2. _Nom. and Obj._ child children
_Poss._ child's children's

[Sidenote: _A suggestion._]

NOTE.--The difficulty that some students have in writing the
possessive plural would be lessened if they would remember there are
two steps to be taken:--

(1) Form the nominative plural according to Secs 39-53

(2) Follow the rule given in Sec. 62.


Special Remarks on the Possessive Case.


[Sidenote: _Origin of the possessive with its apostrophe._]

64. In Old English a large number of words had in the genitive case
singular the ending _-es_; in Middle English still more words took
this ending: for example, in Chaucer, "From every _schires_ ende,"
"Full worthi was he in his _lordes_ werre [war]," "at his _beddes_
syde," "_mannes_ herte [heart]," etc.

[Sidenote: _A false theory._]

By the end of the seventeenth century the present way of indicating
the possessive had become general. The use of the apostrophe, however,
was not then regarded as standing for the omitted vowel of the