Study Questions
1. What do the narrator and Mr. Norton talk about on the way back to the college campus?

2. Whom does the narrator blame for his predicament?

3. Who does Mr. Norton ask the narrator to bring to him?

4. What is Dr. Bledsoe’s nickname?

5. What is Dr. Bledsoe doing when the narrator comes into his office?

6. Does Mr. Norton try to blame the narrator for what has happened?

7. What is the password that a young woman asks the narrator to carry to her boyfriend?

8. Does anyone try to kid around with the narrator?

9. In his extreme gratitude, whom does the narrator imagine Mr. Norton to seem like?

10. In a discussion of Emerson, what virtue is briefly mentioned?

Answers
1. The narrator and Mr. Norton do not talk about anything on the way back to the college campus.

2. The narrator blames Jim Trueblood for his (the narrator’s) predicament.

3. Mr. Norton asks the narrator to bring Dr. Bledsoe and the school physician to him.

4. Dr. Bledsoe’s nickname is “Old Bucket-head.”

5. Dr. Bledsoe is on the phone when the narrator comes into his office, presumably trying to find the narrator and Mr. Norton.

6. No, Mr. Norton does not try to blame the narrator for what happened. He specifically says that the narrator was not at fault.

7. The young woman asks the narrator to carry the message “the grass is green” to her boyfriend.

8. Yes, someone does try to kid around with the narrator. While the narrator is waiting to go to chapel, his roommate enters and tries to joke with the disconsolate narrator.

9. In his highly emotional state, the narrator imagines Mr. Norton to be like St. Nicholas (Santa Claus).

10. The virtue of self-reliance comes into the conversation about Emerson.