Chapter 2

The father continued: “I leave to my son James my money, amounting to four thousand pounds.” “Ah, father,” said James, of course in great affliction, “may (App. § 34) heaven give you life and health to enjoy the gift yourself.” The father, then addressing the spendthrift, said: “As for you, Dick, you will never come to good; you will never be rich. I leave you a shilling to (S. 19, N. 7) buy a halter.” “Ah, father,” said Dick in a most melancholy voice, “may heaven give you life and health to enjoy the gift yourself!”—ANONYMOUS.

‘money’, here = ready money, +bares Geld+.

to amount to something, +sich ~auf~ etwas belaufen+. See S. 16, N. 4.

+=Das Pfund=+, one pound English money, never takes the sign of the Plural in German, and the same refers to ‘+=die Mark=+’, a German coin corresponding to one shilling English.

said = exclaimed; in = with.

Say ‘Upon this the father addressed himself (+sich wenden+) to (+an+) the spendthrift and said’.

As — Dick, +Was dich betrifft, Richard.+

Introduce this clause by the adverbial conjunction +so+, and see App. § 15; to come to good, +zu etwas Rechtem kommen+.

=The German language, as a rule, requires that the person for whose benefit an action is performed, is clearly indicated. When this is not done by a noun in the dative case, it is generally done by means of the dative of a personal pronoun=; as—

I will buy a hat.

+Ich will ~mir~ einen Hut kaufen.+

We have built a house.

+Wir haben ~uns~ ein Haus gebaut.+

Supply, therefore, the necessary pronoun after the conjunction +um+; a halter = a rope, +Strick+, m.

Render ‘most’ here by ‘+höchst+’.

Section 59.

WHEAT.

Wheat is the most valuable of all grains, because from it, chiefly, we obtain the flour of which bread is made. In order to make flour, the grains of wheat are crushed between stones in a mill. The crushed mass is then separated into two parts,—bran and flour. Bran is the outer husk of the grain, which is used (S. 4, N. 4) for fattening cattle, etc. It does no harm, however, to mix the bran with the flour; the mixture is more nourishing than the pure flour. The bran makes the flour and the bread darker in colour; but this is no disadvantage, for brown bread is both cheaper and more nourishing than white bread. Bread is often artificially whitened by the addition of alum and other injurious substances. Wheat is chiefly grown in France, Germany, Austria, Southern Russia, (S. 46, N. 6) the British Isles, Australia, the United States, Canada, Egypt, and Northern Africa.—NELSON’S READERS.

+wertvoll+; ‘grain’, here +Kornart+, f.

Say ‘because it yields (+liefern+) us chiefly the flour for our bread’.

+bereiten.+

Form a compound noun of ‘wheat’ and ‘grains’ (+Körner+).

+zermahlen.+

+sondern.+

The prep. ‘in’ must be repeated before this and the following noun.

for — cattle, +zur Viehfütterung+.

+u. s. w.+, i.e. +und so weiter+.

It — however, +Übrigens schadet es nichts+.

both ... and, +sowohl ... als auch+.

Say ‘Bread receives (+erhalten+) often an artificial whiteness through an addition’, etc.

When ‘=by=’ is equivalent to ‘=through=’, it must be rendered by +=durch=+.

Say ‘grows chiefly’, in order to make the construction more concise than it would be by using a p. p., which would have its place at the end of the whole clause, and would thus make the construction too lengthy.

Section 60.

OCCUPATION OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

Fishing (S. 40, N. 9) was a principal occupation, owing to the frequent abstinences from flesh-meat, enjoined by (S. 59, N. 13) a superstitious ritual. Eels were taken in immense numbers in the marsh lands of the Eastern counties; salmon in the river Dee; herrings along the shores of Suffolk, Kent, and Sussex, in their annual migration; while larger species, as the whale and grampus, were captured in the open sea. Hunting and falconry were the field-sports of the great. The beasts of the forest or chase, which were protected by fines, and reserved for privileged persons, were the stag, roebuck, hare, and rabbit. The wolf, fox, and boar might be killed by any one with impunity, if (S. 27, N. 7) found without the limits of the chase or forest. The wild duck and heron were the common quarry.—MILNER, HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Say ‘in consequence of the frequent fasting’.

+an´ordnen.+ See S. 7, N. 3, B.

+Ritus+, m.

‘to take’, here = to catch; numbers = multitudes, +Menge+, f.; marsh lands, +Marschgegenden+.

in = upon.

as = like, +wie+.

+der Schwertfisch+ (Delphinus orca).

+Vergnügungen+.

+reservieren+.

I propose to use the following seven nouns in the plural and without the article, in order to avoid the frequent repetition of the same.

Use the Imperf. of +dürfen+.

by — impunity, +von jedermann ungestraft+.

without = outside, +außerhalb+.

Say ‘the booty of all’.

Section 61.

TENDER, TRUSTY, AND TRUE.