Question

Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall." I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. What does the phrase “one on a side” mean? 1) The neighbor repairs his side of the wall while the speaker watches. 2) The speaker and the neighbor repair the wall from the same side. 3)The speaker repairs his side of the wall while the neighbor watches. 4) The speaker and the neighbor repair the wall from opposite sides.

Answer 1

The correct answer is option 4.The speaker and the neighbor repair the wall from opposite sides. The author refers to the wall mending as being 'just another kind of out-door game, one on a side' implying that the speaker and the neighbor are engaged in a game with them both being on opposite teams of one player only as they repair the wall together, but from each of their own opposite sides.