Study Questions

1. How did Marguerite feel about the barrenness of Stamps?

2. How high did Bailey report that the buildings were in the North?

3. How did Bailey say that one could win a “zillion” dollars?

4. What dessert did Bailey say that they made in the North?

5. What term did Mrs. Annie Henderson use for a “lie”?

6. How did Bailey describe the Northern watermelons?

7. How did Marguerite feel among the people in Stamps?

8. What were the high spots in Stamps?

9. What was meant by a person being “tender-hearted”?

10. What did it mean when the customer said that Bailey had a silver tongue?

Answers

1. Marguerite felt that the barrenness of Stamps was just what she needed.

2. Bailey said that the buildings were so high that in the winter the people did not see the tops for months.

3. Bailey said one could win a zillion dollars if one could count the seeds in a watermelon before it was cut.

4. Marguerite and Bailey made snow ice cream from snow, sugar, and Pet milk.

5. Mrs. Annie Henderson called a lie a “not true.”

6. Bailey said that the watermelons were twice as big as a cow’s head and sweet as syrup.

7. Marguerite said that she felt not so much forgiven as she felt understood.

8. The high spots in Stamps were negative: droughts, lynchings, deaths, floods, and similar occurrences.

9. A tender-hearted person was a sensitive person; people who were tender-hearted were looked upon as being a little sick or in delicate health.

10. Bailey was said to have a silver tongue because he could easily tell stories; the stories rolled off his tongue smoothly and people tended to believe him.