Pre-Reading Reading Discussion:

• What words would you use to describe Mercer's relationship with Tyree?
• Why does she need to be with him?
• What role does she cast herself when they are together? How do you compare this relationship with the ones she had with Cooper and Pryor? Are they in love?
• Do you see a future with Mercer and Tyree? Why or why not?

Vocabulary:

• balk (p.271)
• phlegm (p.272)
• ludicrous (p.272)
• rendezvous (p.289)

Read:

Chapter Twelve

Post-Reading Discussion:

• Aunt Bea actually had all of Roland's money for his trip to Africa stuffed in a hole in her mattress.
  • How did it come about that she held the money?
  • What do you think may have happened to the missing portion of the money?
• Prudence Randall was offended by the letter Mercer received from the Quick family alerting her of their concerns about her safety in some of the speaking locations in upstate Pennsylvania.
  • Why would she have been offended?

Group Activity:

Using a map of the East coast locate and label Mercer Gray's places of travel from Virginia to the New England States.