Page 15 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade7_Flipbook

Close Reading of informational/literary nonfiction Texts (continued)
key ideas and deTails
Why and how does Tubman maintain a delicate balance so that her followers will experience just the right amount of fear?
key ideas and deTails
How and why does Tubman act differently when approaching this second farmhouse?
She turned away from the house, frowning. She had promised her passengers food and rest and warmth, and instead of that, there would be hunger and cold and more walking over the frozen ground. Somehow she would have to instill courage into these eleven people, most of them strangers, would have to feed them on hope and bright dreams of freedom instead of the fried pork and corn bread and milk she had promised them.
They stumbled along behind her, half dead for sleep, and she urged them on, though she was as tired and as discouraged as they were. She had never been in Canada, but she kept painting wondrous word pictures of what it would be like. She managed to dispel their fear of pursuit so that they would not become hysterical, panic-stricken. Then
she had to bring some of the fear back, so that they would stay awake and keep walking though they drooped with sleep.
Yet, during the day, when they lay down deep in a thicket, they never really slept, because if a twig snapped or the wind sighed in the branches of a pine tree, they jumped to their feet, afraid of their own shadows, shivering and shaking. It was very cold, but they dared not make fires because someone would see the smoke and wonder about it.
***
That night they reached the next stop—a farm that belonged to a German. She made the runaways take shelter behind trees at the edge of the fields before she knocked at the door. She hesitated before she approached the door, thinking, suppose that he too should refuse shelter, suppose—
Then she thought, Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to You and You’ve got to see me through—and knocked softly.
She heard the familiar guttural voice say, “Who’s there?”
She answered quickly, “A friend with friends.”
He opened the door and greeted her warmly. “How many this time?” he asked. “Eleven,” she said and waited, doubting, wondering.
He said, “Good. Bring them in.”
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SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 7
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