III. What happened later?

Il. What state do you think Johnsy was in? Why did she watch the dry leaves falling?

I. What is the title of the story? Who is its author?

II. What do you think of the man? What made him such an extraordinary person? Why did he attract other people?

I. What book does the passage come from?

III. How do you read books? Do you make lists of what you've read or intend to read? Do you always read books to the end, however boring you may find them? Are there any books you've read twice? If so, what made you do it?

II. Why did he call himself a bad reader?

I. What do we learn from the extract about the author's way of reading? What did he gain from such reading?

VI

I saw him not infrequently, and now and then played chess with him. He was of uncertain temper. Sometimes he Would sit silent and abstracted, taking no notice of anyone; and at others, when he was in

a good humour, he would talk in his own halting way. He never said a clever thing, but he had a vein of brutal sarcasm which was not ineffective and he always said what he thought. He was indifferent to the susceptibilities of others and when he wounded them was amused. He was constantly offending Dick so- bitterly that he flung away, vowing he would never speak to him again; but there was a solid force in him that attracted the fat Dutchman against his will, so that he came back, fawning like a clumsy dog, though he knew that his only greeting would be the blow he dreaded.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

VII

Johnsy's eyes were open wide. She was looking out the.window arid counting - counting backwards.

"Twelve," she said, and a little later "eleven"; and then "ten", and "nine", and then "eight" and "seven", almost together.

Sue looked solicitously out of the window. What was there to count? There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine, gnarled and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall. The cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.

"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.

"Six," said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. "They're falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now.

QUEST/ONS FOR DISCUSSION

VIII

Whatever grounds of self-congratulation our hero might have, for having escaped so quietly from his late awkward situation, his present position was by no means enviable. He was alone, in an open passage, in a strange house, in the middle of the night, half dressed; it was not to be supposed that he could find his way in perfect darkness to a room \\liich he had been wholly unable to discover with a light, and if he made the slightest noise in his fruitless attempts to do so,

he stood every chance of being shot at, and perhaps killed by some wakeful traveller. He had no resource but to remain where he was, until daylight appeared. So after groping his way a few paces down the passage, and to his infinite alarm, stumbling over several pairs of boots in so doing, he crouched into a little recess in the wall, to wait for morning, as philosophically as he might.

He was nut destined, however, to undergo this additional trial of patience: for he had not been long ensconced in his present concealment, when to his unspeakable horror, a man, bearing a light, appeared at the end of the passage. His horror was suddenly converted into joy, however, when he recognized the form of his attendant. It was indeed his faithful attendant, who after sitting up thus late, in conversation with the Boots, who was sitting up for the mail, was now about to retire to rest.

"My man," saidour hero, suddenly appearing before him. "Where's my bed-room?"

The attendant stared at his master with the most emphatic surprise; and it was not until the question had been repeated several times, that he turned round and led the way to the long-sought apartment.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

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