Extract
"Everybody who goes home to lunch hold up your hands," said Miss Caroline, breaking into my new grudge against Calpurnia.
The town children did so, and she looked us over.
"Everybody who brings his lunch put it on top of his desk."
Molasses buckets appeared from nowhere, and the ceiling danced with metallic light. Miss Caroline walked up and down the rows peering and poking into lunch containers, nodding if the contents pleased her, frowning a little at others. She stopped at Walter Cunningham's desk. "Where's yours?" she asked.
Walter Cunningham's face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms. His absence of shoes told us how he got them. People caught hookworms going barefooted in barnyards and hog wallows. If Walter had owned any shoes he would have worn them the first day of school and discarded them until midwinter. He did have on a clean shirt and neatly mended overalls.
"Did you forget your lunch this morning?" asked Miss Caroline.
Walter looked straight ahead. I saw a muscle jump in his skinny jaw.
"Did you forget it this morning?" asked Miss Caroline. Walter's jaw twitched again.
"Yeb'm," he finally mumbled.
Miss Caroline went to her desk and opened her purse. " Here's a quarter," she said to Walter. "Go and eat downtown today. You can pay me back tomorrow."
Walter shook his head. "Nome thank you ma'am," he drawled softly.
Question 1: From the above extract, what can we infer about Miss Caroline's character?
Question 2: What do you think was the reason why Walter rejected the quarter from Miss Caroline?
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