The Wind in the Rose-Bush quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary categories best describe "The Wind in the Rose-Bush"?

   • Realism, Everyday Life & Plain Detail
   • Correct answer: Ghost Story, Supernatural & Mystery
   • Romantic Adventure, Hero Quest & Wild Nature
   • Satire, Social Comedy & Sharp Wit
   • Science Fiction, Future Worlds & Machines

   Ghost Story, Supernatural & Mystery is the best fit. The rosebush shakes when "Not a leaf of the hydrangea" moves, Rebecca hears a piano in an empty room, and the postmaster's letter ends with "House said to be haunted." At the same time the plot is a mystery: Rebecca keeps asking where Agnes is, and the answer comes only in the last lines.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why has Rebecca Flint come all the way to Ford Village?

   • To collect her dead sister's furniture and wedding things
   • To take a new teaching post at the village school
   • Correct answer: To take her niece Agnes home to live with her in Michigan
   • To settle John Dent's will and share out his property

   Rebecca tells the woman on the ferry, "I'm going to see her, and take my niece Agnes home with me." She could not take Agnes when Grace died because she was caring for her own mother and teaching school. Now her mother has died, her uncle has left her "quite a little property," and she has "given up my school" to come for the girl.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How is Mrs. Dent related to Agnes?

   • Correct answer: She is Agnes's stepmother, John Dent's second wife
   • She is Agnes's aunt, her dead mother's older sister
   • She is Agnes's grandmother, John Dent's own mother
   • She is Agnes's guardian, chosen by the village court

   Mrs. Dent is John Dent's widow and his second wife. Rebecca says she "felt kind of hurt that John married again so quick" after Grace died. That makes Mrs. Dent Agnes's stepmother, with no blood tie to her. Rebecca reminds her of it: "You know she's my own blood, and of course she's no relation to you." Rebecca, not Mrs. Dent, is Agnes's aunt.

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4. 4

   Question 4. On Rebecca's first day, what makes the shaking of the rosebush so strange?

   • Rebecca has just reached out and picked its one red rose
   • A storm is coming up, and every tree in the yard is bending
   • The boy carrying the trunk has bumped into it on the steps
   • Correct answer: The day is still, and the hydrangea beside it does not stir

   The narrator says the bush "was agitated violently as if by a gust of wind, yet it was a remarkably still day. Not a leaf of the hydrangea standing on the terrace close to the rose trembled." Rebecca has not touched the rose; she has just said "I ain't in the habit of picking other folks' roses without leave." When she asks about it, Mrs. Dent answers, "I don't see as it is blowing," and by then the bush is quiet.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Livid" mean in this story?

   • Red-faced and shouting in sudden anger
   • Correct answer: Ashen and gray-faced with shock or fear
   • Calm and smiling with quiet satisfaction
   • Flushed and bright-eyed with eager joy

   Livid here means pale or ashen, the gray look of a face drained by shock or fear. Mrs. Dent goes livid and gasping when Rebecca talks about Agnes, then recovers and says, "I am subject to—spells." Today livid often means furious, but in this story it describes a face gone deathly pale.

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6. 6

   Question 6. At tea on the first evening, what does Rebecca say she saw just before she cried "There she is!"?

   • Correct answer: A shadow on the ceiling, a girl in the mirror, then a shadow at the window
   • A pale girl in a white gown standing still at the foot of the stairs
   • A lamp moving slowly in the garret window high above the little L
   • A girl's face pressed close against the glass of the front door

   Rebecca says, "I saw first a shadow go over the ceiling, then I saw her in the glass there"—a mirror over the sideboard—"and then the shadow passed the window." The girl was "Little and light-haired." Nobody comes in. Mrs. Dent first says Rebecca "must have been mistaken," then admits, "I thought I saw a shadow pass the window, but I must have been mistaken." The story never settles what either woman saw.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does "Furtive" mean in this story?

   • Open and frank, with nothing to hide
   • Dull and sleepy, without any interest
   • Fierce and angry, ready to start a quarrel
   • Correct answer: Sly and secret, trying not to be noticed

   Furtive means sly or secret, done so as not to be noticed. The woman on the ferry looks at Rebecca with furtive curiosity, and later Mrs. Dent "strove furtively" to keep Rebecca off the piazza, and Rebecca is "furtively watching" the clock. In a story full of secrets, people keep doing things on the sly.

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8. 8

   Question 8. When Mrs. Dent comes back alone from fetching Agnes, where does she say the girl has gone?

   • To the church social with Addie, where there are boys
   • Over the ferry to Porter's Falls, to visit Addie's aunt
   • Correct answer: To Lincoln with Addie, to stay with family till Thursday
   • To a boarding school in the next town for the term

   Mrs. Dent says, "She's gone with Addie to Lincoln," on passes from an uncle "who's conductor on the train," to stay at "Addie's Aunt Margaret's" until Thursday. Her earlier tales were the church social and then Porter's Falls. Careful readers may notice that the next day she says "Mr. Slocum is conductor on the railroad" and that Mrs. Slocum visits "her sister in Porter's Falls": the details shift, and the story lets the reader notice it without comment.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What tune does Rebecca hear on the piano a little after midnight?

   • The Last Rose of Summer
   • Correct answer: The Maiden's Prayer
   • Home, Sweet Home
   • The Old Oaken Bucket

   Rebecca wakes to "the then popular strains of 'The Maiden's Prayer'" coming up from the sitting-room. She hurries down and finds that "There was nobody in the sitting-room; the piano was silent." Mrs. Dent says, "I didn't hear anything," and "You were dreaming." The story never says who or what played it. Rebecca keeps her lamp burning all night.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does Rebecca find when she walks to the Slocums' house on her third morning?

    • Mrs. Slocum putting up grapes, who says the girls just left
    • Addie Slocum, who says she has not seen Agnes for weeks
    • A note pinned on the door saying the family went to Lincoln
    • Correct answer: Nobody at home, and a deaf neighbor who cannot help her

    Rebecca comes back and says, "there isn't a soul at home." The only person she can ask is the woman "that lives on the turn of the road," who is "stone deaf" and answers only "'Mrs. Smith don't live here.'" Mrs. Dent quickly explains that Mr. Slocum is away on the railroad and that Mrs. Slocum often spends the day with her sister.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Rebecca says Agnes's nightgown was "LAID OUT" on her bed: "The sleeves were folded across the bosom," with a red rose between them. Why does this picture chill many readers?

    • Correct answer: It is the way a dead body was arranged for burial
    • It shows that Mrs. Dent had finished all the sewing
    • It means that Agnes has packed for the trip to Michigan
    • It proves that Rebecca dropped it on the bed herself

    To lay out a body meant to wash and arrange the dead for burial, often with the arms folded across the chest. Rebecca's own words, "It was—LAID OUT," can make the nightgown sound like a body laid out for burial, holding a flower. Only Rebecca reports what she found, and the story never says who arranged it. Mrs. Dent is "struggling for breath in great, choking gasps," and once she recovers she says, "You threw it down and it fell that way." Many readers see this as the strongest hint of the ending.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Which statement matches what the story says about the postscript that calls Rebecca home?

    • Mrs. Dent admits to Rebecca on the last night that she wrote it
    • Rebecca's cousin wrote it herself because she felt so lonesome
    • Correct answer: The friend did not write it, and the story never says who did
    • Mrs. Greenaway wrote it because the cousin really had fallen

    The postscript is "in a different hand, purporting to be written by the friend, Mrs. Hannah Greenaway." At home Rebecca finds "her cousin in perfect health" and learns that "the friend had not written the postscript." The story never names the writer. Many readers suspect Mrs. Dent, who brings the letter to Rebecca's room and, when Rebecca gives her orders, wears "an expression of covert amusement," but that is a reading, not something the story states.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does "Covert" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Hidden, kept under the surface
    • Plain, shown openly to everyone
    • Brief, gone again in an instant
    • Shared, enjoyed by both together

    Covert means hidden or secret, not shown openly. Mrs. Dent's amusement is covert: she keeps it under the surface while she answers Rebecca politely. It is the opposite of overt, which means open and plain to see. Readers notice it because Rebecca has just accused her: "No, you ain't sorry!" and "You're glad."

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does the postmaster's letter report about Agnes?

    • She ran away to Lincoln a year ago and was never seen again
    • Correct answer: She died a year ago, and Mrs. Dent is said to have neglected her
    • She is alive but very sick, and Mrs. Dent will let no one see her
    • She went to live with the Slocums' relatives in Porter's Falls

    The letter says "Mrs. John Dent said to have neglected stepdaughter. Girl was sick. Medicine not given. Talk of taking action. Not enough evidence." It ends: "Your niece, Agnes Dent, died a year ago, about this time." The letter does not say what the illness was or that Mrs. Dent was ever charged: there was talk of taking action, but "Not enough evidence." So Agnes had been dead all the while Rebecca waited for her to come home.

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15. 15

    Question 15. How does the postmaster's letter show that every tale Mrs. Dent told about Agnes's visits was false?

    • It says the Slocums moved away to Lincoln years before
    • It says Addie Slocum had never once met Agnes Dent
    • It says Mr. Slocum never worked on the railroad at all
    • Correct answer: It says the Slocums were all long dead, their house vacant

    The letter begins, "No Slocums in Ford's Village. All dead." Addie died "ten years ago," the rest of her family was long dead too, and the "House vacant." So Agnes could never have been at Addie's, at the church social with Addie, at Porter's Falls with Addie, or in Lincoln with Addie. Every place Mrs. Dent named was a story.

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16. 16

    Question 16. Who is Thomas Amblecrom, the postmaster who writes the last letter?

    • The man who owned the horse on the ferry
    • The boy who drove Rebecca to the house
    • Correct answer: The husband of the woman on the ferry
    • The father of Agnes's friend Addie

    Mrs. Dent says the postmaster "said he and his wife came over on the ferry-boat with you," and Rebecca answers, "I remember him." He is Thomas, the husband who shook his head "like a Chinese toy" to keep his wife quiet and said, "Let her find it out herself." The man who kept his wife from speaking at the start is the man whose letter brings Rebecca the news at the end.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does the title, The Wind in the Rose-Bush, point to?

    • The cold air Mrs. Dent complains of on the front steps
    • Correct answer: A wind that seems to shake the bush when there is none
    • The rainstorm that keeps Rebecca from going to Lincoln
    • The village gossip that blows from house to house

    The title names something that is not really there: a wind. The bush shakes "as if by a gust of wind, yet it was a remarkably still day," and later "with no wind evident elsewhere." Many readers take this unseen force as a sign of Agnes's presence near the house, but the story never explains it.

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18. 18

    Question 18. How does the story let readers learn what happened to Agnes?

    • Through Agnes's own diary, which Rebecca finds up in the garret
    • Through the woman on the ferry, who tells Rebecca all she knows
    • Through Mrs. Dent, who confesses the truth as Rebecca leaves
    • Correct answer: Through a short letter at the very end, read along with Rebecca

    The reader learns the truth at the same moment Rebecca does, in the postmaster's letter, which is "short, curt, and to the purpose." Nothing comes after it. This makes the earlier clues—the frightened woman on the ferry, Mrs. Dent's "spells," the shaking rosebush, the music, the nightgown "LAID OUT"—read differently once the letter is known. Many readers go back to the beginning to see what they missed.

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19. 19

    Question 19. Which feature shows Freeman's plain village realism inside this supernatural story?

    • Correct answer: Everyday speech like "ain't" and "Mebbe," at a tea-table
    • Long formal speeches in poetic language from every speaker
    • A crowded city full of factories, streets and loud trains
    • An old castle with secret passages and a family curse

    The people of Ford Village talk the way plain people talk: "I ain't got any family to leave," "Mebbe. I shouldn't wonder," "Yes, I be." Scenes take place at the tea-table, in the kitchen over pie-crust, and on the piazza. Freeman is known for stories of New England village life, and this story uses the same plain talk and household detail, which can make the unexplained signs feel all the more unsettling.

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20. 20

    Question 20. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The couple on the ferry tell Rebecca what people in the village say about the Dent house.

      Didn't happen

      They tell her nothing. The wife starts and stammers, and her husband shakes his head at her. Ashore he says, "Let her find it out herself."

    • Mrs. Dent tells Rebecca she sold the first wife's things at auction.

      Happened

      At tea Mrs. Dent says, "I had the old duds put up at auction. They didn't bring much." She says only "a few things up garret" are left for Agnes.

    • When Rebecca smells roses in the house, Mrs. Dent says she smells them too.

      Didn't happen

      Mrs. Dent says, "I don't smell anything but these nutmegs." Rebecca answers, "It is not nutmeg."

    • Rebecca sews lace on a nightgown meant for Agnes.

      Happened

      Mrs. Dent hands her the nightgown and says, "if you want to sew the lace on this nightgown." Rebecca "sewed feverishly."

    • Rebecca takes the train to Lincoln to look for Agnes.

      Didn't happen

      She means to go, but Mrs. Dent says "there ain't any afternoon train from the Falls to Lincoln," and then a heavy rain keeps her in. That evening the letter from Michigan arrives.

    • The stone-deaf neighbor answers Rebecca only with "Mrs. Smith don't live here."

      Happened

      Rebecca shouts her question about the Slocums, and the deaf woman says only "'Mrs. Smith don't live here.'" Rebecca can learn nothing more.

    • Mrs. Dent tells Rebecca she cannot leave and must stay until Agnes returns.

      Didn't happen

      Mrs. Dent wants the opposite. On the first evening she asks, "When did you say you were going home?" and offers to send Agnes on alone later.

    • When Rebecca gets home to Michigan, she finds her cousin with a broken hip.

      Didn't happen

      She finds "her cousin in perfect health" and learns that "the friend had not written the postscript."

    • Rebecca falls ill at home and writes to the Slocums and to Mrs. Dent.

      Happened

      She has "a species of low fever induced by anxiety and fatigue." She writes to the Slocums and to Mrs. Dent and sends "numerous telegrams," with no answer.

    • The postmaster answers Rebecca's letter by the first possible mail.

      Happened

      After she writes to the postmaster, "an answer arrived by the first possible mail." His letter is the last thing in the story.

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