Plot summary

Watson visits his friend Holmes at Christmas time

and finds him contemplating a battered old hat
brought to him by the employee Peterson after it and
a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a
fight with some street burglars. Peterson takes the
goose home to eat it, but comes back later with
a carbuncle (blue diamond). His wife has found it in
the bird's crop (throat). Holmes makes some
interesting deductions concerning the owner of the
hat from simple observations of its condition;
conclusions simply confirmed when an advertisement
for the owner produces the man himself: Henry
Baker.
Holmes cannot resist such a mystery, and he and
Watson set out across the city to determine exactly
how the jewel, stolen from the Countess of Morcar
during her stay at a hotel, is found in a goose's crop.
The man who dropped the goose, Mr. Henry Baker,
clearly has no knowledge of the crime, but he gives
Holmes valuable information, eventually leading him
to the conclusive stage of his investigation, at Covent
Garden. There, a salesman named Breckinridge gets
angry with Holmes, complaining about all the people
who have asked him about geese sold recently.
Clearly, someone else knows that the carbuncle was in
a goose and is looking for the bird.
Holmes expects that he will have to visit the
goose supplier in Brixton, but it proves
unnecessary: the other "man who used to ask
about the geese that the salesman mentioned
shows up right then, a little man named James
Ryder whom Holmes prevails upon to tell the
whole story, by first

Mentioning that Ryder is probably looking for

a goose with a black bar on its tato il, a
remarkable bird. Of course, Holmes has
already known most of it.
Ryder, believing he was being suspected for the
theft, fed the carbuncle to a goose being bred
by his sister Maggie Oakshott. He was to have
that goose as a gift, but lost track of which one
it was. Thus, when Ryder cut open the goose
and found no gem, he went back to his sister,
who had provided the Alpha Inn geese, and
asked if there was more than one goose that
had a black bar on its tail. She said there were
two, but he was too late: she had sold them all
to Breckinridge at Covent Garden.
Breckinridge already sold the geese to the
Alpha Inn, and the other goose with a black
bar on its tail found its way to Henry Baker as
his Christmas dinner. Ryder and his friend —
the countess's maid, Catherine Cusack — were
able to accuse John Horner, a plumber who
worked at the same hotel as he had previously
been imprisoned for robbery.
Holmes, however, does not take the standard
action against the man, and he didn't tell the
police about the crime. It being Christmas, and
concluding that arresting the clearly poor Ryder
will only make him into a more hardened
criminal later. Ryder promises to be good and
Horner will be freed as the case against him will
fall without Ryder' testimony as there aren't
enough evidence to accuse him.

Answer the following questions:

1. Describe what Watson sees when he comes to wish
Holmes ‘Happy Christmas!’. Where is Holmes?
What is in his hand? What is he looking at?
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2. When did Peterson give the hat to Holmes? What
did he also give to Holmes? What does Peterson
do (what is his job)?
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3. How does Holmes know that the owner of the hat
and goose is Henry Baker? What does the ticket
on the goose’s leg say? How about the hat?
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4. Whose diamond is the blue Carbuncle? How
did Holmes know about it?
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5. Who was accused by stealing the diamond? Why
was he accused?
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6. how did Holmes manage to find the owner of the
hat and the goose?
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7. What were the valuable information that Henry
Baker gave to Holmes?
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8. Who is Breckinridge? What information did he
give to Holmes? How did this information help
Holmes in solving the mystery?
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9. "Why are people so interested in them? I don’t
know. They aren’t the only geese in London, you
know.’(comment)
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10. Why did Holmes believe that they didn't
need to visit Mrs. Oakshott anymore?
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11. What does Holmes say after hearing the little

man’s real name?
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12. What relation is Mrs. Oakshott to Ryder?
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13. What did Ryder do with the diamond when he
was in the garden at Mrs Oakshott’s house? Why?
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14. What does Holmes say to Watson to explain why
he has let Ryder go free?
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15. How much is the Countess going to pay the finder of

the diamond?

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 A) Read pages 10 and 11: Use the words in the box to
complete the sentences.

Advertisement evening Diamond

Mr. Baker goose money buy room
money jewel office
Holmes needs to understand how the ______________ left
the Countess of Morcar’s _________________ in the
Cosmopolitan Hotel and arrived in a
____________________.To find___________________he
writes a newspaper ______________________.
Holmes gives _______________ to Peterson, the
doorman, and asks him to go to the newspaper
______________ and put the advertisement in all the
_______________ newspapers.
Peterson gives the _______________ to Holmes and
Holmes asks him to __________ a goose.
B) Sherlock Holmes told Dr Watson the whole story. Put the
sentences into the right order.
___The tall man ran away. The young man ran away, too
___He broke the window of a shop by accident.
___Peterson walked behind him for some time.
___Peterson ran to the man to help him
 ___A young man hit the tall man´s hat off his head and it fell
into the road.
___Peterson went back home after work at about four o
´clock in the morning of Christmas
___The tall man tried to hit the young man with a walking
stick.
___He saw a tall man with a goose over his shoulder.

1. He finds him contemplating a battered old hat brought to him

by Peterson.
2. He gave it to him before Christmas. He also gave him a goose.
He is an employee acquainted with both Holmes and Watson.
3. The goose had a ticket with the words (to Mrs. Henry Baker)
and the hat had the letters H.B on its brim.
4. It belongs to the countess of Morcar. Holmes read in the
newspapers that she lost it and that she wants to reward the
one who would find it.
5. John Horner the plumber in the cosmopolitan hotel was
accused because he was in the countess's room on the day of
the crime and he was in jail before.
6. He advertised in all the evening newspapers about finding the
hat and the goose.
7. He told him that he got the goose from the Alpha Inn Café.
8. He is the geese seller and he told Holmes that the geese
supplier is Mrs. Oakshot and that a man came and asked
about Oakshott's geese many times. These information helped
Holmes to know that there is someone else that knows about
the goose.
9. These words were said by Breckinridge to Ryder when he
came to ask about the geese.
10. Because the man who came to ask about the geese
arrived before they leave.
11. He knew that he worked in the cosmopolitan hotel and
that he was the one who accused Horner with the theft.
12. He hid it in one of the geese throats. Because he was
afraid that the police would search for it at his home and he
was promised to take the goose as a Christmas present.
13. She is his sister
14. It was Christmas and if Ryder was sent to jail he
would be a worse criminal also Horner would be set
free as there aren't enough evidence against him.
15. She offered a thousand pounds for its finder.