Comprehension and Discussion Questions. 1. Did Mr. Ellsworth become interested in art?
1. Did Mr. Ellsworth become interested in art?
2. What did he begin to visit?
3. What did he become very curious about?
4. What did Ellsworth call his picture?
5. Where did he decide to exhibit it?
6. What did his picture resemble?
7. Was his picture accepted?
8. Was this acceptance a surprise?
9. Whose picture won first prize at the Lathrop Gallery?
10. Why did Mr. Ellsworth's picture win?
Vocabulary and Idiom Review
A. Match the word in the left-hand column with the word in the right-hand column which has the SAME meaning:
1. wealthy ___________ bear
2. crazy ___________ ambitious
3. stand ___________ opportunity
4. keep on ___________ unhappy
5. chance ___________ ended
6. automobile ___________ car
7. handsome ___________ rich
8. over ___________ continue
9. sad ___________ uninteresting
10. dull ___________ good-looking
___________ insane
B. Use the following expressions in sentences of your own:
1. be in good shape 6. run an elevator 11. keep away from
2. take a chance 7. go by 12. keep on doing something
3. hear about 8. have nothing to do with 13. have to
4. have something to do with 9. have got to 14. in case
5. play around with 10. in case of
C. The prefixes un-, in-, im-, il-, and dis- are used with adjectives and adverbs to give a negative or opposite meaning.
Give the negative form of each of the following adjectives or adverbs. Then use each of the resulting words in a sentence of your own:
1. interesting ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
2. loyal ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
3. patiently ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
4. honest ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
5. agreeable ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
6. sure ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
7. able ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
8. attentive ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
9. legal ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
10. politely ___________ ___________________________________________________________________
All Aboard
By Walter Davenport
PART I
Ordinary men like you and me would have told young Hillegas the facts at the beginning, using no more words than would be necessary for simple courtesy.
But that wasn't Ham's way.
I have heard it said that Ham Mason should have been a dramatist or a public speaker because he loved to talk so much. However, the Mason House, of which Ham was proprietor, clerk, and general repairman, was obvious proof that he was no hotel man worth mentioning.
"Glad to take care of you, mister," said Ham to the young fellow who had arrived on the noon train with the most expensive traveling bag the Mason House had ever held.
"Let me see." Ham looked at the board where, in great disorder, hung the keys to the various rooms.
"Four, five, six, sev — I can let you have number six, mister — mister . . ." Ham turned the register around in order to see the name of the new guest — Mr. Hillegas. "I can put you in number six, Mr. Hillegas, but I'm sorry, I can't give you no bath. There's a nice bath just down the hall a little ways."
And Ham took the young fellow's important-looking bag and led the way up the stairs, talking constantly all the way about how he was very busy teaching a new maid her duties because Jennie Burkett, the regular maid, was home looking after her father, who had been struck by a bus on Saturday night, and how number eight was the only room with a private bath and that Clyde Betts, his brother-in-law who traveled for Gibson's wholesale groceries, always had to have number eight and that Clyde was due on his monthly call at Milestown that afternoon.
Mr. Hillegas did not seem interested, yet he didn't show any irritation. An older man would have tried to silence Ham in one way or another. Ham always took advantage of a young audience, knowing its durability.
"From New York, you say," said Ham, showing Hillegas into room number six and setting down the impressive bag. "What's your business?"
"Investments," said the young fellow. "I'm with Crissman and Maginley, one of the oldest investment houses in New York. I haven't been with them long. I've come to see Mr. Edward Colesberry. Do you know him?"
True genius can make use of any opportunity, and here Ham saw a real chance to exhibit his gifts of eloquence.
"Ed Colesberry?" he cried. "Why, Mr. Hillegas, if Ed Colesberry and me were blood brothers, I couldn't have known him no better. So you came all the way out here from New York to see Ed Colesberry, hey?"
Ham was very much pleased with himself.
"Mr. Colesberry and a few others," said the young man. "You see, I haven't been with the firm long. Mr. Colesberry used to do business with us, and they decided to send some of us younger men out to look up old customers who haven't been buying for a long while."
"Well, Mr. Hillegas," said Ham, "I don't plan to take up your good time, but maybe you'd like to get an idea about the kind of a fellow you came out to see."
Hillegas said that he would be glad to learn something about Ed Colesberry, and he gave Ham a large cigar.
"Ed was sixty years old last month," said Ham. "Getting along in years. He and I went to school together, so what I'm telling you is so. Most popular boy in the county, Ed Colesberry. The most intelligent, too. Half the businessmen in town wanted him to work for them when he graduated from high school.
" 'Ham,' he says to me, I’m going to work for Willis Deemer for a while. Then as soon as I get a little money together, I'm going to New York where a fellow has a chance to do big things. I'm not going to bury myself here in Milestown. I'm not going to be happy until I hear the conductor on the New York train say, "All aboard for New York City!"'
"Well, Ed worked in Willis Deemer's hardware store for a year and did so well that Willis, who was getting along in years, offered to make him a partner. Ed was refusing for the fourth time, saying that he didn't want to be tied down, when Willis died and Willis' widow begged Ed to take over the business for a while because it was all that Willis had left to her and the children.
"Ed said all right, that he'd stay a little longer, and in a few months the Deemer hardware store was the biggest in the county and getting bigger, and Ed was in love with Maureen Brent, whose father was our biggest real-estate man.
" ‘I'm only staying a while longer,' Ed told me, 'and then Maureen and I are getting married and moving to New York where we can get somewheres. I'll be smiling when the conductor on that train yells, "All aboard."'