checklist [[ch. 9]]   214
Minilesson A Multigenre Biography Rubric [[ch. 9]]   215
Two Assessment Checklists [[ch. 10]]   244
Four Types of Revisions [[ch. 1]]   10 A Writer’s Revision Checklist [[ch. 11]   264
Writing Summaries of Informational Articles [[ch. 2]]   30 A Reader’s Revision Checklist [[ch. 11]]   265
Questioning [[ch. 3]]   54
Word Choice [[ch. 4]]   91
Poetic Devices [[ch. 7]]   164 Accommodating EL Writers
Creating a Historically Accurate Setting [[ch. 8]]   185 How do teachers teach the writing process? [[ch. 2]]   38
Assessing Written Instructions [[ch. 10]]   240 How do teachers teach the writer’s craft? [[ch. 4]]   90
Persuasive Essays [[ch. 11]]   261 How do teachers assess writing achievement? [[ch. 5]]   107
How do teachers scaffold writing to learn? [[ch. 6]]   140
The Takeaway Checklist How do teachers teach poetry writing? [[ch. 7]]   166
How do teachers scaffold the teaching of narrative writing?
The Writing Process [[ch. 1]]   20 [[ch. 8]]  188
Writing Workshop [[ch. 2]]   42 How do teachers scaffold biographical
Developing Strategic Writers [[ch. 3]]   66 writing? [[ch. 9]]   212
The Writer’s Craft [[ch. 4]]   94 How do teachers scaffold the teaching of nonfiction
Writing Assessment [[ch. 5]]   114 writing? [[ch. 10]]   242
Writing to Learn [[ch. 6]]   142 How do teachers scaffold argumentative
Writing Poems [[ch. 7]]   167 writing? [[ch. 11]]   266
Narrative Writing [[ch. 8]]   190
Biographical Writing [[ch. 9]]   216
Nonfiction Writing [[ch. 10]]   245 How to Solve Struggling Writers’
Writing Arguments [[ch. 11]]   268 Problems
Students Don’t Make Substantive Revisions [[ch. 1]]   9
Digital Toolkit Ideas in the Composition Are Disorganized [[ch. 3]]   53
Laptops for Writing [[ch. 2]]   38 The Composition Has Weak Sentence Structure
Graphics Software [[ch. 3]]   52 [[ch. 4]]  79
Online Author Information [[ch. 4]]   77 The Composition Lacks an Exciting Lead [[ch. 8]]   174
Online Assessment Tools [[ch. 5]]   108 The Composition Lacks Focus [[ch. 9]]   197
WebQuests [[ch. 6]]   140 The Composition Is Plagiarized [[ch. 10]]   230
Online Poetry Generators [[ch. 7]]   165 Students Do the Bare Minimum [[ch. 11]]   253

xvii
xviii  Special Features

Mentor Texts Preparing for Writing Tests

The Writing Process [[ch. 2]]   28 Large-Scale Writing Assessments [[ch. 5]]   113
Writing Strategies [[ch. 3]]   48 Summary [[ch. 6]]   141
Ideas [[ch. 4]]   72 Stories [[ch. 8]]   187
Organization [[ch. 4]]   74 Personal Narratives [[ch. 9]]   211
Voice [[ch. 4]]   76 Informative Writing [[ch. 10]]   242
Word Choice [[ch. 4]]   78 Argumentative Writing [[ch. 11]]   266
Sentence Fluency [[ch. 4]]   80
Presentation [[ch. 4]]   82
Multigenre Books [[ch. 6]]   136
Answering Teachers’ Questions
Poetic Forms [[ch. 7]]   148 About . . .
Verse Novels [[ch. 7]]   154 The Writing Process [[ch. 1]]   21
How to Write Poetry [[ch. 7]]   163 Writing Workshop [[ch. 2]]   43
Plot [[ch. 8]]   173 Developing Strategic Writers [[ch. 3]]   67
Setting [[ch. 8]]   176 The Writer’s Craft [[ch. 4]]   95
Characters [[ch. 8]]   177 Assessing Writing [[ch. 5]]   115
Theme [[ch. 8]]   178 Writing to Learn [[ch. 6]]   144
Point of View [[ch. 8]]   180 Writing Poetry [[ch. 7]]   168
Autobiographies [[ch. 9]]   198 Narrative Writing [[ch. 8]]   191
Biographies [[ch. 9]]   203 Writing Biographies [[ch. 9]]   217
Nonfiction Text Structures [[ch. 10]]   222 Nonfiction Writing [[ch. 10]]   246
Nonfiction [[ch. 10]]   233 Argumentative Writing [[ch. 11]]   269
Persuasive/Argumentative Writing [[ch. 11]]   260
 CHAPTER
Teaching Writing
Today 1
Third Graders Talk About the Writing Process. The students in
Mrs. Nader’s third grade classroom write for 45 minutes each morning. Adam, Olivia,
Alex, and Taylor have just met with Mrs. Nader in a revising group to share their rough
drafts—new twists on familiar folktales—and receive revision suggestions. Alex explains his
story: “Well, I took the gingerbread man tale and set it in the future. We could change the
characters or the setting. My gingerbread man—I call him ‘G. M.’—takes off in a Tahoe that’s
equipped with jet propulsion. So in less than 9/10th of a second, he’s airborne, heading for the
stratosphere. The little old man and little old woman take off after him in a Toyota Prius that’s
great on gas mileage and quiet as a whisper but sadly can’t get more than 10,000 feet off the
ground. Next, G. M. runs up against some space robots who chase after him because they want
to check out his vehicle. That’s all I’ll tell you; you have to wait and read the book!”
The four writers agree to spend a few minutes talking to me about writing. They begin by
explaining the writing process: “It’s just the way writers work,” Olivia says. “It’s what kids do
at school and how grown-ups write.” Adam continues, “The most important thing to know
is that you don’t just sit down and write and then you’re done. That’s not good writing.”
“You have to keep working to make your writing better,” Alex adds. “By ‘better,’ I mean you
make it more interesting and you clean up your mistakes so it’s easy for people to read. You
always work on the ideas first and the spelling mistakes, capital letters, and punctuation
marks last.”
“You got to know that people do different things during the writing process,” Taylor
explains. “There are five steps.” Together, the four recite the stages: “prewriting, drafting,
revising, editing, and publishing”—and they point to the writing process charts the class
has made that are hanging over the windows on one wall of the classroom. Olivia explains
that “you always start with prewriting; that’s when you choose an idea and brainstorm
stuff to write. Next is drafting; that’s when you write the rough draft. You have to leave
plenty of space to make revisions later. The third step is revising, and that’s when you
make changes to make your ideas clearer. Next, you proofread to find your mistakes
and correct them; that’s the editing step. The last thing is publishing. It’s the funnest
part. You make your final copy and print it out and share it with everyone.” “Our
author’s chair is over here,” Adam explains. “It isn’t a real chair; it’s a stool that
Mrs. Nader painted orange and black, our school colors. We only sit on it when
we’re sharing our writing.”
When asked which stage is the most challenging, Adam answers that the revising
stage is hardest for him, and the others nod their heads in agreement. He continues:
“All of us are doing revising now because we just had a meeting with Mrs. Nader to
get suggestions about how to make our writing better. It’s the toughest step because
you already love what you’ve written and you really don’t want to change it.” “Think-
ing of better words to say something is really, really hard,” Taylor shares. “Some-
times I ask Joey or Alicia—they sit near me—how to fix something, if I can’t get
a good idea. But if they don’t know what to do, I just change a word or add a
word, but Mrs. Nader says we shouldn’t do that. She wants us to think harder.”

1
 “Or, you can have another meeting with Mrs. Nader, and she’ll help you,” Adam suggests.
“Sometimes I don’t do enough prewriting,” Olivia explains; “That’s when I have trouble. Like
in my personal narrative book when I wrote about playing T-ball when I was 6 years old.
I thought I knew enough about it and could just sit down and write. I didn’t put very many
details in my draft, and I got so frustrated when my revising group didn’t understand and
kept asking questions.”
I ask the third graders to tell me about the community of writers they’ve developed in their
classroom, and Alex begins: “I guess you could say that it’s not like regular school. We work in
groups and get to pick our own topics. If you look around, you can see that everybody is writ-
ing and sharing their writing with each other, and Mrs. Nader is there to help us exactly when
we need the help.” Taylor adds, “A community of writers means we help each other and are
respectful. We act like writers because that’s what we are.” Olivia sums it up this way: “All I
can say is that it’s a lot better than doing workbooks. My mom says she’s absolutely amazed
at what we do, and she knows because she used to be a teacher.”
These third graders think of themselves as real writers. Taylor explains, “Sure, I’m a real
writer because I’ve met grown-up authors, and we’ve talked about our writing processes.”
“And I’m a writer because I’ve made about a million books,” Adam continues. “I started in
first grade. My first book was ‘Good Boy, Buddy.’ He was my dog, and we always played
together, but he got cancer and the vet had to put him down. I was crying and crying, but I got
a little better after I wrote a book about him. I’ll never forget that dog, but we do have another
dog now. She’s a girl dog, and her name is Roxy. I guess I should write a book about her
because she’s fun, too.”
“I’m a reader and a writer,” Olivia shares, “but I didn’t use to be. My nana always tells me
that I’m a good reader. This is kinda funny, but she calls me a ‘bookworm.’ My other teachers
told me I was a real reader, but no one ever said anything about my writing. I guess it used to
be boring, but now it isn’t because Mrs. Nader taught me how to write interesting stories—you
know, ones that everyone wants to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not good. Now I am
because Mrs. Nader believed in me.”
What have these third graders learned about writing? “The most important thing I’ve
learned,” Adam explains, “is the writing process. After you learn to do the stages in order, you
figure out that you can go back and forth—like, I’m always revising, drafting, revising, and
drafting again. It takes a lot of work to get your writing good. Mrs. Nader told me that after
writers learn the regular writing process, they make their own special ways of using it. That’s
what I’m doing now.”
Olivia proudly shares that she’s learned how to word process. “I love computers!” she
says. “I use all my fingers for typing, and I’m getting faster because my dad lets me practice
on his laptop almost every night. And I know how to spell check and fix the mistakes. It’s
lots of fun, and when you print out the final copy, that’s really amazing! It looks just like a
real book.”
“I’ve learned all that stuff,” Alex shares, “but my answer is rubrics. In second grade I
didn’t know anything about them, but Mrs. Nader uses them. She passes them out before we
start writing, and I always use it to check my rough drafts when I’m revising and editing, and
Mrs. Nader will help you check your work, too. I also think rubrics are fairer because you know
what grade you’ll get. Some teachers put whatever grade they want on your writing, but Mrs.
Nader always uses one so you know how you can get better at writing.”

2
A
ll students, even kindergartners and
first graders, are writers. Notions that Writing Standards: Teaching Writing Today
they can’t write, that they have to
The Writing strand consists of 10 Standards that
become readers first, and that correct spelling address genres or text types, the production and distri-
and neat handwriting are the hallmarks of bution of writing, research to build and present knowl-
good writers are antiquated. Students learn edge, and range of writing. The fourth, fifth, and sixth
that writing is a powerful tool that they use to Standards focus on the writing process: Students are
record and organize information, communi- expected to produce clear and coherent writing in
which the development and organization are appropri-
cate with others, and demonstrate learning
ate to task, purpose, and audience. With support from
(Coker, 2013). Writing in 21st-century class- classmates and teachers, students develop and
rooms serves these purposes: strengthen writing by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new approach. They use technol-
Students Learn How to Write. Through ogy, including the Internet, to produce and publish
meaningful experiences with writing, stu- writing and present the relationships between informa-
dents become writers. Journal writing and tion and ideas clearly and efficiently. Even though the
other informal writing activities provide words writing process aren’t used, these Standards expect
students to participate in planning, revising, and other
opportunities to become fluent writers,
writing process activities. To learn more about the
and as they write personal narratives, infor- Writing Standards, go to http://www.corestandards
mational books, and essays, students apply .org/ELA-Literacy, or check your state’s educational
the writing process to gather and organize standards website.
ideas, write rough drafts, and refine and
polish their writing.
Students Learn About Written Language. As students write, they discover the
uniqueness of written language and the ways it differs from oral language and
drawing. They develop an appreciation for the interrelations of purpose, audi-
ence, and form in writing; they experiment with sentence types and word choices;
and they learn about writing conventions, including Standard English spelling,
grammar and usage, capitalization, and punctuation.
Students Learn Through Writing. Writing is a valuable learning tool with numer-
ous applications across the curriculum. Students write informally to analyze and
synthesize what they’re learning in literature and other curricular areas, and they
apply their knowledge when they write to share information, conduct research,
and present arguments (Halliday, 1980; Indrisano & Paratore, 2005).

Writing is a powerful tool for students, and it’s an essential component of the
language arts curriculum and Common Core State Standards for English Language
Arts.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1.1 Describe the stages in the writing process.
1.2 Explain the Writing Standards.

3
4  PART ONE | The Process

THE WRITING PROCESS

The writing process is a way of looking at what writers think and do as they write. James
Britton and Janet Emig were two of the first researchers to examine students’ writing pro-
cesses. In her seminal study, Emig (1971) interviewed 12th graders as they wrote, and she
carefully examined one teenager’s writing process. Several years later, Britton and his col-
leagues (1975) examined 2,000 essays written by high school students and found that their
writing processes differed according to genre. At the same time, Donald Graves (1975)
examined young children’s writing and documented that 7-year-olds, like high school stu-
dents, used a variety of writing strategies.
These early researchers generally divided the writing process into three stages. Britton
(1970b) labeled them conception, incubation, and production: In the conception stage, writers
choose topics; in the incubation stage, they develop the topic by gathering information; and
in the production stage, they write, revise, and edit their rough drafts. Graves (1975) described
a similar process of prewriting, composing, and postwriting: In prewriting, writers choose topics
and gather ideas for writing; in the composing stage, they write the composition; and in the
postwriting stage, they share their writing.
Linda Flower and John Hayes (1977, 1981; Hayes & Flower, 1986) studied college stu-
dents’ writing and asked students to talk about their thought processes while they composed;
they then analyzed students’ reflections to examine the strategies writers use and developed a
model that describes writing as a complex problem-solving process. According to the model,
the writing process involves three activities: planning, as writers set goals; translating, as writers
put the plans into writing; and reviewing, as writers evaluate and revise the writing. These activ-
ities aren’t linear steps, according to Flower and Hayes, because writers continually monitor
their writing and move back and forth among the activities; this monitoring might be consid-
ered a fourth component of the writing process. An important finding from their research is
that writing is recursive: Using this monitoring mechanism, writers jump back and forth from
one activity to another as they write.
Other researchers examined particular aspects of the writing process. Nancy Sommers
(1982, 1994) described writing as a revision process in which writers develop their ideas, not
just polish them. Less experienced writers, according to Sommers, focus on small, word-level
changes and error hunting; this emphasis on conventions rather than content may be due to
teachers’ behavior. Sondra Perl (1994) examined how the writing process is used in high
school and college classrooms and concluded that teachers place excessive importance on
mechanical correctness. Flower and Hayes found that less successful writers have a limited
repertoire of alternatives for solving problems as they write, and Bereiter and Scardamalia
(1982) found that even though children participated in writing process activities, they were
less capable of monitoring the need to move from one activity to another. Through both
expert teaching and extensive writing practice, students can improve their self-monitoring by
the time they reach high school.
The five-stage writing process presented in this chapter incorporates activities identified
through research. The stages are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, and the key
features of each stage are summarized in Figure 1–1. The numbering of the stages doesn’t
mean that this writing process is a linear series of discrete activities. Research shows that the
process involves recurring cycles; labeling is only an aid for identifying and discussing writing
activities because the stages merge and recur as students write (Barnes, Morgan, & Weinhold,
1997). In addition, writers personalize the process to meet their own needs and vary it accord-
ing to the writing assignment.
 CHAPTER 1 | Teaching Writing Today   5

Figure 1–1 KEY FEATURES OF THE WRITING PROCESS

Stage 1: Prewriting
Choose a topic.
Gather and organize ideas.
Consider the potential audience.
Identify the purpose of the writing.
Choose an appropriate genre.

Stage 2: Drafting
Write a rough draft.
Craft leads to grab readers’ attention.
Emphasize content rather than conventions.

Stage 3: Revising
Share drafts in revising groups.
Participate constructively in discussions about classmates’ drafts.
Make changes to reflect the comments of classmates and the teacher.
Make substantive rather than only minor changes between the first and final drafts.

Stage 4: Editing
Set drafts aside for a few days.
Proofread compositions to locate errors.
Correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar errors.

Stage 5: Publishing
Publish writing in an appropriate form.
Share completed writing with an appropriate audience.

Stage 1: Prewriting
Prewriting is the getting-ready-to-write stage. The traditional notion that writers have thought
out their topic completely is ridiculous: If writers wait for ideas to fully develop, they’ll wait
forever. Instead, writers begin tentatively, by talking, reading, and writing to see what they
know and what direction the writing will take. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Donald Murray
(2004, 2005) calls this stage “discovery”: You begin writing to explore what you know and to
surprise yourself.
Prewriting has probably been the most neglected stage; it’s as crucial to writers, however,
as a warm-up is to athletes. Donald Murray (1982) believes that 70% or more of writing time
should be spent in prewriting. Writers participate in these activities during prewriting:
• Choosing a topic
• Considering purpose, audience, and form
• Generating and organizing ideas for writing
CHOOSING A TOPIC Sometimes students choose their own topics, and at other
times, teachers specify the topics, or students and teachers identify topics collaboratively
(Chandler-Olcott & Mahar, 2001). More than 40 years ago, Donald Graves (1976) argued
that students should choose their own topics; he described the traditional practice of teachers
specifying topics as “writing welfare.” When students choose topics, they become more moti-
vated—even passionate—writers. Students often keep a writer’s notebook (Fletcher, 1996)
with ideas, observations, quotations, and other writing topics.
6  PART ONE | The Process

It isn’t always possible, or even advisable, for students to choose their own topics.
Sometimes teachers specify writing topics so students will learn how to handle new writing
tasks, including those they might not choose for themselves. Also, with the current empha-
sis on assessment, it’s become increasingly important for students to be able to deal with
topics regardless of personal interest. Students also work with teachers and classmates to
choose writing topics collaboratively, which Chandler-Olcott and Mahar (2001) argue may
be the most important approach because students learn how to negotiate topics with other
writers. Most teachers incorporate all three approaches to topic selection in their instruc-
tional programs.

CONSIDERING PURPOSE Writers need to identify their purpose: Are they writing
to entertain? to inform? to persuade? This decision about purpose influences other decisions
they make about audience and form. M. A. K. Halliday (1975) identified seven oral language
functions that also apply to written language:
• Instrumental language to satisfy needs, as in business letters and emails
• Regulatory language to control the behavior of others, as in invitations, notes, and
how-to directions
• Interactional language to establish and maintain social relationships, as in email, post-
cards, and journals
• Personal language to express personal opinions, as in reading logs, persuasive letters,
and blogs
• Imaginative language to express imagination and creativity, as in stories and poems
• Heuristic language to seek information and to find out about things, such as in learn-
ing logs
• Informative language to convey information, such as in reports, PowerPoint presenta-
tions, and essays
Students write for all these purposes.

CONSIDERING AUDIENCE Sometimes students write primarily for themselves,

to express and clarify their own ideas and feelings, or they write for others. Possible audi-
ences include classmates, parents, grandparents, and pen pals. Other audiences are more
distant; for example, students may write letters to businesses to request information or
submit stories and poems to online literary magazines. Students demonstrate their rela-
tionship with the audience in a variety of ways, often by adding parenthetical information
or asides. For example, a seventh grader begins “George Mudlumpus and the Mystery of
the Sumo Wrestlers,” his ninth mystery featuring George Mudlumpus, “the detective with
the outrageous rates,” this way: “The Emperor of Japan had hired me to solve a hideous
crime at the palace, as you already know from the last book. So, I bought a set of Learn
to Speak Japanese While You Sleep language CDs for the 14-hour airplane flight, packed
my clothes and a few essentials like PB & J crackers, got an airplane ticket and reserved a
rental car at Narita International Airport, and I was off to Tokyo!” This student feels a
close relationship with his unknown audience. He often includes asides in his stories, and
George sometimes comments to his readers, “I know! You think I should have recognized
that clue!”
When students write for others, teachers are the most common audience. Teachers can
be a trusted adult, a partner in dialogue, or a judge (Britton et al., 1975)—and how writers
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 "Now," observed Madge to herself, as she watched him going
down the road, "all that remains, is for us in due course to hear from
you again--to some effect--and that, if you're the sort of blunderbuss
I take you to be, will be never."

Turning from the window, she looked about the room, speaking
half in jest and half in earnest.

"This is a delightful state of things--truly! It seems as if we

couldn't have found a more undesirable habitation, if we had tried
Petticoat Lane. Not the first burglar that's been in the place! And the
house well known to the police--not to speak of a sinister reputation
in all the country side! Charming! Clover Cottage seems to be an
ideal place of residence for two lone, lorn young women. The abode
of mystery, and, so far as I can make out, a sink of crime, one
wonders if it still waits to become the scene of some ghastly murder
to give to the situation its crowning touches. I shiver--or, at any rate,
I ought to shiver--when I reflect on the horrors with which I may be,
and probably am, surrounded!"

Ella returned earlier than the day before, and, this time, she came
alone. The question burst from her lips the instant she was in the
house.

"Well, has anything happened?"

"Nothing--of importance. It's true the police have been, but as it

appears that they've been here over and over again before, that's a
trifle. There's been at least one previous burglar upon the premises,
and it seems that the house has been known to the police--and to
the whole neighbourhood--for years, in the most disreputable
possible sense."

Ella could but gasp.

"Madge!"
 The statements which the officer had made were retailed, with
comments and additions--and, it may be added, interpolations. Ella
was more impressed even than Madge had been--being divided
between concern and indignation.

"To think that we should have been inveigled into taking such a
place! We ought to claim damages from those scamps of agents who
let it us without a word of warning. You can't think how I have been
worrying about you the whole day long; the idea of our being
together in the place is bad enough, but the idea of your being alone
in it is worse. What that policeman has said, settles it. Jack may
laugh if he likes, but my mind is made up that I won't stop a
moment longer in the house than I can help; the notion of your
being all those hours alone here would worry me into the grave if
nothing else did--and so I shall tell him when he comes."

Madge's manner was more equable.

"He will laugh at you, you'll find; and, unless I'm in error, here he
is to do it."

As she spoke there was a vigorous knock at the front door.

 CHAPTER VI
THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE

"Go," said Ella, as she hastened from the room, "and open the
door, while I go upstairs and take my hat off."

Madge did as she was told. There were two persons at the door--
Jack Martyn and another.

"This," said Jack, referring to his companion, "is a friend of mine."

It was dark in the passage, and Madge was a little flurried. She
perceived that Jack had a companion, and that was all.

"Go into the sitting-room, I'll bring you a lamp in a minute. Ella
has gone to take her hat off."

Presently, returning with the lighted lamp in her hand, placing it

on the table, she glanced at Jack's companion--and stared. In her
astonishment, she all but knocked the lamp over. Jack laughed.

"I believe," he said, "you two have met before."

Madge continued speechless. She passed her hand before her

eyes, as if to make sure she was not dreaming. Jack laughed again.

"I repeat that I believe you two have met before."

Madge drew herself up to her straightest and her stiffest. Her

tone was icy.
 "Yes, I rather believe we have."

She rather believed they had?--If she could credit the evidence of
her own eyes the man in front of her was the stranger who had so
unwarrantably intruded on pretence of seeking music lessons--who
had behaved in so extraordinary a fashion!

"This," went on Jack airily, "is a friend of mine, Bruce Graham,--

Graham, this is Miss Brodie."

Madge acknowledged the introduction with an inclination of the

head which was so faint as to be almost imperceptible. Mr. Graham,
on the contrary, bent almost double--he seemed scarcely more at his
ease than she was.

"I'm afraid, Miss Brodie, that I've behaved very badly. I trust you
will allow me to express my contrition."

"I beg you will not mention it," she turned away; "I will go and
tell Ella you have come."

There came a voice from behind her.

"You needn't--Ella is aware of it already."

As Ella came into the room, she moved to leave it. Jack caught
her by the arm.

"Madge, don't go away in a fume!--you wait till you have heard

what I have got to say. Do you know that we're standing in the
presence of a romance in real life--on the verge of a blood-curdling
mystery? Fact!--aren't we, Graham?"

Mr. Graham's language was slightly less emphatic.

"We are, or rather we may be confronted by rather a curious

condition of affairs."
 Jack waved his arm excitedly.

"I say it's the most extraordinary thing. Now, honestly, Graham,
isn't it a most extraordinary thing?"

"It certainly is rather a striking illustration of the long arm of

coincidence."

"Listen to him. Isn't he cold-blooded? If you'd heard him an hour

or two ago, he was hot enough to melt all the ice-cream in town.
But you wait a bit. This is my show, and I'll let you know it. Sit
down, Ella--sit down, Madge--Graham, take a chair. To you a tale I
will unfold."

Taking up his position on the hearthrug in front of the fireplace,

he commenced to orate.

"You see this man. His name's Graham. He digs in the same
house I do. To be perfectly frank, his rooms are on the opposite side
of the landing. You may have heard me speak of him."

"I have. Often!" This was Ella.

"Have you? You must know, Graham, that there are frequently
occasions on which I have nothing whatever to talk about, so I fill
up the blanks with what I may call padding. I say this, because I
don't want you to misunderstand the situation. This morning he
lunched at the same crib I did. Directly he came in I saw that he was
below par; so I said--I always am a sympathetic soul--'I do hope,
Graham, you won't forget to let me have an invitation to your
funeral--and, in the meantime, perhaps you'll let me know of what it
is you're dying?' Now, he's not one of those men who wear their
hearts upon their sleeves for daws to peck at--you know the
quotation, and if you don't, I do; and it was some time before I
could extract a word from him, even edgeways. But at last he put
down his knife and fork with a clatter--it was distinctly with a clatter-
-and he observed, 'Martyn, I've been misbehaving myself.' I was not
surprised, and I told him so. 'I'm in a deuce of a state of mind
because I've been insulting a lady.' 'That's nothing!' I replied. 'I'm
always insulting a lady.'--I may explain that when I made that
remark, Ella, you were the lady I had in my mind's eye. At this point
I would pause to inquire why, Miss Brodie, you did not take me into
your confidence yesterday afternoon?"

"I did."

"You did not."

"I did."

"You told me about the lunatic lady, because, I suppose, you

could not help it--since you were caught in the act--but you said
nothing about a lunatic gentleman." He wagged his finger
portentously. "Don't think you deceive me, Madge Brodie--I smell a
rat, and one of considerable size."

"Jack, do go on."

This was Ella.

"I will go on--in my own way. If you bustle me, I'll keep going on
for ever. Don't I tell you this is my show? Do you want to queer it?
Well, as I was about to observe--when I was interrupted--Graham
started spinning a yarn about how he had forced his way into a
house, in which there was a young woman all alone, by herself, and,
so far as I could make out, gone on awful. 'May I ask,' I said,
beginning to think that his yarn smelt somewhat fishy, 'what house
this was?' 'The place,' he replied, as cool as a cucumber, 'is called
Clover Cottage.' 'What's that!' I cried--I almost jumped out of my
chair. 'I say that the place is called Clover Cottage.' I had to hold on
to the hair of my head with both my hands. 'And whereabouts may
Clover Cottage be?' 'On Wandsworth Common.' When he said that,
as calmly as if he were asking me to pass the salt, I collapsed. I
daresay he thought that I'd gone mad."
 "I began to wonder." This was Graham.

"Did you? Let me tell you, sir, that as far as you were concerned, I
had long since passed the stage of wonder, and had reached the
haven of assurance. 'Are you aware?' I cried, 'that Clover Cottage,
Wandsworth Common, is the residence of the lady whom I hope to
make my wife?' 'Good Lord!' he said. 'No,' I screamed, 'good lady!' I
fancy the waiter, from his demeanour, was under the impression that
I was about to fight; in which case I should have proved myself
mad, because, as you perceive for yourselves, the man's a monster.
'It seems to me,' I said, 'that if the lady you insulted was not the
lady whom I hope to make my wife, it was that lady's friend, which
is the same thing----'"

"Is it?" interposed Ella. "You hear him, Madge?"

"I hear."

"'Which is the same thing,'" continued Jack. "'And therefore, sir, I

must ask you to explain.' He explained, I am bound to admit that he
explained there and then. He gave me an explanation which I have
no hesitation in asserting"--Jack, holding his left hand out in front of
him, brought his right list solemnly down upon his open palm--"was
the most astonishing I ever heard. It shows the hand of Providence;
it shows that the age of miracles is not yet past; it shows----"

Ella cut the orator short.

"Never mind what it shows; what's the explanation?"

Jack shook his head sadly.

"I was about to point out several other things which that
explanation shows, with a view, as I might phrase it, of improving
the occasion, but, having been interrupted for the third time, I
refrain. The explanation itself you will hear from Graham's own lips--
after tea. He is here for the purpose of giving you that explanation--
after tea. I believe, Graham, I am correct in saying so?"

"Perfectly. Only, so far as I am concerned, I am ready to give my

explanation now. I cannot but feel that I shall occupy an invidious
position in, at any rate, Miss Brodie's eyes until I have explained."

"Then feel! I'll be hanged if you shall explain now. Dash it, man, I
want my tea; I want a high tea, a good tea--at once!"

Ella sprang up from her chair.

"Come, Madge, let's give the man his tea."

It was a curious meal--if only because of the curious terms on

which two members of the party stood toward each other. The two
girls sat at each end of the table, the men on either side. Madge,
unlike her usual self, was reserved and frosty; what little she did say
was addressed to Ella or to Jack. Mr. Graham she ignored, treating
his timorous attempts in a conversational direction with complete
inattention. His position could hardly have been more uncomfortable.
Ella, influenced by Madge's attitude, seemed as if she could not
make up her mind how to treat him on her own account; her bearing
towards him, to say the least, was chilly. On the other hand. Jack's
somewhat cumbrous attempts at humour and sociability did not
mend matters; and more than once before the meal was over Mr.
Graham must have heartily wished that he had never sat down to it.

Still, even Madge might have admitted, and perhaps in her heart
she did admit, that, under the circumstances, he bore himself
surprisingly well; that he looked as if he was deserving of better
treatment. Half unconsciously to herself--and probably quite
unconsciously to him--she kept a corner of her eye upon him all the
time. He scarcely looked the sort of man to do anything unworthy.
The strong rough face suggested honesty, the bright clear eyes were
frank and open; the broad brow spelt intellect, the lines of the
mouth and jaw were bold and firm. The man's whole person was
suggestive of strength, both physical and mental. And when he
came to tell the story which Jack Martyn had foreshadowed, it was
difficult, as one listened, not to believe that he was one who had
been raised by nature above the common sort. He told his tale with
a dramatic earnestness, and yet a simple, modest sincerity, which
held his hearers from the first, and which, before he had done, had
gained them all over to his side.
 CHAPTER VII
BRUCE GRAHAM'S FIRST CLIENT

"I don't know," he began, "if Martyn has told you that by
profession I am a barrister."

"No," said Jack, as he shook his head, "I have told them nothing
to your credit."

Graham smiled; the smile lighting up his features, and correcting

what was apt to be their chief defect, a prevailing sombreness.

"I am a barrister--one of the briefless brigade. One morning,

about fourteen months ago, I left London for a spin on my bicycle. It
was the long vacation; every one was out of town except myself. I
thought I would steal a day with the rest. I came through
Wandsworth, meaning to go across Wimbledon Common, through
Epsom, and on towards the Shirley Hills. As I came down St. John's
Hill my tyre caught up a piece of broken glass off the road, and the
result was a puncture, or rather a clean cut, nearly an inch in length.
I took it to a repairing shop by the bridge. As I stood waiting for the
job to be done, two policemen came along with a man handcuffed
between them, a small crowd at their heels.

"I asked the fellow who was doing my cycle what was wrong. He
told me that there had been a burglary at a house on the Common
the night before, that the burglar had been caught in the act, had
half-murdered the policeman who had caught him, and was now on
his way to the magistrate's court.
 "As it seemed likely that the mending of my tyre would take some
time, actuated by a more or less professional curiosity, I followed the
crowd to the court.

"The case was taken up without delay. The statement that the
constable who had detected what was taking place had been half-
murdered was an exaggeration, as the appearance of the officer
himself in the witness-box disclosed. But he had been roughly
handled. His head was bandaged, he carried his arm in a sling, and
he bore himself generally as one who had been in the wars. My
experience, small as it is, teaches that constables on such occasions
are wont, perhaps not unnaturally, to make the most of their
injuries; and, to say the least, the prisoner had not escaped scot
free. His skull had been laid open, two of his teeth had been
knocked down his throat, his whole body was black and blue with
bruises. Indeed his battered appearance so excited my sympathy
that then and there I offered him my gratuitous services in his
defence. My offer was accepted. I did what I could.

"However, there was very little that could be done. The burglary,
it seemed, had occurred at a place called Clover Cottage."

"Why," cried Ella, "this is Clover Cottage!"

"Yes," said Jack, shaking his head with what he meant to be

mysterious significance, "as you correctly observe, this is Clover
Cottage. Didn't I tell you you'd see the hand of Providence? You just
wait a bit, you'll be dumbfounded."

Mr. Graham continued.

"Clover Cottage it appeared was unoccupied. There were in it

neither tenants nor goods. So far as the evidence showed, it
contained nothing at all. Being found in an absolutely empty house
is not, as a rule, an offence which meets with a severe punishment.
I was at a loss, therefore, to understand why my client should have
made such a desperate defence and thus have enormously increased
the measure of his guilt in the way he had done. Had it not been for
what was termed, and perhaps rightly, his assault on the police, the
affair would have been settled out of hand. As it was, the magistrate
felt that he had no option but to send the case to trial; which he did
do there and then.

"Before his trial I had more than one interview with my client in
his cell at Wandsworth Gaol. He told me, by way of explaining his
conduct, an extraordinary story; so extraordinary that, from that
hour to this, I have never been able to make up my mind as to its
truth.

"Under ordinary circumstances I should have had no hesitation in

affirming his statement, or rather his series of statements, was a
more or less badly contrived set of lies. But there was something
about the fellow which assured me that at any rate he himself
believed what he said. He was by no means an ordinary criminal
type, and there seemed no reason to doubt his assertion that this
was the first felonious transaction he had ever had a hand in. He
admitted he had led an irregular life, and that he had come down
the ladder of respectability with a run, but he stoutly maintained that
this was the first time he had ever done anything deserving the
attention of the police.

"He was a man about forty years of age; he claimed to be only

thirty-six. If that was the fact, then the life he had been living, and
the injuries he had recently received, made him look considerably
older. His name, he said, was Charles Ballingall. By trade he was a
public-house broker; once, and that not so long ago, in a very fair
way of business. He had had a lifelong friend--I am telling you the
story, you understand, exactly as he told it me--named Ossington--
Thomas Ossington. Ballingall always spoke of him as Tom
Ossington."

Ellen looked at Madge.

 "Madge!" she exclaimed, "how about Tom Ossington's Ghost?"

"I know."

Madge sat listening with compressed lips and flashing eyes; that
was all she vouchsafed to reply. Mr. Graham glanced in her direction
as he went on.

"According to Ballingall's story, Ossington must have been a man

of some eccentricity. He was possessed of considerable means--
according to Ballingall, of large fortune. But his whole existence had
been embittered by the fact that he suffered from some physical
malformation. For one thing, he had a lame foot----"

"I know that he was lame." This was Madge; all eyes stared at
her.

"You knew? How did you know?"

"Because she told me."

Ella's eyes opened wider.

"She told you? Who?"

"The ghost's wife."

"The ghost's wife!"

"Yes, the ghost's wife. But never mind about that now. Mr.
Graham will perhaps go on."

And Mr. Graham went on.

"This had preyed upon his spirits his whole life long; and, as his
unwillingness to show himself among his fellows increased, it had
made of him almost a recluse. He was, however, as it seemed, a
man of strong affections, tender heart, and simple disposition. In
these respects Ballingall could not speak of him with sufficient
warmth. There never had been, he declared, a man like Tom. There
was nothing he would not do for a friend--self-abnegation was the
passion of his life. Ballingall owned that he owed everything to
Ossington. Ossington had set him up in business, had helped him in
a hundred ways. In return he (Ballingall) had rewarded him with the
most hideous ingratitude. This part of the story was accompanied by
such a strong exhibition of remorse that I, for one, found it difficult
not to believe in the fellow's genuineness.

"In spite of his mis-shapenness, Ossington had found a wife,

apparently a lovely one. The man loved her with the single-eyed
affection of which such natures as his are capable. She, on the other
hand, was as unworthy of his affection as she possibly could have
been. From Ballingall's account she was evil through and through;
he could find no epithet too evil to hurl at her. But then it was very
possible that he was prejudiced. According to him, this woman,
Ossington's wife, loathing her devoted husband, full to the lips with
scorn of him, had deliberately laid herself out to win his (Ballingall's)
love, and had succeeded so completely as to have caused him to
forget the mountain-load of gratitude under which he ought to have
stumbled, even to the extent of causing him to steal his friend's
wife--the wife who was the very light of that friend's eyes.

"I think there was some truth in the fellow's version of the crime--
for crime it was, and of the blackest dye. He declared to me that as
soon as the thing was done, he knew himself to be the ineffable
hound which he indeed was. The veil which the woman's
allurements and sophistries had spread before his eyes was torn into
shreds, and he saw the situation in all its horrible reality. She was as
false to him as she had been to her husband, and he had been to his
friend. In a few months she had left him, having ruined him before
she went. From that time his career was all downhill. Remorse
pursued him day and night. He felt that he was a pariah--an outcast
among men; that an ineffaceable brand was on his brow which
would for ever stamp him as accursed. It is possible that under the
stress of privation,--for he quickly began to suffer actual privation--
his mind became unhinged. But that he had suffered, and was still
suffering, acutely, for his crime, the sweat of agony which broke out
upon his brow as he told his tale was, to me, sufficient evidence.

"Two or three years passed. He sank to about the lowest depths

to which a man could sink. At last, ragged, penniless, hungry, he
was refused a job as a sandwich-man because of his incapacity to
keep up with his fellows. One night he was on the Surrey side of the
Embankment, near Westminster Bridge. It was after one o'clock in
the morning; shortly before, he had heard Big Ben striking the hour.
He was leaning over the parapet in front of Doulton's factory--you
will observe that I reproduce the attention to detail which
characterised this portion of his story, such an impression did it
make upon my mind. As he stood looking at the water, some one
touched him on the shoulder. Supposing it was a policeman who
suspected his intentions, he turned hastily round. To his
astonishment it was Tom Ossington. 'Tom!' he gasped.

"'Charlie!' returned the other. 'Come the first thing to-morrow

morning to Clover Cottage.'

"Without another word he walked rapidly away in the direction of

the Wandsworth Road--Ballingall distinctly noticing, as he went, that
his limp had perceptibly diminished. Left once more alone, Ballingall
was at a loss what to make of the occurrence. Ossington's
appearance at that particular moment, so far away from home at
that hour of the night, was a problem which he found it difficult to
solve. He at last decided that the man's incurable tender-
heartedness had caused him to at least partially overlook the
blackness of the offence, and to offer his whilom friend succour in
the depths of his distress. Anyhow, the next morning found the
broken-down wretch in front of Ossington's house--of this house, as
I understand."
 As Mr. Graham said this, for some reason or other at least two of
its hearers shivered; Ella clasped her hands more tightly as they lay
upon her knee, and the expression of Madge's wide-open eyes grew
more intense. Even Jack Martyn seemed subdued.

"To his indescribable astonishment, the house was empty. A board

in the garden announced that it was to be let or sold. As he stood
staring, a policeman came along.

"'Excuse me!' he said, 'but doesn't Mr. Ossington live here?'

"'He did!' answered the policeman; 'but he doesn't now.'

"'Can you tell me where he is living? I want to know because he

asked me to call on him.'

"'Did he? Then if he asked you to call on him, I should if I was

you. You'll find him in Wandsworth Churchyard. That's where he is
living now!'

"The policeman's tone was jocular, Ballingall's appearance was

against him. Evidently the officer suspected him of some clumsy
attempt at invention. But as soon as the words were uttered
Ballingall staggered back against the wall, according to his own
account, like one stricken with death. He was speechless. The
policeman, with a laugh, turned on his heel and left him there.
Impelled by some influence which he could not resist, the
conscience-haunted vagabond dragged his wearied feet to the
churchyard. There among the tombstones he found one which
purported to be erected to the memory of Thomas Ossington, who
had been interred there some two years previously. While he stared,
thunderstruck, at the inscription, Ballingall assured me that Tom
Ossington stood at his side, and pointed at it with his finger."
 "Tom Ossington stood at his side,
and pointed at it with his
finger." (To face p. 116)

Graham paused. His listeners fidgeted in their seats. It was a

second or two before the narrator continued.

"You understand that I am telling you the story precisely as it was

told me, without accepting for it any responsibility whatever. I can
only assure you that whilst it was being told, I was so completely
held, by what I can best describe as the teller's frenzied
earnestness, that I accepted his facts precisely as he told them, and
it was only after I got away from the glamour of his intensity of self-
conviction that I perceived how entirely irreconcilable they were with
the teachings of our everyday experience.
 "Thenceforward, Ballingall declared that he was never without a
feeling that Ossington was somewhere in the intermediate
neighbourhood--to use his own word, that he was shadowing him.
For the next week or two he lighted upon somewhat better times.
He obtained a job at road-cleaning, and in one way or another
managed to preserve himself from actual starvation. But, shortly, the
luck ran out, and one night he again found himself without a penny
with which to buy either food or lodging. He was struggling up
Southampton Street, in the Strand, intending to hang about the
purlieus of Covent Garden with the faint hope that he might be able
to get some sort of job at the dawn of day, when he saw, coming
towards him from the market, Tom Ossington. Ballingall shrank back
into the doorway, and, while he stood there shivering, Ossington
came and planted himself in front of him.

"'Charlie!' he said, 'why didn't you come to Clover Cottage when I

told you?'

"Ballingall protested that he looked and spoke just like a rational

being--with the little air of impatience which had always been his
characteristic; that there was nothing either in his manner or his
appearance in any way unusual, and that there was certainly nothing
to suggest an apparition. A conversation was carried on between
them just as it might have been between an ordinary Jones and
Robinson.

"'I did come!' he replied.

"'Yes--but you stopped outside. Why didn't you come inside?'

"'Because the house was empty!'

"'That's all you know.'

"'Yes,' repeated Ballingall, 'that's all I do know.'

"'There's my fortune in that house!'

 "'Your fortune?'

"'Yes my fortune; all of it. I brought it home, and hid it away--

after Lily went.'

"Lily was his wife's name. He spoke of her with a sort of gasp.
Ballingall felt as if he had been struck.

"'What's your fortune to do with me?'

"'Everything maybe--because it is yours, if you'll come and get it;

every farthing. It's anyone's who finds it, anyone's--I don't care who
it is. What does it matter to me who has it--now? Why shouldn't it
be yours? There's heaps and heaps of money, heaps! More than you
suppose. It'll make a rich man of you--set you up for life, buy you
houses, carriages and all. You have only got to come and get it, and
it is yours. Think of what a difference it'll make to you--of all that it
will do for you--of all that it will mean. It will pick you out of the
gutter, and place you in a mansion, with as many servants as you
like to pay for at your beck and call. And all yours for the fetching--
or anyone's for the matter of that. But why shouldn't you make it
yours? Don't be a fool, but come, man, come!'

"He continued urging and entreating Ballingall to come and take

for his own the treasures which he declared were hidden away in
Clover Cottage, until, turning round, without a farewell word, he
walked down the street and disappeared into the Strand.

"Ballingall assured me that he didn't know what to make of it; and

if he was speaking the truth, I quite understand his difficulty. He was
aware that, neither physically nor mentally, was he in the best of
health, and he knew also that Ossington was continually in his mind.
He might be the victim of hallucination; but if so, it was hallucination
of an extraordinary sort. He himself had not touched Ossington, but
Ossington had touched him. His touch had been solid enough, he
looked solid enough, but how came he to be in Southampton Street
if he was lying in Wandsworth Churchyard? On the other hand, the
story of the hidden fortune was quite in accordance with what he
knew of the man's character. He always had a trick of concealing
money, valuables, all sorts of things, in unusual places. And for him
to have secreted the bulk of his capital, or even the whole of it, or
what represented the whole of it, and then to have left the hiding-
place unrevealed, for some one to discover after he was dead and
gone, was just the sort of thing he might have been expected to do.

"Anyhow, Ballingall did not go to Clover Cottage the following day.

He found a job when the market opened, and that probably had a
good deal to do with his staying away. The next night Ossington
returned--if I remember rightly, just as Ballingall was about to enter
a common lodging-house. And he came back not that night only, but
over and over again, so far as I could understand, for weeks
together, and always with the same urgent request, that he would
come and fetch the fortune which lay hidden in Clover Cottage.

"At last torn by conflicting doubts, driven more than half insane--
as he himself admitted--by the feeling that his life was haunted, he
did as his mysterious visitor desired--he went to Clover Cottage. He
hung about the house for an hour. At last, persuaded that it was
empty, he gained admission through the kitchen window. No sooner
was he in than a constable who, unconsciously to himself, had been
observing his movements with suspicious eyes, came and found him
on the premises. The feeling that, after all, he had allowed himself
to be caught in something that looked very like a trap, bereft
Ballingall of his few remaining senses, and he resisted the officer
with a degree of violence which he would not have shown had he
retained his presence of mind.

"The result was that instead of leaving Clover Cottage the

possessor of a fortune, he left it to be hauled ignominiously to the
stationhouse."
 CHAPTER VIII
MADGE . . . AND THE PANEL

"And is that all the story?" asked Ella, for Mr. Graham had paused.

"All of it as it relates to Ballingall. So far as he was concerned, it

brought his history up to date."

"And what became of him?"

"He was tried at the Surrey Sessions. There was practically no

defence--for, of course, I could not urge on his behalf the wild story
he had told me. All I could do was to plead extenuating
circumstances. He was found guilty, and got twelve months."

"And then?"

"Then I came in--that was my first brief, and my last. Although I

could not see my way to shape his story into the form of any legal
plea, still less could I erase it from my mind. Never had I heard such
a tale before, and never had I listened to a man who had so
impressed me by his complete sincerity as Ballingall had done when
telling it. He had struck me as being as sane as I myself was; had
used commonplace words; had not gone out of his way to heighten
their colour; but had simply told the thing straight on, exactly as it
occurred. I felt convinced that, from his own point of view, the affair
was genuine.

"Months went by, and still the story stuck in my brain. I found
myself putting propositions of this kind. There was a house called
Clover Cottage, and there had lived in it a man named Ossington, an
avowed eccentric--for I had made inquiries in the neighbourhood,
and had learned that he had been regarded thereabouts as more or
less insane. Suppose, in this empty house of his, he had hidden
something which was more or less valuable, for which there existed
no actual owner, nor any designated heir. What then?"

The speaker paused again. Then spoke more softly. On his

countenance the shadows seemed to deepen.

"You must understand that I am a poor man. All the world that
knows me is conscious of my poverty, but none but myself is aware
how poor I really am. I have felt, and feel, that if I can only hold on,
I shall win my way in my profession yet. But it is the holding on
which is so difficult. Some time ago I came to the end of my
resources, and during the last year I have been living from hand to
mouth. Had I had my time more fully occupied I should have been
able to banish from my mind the man's queer story; or had I seen
my way to earn money sufficient to supply my daily needs, anyhow,
without forfeiting my right to call myself a professional man, and so
barring that gate to my future advancement; my thoughts would not
have turned so frequently to that possibly hidden, useless hoard. I
was frequently conscious that the whole thing might be, and
probably was, a pure phantasm, and that there was no such hoard,
and never had been; but, at the same time I was persuaded that
Ballingall had not been a conscious liar.

"Things came to such a pitch that I found myself in possession of

less than ten shillings, and with nothing pawnable on which to raise
the wind--you must forgive my entering on these details, but it is
absolutely necessary if you are to have a complete comprehension of
my position. This, I told myself, was absurd, and if there really was
something hidden at Clover Cottage worth having, which could be
had for the finding, it was absurder still. I started then and there
with a half-formed resolution to put the matter to a final test, and to
look for myself. I reached Clover Cottage--to find that it was
occupied. There was a plate outside, announcing that lessons were
given in music. My mind had been in a tolerable state of confusion
when I started. I was conscious of the apparent absurdity of my
quest; and that consciousness had not grown less as I went on. The
discovery that the house was tenanted made my confusion worse
confounded. More than half ashamed of my errand, I was wholly at
a loss what to do. While I hesitated, I chanced to glance up, and
there, a few yards down the road, was ... Ballingall."

"I knew it was Ballingall."

This was Madge.

Ella turned on her.

"You knew it was Ballingall?--How did you know it was Ballingall?

It seems to me that you know everything."

"Miss Brodie," observed Bruce Graham, "very naturally draws her

own conclusions. The sight of him turned me into a drivelling idiot.
In the confusion of my mind his appearance on the scene at that
particular moment seemed nothing short of supernatural. I felt as if
I had been guilty of some act of treachery towards him, and as if he
had sprung from goodness alone knew where to catch me in the
very act. I blundered through the gate, knocked at the door and
almost forced my way into the house."

"You did almost force your way into the house."

Madge's tone was grim.

"I'm afraid I did--and, being in, I blurted out some nonsense

about being in search of music lessons, and generally misbehaved
myself all round. As a climax, just as I was about to put an end to
my intrusion, I saw Ballingall staring at me through the window. I
would not have encountered him then for all the hidden hoards the
world contains. I entreated Miss Brodie--to permit me to make my
escape through the back door--and she did."

"Yes, and insulted you as you went."

Graham rose from his seat.

"You behaved to me, Miss Brodie, infinitely better than I

deserved. You would have been perfectly justified in summoning a
policeman, and giving me into charge. I can only thank you for your
forbearance. I assure you of my most extreme penitence. And while
I cannot expect that you will forgive me at once----"

"But I do forgive you."

Madge had also risen.

"Miss Brodie."

"Of course I do. And I did behave badly--like a wretch. But why
didn't you explain?"

"You saw what, at the moment, was my capacity to explain, and

now you perceive how extremely complicated the explanation would
have had to be."

"But to think," cried Ella, "that we should be in the very centre of

a mystery."

Jack struck in.

"Exactly--living in the very heart of it; surrounded by it on every

side; having it staring you in the face whichever way you turn. What
did I tell you? Isn't it blood-curdling? Like the man says in the song--
you really never do know where you are."

Ella glanced at Madge.

 "The burglary last night--do you think?"

"Of course it was."

"Ballingall?"

"Without a doubt."

"But, my dear, how can you be so sure?"

"He was hanging about all day--he tried again last night; it's as
plain as it possibly can be."

Jack, puzzled, had been looking from one to the other.

"Perhaps you will tell us what is as plain as it possibly can be."

Ella turned to him.

"There was another burglary last night."

"Where?"

"Here--in the very middle of the night."

"Upon my honour!--this appears to be--Graham, this really does

appear to be a pleasant house to live in. The delights of the country,
with the horrors of town thrown in.--Did you catch the ruffian?"

"Madge heard him first."

"Oh--Madge heard him first?"

"Yes, and then she came and told me----"

"Where was he all the time?"

 "Wait a bit, and I'll tell you. Then we both of us heard him--then
Madge fired----"

"Fired?--what?"

"Your revolver."

"Gracious!--did she hit him?"

"She never saw him."

"Never saw him! Then what did she fire at?"

"Well----"

Ella stopped, as if somewhat at a loss. So Madge went on.

"I fired to let him know he was discovered. I believe the bullet
lodged in the roof."

"Heavens! what a target."

"He took the hint, and did not wait to be made a target of
himself."

"Then didn't you see him at all?"

"Through the window, as he was running down the road."

"Did you give the alarm?"

"We were in our night-dresses."

"Why, he might have murdered the two of you if he had liked."

"He might, but he didn't."

Madge's tone was dry. Ella put her hand up to her ears.
 "Jack!--don't talk like that; I've been shivering ever since. You
can't think what a day I've had in town, thinking of Madge in the
house all alone."

"My dear girl." He put his arm about her waist, to comfort her.
"And you think that it was--Graham's friend."

"It was Charles Ballingall."

This was Madge; Ella was less positive.

"My dear, how can you be so certain? You only caught a glimpse
of the man's back in the darkness."

"He has committed burglary here before. His presence in the

daytime is followed by another burglary that same night. Isn't the
inference an obvious one? Don't you think so, Mr. Graham?

"It looks exceedingly suspicious. To convince a jury of his

innocence he would have to prove an alibi."

"The burglar, whoever it was--and for the sake of argument we'll

say that we don't know--took nothing with him, but he left
something behind him, a piece of paper with writing on it. When the
police came today----"

"Do you mean to say that the police have been here to-day?"

"Certainly--or, rather, a sample of them. And a lot of good he did,

or is likely to do. I gave him the original piece of paper, but not
before I had copied what was on it. Here is the copy. What do you
make of it, Mr. Graham?"

Madge handed a sheet of paper to the gentleman addressed. As

he looked at it Jack, too impatient to wait his turn, leaned over his
elbow to look at it too.
 "My stars! 'Tom Ossington's Ghost!' Large as life! Here's thrillers.
What's that? 'Right--straight across--three four--up!' Here's
mysteries! 'Right--cat--dog--cat--dog--cat--dog--dog--cat--dog--left
eye,--push'--there seem to be several dogs after a good few cats.
Perhaps it is my stupidity, but, while it's very interesting, I don't
quite see what it means."

Madge paid no attention to Martyn. She kept her eyes fixed on his
companion.

"What do you make of it, Mr. Graham?" she asked.

Bruce Graham continued silent for a moment longer, keeping his

eyes fixed upon the paper. Then he looked up and met her glance.

"I think that we have here the key of the riddle, if we could only
read it."

"If we could only read it!"

"Nor, from a superficial glance, should I imagine that that would

be very difficult."

"Nor I."

"One thing it seems to me that this paper proves--that you were

correct in your inference, and that last night's burglar was Charles
Ballingall."

"I am sure of it."

"You two," interposed Martyn, "appear to be in thorough

agreement--thorough! Which is the more delightful since you began
by disagreeing. But you must excuse my saying that I don't quite
see where the cause for harmony comes in."

"Are you so stupid?"

 "My dear Madge! Don't strike me! It's constitutional."

"Don't you see what the situation really is?"

"Well--pardon me--but--really, you are so warm. Miss Brodie. If

this gentleman were to allow me to study this interesting document,
I might."

"Somewhere in this house, the dead man, Tom Ossington,

concealed his fortune, all that he had worth having. It is as clear as
if I saw the actual hiding place."

"My gracious goodness! Is it?"

"It is within a few feet of where we're standing. At this moment

we're 'hot,' I know--I feel it!"

"Listen to that now! Madge, you must have second sight."

"That scrap of paper contains, as Mr. Graham puts it, the key of
the riddle. It's a minute description of the precise whereabouts of
the dead man's hiding place. All we have to do is to find out what it
means, and if we are not all idiots, that shouldn't be hard. Why,
you've only got to see the house; you've only to look about you, and
use your eyes, to at once perceive that it's honeycombed with
possible hiding places--just the sort of crevices and crannies which
would commend themselves to such a man as this Tom Ossington.
Look at this very room, for instance; it's wainscotted. That means,
probably, that between the outer wall and the wainscot there's an
open space--and who knows what beside? Listen!" She struck the
wainscot in question with her open palm. "You can hear it has a
hollow backing. Why"--she touched it again more gently, then
stopped, as if puzzled--"why, the wood-work moves." She gave a
little cry, "Ella."

"Madge?"
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