input: Make use of the article to answer the questions. CHAPTER XXX

FERN Mullins rushed into the house on a Saturday morning early in September and shrieked at Carol, "School starts next Tuesday. I've got to have one more spree before I'm arrested. Let's get up a picnic down the lake for this afternoon. Won't you come, Mrs. Kennicott, and the doctor? Cy Bogart wants to go--he's a brat but he's lively."

"I don't think the doctor can go," sedately. "He said something about having to make a country call this afternoon. But I'd love to."

"That's dandy! Who can we get?"

"Mrs. Dyer might be chaperon. She's been so nice. And maybe Dave, if he could get away from the store."

"How about Erik Valborg? I think he's got lots more style than these town boys. You like him all right, don't you?"

So the picnic of Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers was not only moral but inevitable.

They drove to the birch grove on the south shore of Lake Minniemashie. Dave Dyer was his most clownish self. He yelped, jigged, wore Carol's hat, dropped an ant down Fern's back, and when they went swimming (the women modestly changing in the car with the side curtains up, the men undressing behind the bushes, constantly repeating, "Gee, hope we don't run into poison ivy"), Dave splashed water on them and dived to clutch his wife's ankle. He infected the others. Erik gave an imitation of the Greek dancers he had seen in vaudeville, and when they sat down to picnic supper spread on a lap-robe on the grass, Cy climbed a tree to throw acorns at them. 1. How many people were at the picnic?
2. Whose idea was it?
3. Did the doctor attend?
4. Why not?
5. When?
6. Who informed Fern of this?
7. Why did Fern want to go on a picnic?
8. What time of year is it?
9. What day of the week?
10. Is anything happening next week?
11. Where does Fern want to go?
12. Is her friend Cy a shy person?
13. Who would chaperon?
14. Does Dave have a commitment somewhere?
15. Where?
16. Would Erik be described as more of a city boy or country boy?
17. Did they go to Lake Michigan?
18. What were the boys afraid of while taking of their clothes?
19. Were the girls changing in the bushes?
20. Who was doing a vaudeville act?
numbered_answers: 1. six
2. Fern Mullins
3. no
4. he had to make a call
5. in the afternoon
6. Carol
7. unknown
8. fall
9. Saturday
10. school is starting
11. to the lake
12. no
13. Mrs. Dyer
14. yes
15. at the store
16. country
17. no
18. poison ivy
19. no
20. Erik

input: Make use of the article to answer the questions. CHAPTER XIV

WILLIAM BENT PITMAN HEARS OF SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE

On the morning of Sunday, William Dent Pitman rose at his usual hour, although with something more than the usual reluctance. The day before (it should be explained) an addition had been made to his family in the person of a lodger. Michael Finsbury had acted sponsor in the business, and guaranteed the weekly bill; on the other hand, no doubt with a spice of his prevailing jocularity, he had drawn a depressing portrait of the lodger's character. Mr. Pitman had been led to understand his guest was not good company; he had approached the gentleman with fear, and had rejoiced to find himself the entertainer of an angel. At tea he had been vastly pleased; till hard on one in the morning he had sat entranced by eloquence and progressively fortified with information in the studio; and now, as he reviewed over his toilet the harmless pleasures of the evening, the future smiled upon him with revived attractions. "Mr. Finsbury is indeed an acquisition," he remarked to himself; and as he entered the little parlour, where the table was already laid for breakfast, the cordiality of his greeting would have befitted an acquaintanceship already old.

"I am delighted to see you, sir"--these were his expressions--"and I trust you have slept well."

"Accustomed as I have been for so long to a life of almost perpetual change," replied the guest, "the disturbance so often complained of by the more sedentary, as attending their first night in (what is called) a new bed, is a complaint from which I am entirely free." 1. what happened the day before?
2. what did Pitman think about the lodger?
3. did he change his mind about him?
4. what is the story about?
5. what day does it take place?
6. did he wake up at usual time?
7. what was different this morning?
8. what did he say to himself about Finsbury?
9. what was on the table when he entered?
10. what room was this in?
numbered_answers: 1. an addition had been made
2. more than the usual reluctance.
3. yes
4. WILLIAM BENT PITMAN HEARS OF SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE
5. Sunday
6. yes
7. more than the usual reluctance.
8. Mr. Finsbury is indeed an acquisition,
9. breakfast
10. the little parlour,

input: Make use of the article to answer the questions. CHAPTER XIX

MAUD MAKES A MEMORANDUM

My mother used to say to me: "Never expect to find brains in a pretty girl." Perhaps she said it because I was not a pretty girl and she wished to encourage me. In any event, that absurd notion of the ancients that when the fairies bestow the gift of beauty on a baby they withhold all other qualities has so often been disproved that we may well disregard it.

Maud Stanton was a pretty girl--indeed, a beautiful girl--but she possessed brains as well as beauty and used her intellect to advantage more often than her quiet demeanor would indicate to others than her most intimate associates. From the first she had been impressed by the notion that there was something mysterious about A. Jones and that his romantic explanation of his former life and present position was intended to hide a truth that would embarrass him, were it fully known. Therefore she had secretly observed the young man, at such times as they were together, and had treasured every careless remark he had made--every admission or assertion--and made a note of it. The boy's arrest had startled her because it was so unexpected, and her first impulse was to doubt his innocence. Later, however, she had thoroughly reviewed the notes she had made and decided he was innocent.

In the quiet of her own room, when she was supposed to be asleep, Maud got out her notebook and read therein again the review of all she had learned concerning A. Jones of Sangoa. 1. Who was good looking?
2. Was she very good looking?
3. What did she have along with her looks?
4. Was the narrator also good looking?
5. Who did Maud think was keeping a secret?
6. What did she think it would to, if revealed?
7. What did she do to try to uncover this secret?
8. What surprised her?
9. Did she initially think he might be guilty?
10. What did she decide subsequently?
11. Where was the man from?
numbered_answers:
1. Maud Stanton
2. yes
3. brains
4. no
5. A. Jones
6. embarrass him,
7. secretly observed him
8. The boy's arrest
9. yes
10. .he was innocent.
11. Sangoa.