CHAPTER VIII 

And these two, as I have told you, Were the friends of Hiawatha, Chibiabos, the musician, And the very strong man, Kwasind. --Hiawatha 

Torpenhow was paging the last sheets of some manuscript, while the Nilghai, who had come for chess and remained to talk tactics, was reading through the first part, commenting scornfully the while. 

"It's picturesque enough and it's sketchy," said he; "but as a serious consideration of affairs in Eastern Europe, it's not worth much." 

"It's off my hands at any rate. . . . Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine slips altogether, aren't there? That should make between eleven and twelve pages of valuable misinformation. Heigh-ho!" Torpenhow shuffled the writing together and hummed-- 

'Young lambs to sell, young lambs to sell, If I'd as much money as I could tell, I never would cry, Young lambs to sell!'" 

Dick entered, self-conscious and a little defiant, but in the best of tempers with all the world. 

"Back at last?" said Torpenhow. 

"More or less. What have you been doing?" 

"Work. Dickie, you behave as though the Bank of England were behind you. Here's Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday gone and you haven't done a line. It's scandalous." 

"The notions come and go, my children--they come and go like our 'baccy," he answered, filling his pipe. "Moreover," he stooped to thrust a spill into the grate, "Apollo does not always stretch his----Oh, confound your clumsy jests, Nilghai!" 

"This is not the place to preach the theory of direct inspiration," said the Nilghai, returning Torpenhow's large and workmanlike bellows to their nail on the wall. "We believe in cobblers" wax. La!--where you sit down."  QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. Who was paging?
2. Who was paging documents?
3. 
Q2:
1. What was Torpenhow paging?
2. What documents was Torpenhow paging?
3. 
Q3:
1. Who had come for chess?
2. Who was there for chess?
3. 
Q4:
1. Did the Nilghai stay after chess?
2. Did the Nilghai stay back after chess?
3. Did the Nilghai stay?
Q5:
1. Why did the Nilghai stay back?
2. Why did the Nilghai stay after chess had ended?
3. 
Q6:
1. Was the Nilghai reading anything?
2. Was the Nilghai reading?
3. 
Q7:
1. How was the Nilghai commenting about what he was reading?
2. In what way was the Nilghai commenting on what he was reading?
3. In what manner did the Nilghai comment on what he was reading?
Q8:
1. How does the Nilghai describe what he read?
2. What does the Nilghai say about the thing he read?
3. 
Q9:
1. Does the Nilghai think that what he read is worth anything?
2. Does the Nilghai think that the documents he read are worth much?
3. 
Q10:
1. How many slips were in the document that the Nilghai read?
2. The Nilghai said there were what number of slips in what he read?
3. The document that the Nilghai read had how many slips in it?
Q11:
1. How many pages did the Nilghai say the document had?
2. The Nilghai counted how many pages in the document he was reading?
3. 
Q12:
1. Who arrived to meet Torpenhow and the Nilghai?
2. Who entered the place Torpenhow and the Nilghai were at?
3. 
Q13:
1. Was Dick self-conscious?
2. Was Dick feeling self-conscious?
3. 
Q14:
1. How does Dickie behave when he meets Torpenhow?
2. How does Dick act when he enters the place where Torpenhow and the Nilghai are at?
3. 
Q15:
1. Has Dick done any lines?
2. Had Dick done any lines by the time he entered?
3. 
