Reference to context
"Aw, what for?” I don't have any fun at home. I hate school. I like camping.
You won't take me home, Snake-eye, will you?”
i. Who is the speaker in these lines?
ü. What do these lines say about the speaker? Why do you think he feels like this?
iii. Who is the Snake-eye? Why is he called by this name?
Answers
‘The Ransom of Red Chief’ by O. Henry.
Two kidnappers get more than they expected from their young hostage. Transcript of radio broadcast:
Now, the VOA Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.
(MUSIC)
We present the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry. Here is Shep O'Neal with story
It looked like a good thing. But wait till I tell you. We were down south, in Alabama – Bill Driscoll and myself – when this kidnapping idea struck us. There was a town down there, as flat as a pancake, and called Summit. Bill and I had about six hundred dollars. We needed just two thousand dollars more for an illegal land deal in Illinois.
We chose for our victim -- the only child of an influential citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. He was a boy of ten, with red hair. Bill and I thought that Ebenezer would pay a ransom of two thousand dollars to get his boy back. But wait till I tell you.
About two miles from Summit was a little mountain, covered with cedar trees. There was an opening on the back of the mountain. We stored our supplies in that cave.
One night, we drove a horse and carriage past old Dorset's house. The boy was in the street, throwing rocks at a cat on the opposite fence.
"Hey little boy!" says Bill, "would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?"
The boy hits Bill directly in the eye with a piece of rock.
That boy put up a fight like a wild animal. But, at last, we got him down in the bottom of the carriage and drove away.
We took him up to the cave. The boy had two large bird feathers stuck in his hair. He points a stick at me and says:
"Ha! Paleface, do you dare to enter the camp of Red Chief, the terror of the plains?"
"He's all right now," says Bill, rolling up his pants and examining wounds on his legs. "We're playing Indian. I'm Old Hank, the trapper, Red Chief's captive. I'm going to be scalped at daybreak. By Geronimo! That kid can kick hard."
"Red Chief," says I to the boy, "would you like to go home?"
"Aw, what for?" says he. "I don't have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won't take me back home again, will you?"
"Not right away," says I. "We'll stay here in the cave a while."
"All right!" says he. "That'll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life."
(MUSIC)
We went to bed about eleven o'clock. Just at daybreak, I was awakened by a series of terrible screams from Bill. Red Chief was sitting on Bill's chest, with one hand holding his hair. In the other, he had a sharp knife. He was attempting to cut off the top of Bill's head, based on what he had declared the night before.
I got the knife away from the boy. But, after that event, Bill's spirit was broken. He lay down, but he never closed an eye again in sleep as long as that boy was with us.
"Do you think anybody will pay out money to get a little imp like that back home?" Bill asked.
"Sure," I said. "A boy like that is just the kind that parents love. Now, you and the Chief get up and make something to eat, while I go up on the top of this mountain and look around."
I climbed to the top of the mountain. Over toward Summit, I expected to see the men of the village searching the countryside. But all was peaceful.
"Perhaps," says I to myself, "it has not yet been discovered that the wolves have taken the lamb from the fold." I went back down the mountain.
When I got to the cave, I found Bill backed up against the side of it. He was breathing hard, with the boy threatening to strike him with a rock.
"He put a red-hot potato down my back," explained Bill, "and then crushed it with his foot. I hit his ears. Have you got a gun with you, Sam?"
I took the rock away from the boy and ended the argument.
"I'll fix you," says the boy to Bill. "No man ever yet struck the Red Chief but what he got paid for it. You better be careful!"
After eating, the boy takes a leather object with strings tied around it from his clothes and goes outside the cave unwinding it. Then we heard a kind of shout. It was Red Chief holding a sling in one hand. He moved it faster and faster around his head.
Just then I heard a heavy sound and a deep breath from Bill. A rock the size of an egg had hit him just behind his left ear. Bill fell in the fire across the frying pan of hot water for washing the dishes. I pulled him out and poured cold water on his head for half an hour.
Then I went out and caught that boy and shook him.
"If your behavior doesn't improve," says I, "I'll take you straight home. Now, are you going to be good, or not?"
"I was only funning," says he. "I didn't mean to hurt Old Hank.
Answer:
motherchod
Explanation:
tera ma ko choda