Directions
Read
this story.
Then
answer
questions 39
and
40.
Four
men
are
afloat
in
a small
boat,
or
dingey,
trying
to
make
it
to
shore
after their
larger
ship
has
sunk.
Excerpt from
The
Open
Boat
by
Stephen
Crane
1 None
of
them knew the colour
of
the
sky.
Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened
upon
the waves that swept toward them. These waves were
of
the hue
of
slate, savel for
the tops, which were
of
foaming white, and all
of
the
men
knew the colours
of
the sea.
The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was
jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks.
2 Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which here rode upon the
sea. These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall and each froth-
top was a problem
in
small boat navigation.
3 The cook squatted in the bottom and looked with both eyes at the six inches
of
gunwale2 which separated
him
from the ocean. His sleeves were rolled over his fat
forearms, and the two flaps
of
his unbuttoned vest dangled
as
he bent
to
bail out the
boat. Often he said:
"'Gawd!
That was a narrow clip:'
As
he remarked it he invariably
gazed eastward over the broken sea.
4 The oiler, steering with one
of
the two oars
in
the
boat.,
sometimes raised himself
suddenly to keep clear
of
water that swirled
in
over the stern.
It
was a thin little oar and
it seemed often ready to snap.
5 The correspondent, pulling at the other oar, watched the waves and wondered why
he was there.
6 The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that profound
dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to even the bravest and
most enduring when, willy
Dilly,
the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down. The
mind
of
the master
of
a vessel
is
rooted deep in the timbers
of
her, though he
commanded for a day or a decade, and this captain had
on
him
the stern impression
of
a scene
in
the greys
of
dawn
of
seven turned faces, and later a stump
of
a top-mast with
a white ball
on
it that slashed to and fro at the waves, went low and lower, and down.
Page 8
Session
2
GOON
