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Making the Team, 6e (Thompson)
Chapter 6 Team Communication and Collective Intelligence
1) The common information effect is best described as the tendency for groups to:
A) spend too long attempting to reach consensus on a problem.
B) consider and implement solutions that other groups have used rather than experiment with
novel solutions.
C) want to delay making important decisions, even when they have all of the relevant
information necessary to make a decision.
D) discuss and consider information that they all have in common more than unique information
(that only one person in the group may be aware of).
Answer: D
Page Ref: 150-151
Diff: Easy
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
2) A team with a high adaptive capacity brings what capability to their organization?
A) Knowledge capacity
B) Ability to change or shift their strategy in the face of upheaval
C) Team's capacity to assimilate new knowledge
D) Team's capacity to apply new information and knowledge
Answer: B
Page Ref: 137
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Application
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
3) In regards to the common information effect, what is the main problem with an uneven
distribution of information?
A) Some team members are willing to share information with others, but some are not.
B) Certain pieces of information get more time, attention, and emphasis than alternative pieces of
information.
C) The collective intelligence between the partners can be unbalanced.
D) Certain group members can be uninterested in the discussion and not want to participate.
Answer: B
Page Ref: 150-151
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
1
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
4) An intervention that might exacerbate the common information effect is:
A) approaching the task as a problem to be solved, not a judgment to be made.
B) ranking rather than choosing.
C) suspending initial judgment.
D) prediscussion polling.
Answer: D
Page Ref: 154
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
6) A team mental model is a common understanding that members of a team share about how
something works. For example, a team might have a common understanding of how to assemble
a transistor radio. All of the following are true about team mental models EXCEPT:
A) they may be assessed in terms of how accurate they are.
B) they may be assessed in terms of how much correspondence (agreement) there is among team
members' mental models.
C) they are developed instantly, naturally, and are immediately compatible.
D) teams may have mental models about physical systems as well as social systems (such as how
their group works).
Answer: C
Page Ref: 138-140
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
2
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
7) A transactive memory system, or TMS, is a shared system for attending to, encoding, storing,
processing, and retrieving information. In one investigation, teams were asked to assemble radios
without written instructions. The most effective group was given what type of training
experience before "group test day"?
A) Members received their training individually.
B) Members received team training, but were re-assembled into different groups for test day.
C) Members received team training and were assigned to work with same team on test day.
D) Members received their training individually, and also underwent a trust-building workshop
as a team prior to test day.
Answer: C
Page Ref: 145
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
8) A study at an R&D organization, where teams worked together for more than five years,
revealed what?
A) The performance of the groups increased over time, but only up to a point; after five years of
working together, performance declined steeply.
B) The performance of the groups decreased steadily over time.
C) The performance of the groups remained steady over time, but declined sharply after five
years of working together.
D) The performance of the groups increased over time in a steady, consistent fashion.
Answer: A
Page Ref: 160-161
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
9) Which of the following strategies for reducing the common information effect has been found
to be most effective?
A) Increase the amount of discussion
B) Put the team leader in the position of information manager.
C) Increase the size of the team
D) Increase information load
Answer: B
Page Ref: 154-155
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
3
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
10) Key indicators of involvement in an experienced community of practice (the person's level of
engagement with the given practice community) are a shared vocabulary, recall of previous
lessons, learning from one another, and:
A) beliefs leading to different scanning orientations.
B) performance under pressure.
C) open communication.
D) diversity of knowledge.
Answer: C
Page Ref: 136
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
11) A situational example of a team putting knowledge to practice through knowledge adaptation
is:
A) a manager discovers, by lots of personal research, that his department has created a new type
of adhesive that is not sticky when wet but very sticky when dry. The manager challenges
himself and his employees to improvise fixes to an employee's broken bicycle with this product.
B) a manager challenges the use of a newly developed fixture at her departmental status meeting.
This manager pushes the fixture design department to keep refining the design with new
parameters in mind.
C) in order to shorten his team's R&D phase, a manager visits the company archives and
researches past formulas that led to unsuccessful results.
D) a manager finds out that their newest product is not doing well in the market. He pushes the
team to take a new look at their product research, and make changes to the product based on the
team expanding their knowledge of marketplace trends.
Answer: A
Page Ref: 137
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Critical thinking
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
12) When a team consists of members who come from different functional areas, with different
areas of expertise, different information, different priorities, and different perceptions of
problems and opportunities, the ________ is exacerbated.
A) saying is believing effect
B) information dependence problem
C) uneven communication problem
D) indirect speech acts effect
Answer: B
Page Ref: 149
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
4
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
13) Regarding information dependence issues, which of the following examples best illustrates
the concept of a hidden profile?
A) Mary, Talia, and Sue have researched where the company retreat should be held this year, and
they seem to agree on the location. However, Talia has found out some information that she
hasn't yet shared with the group; a motorcycle convention at the same time and location as their
retreat, which, if shared, will probably contradict the team's common choice.
B) Kelly, Bob and Dan have separately researched options for next year's company retreat. Each
team member has unique information regarding the choices for the event location. No one
location seems to be the best choice for the retreat.
C) Carl, David, and Jean are considering six pieces of information regarding the decision about
the location of their company retreat. Even though each piece of decision criteria seems to be of
equal importance, Dan and Carl have been overemphasizing the importance of access to nature
trails. Mary feels pressured to overweigh this individual decision point at the expense of other
criteria.
D) Ted, Paul, and Laurel together have done their research about the choices for the location of
the company retreat. Each person knows the same information, both good and bad, as the other
group members.
Answer: A
Page Ref: 151
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Application
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
14) What is one of the best ways for improving the quality of pooled information collected
during a collaborative problem-solving session?
A) Allow the group to have an unstructured method for gathering and sharing information.
B) The group shares ideas in the moment they occur to them.
C) Allow individual group members the time to internally recall and record details or
observations to be shared later with the group.
D) Have teams pair off, and create collaborative observations to be shared later with the group as
a whole.
Answer: C
Page Ref: 134
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
5
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
15) A team mental model is a common understanding, shared by members of a team, about how
something works. Mental models most efficiently develop through the process of:
A) trust exercises.
B) team members sharing information regarding their specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities.
C) hiring an outside consultant to teach the team how something works.
D) watching others outside of the group figure out how something works.
Answer: B
Page Ref: 138
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
16) The greater the overlap, or commonality of experience, or among team members' mental
models, the greater the likelihood that team members will:
A) be able to avoid interpersonal conflict.
B) engage in healthy conflict.
C) be able to cope with unexpected demands.
D) create new innovation for old problems.
Answer: C
Page Ref: 140
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
17) A truism for optimizing the knowledge resources of a team, is that teams perform better
when their members know who is good at what. Two advantages of this shared knowledge
amongst team members are that unexpected problems can be solved more quickly and:
A) team members can match problems with the people most likely to solve them.
B) communication between team members becomes more contentious.
C) managers are assigned less blame for team project failure.
D) team members don't need to learn new skills.
Answer: A
Page Ref: 142
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
6
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
18) In a longitudinal study of teams that worked together for over 5 years, a series of behavioral
changes took place in these aging groups. Each of the following occurred EXCEPT:
A) behavioral stability.
B) selective exposure.
C) role assimilation.
D) group homogeneity.
Answer: C
Page Ref: 160-161
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
19) Transactive Memory Systems are the ways in which teams encode, store, process and
retrieve critical information necessary for doing their work. Of the following, select the best
situational example of a Transactive Memory System.
A) Molly keeps track of all her own work files by an elaborate cross-referencing system.
B) Tom secretly stashes away all of the new business leads, so that he can follow up with them
himself.
C) Karen keeps records on customer satisfaction reviews, and Kari keeps records on product
reliability, but neither are aware of this.
D) Julia has considerable experience in product engineering and Nathan has a background in
product parts sourcing, and they are able to remember more about a new client because each
knows the other's skill set.
Answer: D
Page Ref: 141-142
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Analytical thinking
20) Functionally diverse teams are composed of people who have different information,
knowledge, and expertise and must share and integrate it. ________ problem-solving is the art
and science of sharing and using knowledge, and making inferences that no individual group
member could have inferred.
A) Collaborative
B) Tactical
C) Strategic
D) Transactive
Answer: A
Page Ref: 134
Diff: Easy
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
7
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
21) Several factors can threaten the ability of teams to accurately share and use knowledge. One
of these problems, the uneven communication problem, is best illustrated in which of the
following situational examples?
A) In a brainstorming meeting with 6 team members, 3 of the team members did 70% of the
talking, while the other team members barely had a chance to voice their opinions and concerns.
B) Fern and Sybil have the same manager, but Fern sits next to her manager and so has many
opportunities to discuss project progress, but Sybil sits in an office on a different floor and only
gets to see her manager during staff meetings.
C) Pete keeps records on customer orders, and Ross keeps records on product recalls, but neither
are aware of this.
D) Julia is helping Kari bake a cake for a client, so she prepares the kitchen by getting out Kari's
preferred tools and rescheduling a vendor appointment because Julia knows Kari hates to be
interrupted when she is working.
Answer: A
Page Ref: 134
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
22) A team that has a large ________ has inconsistent views about the definition of the team's
problem or task, such that team members have different mental models about the task.
A) organizational context
B) team culture
C) representational gap
D) goal contagion
Answer: C
Page Ref: 138
Diff: Easy
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
8
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
24) ________ coordination is the synchronization of members' actions based on assumptions
about what others on the team are likely to do and members' attempts to coordinate work in this
way begins prior to actual team interaction.
A) Strategic
B) Orienting
C) Gatekeeping
D) Tacit
Answer: D
Page Ref: 143
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
25) Regarding routine versus nonroutine tasks, what team factor is the best indicator that a
process will go quickly, smoothly, and minimize errors?
A) How long the team members have been in their area of expertise.
B) The number of times the team has worked together as a team on similar tasks.
C) How much training each individual person has acquired throughout their career.
D) The age of the technology and techniques the team is using to accomplish their task.
Answer: B
Page Ref: 143
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
26) Accountability refers to the extent to which people and teams feel responsible for their
actions and decisions and teams that are accountable are less likely to focus on unshared
information. When groups are made to be accountable for their ________, rather than ________,
they are more likely to repeat unshared information and make better decisions.
A) time spent on the task; quota of tasks completed
B) leadership decisions; team decisions
C) process; their outcome
D) monetary gains; productivity gains
Answer: C
Page Ref: 154
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
9
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
27) Each of the following are effective interventions to defeat the common information effect,
EXCEPT:
A) leaders asking questions and repeat unshared/shared information.
B) prediscussion polling.
C) approach the task as a problem to be solved, rather than a judgment to be made.
D) build trust and familiarity among team members.
Answer: B
Page Ref: 154
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
2 True/False Questions
1) In an investigation of several teams working on a complex skill task over a 2-week training
protocol, both mental model accuracy and mental model correspondence were tested. Mental
model correspondence was the stronger predictor of team performance.
Answer: FALSE
Page Ref: 141
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
3) Training is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that groups quickly and accurately
develop a transactive memory system and thereby protect team effectiveness.
Answer: TRUE
Page Ref: 144
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Written and oral communication
4) Regarding the team reaction to free-riders, teams with an integrated TMS suffer more negative
socioemotional interactions, lower cohesion, and greater conflict than do teams with a
differentiated TMS.
Answer: FALSE
Page Ref: 144
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
10
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
5) A TMS and an emphasis on team training are most relevant to problem-solving teams as
opposed to tactical or creative teams.
Answer: FALSE
Page Ref: 146
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Application of knowledge
6) Even when teams are explicitly told to spend more time discussing information about a topic
or decision, they often still fall prey to the common information effect.
Answer: TRUE
Page Ref: 153
Diff: Moderate
Skill: Concept
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
3 Essay Questions
1) Regarding training for teams, a fundamental question that companies face is whether to train
individuals independently or as part of a team. What recommendations does the chapter give on
this question and what are some of the benefits of this type of training team to the larger
organization and to the team?
Page Ref: 145
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Synthesis
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
2) How could the common information effect and the information dependence problem affect 3
different candidates for a job interview?
Page Ref: 148-150, Ex. 6-4
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Application
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
3) How is team performance affected when its members have direct experience with a task
versus task experience acquired vicariously from others and how does increasing feedback
specificity affect knowledge transfer?
Page Ref: 159
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Application
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
11
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
4) For much of the work that organizations do, routinization is a good thing; however, for a large
part of what organizations do, innovation is desirable and necessary to meet the competitive
challenges of the marketplace. How can a well-defined TMS affect a team's ability to be adaptive
and what are the effects of team longevity on the project performance and intercompany
performance of the team?
Page Ref: 159
Diff: Challenging
Skill: Application
AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
12
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
Another random document with
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way, but not quite like the town doctors; and the ministers are very
nice—” This she said in a hesitating undertone, not expressive of
hearty concurrence, and ended in a firmer voice, “but not like my
own.”
“’Deed, mem,” said Hillend, “gi’e us farmers a gude miller an’ a gude
smith, an’ we can do weel enough wi’ ony ministers or doctors that
likes to come.”
“That wasna bad for Hillend,” said Bell.
“Well, Bell,” said Mr. Walker, “I thought it rather hard on the ministers
when I first heard the story, but—” And here he gave his views of the
Non-Intrusionists with, for him, unusual fervour, and added, “Now I
quite agree with Hillend, that congregations should accept, and
welcome, and honour the ministers who are appointed over them.”
“That’s without a doubt,” said Bell; “and esteem them very highly for
their work’s sake.”
The news of Mr. Walker’s appointment to Blinkbonny
was received with first a stare, then a shrug of the “AS YOU
shoulders, then a pretty general feeling that “they LIKE IT.”
might have had worse.” He was certainly not a shining
light, but he was a nice man, had a large family, and it would be a
good change for them. And although the local poetaster circulated a
sorry effusion on the subject, in which he, without acknowledgment,
stole from Cowper’s Needless Alarm,—
and—
[11] Endure.
But when the settling up came, Bell found Mrs. Walker “easy dealt
wi’,”—not only satisfied with her valuation, but very complimentary as
to the state in which everything was left, and very agreeable—very.
CHAPTER VII.
OUT OF THE OLD HOME AND INTO THE NEW.
James Ballantine.
[13] Trust.
Dan waited long and wearily for his expected brood; he looked for
them on the reckoned day, but it passed, and the next, and the next,
until a full week had elapsed, and still no birds. Early on the eighth
morning he determined to “pitch” the eggs away, and was angrily
stooping down to lift off the hen, which, although it was a great
favourite and a “splendid sitter,” would have had a rough toss and a
long one, when he heard a cheep.
The welcome sound was marrow to his bones. “Eh!”
was his first exclamation; “what’s that? is’t possible HIDDEN
after a’?” He heard more cheeping. “Isn’t it a gude TREASUR
thing I’ve been sae patient?” Then looking at the hen, ES.
which, but a minute before, he was preparing to use
very roughly, he said, “Eh, grannie, grannie, ye’re the best clocker in
the county; eh, my auld darlin’, my queen o’ beauty, ye’ll no’ want
your handfu’ o’ groats for this—I’ll gi’e ye a peck; jist anither day,
grannie, an’ ye’ll get oot wi’ yer darlin’s, ye ace o’ diements!”
The cheeping had now become very decided, and Dan, again
addressing grannie, said: “Sit on, my flower o’ the flock, my fail-me-
never, hap[15] the giant-killers wi’ yer bonnie, golden, cosy feathers
just till the nicht, till their wee jackets an’ glancin’ spurs are dry; an’
I’ll bring a’ the neebors about seven o’clock when they come hame,
and I’ll open the door, an’ ye’ll march out like Wallington at the head
o’ the Scotch Greys at Waterloo; and will they no’ stare when they
see your sturdy family following ye like the Royal Artillery?”
He then locked the door, and “warned” his cronies and neighbours to
come “sharp seven,” and they would see something really worth their
while.
Dan was in the fidgets all afternoon. Shortly before seven o’clock a
small crowd had gathered in his garden, to which Dan told the
pedigree of the birds, and spoke of their qualities in the most glowing
terms.
“Let’s see them, Dan,” said several voices; “let’s see them.”
“I’m waiting for Watty,” said Dan; and turning to a boy, said, “Gang to
the house-end, ma man, an’ see if he’s no’ comin’;” then addressing
his visitors, he said, “Watty’s the only man that I’m feared for in this
district; his birds hae beaten mine owre often; I’ll tether him noo, or
I’m cheated.”
As Dan finished this speech, Watty, a queer-looking customer
wearing a hairy skull-cap, smoking a short black pipe, and with both
hands in his pockets, joined the gathering. He gave a side nod to
Dan, and said “Hoo’s a’?” to the company.
“Noo for the show!” said Dan, as he unlocked the
’TWIXT hen-house (it was coal-house, goat-house, and
THE CUP served various other purposes), and flung the door
AND THE wide open, saying, “Come awa’, grannie, wi’ your
LIP.
‘royal family.’ There’s a pictur’, men, for ye.”
Grannie’s family had been restless, because hungry and particularly
thirsty, and she and they obeyed Dan’s summons with great
readiness and even haste.
Watty, who had till then smoked on in silence, quickly took the pipe
out of his mouth, stooped a little, shaded his eyes with one hand,
and seemed sadly puzzled. His first remark was:
“Man, Dan, they’ve awfu’ braid nebs” (broad bills).
“Braid nebs, or no’ braid nebs,” said Dan, “the game’s there onyway.”
“May be,” said Watty, “but they have maist awfu’ braid nebs,” for by
this time he and all the onlookers had “smelt a rat;” “and in ma
opinion they’re jucks.”
“Ye’re a juck!” said Dan, looking at him fiercely.
“Dinna look at me, Dan, look at them; look at their nebs, look at their
wab-feet—is thae no jucks?”
A second glance revealed to Dan that this was too true.
Roars of laughter, which only such an audience can give, ensued, in
which “Braid nebs,” “Gemm jucks,” “Grannie’s royal family,” “Tether
Watty,” were heard amidst the noisy peals of the uncontrolled and
apparently uncontrollable merriment.
Dan looked unutterable things; his face was one of dismal agony. He
took side glances at the crowd; each followed by a long look—a
perplexed, vindictive look—at the ducklings; whilst all the while the
crowd waxed merrier, and laughed louder as they saw his miserable,
heartbroken countenance.
Watty stooped down to lift a duckling, saying at the same time, “Man,
Dan, have ye lost your sicht? Div ye no’ see that thae’s jucks? Look
at their nebs, their feet, their size; hear their weet-weet;” but
“Grannie” barred the pass, flew at his hand, and pecked it sharply.
This revived the sorely afflicted Dan, and rousing himself, he said,
“Weel dune, grannie!” which the crowd received with a cheer and a
very loud laugh.
One of the onlookers, wishing to soothe Dan, said: “Jucks are as
gude as hens ony day, Dan; an’ they’re healthy-like birds.”
“You ignorant gomeral![16] you senseless blockhead! you born idiot!”
said Dan, his excitement increasing as he proceeded; “jucks like
game-cocks! jucks like the kind o’ game-cocks that should ha’ been
there, that were set by my ain hands! haud yer bletherin’[17] tongue.
Somebody’s been puggyin’[18] me. If I kent wha dared to tak’ their
nap[19] aff me, I wad gi’e them what they wad mind a’ their days; I
would fell them!”
[19] Fun.
A large crowd had now collected in Dan’s garden, and when the
new-comers heard the cause of the merriment, they joined in it and
kept it up.
“What are ye a’ doin’ laughin’ there at, like
LET heeawnies [hyenas]? Out o’ this, every one o’ ye, or
SLEEPING I’ll gar some o’ ye laugh on the ither side o’ yer lug
DOGS LIE. [ear]!” said Dan, looking daggers.
“Lock them up, Dan, for fear the witches change them into turkeys,”
said one of the crowd.
This made Dan furious: he seized an old spade which lay on the top
of his hen-house, and vowed that he “would fell ony man that said
another word.”
“If ye can catch him,” said a waif, with a knowing wink; and he made
off as fast as he could.
“If I can what?” said Dan. “I believe you’re the vagabond that’s
puggied me, and I’ll catch ye, supple an’ a’ as ye think ye are!”
Dan started, holding the spade over his head, fury in his eye,
vengeance in his heart. The crowd saw that his blood was up, and
cried, “Run, run, run for your very life!”
The man got into the field that lay between Dan’s cottage and Knowe
Park; Dan followed, as did also many of the crowd. The pursued
man, repenting of his rashness, and fearing the worst, as well he
might, made straight for Knowe Park wall.
Bell had heard the laughter when milking Daisy; Mr. and Mrs. Barrie
had heard it when taking an evening stroll in the garden, and all
three were standing at the wall wondering what could cause it, as the
laughter was unusually boisterous. They saw the chase begin. The
flying man observed Mr. Barrie, and made toward him as to a city of
refuge. When Mr. Barrie saw Dan rushing on, so dangerously armed
and so furious, he cried loudly, “Stop, Corbett! stop! I command you.”
This made Dan slacken his pace and lower his spade, but he walked
sulkily on with the crowd, saying, “I’m no’ dune wi’ him yet. I’ll gi’e
him’t for this yet.—Wait a wee, just wait a wee,” until they came to
the wall of the garden.
“Whatever is all this about?” said Mr. Barrie. “What’s wrong, Corbett,
that you are so furious?”
“A’s wrang, sir, a’s wrang. I’ve been rubbit [i.e. robbed], an’ insulted,
an’ chagareened by that—” It took Dan a little time to select an
epithet strong enough for the occasion, and at the same time fit for
the minister’s ears. This was a difficult matter; many rushed to his
tongue-end, strong, withering, seasoned; undoubtedly, had it not
been for Mr. Barrie, he would have fired them off in a volley, and
greatly relieved himself thereby. At length he hurled out, “that
unhanged vagabond, he’s puggied me, but—”
Mr. Barrie looked at Dan, and said, “Stop, Corbett, say no more till
your passion cools;” then turning to the crowd he said, “What is the
cause of this unseemly uproar?”
Watty and several others began to explain the affair,
but every one that attempted it had to stop after saying PROBING
a word or two; even the offending man, although now THE
quite safe, was unable to get beyond “Dan set hens’ WOUND.
eggs” for laughing, and every man in the field was
writhing in fits and contortions, through excessive laughter, with the
exception of Dan, on whom the laughter was telling like oil on a
flame.
Mr. Barrie looked at Dan, and seeing that he was becoming even
more ferocious, said calmly: “Corbett, from the behaviour of the
crowd I suspect they have been playing some trick on you, and they
evidently have succeeded to their entire satisfaction, but to your
great annoyance. Please tell me really what has excited you.”
Dan told his story. The laughter was quite as general, but became
more distant as he proceeded, for whilst telling his tale he scowled
on the “grinning baboons,” as he called them, and clutched his
spade angrily, which still further widened the circle. Although Mr.
Barrie remained grave, Mrs. Barrie could not but laugh quietly, and
Bell, sheltered by an evergreen shrub, did so heartily, repeating,
“Well, I never!” All at once she stopped, thought a little, then saying
to herself, “That explains it,” she came close to the wall at the point
where Dan stood, and said: “There’s a brood o’ chickens, lang-leggit,
sharp-nebbit things, come to me that I never set; they’re maybe
yours, they’re no ours—they’re come-o’-wills.”
“What!” said Dan; “whan did they come out?”
“This day week exactly.”
“Let’s see them. Come in, Watty, an’ gie’s your skill o’ them,” said
Dan, with a happier but still nervous face; then addressing himself to
Bell, he said: “Hoo mony came oot?”
“Eleven out o’ thirteen; there were twa eggs did naething.”
“That’s very gude; that’s grand!” said Dan, who was already climbing
the wall to get in.
“Had ye no’ better wait till the morn’s mornin’?” said the considerate
Bell. “They’re a’ shut up for the nicht, an’ cosy under their mother’s
wing; ye’ll disturb them, puir things.”
“I maun see them the nicht; I’ll no’ live if I dinna see them the noo,
but I’ll be real canny wi’ them. Come on.”
Dan, Watty, and Bell went to the “cavie” or hencoop,
folded back the old bag which had been dropt over the BETTER
front of it to keep the inmates warm, and Dan saw to LO’ED YE
his intense delight two little heads peeping from under CANNA
their feathery covering. His educated although single BE.
eye at once settled the kind: “Game, game, every inch o’ them, and
baith cocks!” Then turning to his crony he said: “Watty, you’ll lift the
hen canny, canny, an’ I’ll tak’ stock.”
The result was “six cocks an’ five hens, the real true-blue breed,”
declared by Dan, and confirmed by Watty, with the addition of, “Dan,
ye’re rich noo.”
Bell would not hear of them being shifted that night, and ultimately
persuaded Dan to “leave them wi’ her hen till they were pickin’ for
themselves; she would take care o’ them, an’ nae cats could get
near them, for she had just gotten new nets.”
Dan got Bell to take the ducks,—“he couldn’t bear them; there was
nae water for them; his fowls wad dab them till there was no’ ane
left; it wad be a great obleegement to him.”
When Dan got home he could not rest; he smartly took down his
fishing-rod and strode to the waterside. The evening air cooled him,
and he was further consoled by a good take. Under the “bass” (straw
door-mat) at Knowe Park kitchen door next morning, Bell found a
ten-pound salmon and three good large trouts—possibly they had
not passed the water-bailiffs. Bell looked at all sides of the question
of “what to do with them?” Many difficulties presented themselves to
her honest, correct mind, and as the greatest of these was, “What
else could she do with them?” she took in the foundlings and used
them well.
There was a little coming and going between Bell and Dan, until the
chickens were able to shift for themselves. When that was the case,
he carried them carefully over to his own house, and shared it with
them for a few months. The ducklings throve with Bell, and she
repaid Dan for them and the fish (for she found out that her guess as
to its having come from Dan was correct) in several ways, but
principally by occasional dozens of her “buttered” eggs. When eggs
were abundant, and therefore cheap, she preserved a large quantity
by rubbing them when newly laid with a very little butter all over, and
keeping them in salt. It was generally thought that she had some
special receipt or “secret,” for her buttered eggs had a fresh, curdy,
rich flavour that few preservers could attain to.
A penurious old maid had complained to Bell that “she did not
understand her hens; she was quite provoked at them, because in
the summer-time, when eggs were only sixpence the dozen, they
laid lots, but in the winter-time, when they were more than double
that price, they would not lay at all.”
Bell’s reply was: “I daresay no’; but ’deed, mem, ye’ll
CATCHING need to baith feed them better, an’ keep them
A TARTAR. cleaner and cosier, or they’ll do but little for you.”
The nicknames by which Dan had formerly been distinguished were,
after the affair of the ducklings, dropt entirely out of use, and he was
thereafter spoken of as “Braidnebs,” although none could use it in his
hearing with impunity.
Thomas Scott, the farmer of Babbie’s Mill, a forward ill-bred man,
was speaking in the market to Mr. Taylor, the elder already referred
to in these “Bits.” Dan chanced to pass near them, and the miller
said, loud enough for him and the most of the folks about the cross
to hear him, “Braidnebs or no’ braidnebs, the game’s there onyway.”
Dan scowled at the miller, and tried to suppress his rage. In his own
words, “I tried to steek[20] my mouth, but there was a rattlin’ in my
throat like to choke me. I lookit at Mr. Taylor. He kent,[21] ’deed a’body
kent, that the miller’s wife was a yammerin’[22] petted cat, an’ I said,
‘Maister Taylor, there’s a big bubblyjock[23] gangs about Babbie’s Mill
yonder, but he’s dabbit[24] to death wi’ a hen.’”
[20] Shut.
[21] Knew.
[22] Grumbling.
[23] Turkey-cock.
[24] Pecked.