Please, please answer the questions!

[asad hussain]

Thanks to all of you for all the help you people have given me. But I am sorry to say that some problems are still untied.
First, in the second question I am asked to tell two things-who’s the speaker talking to, and how can I judge the sex of the person he is talking to. Does ‘Darling-suggests female” answer both the questions together, and how should I answer the question in my notebook? Second, How does the sentence “People know when deliveries take place.” satisfy the demand of the question? The third problem is regarding to the first part of question no. 7. As per Bobk the dogs of both the house owner and the smugglers are trusty and Pinchers. But Kipling utters ‘the house-dogs bark’. And Richard hasn’t told whose dogs are Trusty and Pinchers. And the last one is related to question no 6, in reply to which I am supposed to state the reason that mother is mending a coat with a wet lining. Richard (Tdol) goes “Maybe it has been torn to get at something hidden in the lining.” Can I write the answer to the question in the same way?

Please please help me out!

Meanwhile I am really sorry if am getting too much annoying, and Thanks a lot again.

[Casiopea]

I trust this isn't a homework assignment, because as you know we try not to do your work for you.

A Smugglers' SongRudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street, Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Five and twenty ponies Trotting through the dark - Brandy for the Parson, Baccy for the Clerk Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,

And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Running round the woodlump if you chance to find Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wined; Don't you shout to come and look, nor take 'em for your play; Put the brushwood back again, - and they'll be gone next day!

If you see the stableyard setting open wide; If you see a tired horse lying down inside; If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore; If the lining's wet and warm - don't you ask no more!

If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red, You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said. If they call you 'pretty maid’, and chuck you 'neath the chin, Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!

Knocks and footsteps round the house - whistles after dark - You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark. Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie - They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!

If you do as you've been told, likely there's a chance, You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France, With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood - A present from the Gentlemen, along o’ being good!

Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark - Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk.

Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie, Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Here are the questions.

1. Where do you imagine the story of this poem is set?
=> On a farm in England. Clues: woodlump, stableyard; King George's men.

2. Who is the speaker talking to? How can you tell whether they are male or female?
=> He's talking to his daughter. Clues: my darling, pretty maid, you'll be given a dainty doll (in those days, boys didn't play with dainty dolls).

3. What is the person being told?
=> Don't tell anyone what goes on at home; where your father has been; when he comes home; what he has with him; the people who come to the house; the things you find in the yard; the mending your mother has does. Keep silent. Mind your own business. Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!

4. Who are ‘the Gentlemen’, and who are the ‘King George’s men?
=> The Gentlemen are the smugglers (honor among theives); King George's men are soldiers (smuggling is illegal).

5. Why do you think that the brandy-wine will be gone by the next day?
=> They are smuggled goods and they are moved/sold the next day. Timing is important. Get the goods in and get them out as soon as possible. Otherwise, the soldiers might find them.

Here are the smuggled goods the horses bring in at night,
Five and twenty ponies Trotting through the dark - Brandy for the Parson, Baccy for the Clerk Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,

6. Why is mother mending a coat with a wet lining?
=> The coat was torn when the smuggled goods were being moved from the ship to the farm.

7. Whose dogs are Trusty and Pinchers? Why don’t they bark?
=> They are the family's (smuggler's) dogs. They watch the farm; they protect the family from approaching stangers.
=> They don't bark because the Gentlemen (the smugglers) are known to them. They will bark though if strangers (King George's men) approach the house.

8. What is meant by ‘watch the wall’ in this poem?
=> It means, mind your own business; don't get involved. If you know something, you'll be more prone to tell; if you don't know anything, you'll be less likely to tell.

[asad hussain]

Thanks a lot for this such a great great deal of help, Casiopea! No, it's not any homework assignment.

[Casiopea]

You're most welcome.