Question

What is most likely revealed by Sam’s decision to open his own clothing store in the city?

Answer 1

Here is the passage Sam rested beside his father inside the wagon for a few hours while his older brother took the reins. His torso listed from side to side with every clip-clop of the horse’s hooves. He felt the straw under his legs, but his shoulders rested on a lumpy, soft bag.
2 Cloth bags and rolls of fabric lay everywhere in the wagon, piling up like towers of cotton. His father had searched for bargains in the city, selecting denims to use for men’s work clothes and uniforms. When the wagon reached home, Sam’s mother and sisters would sew these into pants with special arrangements of pockets for fishermen or hunters or miners. Ten other seamstresses worked alongside Sam’s family, measuring the cloth and then sewing the orders that his father received from towns in the valley.
3 Sam’s grandfather had been a peddler who sold raw cloth called dry goods, traveling door to door. In the farmlands of America in the 1890s, doors were far apart. Traveling salesmen had to endure many days of solitude on their lonely rides. Grandpa Jacob had lived on the road, returning home only a few days a month in between his long travels to find customers. He filled his wagon with cloth and also other housewares, always hoping to treat people to a purchase. Sometimes he took Sam’s father along for several weeks, to teach him how to be an honest salesman and to show him that perseverance is better than impatience.
4 Determined to have the stability of a job based near home, Sam’s father had figured out a different business plan for himself. Twice a year, he traveled to a fair for buyers. Spending several days there, he purchased large bolts of cloth and brought these back to the sewing factory he had established. The factory was small, yet it prospered and the sales were steady from year to year. His uncle worked as the salesman, collecting orders for the business. Shops and general stores ordered small batches of work clothes: fourteen pairs of men’s fishing vests in each size; five pairs of men’s denim work jeans, size large; ten pairs of hunting jackets in three sizs. Except for the brief trips to the fair, Sam’s father spent his days at the factory, only four blocks from their small house, and his evenings in the parlor with his piano and stacks of music.
5 Lying in the wagon, Sam could smell the cloth. He enjoyed the smoothness of new cotton, the stiff feel of cloth that had lain in a warehouse for months. He had learned to repair the sewing machines and the cutter, how to measure fabric on the bias, how to package the clothes for shipping, and how to write up a bill of sale. For Sam, the solitude of the factory was the quiet life that seemed too quiet. He felt that their small town could not hold his big thoughts. Mingling in a tumult of people all day instead of listening to the quiet bzzz of the sewing machines—that’s the life that he wanted! The allure of city life drew him like a magnet. He would open a men’s store there. Customers would come in just to buy suits and hats from him. Every day would bring new faces and new conversation into his store.
6 The flap was open in the wagon and Sam could see stars beginning to appear. He knew the evening sky. Recognizing the constellations was as easy as identifying trees by the shapes of their leaves. The familiar forms had always been present in his life, available whenever his eyes happened to gaze at them. If he moved to the city, street lamps might blur the nightly view of Orion and the Big Dipper, but he could always return home to visit and gaze up at the velvet of a night sky.
7 His father murmured in his sleep and reached a warm hand above his face. His fingers brushed across Sam’s arm. How would the family fare without their younger son working at the factory? Sam considered this. His father would need to reorganize the workload. Someone else would have the burden of handling Sam’s job. Sam closed his eyes to picture the cutting floor where he would soon be unloading all of the cloth from the wagon. Usually the floor was strewn with ends of fabric, yet it was nonetheless a tidy area. Sam kept the work tables clean and the seamstresses helped protect the cloth from stains and dirt. Once a week Sam carried the scissors outside for sharpening to prevent metal filings from marking the cloth.
8 Drifting toward sleep, Sam hoped that his plan would materialize. For now, for this year and next year, he would help his family manage the factory. Tomorrow morning there would be so many new bolts of fabric to unload and measure for this season.