Question 1 : Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
“It will make no difference, I trust, to our friendship; but I shall never be able to forget it. I don’t know how it was with our people; but if any man borrows a dollar from me I carry the recollection of it to the grave.”
i) Who had taken a dollar from the speaker? How can you say that he had forgotten about the dollar?
Answer : The speaker’s friend Major Todd, of the University Club Montreal had taken a dollar from him. Todd had completely forgotten about the dollar. He met the speaker in the same way he met him before and showed no signs of remembering about his loan.
ii) When and why was the dollar taken from the speaker?
Answer : Todd borrowed the dollar from the speaker on the 8th of April just as Todd was about to leave for Bermuda. He needed a dollar in change to pay for his taxi and asked the speaker for it. The speaker had given the dollar willingly.
iii) Why does the narrator say that it will not make any difference to him?
Answer : The narrator says that the lost dollar doesn’t matter to him as it will not effect his friendship with Major Todd. He has full trust in his friendship and believes that a dollar is quite trifling an amount in front of it.
iv) What impression do you form about the man who had taken the dollar?
Answer : Major Todd seems to a forgetful and careless person. He took the dollar from the speaker and forgot to return it. The speaker kept dropping hints but he still remained oblivious to his loan.
v) What do you infer about the speaker’s nature from the given extract?
Answer : The speaker is a forgiving and trustful person. He values his friendship more than money. However, he is not forgetful and never forgets what happens with him. He himself says that he takes things to his grave. He clings on to such things. Clinging on to such petty issues does not let a person live in peace.
“In conclusion may I say that I do particularly ask that no readers of this book will be careless enough to leave his copy round where it might have seen by Major Todd, of the University Club Montreal.”
i) Who is Major Todd? Why does the speaker mention his name?
Answer : Major Todd, of the University Club Montreal, was the speaker’s friend. The speaker had mentioned his name in relation to the dollar that he had given him. Major Todd never returned the dollar which he had borrowed from the narrator.
ii) Why does the speaker not want Major Todd to read this?
Answer : The speaker perhaps did not want to offend his friend. He had written that Major Todd forgot about his loan and he could not remember it even when the speaker dropped some signs.
iii) Which movement did the speaker want to start?
Answer : The speaker wanted to start a general movement, a ‘Back to Honesty’ movement, for paying all the dollars that were borrowed in moments of expansion. He wanted all of them returned in the name of honesty.
iv) Earlier, the speaker mentioned about ‘a rather painful thought’ that disturbed him. What was the thought?
Answer : The speaker mentions that if it was possible that his friend Todd had borrowed a dollar from him and forgotten about it, then it was also possible that the speaker himself might have borrowed a dollar from his friend and might have forgotten about it. This thought was painful to him.
v) Why had the speaker lent a dollar to Major Todd? Did he expect him to return his dollar?
Answer : Major Todd was leaving for Bermuda. He had to give a dollar as change to the taxi. However, he did not have it and asked the speaker to give him one. Eventually, he totally forgot about it and the speaker did not think that he would ever repay him. Yes, the speaker expected him to return his dollar initially but lost hope later on.
Long Answer Type Question
Question 1 : Justify the title of the story, ‘My Lost Dollar’. What prompts the speaker to start a ‘Back to Honesty’ movement?
Answer : The story, ‘My Lost Dollar’, begins by the mention of the speaker’s friend, Major Todd and the dollar that he owed to the speaker. It had been a year and the speaker thought he would never return it. The speaker realised that Todd had completely forgotten about his loan because he met the speaker in the frank and friendly way as usual.
Though the lost dollar did not matter much to the speaker, he thought that he would carry the recollection of it to the grave. It was not in his nature to forget about such things so easily. Then he mentioned how his dollar was lost. It was on the 8th of April last year. Todd was about to leave to Bermuda. He needed a dollar in change to pay for his taxi. He did not have it and asked the speaker to pay for him. The speaker gave it to him quite willingly. Todd came back after three weeks and the speaker went to receive him. From that day, he kept dropping hints for Todd so that he might remember his loan of one dollar. However, Todd never understood any of the hints. It took sometime for the speaker to realise that he had completely forgotten the dollar.
Nevertheless, he bore no grudge against Todd. He had simply added him to the list of men who ow him a dollar and had forgotten about it. There were quite a few of them but this had not changed the speaker’s behaviour towards them. He only wished that he could forget his lost dollars.
Meanwhile, a rather painful thought had begun to come into the mind of the speaker. He had begun to think that like Todd had forgotten about the dollar, it was possible that he too might own such dollars and had completely forgotten about them. Hence, he wanted to start a ‘Back to Honesty’ movement, so that such lost dollars could be repaid to their rightful owners. He wanted the people to remember that the greatest nations were built upon the rock basis of absolute honesty.
Thus, we see that the whole story revovled around the dollar that the speaker had lost. Moreover, he mentioned all such dollars and talked about the probability of himself owing such dollars. Therefore, the title is justified.