A Long Way To Go Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ashley, Brett and Shane

Barbara, Ted and Nancy were the names in the condensed verison published in "Good Housekeeping" magazine. Why the magazine changed them, I don't know!

Answer: 10, 8 and 6

Truly brave children to begin such a long journey at their ages! I often wonder if I could have done the same thing under the circumstances?

Answer: Florida

They spent a lot of time on the beach!

Answer: At the motel's organized play program

Ashley realized it first. She saw the counselor glance at her watch in irritation. The program's rule was that all children must be picked up by the parents by five o'clock, and it was well past that hour.

Answer: Alabama

The children figured that the parents had to leave, and didn't have time to come back for them. "After all, Dad's always taught us to be self reliant." Ashley said. "And this whatever it is is so important that they just have to trust us."

Answer: 600 miles

Ashley and Brett were worried about Shane being able to keep up with them, since she was only six. But as she had taken dancing lessons since she was four, her legs were strong, and the two oldest had trouble keeping up with her!

Answer: $23.80

They found the money in their mother's extra purse. Remember, the story took place in the 1960's, so it was a good sum back then!

Answer: The Bird Woman

She invited the children to lunch, and after hearing their story, bought them a compass and bus tickets as far as she could. "I wish I had enough to send you all the way," she told them.

Answer: True

They were picked up at the bus station by Deputy John when they went in to get a drink of water. The children escaped from the sheriff's office when they were preparing to go on a man hunt to capture ten escaped convicts from the camp down the road. The children sneaked out in the confusion.

Answer: a dog

Brett named the dog "Beauregarde Bugleboy the Third" and called him "Beau" for short. He had obviously been trained at one time in his life, as his accustomed traveling place was three steps behind Brett's left heel!

Answer: Jimbo

The children told him they ran away from an orphanage. Since Jimbo had done the same thing years earlier, he felt a kinship with the children and agreed to help them. But he could only take them about thirty or forty miles before the circus took a different route.

Answer: Mr. Will

He told Ashley he might have to cut her foot off, but he was joking. He always cocked his head to one side whenever he was joking. "He never had his head cocked to one side when he was talking about the white mule!" Ashley mourned.

Answer: To save him from being shot

Mr. Will wanted to shoot the mule because he threw him all the time. "A man of my age ought to be able to say he's shot a mule!"
he said. Ashley thought that they could head for home sooner without waiting for her foot to heal, and that they would travel faster by having the mule to ride, but Starbright refused to carry all three children at the same time. When Brett argued with her about it, she angrily told him, "I bought Starbright to save him from being killed! So I don't want to hear you grumble about it any more!"

Answer: $5.00

She paid $5.00 in cash, and nine cans of Vienna sausage!

Answer: a gosling

Brett captured the gosling to eat after the children ran out of money and food, but he couldn't figure out a way to kill it. Meanwhile, Shane decided he was going to become her pet. She named him "Mr. Man." "Why?" Ashley asked. "Because he likes me and he thinks I'm pretty!" Shane answered.

Answer: True

Even with the mule accompanying them, they received a ride from two men in a cattle truck.

Answer: No

The children got home about 11 o'clock at night. The grass had not been cut, and there were no lights on in the house. But, oddly enough, the front door was unlocked. "They're not here," Ashley said. "It's plain to see, they haven't even been here!"

Answer: They were in a car accident

The children discovered this when they found a letter from their mother. The mother suffered a broken leg, but their father suffered a serious head injury. Even after all of the days it took the children to travel, he was still hospitalized.

Answer: the author doesn't say

Borden Deal's idea was to let the reader make up his/her own mind about this- kind of like the story of "The Lady or The Tiger".

Answer: True

Borden Deal based the three children on his own three, even giving the characters their real names and personality traits. But the story itself is fiction.