21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.

22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.

23. But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.

24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.


INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.


GENDER.


[Sidenote: _What gender means in English. It is founded on sex._]

21. In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general
rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and
names of females are usually feminine. There are exceptions even to
this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are, in
English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.

When, however, _inanimate_ things are spoken of, these languages are
totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words. For
instance: in Latin, _hortus_ (garden) is masculine, _mensa_ (table) is
feminine, _corpus_ (body) is neuter; in German, _das Messer_ (knife)
is neuter, _der Tisch_ (table) is masculine, _die Gabel_ (fork) is