Chapter 1The Third Level

False

(they will swear that there are only two; Charley says there are three; p. 1)

True (p. 1)

False

(he often got lost there, and once a tunnel about a mile long took him into the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel; p. 2)

False

(the room was smaller, with fewer ticket windows and train gates; p. 3)

True (p. 5)

True (p. 5)

False

(Louisa was pretty worried and did not want him to look for the third level any more; p. 5)

True (p. 6)

Answer: Charley got lost on his way to the subway after working late.

• Down the levels: He went from the first level down to the second.
• The wrong turn: He ducked into an arched doorway heading for the subway and got lost.
• The corridor: It began “angling left and slanting downward” and led him to the third level.

Getting lost there, he says, is “easy to do”.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 2, 3

Answer: Charley keeps finding new passages in Grand Central.

• New paths: He is “always bumping into new doorways and stairs and corridors”.
• Roots: He imagines the station “pushing out new corridors and staircases like roots”.
• Escape: For many people, he says, Grand Central “has been an exit, a way of escape”.

So a hidden corridor to the third level seems possible.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 2, 3

Answer: Everything on the third level belonged to an older time.

• The station: It had brass spittoons, an information booth that was wood and old-looking, and open-flame gaslights.
• The people: Everyone was “dressed like eighteen-ninety-something”, with beards, sideburns and fancy mustaches.

The newspaper, The World, settled it: that front page was printed June 11, 1894.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 3, 4

Answer: Charley wanted to take Louisa to the peaceful Galesburg of 1894.

• The town: It had big old frame houses, huge lawns and tremendous trees.
• The evenings: Summer evenings were “twice as long”, and people sat out on their lawns with the fire-flies all around.

With the First World War “still twenty years off”, he says, “I wanted two tickets for that.”

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, p. 4

Answer: The clerk refused Charley’s money and suspected him of cheating.

• The fare: The clerk glanced at Charley’s fancy hatband but figured the fare; Charley had enough for two coach tickets, one way.
• The money: The clerk stared at the bills and said, “That ain’t money, mister”; the money of 1894 was bigger and different-looking.

Charley “turned away and got out fast”: “There’s nothing nice about jail, even in 1894.”

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, p. 4

Answer: Charley stopped because of Louisa’s worry and started again when he got proof.

• Stopping: Louisa was “pretty worried” and did not want him to look any more, so after a while he stopped and went back to his stamps.
• Starting again: Sam Weiner disappeared, and a first-day cover brought Sam’s letter from 1894.

Now Charley and Louisa both look every weekend.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 5, 6

Answer: The cover’s postmark and address tie Sam’s letter to 1894.

• The postmark: It shows July 18, 1894, and “the postmark proves the date”.
• The address: It was mailed to Charley’s grandfather in Galesburg and went into his collection.
• The letter: Inside was Sam’s letter, dated July 18, 1894: “I found the third level!”

The cover stayed unopened until Charley opened it.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 5, 6

Answer: Charley found out that Sam bought eight hundred dollars’ worth of old-style currency.

• The plan: Charley thinks this “ought to set him up in a nice little hay, feed and grain business”, which Sam always wished he could do.
• His old business: Charley says Sam “certainly can’t go back to his old business”, and then reveals, “Sam was my psychiatrist.”

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, p. 6

Answer: Charley is an ordinary office worker who longs for a calmer time and does not give up his search for it.

• Ordinary: He calls himself “just an ordinary guy named Charley, thirty-one years old”. In his tan gabardine suit and straw hat he looks like a dozen other men.
• Imaginative: He thinks Grand Central is “growing like a tree”, and he notices every detail of the third level, from the gaslights to the leg-of-mutton sleeves.
• Longing for the past: He dreams of Galesburg in 1894, with long summer evenings and both World Wars far in the future.
• Determined: He draws three hundred dollars, “nearly all we had”, for old-style currency, and he keeps looking for the corridor.
• A loving husband: He wants tickets for Louisa and himself, and he stops searching for a while when she is worried.

Charley is a dreamer, but an honest and likeable one.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 2–5

Answer: In the story the present is full of worry, while the past, as Charley sees it, is calm and safe.

• The present: The psychiatrist says “the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it”. Charley works late and hurries home.
• The grandfather’s day: Charley says “things were pretty nice and peaceful in his day”, so his grandfather “didn’t need any refuge from reality”.
• Galesburg in 1894: Summer evenings were “twice as long”; men smoked cigars and women waved palm-leaf fans “in a peaceful world”.
• No wars yet: The First World War was “still twenty years off”, and World War II “over forty years in the future”.
• Sam’s new life: Sam writes of a piano, singing on the front porch and lemonade.

Yet Charley also says, “There’s nothing nice about jail, even in 1894.” The past is gentler, but it is not perfect.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 1–6

Answer: “The Third Level” is a suitable title, because the whole story turns on this one mysterious place.

• The claim: The story opens with the railroads’ presidents swearing there are only two levels, while Charley says, “But I say there are three”.
• The journey: By chance Charley reaches the third level and finds that it is 1894 there.
• The search: He never finds the corridor again, though he has “tried often enough”.
• The proof: Sam’s letter says, “I found the third level!” and urges, “Keep looking till you find the third level!”
• Its meaning: The third level can be read as escape; the psychiatrist calls it “a waking-dream wish fulfillment”.

The title is short and mysterious. It makes the reader curious from the first line, and the story keeps that curiosity alive till Sam’s letter.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 1–6

Answer: The story ends with a surprise that turns the psychiatrist’s explanation upside down.

• The letter: In a first-day cover postmarked July 18, 1894, Charley finds Sam’s letter: “I got to wishing that you were right. Then I got to believing you were right.”
• Sam’s new life: Sam has been in Galesburg two weeks. He bought eight hundred dollars’ worth of old-style currency, which Charley thinks will set him up in a hay, feed and grain business.
• The last line: “His old business? Why, Sam was my psychiatrist.” The man who called the third level “a waking-dream wish fulfillment” has escaped to 1894 himself.
• Irony: The friend who explained away Charley’s wish had the same wish.
• An open question: Charley and Louisa still look every weekend, and the reader must decide whether the third level is real.

The twist makes the reader see the whole story in a new light.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 1, 5, 6

Answer: Charley tells his own story in the first person, like a friend talking to the reader, and his plain, exact details make the strange third level believable.

• An ordinary narrator: He is “just an ordinary guy”, so the reader trusts him.
• Talking to the reader: He asks, “Well, who doesn’t?”, “Have you ever been there?” and “Well, do you know what a first-day cover is?”
• Exact details: He names Vanderbilt Avenue, the Roosevelt Hotel and Forty-sixth Street, and he gives the date June 11, 1894, which he checked in the Public Library files.
• Honesty: He reports the psychiatrist’s view and admits that he has never found the corridor again.
• Proof: He explains first-day covers before he shows the one with Sam’s letter, so the postmark works as evidence.

By the end, the fantasy feels close to fact.

Reference: NCERT, Vistas: Supplementary Reader in English (Class XII), Chapter 1, pp. 1–6