GRADES 4-8

Mark L. Redmond

All rights reserved. Printed in the USA

Chapter Questions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-17

Chapter Quizzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-22

Vocabulary Worksheets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-27

Vocabulary Quizzes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-32

Project List   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33-34

Project Worksheets   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-37

Exam  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-39

Answer Keys .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-56

Summary and Characters

Twelve-year-old Arty Anderson and his widowed mother Elizabeth move from Ohio to Texas to take over a cattle ranch, purchased by Mr. Anderson shortly before his accidental death in a fire. After being bothered twice by a pair of ruffians, the Andersons arrive at White Rock, Texas, the town closest to their ranch.

They meet the town marshal, Luke Bodie; Bill Munson, the ranch foreman; and Chad, Bo, and Grub, three of the ranch hands. During the next few months, Arty and his mother adjust to ranch life as Arty gets new "cowboy clothes" and breaks his own pony Prince.

Summer ends, and a reluctant Arty heads for school. There he develops friendships with Esther Travis, a girl from a neighboring ranch; and Jasper Wilson, a younger, humorous student. Arty also gets off to a rather embarrassing start with Miss Ross, the attractive young school teacher.

Arty and his mother are very close, sharing both tears and laughter as they adjust to life without Mr. Anderson. They rely on each other as well as on their active faith in God. Arty discovers a new world through reading and also pauses to describe the events of his daily life.

When Arty discovers a disgruntled cowboy, who has just been fired, stealing from the other hands, he alerts Chad. While Chad beats Bob Crowley in a fist fight, Arty retrieves the stolen property.

On the final day of school, a small boy is lost. Arty and his mother stumble onto Crowley and the two original ruffians, who are stealing cattle from the Anderson ranch. The rustlers take the Andersons to a deserted shack, hidden in the center of a small cluster of trees. Later, headed for Mexico, they leave Arty and his mother stranded in the shack. The following day, however, the marshal and main ranch hands rescue the Andersons and capture the villains.

The Author

A high-school English teacher for over twenty-five years, author Mark L. Redmond has entertained and educated both children and adults with his authentic western stories. Combining knowledge obtained from years of reading and travel, he escorts his readers into the past and introduces them to some characters they will never forget. As the stories unfold, the readers not only become attached to these characters but also become aware of what life was like in the old West. Woven into the stories is a picture of how God works—then and now—in the lives of His children as they encounter life from day to day, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying.

Other Books in the Series:

* Arty and the Texas Ranger

Vocabulary

Some students may not be familiar with the following words. By dividing the list and sharing their definitions, they can create their own glossary. Reading will progress more smoothly if each student has a copy of the definitions before you begin the story.

buzzard            gaze                 drawled          interrupted        puzzled

claim                 greenhorn         spell (n)         dozed                rambling

squinting           jolted                gasp             snoozing            blotches

chuckle            caliber              derringer       barrels              blurted

gizzard            offense             six-gun          sagebrush        dandy

saloon             walloped          bandanna       intentions         conduct

resembled       hombre            advantage      reckon            recollect

buckboard       forearm             circuit             parson            corral

griddle            tortured            shedding        duds               errands

trigger            hammer             ammunition      tomahawk     sorrel

hankering       varmints             straddled        wheezed       shimmy

galloped         livery                  cipher             startle            jilted

insisted          cooperate           scrawny         contagious     directly

resume          leper                    frisky              fascinating       rafters

stranded        tarnished             sufficient        scorpion         puckered

concise          disgusted             calculating     acrobatic        churl

resemblance   ridiculous             enthusiasm     tinker             reject

tuckered         investigate            iniquity           restrictions     surrey

assistants        offended             clobber         mite                 slates

fetch               thicket                  indicated       outraged         vermin

conduct          escort                  circumstances   assume        situation

parlor

Before You Read

Distribute Worksheet #1, and identify each of the objects pictured there. You might want to let students do research on some or all of the objects and report their findings to the class to establish background material for the book. Artistic students could make posters to display in the room while you are reading. Dover Publications has several detailed coloring books that would acquaint students with facts about the old West and aid them in understanding the book.

Reading the Book

These questions may be assigned for individual students to answer after reading each chapter or discussed as a class.

Content

1. Why are Arty and his mother traveling by stagecoach? (A stagecoach was the fastest, most comfortable way for the two of them to travel.)

2. Jeff Chastain seems to be a pleasant, friendly man. Why doesn’t Mrs. Anderson like him? (He is not really being friendly. He and his partner want to rob the Andersons. Also, he is being far too familiar toward Mrs. Anderson.)

3. Why did Arty make his comment about "gizzard-shooting" the robbers and then pretend to cry? (He hoped to frighten them with the mental picture of their being shot. He also wanted to convince them that his mother really would shoot them.)

4. At the end of the chapter, how do Arty and his mother show a slight difference of opinion? (While Arty believes they have seen the last of the two badmen, his mother is not so sure.)

Research

Investigate travel by stagecoach, using Worksheet #2. Encyclopedias, library books, videotapes, and the Internet are all possible sources.

1. Explain why Mrs. Anderson is upset when the marshal says something—or tries to say something about her dress. (She assumes that he is going to behave as Jeff Chastain did on the stage.)

2. How does her failure to listen lead to disaster? (Because she interrupts the marshal, she humiliates herself—first by hitting him with her bag when he was just trying to help and then by being thrown to the ground in the middle of the street after her dress has been nearly torn off.)

3. Explain the reaction of Arty and the marshal to Mrs. Anderson’s mishap. (Since she has not been injured, they both laugh—probably because there is something amusing about observing the consequences in such situations when someone refuses to be warned.)

Research

Label the buildings on Worksheet #3 to complete the diagram of White Rock. Have students find pictures of old Western towns. Have students give reports on some of the businesses in those towns (livery stable, undertaker, barber, blacksmith, etc.)

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