There were five children so she

But the fire destroyed most of the worst old buildings, and the new houses that went up after this were better for people to live in.

TEST ON READING (THE 6TH FORM)
Elizabeth Enright “The Lucky Thimble”

THE CORAL BRACELET
One afternoon it was raining fast when Garnet went to get the letters.
She wore an old raincoat that was too short for her, and Jay’s boots that were too big. In the letterbox there was a business letter for father, two letters for mother and a letter for Jay. There were no letters for Garnet, but then there never were except on her birthday.
She put the letters into the raincoat pocket and went back to Citronella’s house. Near the door she shouted, “Citronella!” No answer. “Citronella!” she shouted again. This time Citronella answered and came downstairs.
“I was in my great-grandmother’s room”, she said. “Come, Garnet. Great-grandma is telling me about when she was little”.
Garnet took off her raincoat, left her boots near the door and went up the stairs behind Citronella.
Citronella’s great-grandmother was very, very old. She had a little room in the house. There were many photographs on the walls. Great-grandmother was sitting in a chair with a red blanket on her knees. When the children came in, they sat down, and she began to tell them about her life when she was a little girl.
“Oh, this part of the country was wild in those days,” she said. “The nearest town was three miles away. We worked much, we did everything ourselves. There were eleven children in the family. I was the tenth. The boys worked with father in the fields. The girls helped in the house. Even when we were five years old we helped. We frightened the cows from the corn. Sometimes deer came and we frightened them away too. But often we saw how the deer came down to the river when they wanted to drink. Beautiful animals they were; but I haven’t seen a deer for the last thirty years. Yes, it was a wild country then, only woods and open fields and very few roads. There were Indians too in those days.”
“I slept in a little bed with my sister Matty. In the daytime we put it under the big bed that mother and father slept in. At night we put it in the corner. From our bed we could see into the next room where the fire was burning. There were very cold winters then and much snow. Then the fires were burning day and night. Well, on those cold nights we could often see how the front door opened. In came Indians, quite as cats, sometimes one or two, sometimes as many as ten. They wore clothes made of deer skin. We could see how they lay down in front of the fire. We never knew when thy left, because we were asleep. They went out early before in was light, but we found a present near the fireside. Sometimes it was some deer meat, sometimes a rabbit a two.”
“Tell us about the time when you were a bad girl, great-grandma,” said Citronella. “You know, on your tenth birthday.”
The old woman laughed. “Again” she said. “Well, Garnet has not heard this story, has she? You know, Garnet, I was a very headstrong child. Well, in Blaiseville at that time there was only one store”.
“It was Elly Gensler’s store,” said Citronella, who knew the story by heart.
“Yes, so it was. Elly Gensler was a tall thin man. We all liked him because he was good to us, and gave us sweets whenever we came in. He had everything in his store that you could think of: food, boots, books, toys, clothes. It was a wonderful place."

Answer the questions.
What was the weather like when Garnet went to receive letters?
Did her clothes fit her perfectly?
Were there always letters for Garnet?
Citronella’s great-grandmother made up a story about her childhood, didn’t she?
What activities were children involved in?
Was it a highly-developed industrial country?
Indians made much noise when they entered the house at night, didn’t they?
What did Indians leave in the house?
Could Citronella repeat the great-grandmother’s word for word?
Was great-grandmother an obedient child or not?