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The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst

Sometimes we act in ways we later regret. Imagine that you could go back in
time and change the way you treated someone you love. What would you
change_and how? The narrator of “The Scarlet Ibis” remembers a time he
was cruel and selfish. He thought he was doing the right thing, but pride
clouded his judgment. As you read the story, decide how you would have
acted in the narrator’s place.

LITERARY FOCUS: SYMBOLS

A symbol is a person, a place, a thing, or an event that stands both for itself
and for something beyond itself. For example, you may find that a writer
mentions a mirror many times in a story. A mirror is an actual object, but
the writer may be using it to stand for vanity or for an unreal world. Writers
invent symbols to deepen the meaning of their stories. As you read “The
Scarlet Ibis,” you’ll notice that the writer keeps drawing similarities and con-
nections between one character and the scarlet ibis. The ibis is a rare water
bird with long legs; a long, slender, curved bill; and brilliant orange-red
feathers.
• As you read, look for clues that suggest that the ibis stands for something
more than itself.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

READING SKILLS: MAKING INFERENCES
An inference is an intelligent guess you make about the meaning of some-
thing. You form inferences by putting together several related details and
then generalizing about what they might mean. In making inferences about
characters, you also draw on your own experiences. For example, if you
observe a character who speaks harshly to her dog, slams the door, and
won’t speak to her classmates, you can make an inference that this charac-
ter is upset about something. You make that inference based on story
details and on your own experience with people.

To make inferences about the meaning of a symbol, follow these steps:

Literary Skills
Understand • Pay careful attention to details. Does the writer repeat something, such
symbolism. as a color, an animal, or an object, throughout the story?
Reading • Think about what the color, animal, or object represents to you. If the
Skills
Make inferences object is a ring, for example, it may represent love or faithfulness.
from details.
• Then, combine your own experience and the evidence in the story to
Vocabulary
Skills make an inference about what this object or animal or color might signify.
Understand • Be prepared to revise your inferences about symbols. You might have to
similes.
re-read the story to be sure your inference holds up.

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PREVIEW SELECTION VOCABULARY

The following words appear in the story you’re about to read. You may
want to become familiar with them before you begin reading.

sullenly (sul√¥n·l≤) adv.: resentfully; gloomily. blighted (bl¢t√id) v. used as adj.: suffering from
conditions that destroy or prevent growth.
Sullenly, the narrator took Doodle with him, all
the while resenting the task. The blighted fields would never produce any
corn or cotton.
imminent (im√¥·n¥nt) adj.: near; about to
happen. doggedness (dôg√id·nis) n.: stubbornness;
persistence.
When thunder boomed and the sky darkened,
they could tell the storm was imminent. Because of his doggedness, Doodle did learn to
walk.
iridescent (ir≈i·des√¥nt) adj.: rainbowlike; display-
ing a shifting range of colors. reiterated (r≤·it√¥·r†t≈id) v.: repeated.

The bird’s wings glowed with iridescent color. Several times, the narrator reiterated his desire
to teach Doodle to swim.
serene (s¥·r≤n√) adj.: peaceful; calm.
precariously (pri·ker√≤·¥s·l≤) adv.: unsteadily;
The serene lake was as smooth and calm as a
insecurely.
mirror.
Doodle balanced precariously on his thin legs.
infallibility (in·fal≈¥·bil√¥·t≤) n.: inability to make
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

a mistake. mar (mär) v.: damage; spoil.

Because of his belief in his infallibility, the nar- The storm could mar the cotton and other crops,
rator never doubted the success of his project. causing the loss of acres of profits.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language helps you see familiar things in new ways. The simplest
type of figurative language, the simile, uses comparisons to create fresh,
new meaning. A simile is a comparison between two dissimilar things linked
by a word such as like, as, or resembles. For example:

The storm was as fierce as an angry lion.

In this simile, a storm is compared to a lion. Comparing a fierce storm to an

angry lion helps readers see how violent and dangerous the storm was.

As you read “The Scarlet Ibis,” look for other similes. Figure out what is
being compared. Ask yourself: “What does this simile help me see? How
does it help me understand the story more fully?”

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The Scarlet Ibis

James Hurst

© Frank Lane Picture Agency/CORBIS.

It was in the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn

A clove (kl£v) is a division or had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The
split of some kind. During
what time of year does this
flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals,
story take place? and ironweeds grew rank1 amid the purple phlox. The five
o’clocks by the chimney still marked time, but the oriole nest in
the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an
empty cradle. The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every
room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead.
10 It’s strange that all this is still so clear to me, now that that
summer has long since fled and time has had its way. A grind-
Re-read the narrator’s stone stands where the bleeding tree stood, just outside the
description of the garden kitchen door, and now if an oriole sings in the elm, its song
(lines 1-9). Underline the
words and phrases that bring seems to die up in the leaves, a silvery dust. The flower garden is
to mind death or dying.
prim, the house a gleaming white, and the pale fence across the
yard stands straight and spruce. But sometimes (like right now),
Notes as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to
turn, and time with all its changes is ground away—and I
remember Doodle.

1. rank (ra«k) adj.: thick and wild. Rank also means “smelly.”
“The Scarlet Ibis” by James R. Hurst from The Atlantic Monthly, July 1960. Copyright © 1960 by The Atlantic
Monthly. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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20 Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had.
Of course, he wasn’t a crazy crazy like old Miss Leedie, who was
in love with President Wilson and wrote him a letter every day, Re-read lines 20-23.
Underline the detail that tells
but was a nice crazy, like someone you meet in your dreams. He
you that the story takes
was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappoint- place in the past.

ment. He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and
shriveled like an old man’s. Everybody thought he was going to
die—everybody except Aunt Nicey, who had delivered him. She In lines 32-33, the narrator
said he would live because he was born in a caul2 and cauls were compares his brother’s given
name to a “big tail on a
made from Jesus’ nightgown. Daddy had Mr. Heath, the carpen- small kite.” What does this
30 ter, build a little mahogany coffin for him. But he didn’t die, and simile tell you about the nar-
rator’s opinion of his broth-
when he was three months old, Mama and Daddy decided they er’s name?
might as well name him. They named him William Armstrong,
which was like tying a big tail on a small kite. Such a name
sounds good only on a tombstone.
I thought myself pretty smart at many things, like holding
my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old
Woman Swamp, and I wanted more than anything else someone
to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and some-
one to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the
40 barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea.
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

I wanted a brother. But Mama, crying, told me that even if

William Armstrong lived, he would never do these things with
me. He might not, she sobbed, even be “all there.” He might, as
long as he lived, lie on the rubber sheet in the center of the bed
in the front bedroom where the white marquisette3 curtains bil-
lowed out in the afternoon sea breeze, rustling like palmetto
fronds.4
It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having
one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to
50 make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.

Re-read lines 35-41. What

2. caul (kôl) n.: membrane (thin, skinlike material) that sometimes does the narrator want?
covers a baby’s head at birth. Underline what you find out.
3. marquisette (mär≈ki·zet√) adj.: made of a thin, netlike fabric.
4. palmetto fronds: fanlike leaves of a palm tree.

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However, one afternoon as I watched him, my head poked

between the iron posts of the foot of the bed, he looked straight
Why is it so important to the at me and grinned. I skipped through the rooms, down the
narrator that his brother is echoing halls, shouting, “Mama, he smiled. He’s all there! He’s
“all there” (lines 54-55)?
all there!” and he was.

When he was two, if you laid him on his stomach, he began to

try to move himself, straining terribly. The doctor said that with
his weak heart this strain would probably kill him, but it didn’t.
Trembling, he’d push himself up, turning first red, then a soft
60 purple, and finally collapse back onto the bed like an old worn-
out doll. I can still see Mama watching him, her hand pressed
tight across her mouth, her eyes wide and unblinking. But he
What does the description in learned to crawl (it was his third winter), and we brought him
lines 59-61 tell you about
Doodle?
out of the front bedroom, putting him on the rug before the
fireplace. For the first time he became one of us.
As long as he lay all the time in bed, we called him William
Armstrong, even though it was formal and sounded as if we
were referring to one of our ancestors, but with his creeping
around on the deerskin rug and beginning to talk, something
Pause at line 79. Why doesn’t 70 had to be done about his name. It was I who renamed him.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Aunt Nicey like Doodle’s
When he crawled, he crawled backward, as if he were in reverse
nickname?
and couldn’t change gears. If you called him, he’d turn around
as if he were going in the other direction, then he’d back right
up to you to be picked up. Crawling backward made him look
like a doodlebug5 so I began to call him Doodle, and in time
even Mama and Daddy thought it was a better name than
William Armstrong. Only Aunt Nicey disagreed. She said caul
babies should be treated with special respect since they might
turn out to be saints. Renaming my brother was perhaps the
80 kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much
from someone called Doodle.

5. doodlebug (dºd√´l·bug≈) n.: larva of a type of insect that moves

backward.

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Although Doodle learned to crawl, he showed no signs of

walking, but he wasn’t idle. He talked so much that we all quit
listening to what he said. It was about this time that Daddy built What does the narrator
him a go-cart, and I had to pull him around. At first I just transport Doodle in (lines
82-90)? Underline the sen-
paraded him up and down the piazza,6 but then he started cry- tence where you find out.
ing to be taken out into the yard and it ended up by my having
to lug him wherever I went. If I so much as picked up my cap,
he’d start crying to go with me, and Mama would call from Re-read lines 91-101. In your
90 wherever she was, “Take Doodle with you.” own words, describe the nar-
rator and his brother as they
He was a burden in many ways. The doctor had said that he might look to an observer.
mustn’t get too excited, too hot, too cold, or too tired and that
he must always be treated gently. A long list of don’ts went with
him, all of which I ignored once we got out of the house. To dis-
courage his coming with me, I’d run with him across the ends of
the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels.
Sometimes I accidentally turned him over, but he never told
Mama. His skin was very sensitive, and he had to wear a big
straw hat whenever he went out. When the going got rough and
100 he had to cling to the sides of the go-cart, the hat slipped all the
way down over his ears. He was a sight. Finally, I could see I was
licked. Doodle was my brother, and he was going to cling to me
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

forever, no matter what I did, so I dragged him across the burn-

ing cotton field to share with him the only beauty I knew, Old
Woman Swamp. I pulled the go-cart through the sawtooth fern,
down into the green dimness where the palmetto fronds whis-
pered by the stream. I lifted him out and set him down in the
soft rubber grass beside a tall pine. His eyes were round with
wonder as he gazed about him, and his little hands began to
110 stroke the rubber grass. Then he began to cry.
“For heaven’s sake, what’s the matter?” I asked, annoyed.
“It’s so pretty,” he said. “So pretty, pretty, pretty.” Re-read lines 108-112, and
circle the details that help
After that day Doodle and I often went down into Old you infer Doodle’s character
Woman Swamp. I would gather wildflowers, wild violets, traits. What are they?

6. piazza (p≤·az√¥) n.: large covered porch.

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honeysuckle, yellow jasmine, snakeflowers, and waterlilies, and

with wire grass we’d weave them into necklaces and crowns.
Re-read the long sentence in We’d bedeck ourselves with our handiwork and loll about thus
lines 122-125. What is the beautified, beyond the touch of the everyday world. Then when
narrator saying about the
relationship between love the slanted rays of the sun burned orange in the tops of the
and cruelty?
120 pines, we’d drop our jewels into the stream and watch them float
away toward the sea.
There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in
others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as
our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at
times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn
loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had
sullenly (sul√¥n·l≤) adv.: believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green7
resentfully; gloomily.
sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest
inside it.
130 Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then
Pause at line 144. Why do you
think the narrator shows
said, “It’s not mine.”
Doodle the coffin? What “It is,” I said. “And before I’ll help you down from the loft,
might this event foreshadow?
you’re going to have to touch it.”
“I won’t touch it,” he said sullenly.
“Then I’ll leave you here by yourself,” I threatened, and

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

made as if I were going down.
Doodle was frightened of being left. “Don’t go leave me,
Brother,” he cried, and he leaned toward the coffin. His hand,
trembling, reached out, and when he touched the casket, he
140 screamed. A screech owl flapped out of the box into our faces,
scaring us and covering us with Paris green. Doodle was para-
lyzed, so I put him on my shoulder and carried him down the
ladder, and even when we were outside in the bright sunshine,
he clung to me, crying, “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”

When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a

brother of that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him.

7. Paris green n.: poisonous green powder used to kill insects.

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Notes

© PhotoDisc, Inc./Getty Images.

We were down in Old Woman Swamp and it was spring and the
sick-sweet smell of bay flowers hung everywhere like a mournful Re-read lines 147-149.
Underline the simile, and
song. “I’m going to teach you to walk, Doodle,” I said.
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

explain what two things are

150 He was sitting comfortably on the soft grass, leaning back being compared.

against the pine. “Why?” he asked.

I hadn’t expected such an answer. “So I won’t have to haul
you around all the time.”
“I can’t walk, Brother,” he said.
“Who says so?” I demanded.
“Mama, the doctor—everybody.”
“Oh, you can walk,” I said, and I took him by the arms and
stood him up. He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty
flour sack. It was as if he had no bones in his little legs.
160 “Don’t hurt me, Brother,” he warned.
“Shut up. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to teach you
to walk.” I heaved him up again, and again he collapsed.

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This time he did not lift his face up out of the rubber grass.
“I just can’t do it. Let’s make honeysuckle wreaths.”
Pause at line 171. Underline “Oh yes you can, Doodle,” I said. “All you got to do is try.
the two statements the nar- Now come on,” and I hauled him up once more.
rator makes about pride. Put
his statements in your own It seemed so hopeless from the beginning that it’s a miracle
words.
I didn’t give up. But all of us must have something or someone
to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine. I did not know
170 then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears
two vines, life and death. Every day that summer we went to the
pine beside the stream of Old Woman Swamp, and I put him on
his feet at least a hundred times each afternoon. Occasionally I
too became discouraged because it didn’t seem as if he was try-
ing, and I would say, “Doodle, don’t you want to learn to walk?”
He’d nod his head, and I’d say, “Well, if you don’t keep try-
ing, you’ll never learn.” Then I’d paint for him a picture of us as
old men, white-haired, him with a long white beard and me still
pulling him around in the go-cart. This never failed to make
Underline the simile in lines
184-186. What do you think
180 him try again.
the narrator means? Finally, one day, after many weeks of practicing, he stood
alone for a few seconds. When he fell, I grabbed him in my arms
and hugged him, our laughter pealing through the swamp like a

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

ringing bell. Now we knew it could be done. Hope no longer hid
in the dark palmetto thicket but perched like a cardinal in the
lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible. “Yes, yes,” I cried, and he
cried it too, and the grass beneath us was soft and the smell of
the swamp was sweet.
With success so imminent, we decided not to tell anyone
190 until he could actually walk. Each day, barring rain, we sneaked
into Old Woman Swamp, and by cotton-picking time Doodle
was ready to show what he could do. He still wasn’t able to walk
far, but we could wait no longer. Keeping a nice secret is very
hard to do, like holding your breath. We chose to reveal all on
October eighth, Doodle’s sixth birthday, and for weeks ahead we
mooned around the house, promising everybody a most
imminent (im√¥·n¥nt) adj.:
near; about to happen.

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spectacular surprise. Aunt Nicey said that, after so much talk, if

we produced anything less tremendous than the Resurrection,8
she was going to be disappointed. Re-read lines 215-218. Is the
200 At breakfast on our chosen day, when Mama, Daddy, and narrator describing pride
that brings something won-
Aunt Nicey were in the dining room, I brought Doodle to the derful or something terrible?
door in the go-cart just as usual and had them turn their backs,
making them cross their hearts and hope to die if they peeked. I
helped Doodle up, and when he was standing alone I let them
look. There wasn’t a sound as Doodle walked slowly across the
room and sat down at his place at the table. Then Mama began
to cry and ran over to him, hugging him and kissing him. Daddy
hugged him too, so I went to Aunt Nicey, who was thanks-pray-
ing in the doorway, and began to waltz her around. We danced
210 together quite well until she came down on my big toe with her
brogans,9 hurting me so badly I thought I was crippled for life.
Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so
everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry.
“What are you crying for?” asked Daddy, but I couldn’t
answer. They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride,
whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices; and
that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

crippled brother.
Within a few months Doodle had learned to walk well and
Re-read lines 225-226. Dix
220 his go-cart was put up in the barn loft (it’s still there) beside his Hill is a state mental hospital
in Raleigh, North Carolina.
little mahogany coffin. Now, when we roamed off together, rest-
What does the narrator
ing often, we never turned back until our destination had been mean by this statement?

reached, and to help pass the time, we took up lying. From the
beginning Doodle was a terrible liar, and he got me in the habit.
Had anyone stopped to listen to us, we would have been sent off
to Dix Hill.
My lies were scary, involved, and usually pointless, but
Doodle’s were twice as crazy. People in his stories all had wings
and flew wherever they wanted to go. His favorite lie was about a

8. Resurrection: reference to the Christian belief in the rising of Jesus

from the dead after his burial.
9. brogans (br£√g¥nz) n.: heavy, ankle-high shoes.

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230 boy named Peter who had a pet peacock with a ten-foot tail.
Peter wore a golden robe that glittered so brightly that when he
Re-read lines 231-236. walked through the sunflowers they turned away from the sun
Underline the details that to face him. When Peter was ready to go to sleep, the peacock
help you visualize Doodle’s
lie. Why is the peacock spread his magnificent tail, enfolding the boy gently like a clos-
important in his lie?
ing go-to-sleep flower, burying him in the gloriously iridescent,
rustling vortex.10 Yes, I must admit it. Doodle could beat me
lying.
Doodle and I spent lots of time thinking about our future.
We decided that when we were grown, we’d live in Old Woman
240 Swamp and pick dog’s-tongue11 for a living. Beside the stream,
he planned, we’d build us a house of whispering leaves and the
swamp birds would be our chickens. All day long (when we
weren’t gathering dog’s-tongue) we’d swing through the cy-
presses on the rope vines, and if it rained we’d huddle beneath
an umbrella tree and play stickfrog. Mama and Daddy could
come and live with us if they wanted to. He even came up with
iridescent (ir≈i·des√¥nt) adj.:
rainbowlike; displaying a the idea that he could marry Mama and I could marry Daddy.
shifting range of colors.
Of course, I was old enough to know this wouldn’t work out,
serene (s¥·r≤n√) adj.: peace-
but the picture he painted was so beautiful and serene that all I
ful; calm.
infallibility (in·fal≈¥·bil√¥·t≤)
250 could do was whisper yes, yes.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

n.: inability to make a
mistake.
Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to
believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific develop-
ment program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of
Pause at line 260. Do you
think the narrator’s “devel- course. I would teach him to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to
opment program” is a good
fight. He, too, now believed in my infallibility, so we set the
idea? Briefly explain.
deadline for these accomplishments less than a year away, when,
it had been decided, Doodle could start to school.
That winter we didn’t make much progress, for I was in
school and Doodle suffered from one bad cold after another. But
260 when spring came, rich and warm, we raised our sights again.
Success lay at the end of summer like a pot of gold, and our

10. vortex (vôr√teks≈) n.: something resembling a whirlpool.

11. dog’s-tongue n.: wild vanilla.

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campaign got off to a good start. On hot days, Doodle and I

went down to Horsehead Landing, and I gave him swimming
lessons or showed him how to row a boat. Sometimes we blighted (bl¢t√id) v. used as
descended into the cool greenness of Old Woman Swamp and adj.: suffering from condi-
tions that destroy or prevent
climbed the rope vines or boxed scientifically beneath the pine growth.
where he had learned to walk. Promise hung about us like
leaves, and wherever we looked, ferns unfurled and birds broke
into song. Re-read lines 274-277.
Underline the simile the nar-
270 That summer, the summer of 1918, was blighted. In May rator uses to describe the
destruction of the oak trees.
and June there was no rain and the crops withered, curled up,
Why do you think the writer
then died under the thirsty sun. One morning in July a hurri- chose this comparison?

cane came out of the east, tipping over the oaks in the yard and
splitting the limbs of the elm trees. That afternoon it roared
back out of the west, blew the fallen oaks around, snapping their
roots and tearing them out of the earth like a hawk at the
entrails12 of a chicken. Cotton bolls were wrenched from the
stalks and lay like green walnuts in the valleys between the rows,
while the cornfield leaned over uniformly so that the tassels
280 touched the ground. Doodle and I followed Daddy out into the
cotton field, where he stood, shoulders sagging, surveying the
Pause at line 288. If the
ruin. When his chin sank down onto his chest, we were fright- “blighted” summer, includ-
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

ened, and Doodle slipped his hand into mine. Suddenly Daddy ing the violent hurricane, is a
symbol of what is to come,
straightened his shoulders, raised a giant knuckly fist, and with a what might lie in Doodle’s
future?
voice that seemed to rumble out of the earth itself began cursing
heaven, hell, the weather, and the Republican party.13 Doodle
and I, prodding each other and giggling, went back to the house,
knowing that everything would be all right.
And during that summer, strange names were heard
290 through the house: Château-Thierry, Amiens, Soissons, and in
her blessing at the supper table, Mama once said, “And bless the
Pearsons, whose boy Joe was lost in Belleau Wood.”14

12. entrails (en√tr†lz) n.: inner organs; guts.

13. Republican party: At this time most southern farmers were loyal
Democrats.
14. Château-Thierry (sha√t£’ t≤·er√·≤), Amiens (ß·mya‰√), Soissons
(swä·sô‰√), Belleau (be·lô√) Wood: World War I battle sites in France.

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© PhotoDisc, Inc./Getty Images.

So we came to that clove of seasons. School was only a few

Underline the details in lines weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule. He could
309-313 that suggest Doodle barely clear the ground when climbing up the rope vines, and
is becoming increasingly ill
and weak. Based on these his swimming was certainly not passable. We decided to double
details, what do you predict our efforts, to make that last drive and reach our pot of gold. I
will happen to Doodle?
made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and
300 although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became
glazed. Once, he could go no further, so he collapsed on the
ground and began to cry.
“Aw, come on, Doodle,” I urged. “You can do it. Do you
want to be different from everybody else when you start
school?”
“Does it make any difference?”
“It certainly does,” I said. “Now, come on,” and I helped
him up.
As we slipped through the dog days,15 Doodle began to
310 look feverish, and Mama felt his forehead, asking him if he felt

15. dog days n.: hot days in July and August, named after the Dog Star
(Sirius), which rises and sets with the sun during this period.

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ill. At night he didn’t sleep well, and sometimes he had night-

mares, crying out until I touched him and said, “Wake up,
Doodle. Wake up.” doggedness (dôg√id·nis) n.:
It was Saturday noon, just a few days before school was to stubbornness; persistence.
reiterated (r≤·it√¥·r†t≈id) v.:
start. I should have already admitted defeat, but my pride
repeated.
wouldn’t let me. The excitement of our program had now been
gone for weeks, but still we kept on with a tired doggedness. It
was too late to turn back, for we had both wandered too far into
In your own words, explain
a net of expectations and had left no crumbs behind. what the narrator means in
320 Daddy, Mama, Doodle, and I were seated at the dining- lines 316-319.

room table having lunch. It was a hot day, with all the windows
and doors open in case a breeze should come. In the kitchen
Aunt Nicey was humming softly. After a long silence, Daddy
spoke. “It’s so calm, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a storm
this afternoon.”
“I haven’t heard a rain frog,” said Mama, who believed in
signs, as she served the bread around the table.
“I did,” declared Doodle. “Down in the swamp.”
“He didn’t,” I said contrarily.
330 “You did, eh?” said Daddy, ignoring my denial.
“I certainly did,” Doodle reiterated, scowling at me over
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

the top of his iced-tea glass, and we were quiet again.

Suddenly, from out in the yard came a strange croaking
noise. Doodle stopped eating, with a piece of bread poised ready
for his mouth, his eyes popped round like two blue buttons.
“What’s that?” he whispered.
I jumped up, knocking over my chair, and had reached the
door when Mama called, “Pick up the chair, sit down again, and
say excuse me.”
340 By the time I had done this, Doodle had excused himself
and had slipped out into the yard. He was looking up into the
bleeding tree. “It’s a great big red bird!” he called.
The bird croaked loudly again, and Mama and Daddy came
out into the yard. We shaded our eyes with our hands against
the hazy glare of the sun and peered up through the still leaves.

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On the topmost branch a bird the size of a chicken, with scarlet

feathers and long legs, was perched precariously. Its wings hung
precariously (pri·ker√≤·¥s·l≤) down loosely, and as we watched, a feather dropped away and
adv.: unsteadily; insecurely. floated slowly down through the green leaves.
mar (mär) v.: damage; spoil. 350 “It’s not even frightened of us,” Mama said.
“It looks tired,” Daddy added. “Or maybe sick.”
Doodle’s hands were clasped at his throat, and I had never
Re-read lines 346-351. In
what ways does the bird
seen him stand still so long. “What is it?” he asked.
remind you of Doodle? Daddy shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe it’s—”
At that moment the bird began to flutter, but the wings
were uncoordinated, and amid much flapping and a spray of fly-
ing feathers, it tumbled down, bumping through the limbs of
the bleeding tree and landing at our feet with a thud. Its long,
graceful neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out, and
Pause at line 364. Like
360 the bird was still. A white veil came over the eyes, and the long
Doodle, the scarlet ibis is
described as being uncoordi- white beak unhinged. Its legs were crossed and its clawlike feet
nated, delicate, and unique.
How might the death of the were delicately curved at rest. Even death did not mar its grace,
ibis foreshadow the story’s for it lay on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers, and we
ending?
stood around it, awed by its exotic beauty.
“It’s dead,” Mama said.
“What is it?” Doodle repeated.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

“Go bring me the bird book,” said Daddy.
I ran into the house and brought back the bird book. As we
watched, Daddy thumbed through its pages. “It’s a scarlet ibis,”
370 he said, pointing to a picture. “It lives in the tropics—South
America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here.”
Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How
many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath
the bleeding tree.
“Let’s finish lunch,” Mama said, nudging us back toward
the dining room.
“I’m not hungry,” said Doodle, and he knelt down beside
the ibis.
“We’ve got peach cobbler for dessert,” Mama tempted from
380 the doorway.

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Doodle remained kneeling. “I’m going to bury him.”

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Mama warned. “There’s no
telling what disease he might have had.” Pause at line 395. Why is
“All right,” said Doodle. “I won’t.” Doodle so fascinated by the
scarlet ibis? Why does he
Daddy, Mama, and I went back to the dining-room table, take such pains to bury it?
but we watched Doodle through the open door. He took out a
piece of string from his pocket and, without touching the ibis,
looped one end around its neck. Slowly, while singing softly
“Shall We Gather at the River,” he carried the bird around to the
390 front yard and dug a hole in the flower garden, next to the petu-
nia bed. Now we were watching him through the front window,
but he didn’t know it. His awkwardness at digging the hole
with a shovel whose handle was twice as long as he was made
us laugh, and we covered our mouths with our hands so he
wouldn’t hear.
When Doodle came into the dining room, he found us seri-
ously eating our cobbler. He was pale and lingered just inside the
screen door. “Did you get the scarlet ibis buried?” asked Daddy.
Doodle didn’t speak but nodded his head.
400 “Go wash your hands, and then you can have some peach
The description of Doodle’s
cobbler,” said Mama.
burial of the scarlet ibis in
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

“I’m not hungry,” he said. lines 385-399 is a very mov-

ing passage. Read the boxed
“Dead birds is bad luck,” said Aunt Nicey, poking her head passage aloud twice. Focus
from the kitchen door. “Specially red dead birds!” on conveying meaning the
first time you read. The sec-
As soon as I had finished eating, Doodle and I hurried off ond time you read, try to
convey the passage’s emo-
to Horsehead Landing. Time was short, and Doodle still had a
tional overtones.
long way to go if he was going to keep up with the other boys
when he started school. The sun, gilded with the yellow cast of
Notes
autumn, still burned fiercely, but the dark green woods through
410 which we passed were shady and cool. When we reached the
landing, Doodle said he was too tired to swim, so we got into a
skiff and floated down the creek with the tide. Far off in the
marsh a rail was scolding, and over on the beach locusts were
singing in the myrtle trees. Doodle did not speak and kept his
head turned away, letting one hand trail limply in the water.

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After we had drifted a long way, I put the oars in place and
made Doodle row back against the tide. Black clouds began to
Re-read lines 416-425. Circle gather in the southwest, and he kept watching them, trying to
the details describing the pull the oars a little faster. When we reached Horsehead
approaching storm. What do
you think the storm fore- 420 Landing, lightning was playing across half the sky and thunder
shadows?
roared out, hiding even the sound of the sea. The sun disap-
peared and darkness descended, almost like night. Flocks of
marsh crows flew by, heading inland to their roosting trees, and
two egrets, squawking, arose from the oyster-rock shallows and
careened away.
Doodle was both tired and frightened, and when he
stepped from the skiff he collapsed onto the mud, sending an
Underline line 441. Then,
armada16 of fiddler crabs rustling off into the marsh grass. I
underline the parts of the
story where you have heard helped him up, and as he wiped the mud off his trousers, he
this before_Doodle’s beg-
ging his brother not to leave 430 smiled at me ashamedly. He had failed and we both knew it, so
him or not to hurt him. we started back home, racing the storm. We never spoke (what
What could these words
foreshadow? are the words that can solder17 cracked pride?), but I knew he
was watching me, watching for a sign of mercy. The lightning
was near now, and from fear he walked so close behind me he
kept stepping on my heels. The faster I walked, the faster he
walked, so I began to run. The rain was coming, roaring through

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

the pines, and then, like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree
ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning. When the deaf-
ening peal of thunder had died, and in the moment before the
440 rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out,
“Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”
Pause at line 447. Why does
the narrator leave Doodle
The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to
behind? naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awak-
ened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall
of rain dividing us. The drops stung my face like nettles, and the
wind flared the wet, glistening leaves of the bordering trees.
Soon I could hear his voice no more.

16. armada (är·mä√d¥) n.: group. Armada is generally used to mean

“fleet, or group, of warships.”
17. solder (säd√¥r) v.: patch or repair. Solder is a mixture of metals melt-
ed and used to repair metal parts.

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I hadn’t run too far before I became tired, and the flood of
childish spite evanesced18 as well. I stopped and waited for
450 Doodle. The sound of rain was everywhere, but the wind had What do the details in the
died and it fell straight down in parallel paths like ropes hanging description of Doodle in the
last two paragraphs remind
from the sky. As I waited, I peered through the downpour, but you of? Why do you think
the writer makes this
no one came. Finally I went back and found him huddled association?
beneath a red nightshade bush beside the road. He was sitting
on the ground, his face buried in his arms, which were resting
on his drawn-up knees. “Let’s go, Doodle,” I said.
He didn’t answer, so I placed my hand on his forehead and
lifted his head. Limply, he fell backward onto the earth. He had
been bleeding from the mouth, and his neck and the front of his
460 shirt were stained a brilliant red.
“Doodle! Doodle!” I cried, shaking him, but there was no
answer but the ropy rain. He lay very awkwardly, with his head
thrown far back, making his vermilion19 neck appear unusually
long and slim. His little legs, bent sharply at the knees, had never
before seemed so fragile, so thin.
I began to weep, and the tear-blurred vision in red before
me looked very familiar. “Doodle!” I screamed above the pound-
ing storm, and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long,
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my

470 fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy20 of rain.

18. evanesced (ev≈¥·nest√) v.: faded away; disappeared.

In lines 468-470, what does
19. vermilion (v¥r·mil√y¥n) adj.: bright red.
the narrator call his dead
20. heresy (her√¥·s≤) n.: here, mockery. Heresy generally means “denial
brother?
of what is commonly believed to be true” or “rejection of a church’s
teaching.”

Corel.

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The Scarlet Ibis

Symbol Chart In “The Scarlet Ibis,” some of the people, places, things, and events
stand both for themselves and for something beyond themselves. Fill out the
symbol chart below to see how symbols convey meaning in the story. In the first
column are passages from the story. Locate a symbol from each passage, and write
it in the second column. Then, write the meaning of the symbol in the third
column. The first row is done for you. Fill in the bottom row with a symbolic
story passage that you find on your own.

Story Passage Symbol Meaning

That winter we didn’t make

spring new start; rebirth
much progress, for I was in
school and Doodle suffered
from one bad cold after anoth-
er. But when spring came, rich
and warm, we raised our sights
again (lines 258-260).

When Peter was ready to go to

sleep, the peacock spread his
magnificent tail, enfolding the
boy gently like a closing go-to-
sleep flower, burying him in the

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

gloriously iridescent, rustling
vortex (lines 233-236).

Sadly, we all looked back at the

bird. A scarlet ibis! How many
miles it had traveled to die like
this, in our yard, beneath the
bleeding tree (lines 372-374).

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Skills Review

The Scarlet Ibis

Complete the sample test item below. Then, read the explanation at the right.

Sample Test Question Explanation of the Correct Answer

Which of the following are recurring The correct answer is A; the writer uses
symbols in “The Scarlet Ibis”? birds as symbols all through the story.
A birds B and D are not correct because they
are used only once. C is not correct
B flowers
because bees aren’t mentioned in the
C bees
story.
D tombstones

DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter of each correct answer.

1. The description of Doodle’s last sum- 3. The setting of the story as presented
mer as “blighted” foreshadows _ in the opening paragraph could best
A Doodle’s birth be described as_

B Doodle’s coming death A sad and suggestive of death

C the scarlet ibis B cheerful and suggestive of life

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

D life in the South C peaceful and suggestive of heaven

D haunted and suggestive of danger
2. The scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle in
that both the child and bird are _ 4. Which of these details is not an exam-
F able to move very quickly ple of foreshadowing in the story?

G trying to learn to fly F “‘Don’t hurt me, Brother,’ he

warned.”
H rare, beautiful, and fragile
G “The oriole nest . . . rocked back
J very fond of being outside
and forth like an empty cradle.”
H “One day I took him up to the
barn loft and showed him his
casket. . . .”
J “Keeping a nice secret is very
hard to do. . . .”
Literary Skills
Analyze
symbolism.

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Skills Review

The Scarlet Ibis

Similes
DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter of the correct response.

1. What does this simile indicate? G For the first time he became one
They named him William Armstrong, of us.
which was like tying a big tail on a H He was a burden in many ways.
small kite.
Vocabulary J Finally, I could see I was licked.
Skills
Identify and
A The baby’s abilities are amazing.
interpret similes.
Use words in
B Babies do not need decoration. 3. Which of the following sentences
context.
C The baby’s name is too grand. contains a simile?

D Coming up with names is tricky. A The flower garden was brown.

B A grindstone stands where the
2. Which of the following sentences bleeding tree stood.
contains a simile? C The oriole nest rocked back and
F He collapsed onto the grass like a forth like an empty cradle.
half-empty flour sack. D The pale fence across the yard
stands straight.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Vocabulary in Context
DIRECTIONS: Complete the paragraph below by writing words from the box
in the correct blanks. Not all words from the box will be used.

Word Box Tony stared (1) out the window. He was

sullenly unhappy about the weather. The vacation brochure had showed a (2)
imminent lake, calm and blue. Another photograph fea-
iridescent tured a waterfall that sparkled, (3) and colorful.
serene
Here, however, Tony saw nothing but a (4) land-
infallibility
scape, brown, bare, and damp. He said to the empty room, “Nothing is
blighted
going to (5) my vacation! I’m going to enjoy
doggedness
myself, rain or shine.”
reiterated
precariously
mar

186 Part 1 Collection 6: Symbolism and Allegory