Question

adapted from The Enchanted Bluff
by Willa Cather

We had our swim before sundown, and while we were cooking our supper the oblique rays of light made a dazzling glare on the white sand about us. The translucent red ball itself sank behind the brown stretches of cornfield as we sat down to eat. The warm layer of air that had rested over the water and our clean sand bar grew fresher and smelled of the rank ironweed and sunflowers growing on the flatter shore. The river was brown and sluggish, like any other of the half-dozen streams that water the Nebraska corn lands. On one shore was an irregular line of bald clay bluffs. There, a few scrub oaks with thick trunks and flat, twisted tops threw light shadows on the long grass. The western shore was low and level, with cornfields that stretched to the skyline, and all along the water’s edge were little sandy coves and beaches.
It was on such an island, in the third summer of its yellow green, that we built our watch fire. It was not in the thicket of dancing willow wands, but on the level terrace of fine sand which had been added that spring. It was a little new bit of world, beautifully ridged with ripple marks, all as white and dry as if they had been expertly cured. We had been careful not to mar the freshness of the place, although we often swam to it on summer evenings and lay on the sand to rest. This was our last watch fire of the year, and there were reasons why I should remember it better than any of the others. Next week the other boys were to file back to their old places in the Sandtown High School, but I was to go up to the Divide to teach my first country school in the Norwegian district. I was already homesick at the thought of quitting the boys with whom I had always played; of leaving the river, and going up into a windy plain that was all windmills and cornfields and big pastures; where there was nothing willful or unmanageable in the landscape, no new islands, and no chance of unfamiliar birds—such as often followed the watercourses.
We began to talk about the places we wanted to go to. The Hassler boys wanted to see the stockyards in Kansas City, and Percy wanted to see a big store in Chicago. Arthur was interlocutor1 and did not betray himself.
"Now it's your turn, Tip."
Tip rolled over on his elbow and poked the fire, and his eyes looked shyly out of his unusual, tight little face. "My place is awful far away. My Uncle Bill told me about it."
"Where is it?"
"Aw, it's down in New Mexico somewheres. There aren't no railroads or anything. You have to go on mules, and you run out of water before you get there and have to drink canned tomatoes."
"Well, go on, kid. What's it like when you do get there?"
Tip sat up and excitedly began his story.

1. interlocutor: a person who takes part in a conversation or dialogue


3
Drag each label to the correct location on the image.
Determine which details should be included in a summary of "The Enchanted Bluff" and which details should be omitted from the summary.
The young men talk about
places they want to travel to.
Afterward, they build their
last fire of the season.
One of the young men wants
to go to New Mexico.
The narrator is preparing
to teach in another town.
The fine sand was recently
added to the beach.
A group of young men go
swimming in a river.

Answer 1

Include in the summary
- The young men talk about places they want to travel to. (Main conversational focus)
- Afterward, they build their last fire of the season. (Key action/event)
- One of the young men wants to go to New Mexico. (Specific plot detail of the conversation)
- The narrator is preparing to teach in another town. (Important context/motivation)
- A group of young men go swimming in a river. (Sets the scene and leads into the fire and conversation)

Omit from the summary
- The fine sand was recently added to the beach. (Minor descriptive detail—not essential to the main events)