3. Mary came to the house to work for mother.

4. This is the time to play.

5. He wanted to read.

6. Here is the place to fish.

7. She likes to swim in the river.

8. To throw accurately requires much practice.
9. She wished to sit by me.
10. I have a story to tell.

II. I went home to rest.

12. She wished to sit in the shade of the tree to work. 13. To steal is wrong.

159. MODIFIERS OF THE INFINITIVE

Infinitives may be modified by adverbs; as, The man tried to run quickly. “Quickly" is an adverb modifying the infinitive "to run." Infinitives also require the same objects, predicate nouns, or predicate adjectives as the verbs from which they are derived; as,

1. He set a trap to catch mice.

2. A boy would never choose to be a girl.

3. I do not wish to be ill.

In sentence I "mice" is the object of the infinitive "to catch." The verb "catch" requires an object. Therefore, the infinitive "to catch" has an object.

In sentence 2, why is "girl" a predicate noun? Tell how "ill" is used in sentence 3. An infinitive with its object, predicate noun or predicate adjective, and modifiers is called an infinitive phrase.

a. In the sentences on page 189 find the infinitives (14).

1. The time to escape quietly had arrived.
2. I do not wish to hear it.

3. Wednesday is the day to go to market.

4. The determination to reach the North Pole has kept many explorers pressing onward.

5. Mother has gone to town to shop.

6. He went home to lie down.

7. You may come to see me to-morrow.

8. Every one ought to work hard.

9. The man decided to swim quickly across the river. 10. The horse began immediately to drink the water. II. They invited us to join the game.

12. The visitors have been climbing to the top of the mountain to see the sunrise.

13. The rabbit has run into the brier patch to prevent the fox from catching him.

14. He did not like to be absent.

b. Select the infinitive phrases (8). Tell whether each infinitive is complete in itself or requires an object, predicate noun, or predicate adjective. c. Write the infinitives that have adverbial modifiers in this way:

to escape
quietly

160. A LETTER TO WRITE

Pretend that the following outline tells how you spent part of your summer vacation:

Last week was the first week of your summer vacation. Your father had to go on a business trip to New York. He took you with him. You started at half-past six from the Union Depot. You ate dinner on the

dining car. It was the first time you had ever been in a dining car, and you enjoyed it. You went to bed in the sleeper. Tell what you thought of it. In the morning you woke up in New York. Your father took you to your Cousin Fred's house. It was vacation, so Fred had time to show you the city. He took you to Central Park. It was ever so much larger than any park you had seen. You watched the swan boats on the lake and the animals in the menagerie. While at the menagerie you saw a man standing on a high ladder feeding two giraffes. You spent two hours in the conservatory, where you saw flowers from many foreign countries. What did you enjoy most of all you saw?

Another day Cousin Fred took you to Coney Island. It was so warm that you went in swimming. Tell how surprised you were when you found that the water was warm. You rode on the scenic railway and went around on the Ferris Wheel. Tell how Uncle John took you both to visit the Museum of Natural History. There you saw collections of insects, birds, animals, woods, minerals, and gems. You saw the skeletons of great reptiles that lived ages and ages ago. You saw also how the Indians and Eskimos lived. Uncle John seemed to know about everything there, and explained it all carefully and interestingly to you and Cousin Fred.

together before.

On Saturday you went to the baseball game at the Polo Grounds. You had never seen so many people How did you feel? Tell that after the game began you were so interested that you forgot about the crowd. Say that the Giants of New York played the Sox of Chicago, and that the Giants won. Give the score.

Write to your Cousin Rob and tell him about this trip. Make it just as real as you can. You may add any interesting details that you know about New York City.

After you have finished writing, read your letter to see if you have told everything about one place the first time you mentioned it, or if you have added more about it in some other part of the letter. Read again, and correct your sentences for capital letters and periods.

Look through once more to see if you have used any participles, infinitives, or gerunds. If you have not, perhaps you could improve some sentences by doing so. Remember:

Verbs, participles, infinitives, and gerunds are modified by adverbs.

Classify the errors you have found as follows:

I'm not, but they don't bring me
The things I want to see,

Nor eat, nor read, nor play with.

They're cross as cross can be.

ELIZABETH LINCOLN GOULD

Make a list of contractions found in the above poem, and write opposite each the words that have been shortened. Make sentences containing these contractions, using the thought in the poem.

The following contractions are in common use. Make a list of them, and write after each the words that have been shortened.

Notice that ain't and hain't are not given among the contractions. There are no such words. Contractions are used in conversation, oral or written, occasionally in friendly letters, and often in poetry.

Write sentences illustrating as many cases as you can in which each of the above contractions would be used properly.

162. THE SIGN OF THE INFINITIVE

The word to is a preposition and also the sign of the infinitive. On this account prepositional phrases are often confused with infinitives. Remember that a preposition is followed by its object, which is usually a noun or a pronoun, while to as the sign of