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Read these lines: "One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it." According to the quoted lines, how had most of the small change been gathered?
ABy selling household goods to a dealer nearby
BBy haggling with tradesmen over every purchase
CBy taking in extra sewing work in the evenings
DBy saving the coins her husband handed to her
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. By haggling with tradesmen over every purchase
1. Sixty of the hundred and eighty-seven cents are said to be in pennies, so most of the small change is what the sentence goes on to explain.
2. Those pennies were saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer, the vegetable man and the butcher.
3. Bulldozing tradesmen over each purchase is haggling, option B.
4. The burning cheeks show what the habit cost her in pride, and no selling, sewing or handed-over coins appear.
_Source: O. Henry, The Four Million (1906), public domain_
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