Emma and the Silk Train
Author Julia Lawson
Q What was Emma’s brothers name?
A Charlie
Q What did Emma and her brother yell when the heard the wail of the whistle?
A Silkers coming
Q What was Emma close enough to feel when the silk train thundered past?
A the ground rumble
Q What did Emma’s dad do?
A He ran the train station
Q What trains did Emma care about?
A the Silkers because they carried silk
Q Where was the silk headed?
A to New York City
Q What type of trains were they?
A steam trains
Q What were the only two reasons the trains stopped
A to hook up fresh engines with a full head of steam and to change crews.
Q What did regular trains have to do when the silk trains came through?
A wait
Q What other special train had to wait for the Silker?
A a Royal Train
Q How old was Emma during the story?
A 8
Q When Emma was 5 what did her mother make for herself?
A A silk blouse
Q How much silk was left over from making the blouse?
A enough for a ribbon and two squares for Emma's patchwork quilt
Q What did Emma want for herself?
A her own silk blouse
Q One day when Emma came home the station was in an uproar. Why?
A there had been an accident and bales of silk were floating down river
Q How many train cars were in the river?
A 5
Q How much was the railway paying for bales of silk found floating down the river?
A 5 dollars
Q Most people went fishing for bales of silk. What did Emma’s brother Charlie catch?
A a salmon
Q What did Emma’s father catch?
A his fly-fishing hat that he had lost a month earlier
Q How had her father lost his hat?
A The wind had blown it into the river
Q What did her mother catch?
A a cold
Q What did Emma catch
A silk-fishing fever
Later after that day Emma kept looking and fishing for silk
Q When Emma fished longer than others. What did she first catch?
A a gumboot
Q What did she catch from the wharf?
A a rusty kettle
Q One day when Emma was looking along the river what did she find?
A A piece of silk
Q What color was the silk?
A at first it looked red but it shimmered gold
Q What happened when Emma grabbed the silk?
A she slipped and was washed downstream
Q Where did she end up?
A on a small island in the middle of the river
Q How many times did she have to try before she could touch the bottom by the island?
A 3 times
Q What did the long shadows look like?
A people waving from the shore
Q What did she do to attract attention?
A She tied her silk between two trees
Q Did the first train stop?
A no it thundered past in a cloud of flying cinders
Q Who saw her banner?
A the crew of the Silker
Q did the Silker stop to send a message that it had seen her?
A no it just slowed down and a Fireman handed her father a message
Q How old did she turn at her birthday three weeks later?
A nine
Q Why didn’t Emma have to make a birthday wish?
A she already had her silk dress
Historical note
Q on what is the story based?
A an actual crash of a silk train Sept 21 1927
Q What was the name of the river?
A the Fraser river
Q Where did the crash happen?
A 170 km east of Vancouver
Q What was that train crash know as?
A the million dollar wreck
Q How many years did the silk trains run
A forty years
Q How many Silkers crashed in the 40 years
A only one
Q Why did the silk trains travel so fast?
A they were insured by the hour
Q What did the silk trains carry
A Silk, Raw silk and cocoons of live silk worms
Q What was built that let the ships travel all the way to New York so they did not need trains across North America ?
A the Panama Canal
Q When did the last silk train cross North America?
A 1941
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