CHAPTER IX.

Without disclosing the full extent of Jim's defection and desertion, Clarence was able to truthfully assure the Hopkins family of his personal safety, and to promise that he would continue his quest, and send them further news of the absentee. He believed it would be found that Jim had been called away on some important business, but that not daring to leave his new shanty exposed and temptingly unprotected, he had made a virtue of necessity by selling it to his neighbors, intending to build a better house on its site after his return. Having comforted Phoebe, and impulsively conceived further plans for restoring Jim to her,--happily without any recurrence of his previous doubts as to his own efficacy as a special Providence,--he returned to the rancho. If he thought again of Jim's defection and Gilroy's warning, it was only to strengthen himself to a clearer perception of his unselfish duty and singleness of purpose. He would give up brooding, apply himself more practically to the management of the property, carry out his plans for the foundation of a Landlords' Protective League for the southern counties, become a candidate for the Legislature, and, in brief, try to fill Peyton's place in the county as he had at the rancho. He would endeavor to become better acquainted with the half-breed laborers on the estate and avoid the friction between them and the Americans; he was conscious that he had not made that use of his early familiarity with their ways and language which he might have done. If, occasionally, the figure of the young Spaniard whom he had met on the lonely road obtruded itself on him, it was always with the instinctive premonition that he would meet him again, and the mystery of the sudden repulsion be in some way explained. Thus Clarence! But the momentary impulse that had driven him to Fair Plains, the eagerness to set his mind at rest regarding Susy and her relatives, he had utterly forgotten. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who promised to return Jim?
2. Did he know why Jim left?
3. What was his guess as to why he left?
4. What did he believe Jim had sold?
5. Who was he trying to return Jim to?
6. Which lady in particular?
7. What was he going to apply himself more practically to?
8. And the foundation of what?
9. Who's place was he trying to fill?
10. Who did he want to get to know better?
11. Who did the half breed laborers have problems with?
Answer: 1. Clarence
2. no
3. that Jim had been called away on some important business
4. his new shanty
5. the Hopkins family
6. Phoebe
7. to the management of the property
8. the foundation of a Landlords' Protective League for the southern counties
9. Peyton's place
10. with the half-breed laborers on the estate
11. the Americans

(CNN) -- Charles Dickens, who was born 200 years ago this week, created some of the best-known and most loved figures in English literature, from Oliver Twist and David Copperfield to Pip, Miss Havisham and Magwitch.

But of all the characters he wrote about, none played as important a role in his work as that of London itself: its hustle and bustle, its glittering promise and grimy streets and the extremes of poverty and wealth experienced by those who lived there.

Alex Werner, the curator of the Museum of London's "Dickens and London" exhibition, says the city was "absolutely central" to Dickens' work.

"It triggered his imagination," he told CNN. "He called it his 'magic lantern', and would spend hours pacing the streets, drawing inspiration from what he saw around him."

Read more: Dickens admirers mark bicentenary

London was Dickens' muse, helping to spark his creativity and provide ideas for some of the most memorable characters, settings and plot twists in English literature.

As Britain -- and literature lovers the world over -- celebrates Dickens' bicentenary in 2012, what better time to explore the city he knew and loved best?

Dickens in London

Dickens moved to London as a child, but the family soon ran into financial trouble: His father was sent to debtors' prison, and at the age of just 12, Dickens was forced to work in a shoe polish factory -- Warren's Blacking Warehouse, at Hungerford Stairs -- to support his mother and siblings.

"It was a crazy, tumbledown old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats... the dirt and decay of the place rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again," he later told his biographer, John Forster. Both the warehouse and the stairs, near what is now Embankment tube station, are long gone. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Where did Charles Dickens live as a child?
2. Did he have to work as a young boy?
3. What kind of job?
4. What was its name?
5. Who was he supporting with his efforts?
6. Does that building still exist?
7. Did London benefit him in some ways though?
8. Did it trigger anything in him?
9. Did he even have a special name for London?
10. Was there a lot of variety in the amount of money people had there?
Answer: 1. London
2. yes
3. shoe polish factory
4. Warren's Blacking Warehouse
5. to support his mother and siblings.
6. no
7. helping to spark his creativity and provide ideas
8. imagination
9. magic lantern
10. extremes of poverty and wealth experienced by those who lived there.

In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneursAugustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allenfrom New York, purchased 6,642 acres (26.88 km2) of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the popular general at the Battle of San Jacinto, who was elected President of Texas in September 1836. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the older slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. New Orleans was the center of this trade in the Deep South, but there were slave dealers in Houston. Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near the city before the Civil War. Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. In 1860 forty-nine percent of the city's population was enslaved. A few slaves, perhaps as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came through the illegal African trade. Post-war Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands of the state. They also brought or purchased enslaved African Americans, whose numbers nearly tripled in the state from 1850 to 1860, from 58,000 to 182,566. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who was Sam Houston?
2. What else was important in his life?
3. In 1860 what percent of Houston's population was comprised by slaves?
4. Where did most of them come from?
5. Was there a slave trade in Houston?
6. Before the Civil War were there plantations near Houston?
7. What kind?
8. Were there slaves working on them?
9. What kind of work did slaves in the city do?
10. Were there a lot of slaves from African trade?
11. In 1860 what was the slave population?
12. Who founded the city?
13. Where did they come from?
14. What was their profession?
15. Was African slave trade legal?
Answer:
1. a general at the Battle of San Jacinto
2. he was elected president of Texas
3. forty-nine
4. the older slave states
5. yes
6. yes
7. sugar and cotton plantations
8. yes
9. domestic and artisan jobs
10. a few
11. 182,566
12. Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
13. New York
14. real estate
15. no