The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife: 15 questions

Ernest Hemingway · 1924

Questions on the text, each answered in the book’s own words, with the minute you hear it.

Challenge a friend: 123BookWarThe text

1. 1. Who did Dick Boulton bring with him from the Indian camp?

   Answer His son Eddy and Billy Tabeshaw

   “He brought his son Eddy, and another Indian named Billy Tabeshaw with him.”

   Hear it at 0:05 · in the text

2. 2. What was Eddy carrying when they came in through the back gate?

   Answer The long cross-cut saw

   “They came in through the back gate out of the woods, Eddy carrying the long cross-cut saw.”

   Hear it at 0:10 · in the text

3. 3. What was the name of the steamer that towed the log booms down the lake to the mill?

   Answer The Magic

   “The logs had been lost from the big log booms that were towed down the lake to the mill by the steamer Magic.”

   Hear it at 0:36 · in the text

4. 4. How many big beech logs were lying almost buried in the sand?

   Answer Four

   “There were four big beech logs lying almost buried in the sand.”

   Hear it at 1:23 · in the text

5. 5. In what language did Dick speak to Eddy and Billy Tabeshaw?

   Answer Ojibway

   “He took a plug of tobacco out of his pocket, bit off a chew and spoke in Ojibway to Eddy and Billy Tabeshaw.”

   Hear it at 1:42 · in the text

6. 6. Whose log was it, by the mark of the scaler's hammer?

   Answer White and McNally's

   “It belongs to White and McNally,” he said, standing up and brushing off his trousers knees.”

   Hear it at 2:52 · in the text

7. 7. What did the doctor say he would do if Dick called him Doc once again?

   Answer Knock his eye teeth down his throat

   “If you call me Doc once again, I’ll knock your eye teeth down your throat.”

   Hear it at 3:48 · in the text

8. 8. Who went back and fastened the gate that Dick left open?

   Answer Billy Tabeshaw

   “Dick left the gate open. Billy Tabeshaw went back and fastened it.”

   Hear it at 4:48 · in the text

9. 9. What did the doctor see on the floor by the bureau that irritated him?

   Answer A pile of medical journals, still in their wrappers

   “saw a pile of medical journals on the floor by the bureau. They were still in their wrappers unopened. It irritated him.”

   Hear it at 4:55 · in the text

10. 10. What is the doctor's first name?

    Answer Henry

    “I hope you didn’t lose your temper, Henry.”

    Hear it at 5:23 · in the text

11. 11. What was the doctor's wife?

    Answer A Christian Scientist

    “She was a Christian Scientist. Her Bible, her copy of Science and Health and her Quarterly were on a table beside her bed in the darkened room.”

    Hear it at 5:34 · in the text

12. 12. What was the doctor doing on his bed while his wife talked from the darkened room?

    Answer Cleaning a shotgun

    “He was sitting on his bed now, cleaning a shotgun. He pushed the magazine full of the heavy yellow shells and pumped them out again.”

    Hear it at 5:45 · in the text

13. 13. What reason did the doctor give for Dick wanting a row?

    Answer Dick owed him a lot of money for pulling his squaw through pneumonia

    “Dick owes me a lot of money for pulling his squaw through pneumonia and I guess he wanted a row so he wouldn’t have to take it out in work.”

    Hear it at 6:22 · in the text

14. 14. Where did the doctor put the shotgun?

    Answer In the corner behind the dresser

    “The doctor stood up and put the shotgun in the corner behind the dresser.”

    Hear it at 7:01 · in the text

15. 15. What did Nick say he knew where there was?

    Answer Black squirrels

    “I know where there’s black squirrels, Daddy,” Nick said.”

    Hear it at 8:03 · in the text

“The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” Transatlantic Review, Paris, December 1924; collected in In Our Time (Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925). This text follows the Wikisource transcription of the 1925 first edition. Public domain in the United States.