Student Question
What can be inferred from the sentence "The buggy is empty, the bowl is brimful" in "A Christmas Memory"?
Quick answer:
Readers can infer from the sentence "The buggy is empty, the bowl is brimful" that Buddy and his cousin have shelled every pecan they gathered for the Christmas fruitcakes they make as gifts every year.
The context of this sentence is as follows. Buddy and his older cousin have returned home after the hard work of gathering pecans for the Christmas fruitcakes they makes as gifts for people every year. The two of them have loaded a baby buggy full of the pecans they need for the cakes.
The sentence implies that they have completed the second stage of their work: they have shelled every pecan they brought home in the buggy. That is why the buggy is empty. The bowl is full because they have put all the pecans in it. Not only have they done the work of gathering the remnants of pecans that other people missed and then shelled all the pecans, they resisted the urge to eat them. This is important, because they need all the pecans they gathered to have enough for the fruitcakes.
The quote shows how dedicated the two are to this task of giving gifts to others. Because neither of them has money, they have to start planning early to raise what money they need for supplies. They also have to find free sources of supplies, like the pecans, wherever they can to stretch out what money they have as far as possible.
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