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Copywork
About This Passage
This one sentence quietly holds the chapter's deepest lesson. The crew had no 'suspicion' at all — no worried feeling that anything was wrong — yet they still took every 'precaution,' meaning they were careful just in case: they left armed men on the ship and carried their own weapons. Copying it helps a young reader feel a strange, important truth: that even when everything seems perfectly friendly, careful people stay prepared, because trusting too completely can be dangerous. Poe lets this calm sentence sit right before the shock that ends the chapter.
Although, as said before, we entertained not the slightest suspicion, still no proper precaution was neglected.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how Too-wit keeps his word and brings fresh food, even healing the sick crew, while the crew and islanders set up a friendly market and trade beads, knives, and red cloth; how Captain Guy makes a deal with Too-wit to build houses for drying biche de mer and to leave three men behind while the ship sails on; how, after many calm days, the crew goes to the village one last time to say goodbye; how a hundred of Too-wit's men come to meet them carrying no weapons because, Too-wit says, 'all are brothers'; how they walk into a dark, narrow gorge with the islanders before and behind them; and how the chapter ends with a sudden, terrible shock as if the whole earth were breaking apart. Stop where the chapter makes you most worried and tell why.
Discussion Questions
- At the leave-taking, a hundred of Too-wit's men come to meet the crew carrying no weapons, and Too-wit says there is no need of weapons 'where all are brothers.' Why might that make the crew feel safe, and what makes you think something could still be wrong? Use details from the chapter.
- The gorge to Klock-klock is dark, narrow, and hard to get through, yet the crew keeps walking into it behind Too-wit anyway. Why do you think they keep trusting Too-wit there, and what part of the chapter makes you think that trust is starting to look dangerous? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A feeling that something is wrong or that someone cannot be trusted.
Item 2
Something you do ahead of time to stay safe.
Item 3
To trade goods for other goods.
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Critical Thinking
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