[Sidenote: _Relative omitted when_ object.]

129. The relative is frequently omitted in spoken and in literary
English when it would be the object of a preposition or a verb. Hardly
a writer can be found who does not leave out relatives in this way
when they can be readily supplied in the mind of the reader. Thus,--

These are the sounds we feed upon.--FLETCHER.

I visited many other apartments, but shall not trouble my reader
with all the curiosities I observed.--SWIFT.


Exercise.

Put in the relatives _who_, _which_, or _that_ where they are omitted
from the following sentences, and see whether the sentences are any
smoother or clearer:--

1. The insect I am now describing lived three years,--GOLDSMITH.

2. They will go to Sunday schools through storms their brothers
are afraid of.--HOLMES.

3. He opened the volume he first took from the shelf.--G. ELIOT.

4. He could give the coals in that queer coal scuttle we read of
to his poor neighbor.--THACKERAY.