"the chrysanthemums." by john steinbeck.
elisa watched them for a moment and then went back to her work. she was thirtyfive.
her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. her figure
looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low
down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely
covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel
and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. she wore heavy leather
gloves to protect her hands while she worked.
she was cutting down the old year's chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and
powerful scissors. she looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and
then. her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the
scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. the chrysanthemum stems seemed too
small and easy for her energy.
she brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her glove, and left a
smudge of earth on her cheek in doing it. behind her stood the neat white farm
house with red geraniums close-banked around it as high as the windows. it was a
hard-swept looking little house, with hard-polished windows, and a clean mud-mat
on the front steps.
elisa cast another glance toward the tractor shed. the strangers were getting into
their ford coupe. she took off a glove and put her strong fingers down into the
forest of new green chrysanthemum sprouts that were growing around the old
roots. she spread the leaves and looked down among the close-growing stems. no
aphids were there, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms. her terrier fingers destroyed
such pests before they could get started.
elisa started at the sound of her husband's voice. he had come near quietly, and he
leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs
and chickens.
"at it again," he said. "you've got a strong new crop coming."

elisa straightened her back and pulled on the gardening glove again. "yes. they'll
be strong this coming year." in her tone and on her face there was a little
smugness.
"you've got a gift with things," henry observed. "some of those yellow
chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. i wish you'd work out in
the orchard and raise some apples that big."
her eyes sharpened. "maybe i could do it, too. i've a gift with things, all right. my
mother had it. she could stick anything in the ground and make it grow. she said it
was having planters' hands that knew how to do it."
"well, it sure works with flowers," he said.
"henry, who were those men you were talking to? "
"why, sure, that's what i came to tell you. they were from the western meat
company. i sold those thirty head of three-year-old steers. got nearly my own
price, too."
"good," she said. "good for you."
"and i thought," he continued, "i thought how it's saturday afternoon, and we
might go into salinas for dinner at a restaurant, and then to a picture show — to
celebrate, you see."
"good," she repeated. "oh, yes. that will be good."
henry put on his joking tone. "there's fights tonight. how'd you like to go to the
fights? "
"oh, no," she said breathlessly. "no, i wouldn't like fights."
"just fooling, elisa. we'll go to a movie. let's see. it's two now. i'm going to take
scotty and bring down those steers from the hill. it'll take us maybe two hours.
we'll go in town about five and have dinner at the cominos hotel. like that? "
"of course i'll like it. it's good to eat away from home."
"all right, then. i'll go get up a couple of horses."
she said, "i'll have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, i guess."
she heard her husband calling scotty down by the barn. and a little later she saw
the two men ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers.

which of the following best summarizes the way that henry treats elisa's offer to run the ranch?
a. henry agrees that elisa should run the best business side of things.
b. henry doesn't take elisa's offer to seriously.
c. henry thinks that it's a good idea that elisa .
d. henry wants elisa to start working in the apple orchard.