Monday-Friday, March 1-12 Graphic Organizer for "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"
Note: there will be an ELA Regents Exam this June.
Work for the week of February 22 to 26 encompassed three grades:
The Gambler questions from Monday
Learning Targets
On a google doc, copy the following graphic organzier for "The Outcasts of Polka Flat". We will be reading the story as a class. You will have time to write your own responses. Each day I will post where we have finished. If you miss a class, you will need to read independently or come for assistance during office hours.
“The Outcasts of Polka Flat” Graphic Organize
|
As Mr.
John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the
morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change
in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three men,
conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged
significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air which, in a
settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous. |
ominous- giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening; inauspicious. 1.What
words tell the reader this is a community where people do not
regularly go to church? 2.
What figurative language is best embodied with the word “ominous?” a. personification b. metaphor c.omnomatopoeia d, hyperbole |
|
Mr.
Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these indications.
Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause was another question.
"I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected; "likely it's
me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been
whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly
discharged his mind of any further conjecture. |
conjecture -opinion or conclusion
formed on the basis of incomplete information What
words indicate that Mr. Oakhurst is conscientious about how he presents
himself? |
|
In point
of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately suffered
the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent
citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of
virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that
had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all
improper persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were
then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in
the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say
that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, to state
that their impropriety was
professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil
that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment. hung out clothes hanged people |
spasm-a sudden involuntary
muscular contraction impropriety- improper language,
behavior, or character. 4. The author uses the technique of innuendo (insinuation or suggestion), rather than saying directly the women’s occupation. What is the women's occupation? |
|
Mr. Oakhurst was
right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the
committee had urged hanging him as a possible example, and a sure method of
reimbursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them.
"It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, "to let this yer young
man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry away our money." But a
crude sentiment of equity residing
in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr.
Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice. Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence
with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was aware of the
hesitation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept Fate.
With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual
percentage in favor of the dealer. |
equity- fairness 5. Look at the list of salient points about realism above. Write out one quality that is applicable to this paragraph. |
|
A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness
of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who
was known to be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a
young woman familiarly known as the "Duchess"; another, who had won
the title of "Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle Billy," a
suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the spectators, nor was any
word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch which marked the uttermost
limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly and to the point.
The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives. |
|
|
As the escort
disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from
the Duchess, some bad language from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The
philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother
Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements of
the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that
seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the easy good
humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging his own riding
horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess rode. But
even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. The young
woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, faded coquetry; Mother
Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one
sweeping anathema. |
expletives- swearing malevolence-hatefulness plumes- feathers anathema-curse 8. a Class is an important aspect of realism. To what class do these characters belong? b.Give three textual examples to support your statement. (They need not be complete sentences.) |
|
The road to
Sandy Bar--a camp that, not having as yet experienced the regenerating
influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some invitation to the
emigrants--lay over a steep mountain range. It was distant a day's severe
travel. In that advanced season, the party soon passed out of the moist,
temperate regions of the foothills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the
Sierras. The trail was narrow and difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out
of her saddle upon the ground, declared her intention of going no farther,
and the party halted. The spot
was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheater, surrounded on
three sides by precipitous cliffs
of naked granite, sloped gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley.
It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been
advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy Bar
was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for delay.
This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a philosophic
commentary on the folly of "throwing up their hand before the game was
played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in this
emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. In spite
of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or less under its
influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose state into one of
stupor, the Duchess became maudlin,
and Mother Shipton snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against
a rock, calmly surveying them. |
precipitous-very steep precipice-steep rock face or cliff remonstrance- a forcefully
reproachful protest. maudlin- self-pityingly or
tearfully sentimental 9.To where was the group heading after leaving Poker Flat and why? (use text) 10. Paraphrase (put into your own words) Mr. Oakhurst’s “philosophic commentary on the folly of ‘throwing up their hand before the game was played out’”. |
|
Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a
profession which required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and,
in his own language, he "couldn't afford it." As he gazed at his recumbent fellow exiles, the
loneliness begotten of his pariah trade,
his habits of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed
him. He bestirred himself in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and
face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and for a
moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of deserting his weaker and more
pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could not help
feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, was most
conducive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious. He looked at
the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines
around him; at the sky, ominously clouded; at the valley below, already
deepening into shadow. And, doing so, suddenly he heard his own name called. |
recumbent- lying down pariah- outcast What ethical consideration goes through Mr. Oakhurst’s mind as he “looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet above the circling pines around him”?(complete sentence; use text) |
|
A horseman
slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the newcomer Mr.
Oakhurst recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as the "Innocent"
of Sandy Bar. He had met him some months before over a "little
game," and had, with perfect equanimity,
won the entire fortune--amounting to some forty dollars--of that guileless youth. After the game was
finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind the door and thus
addressed him: "Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble
worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed him his money
back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom
Simson. |
equanimity-fairness guileless-innocent 12. Another important aspect of
realism is the idea of democracy. Consider this when answering the following. Why does Mr. Oakhurst hand back Tommy’s
money? |
|
There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and
enthusiastic greeting of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started, he said, to go to
Poker Flat to seek his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in
fact giggle), he had run away with
Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that used to wait on the
table at the Temperance House?
They had been engaged a long time, but old Jake Woods had objected, and so
they had run away, and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they
were. And they were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to
camp and company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a
stout, comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine tree, where she
had been blushing unseen, and rode to the side of her lover. |
temperance- abstinence from
alcoholic drink. 13. Name the two new characters that are introduced. |
|
Mr. Oakhurst
seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not
fortunate. He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently to kick
Uncle Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough
to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear
trifling. He then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying further,
but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no provision, nor
means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met this objection by
assuring the party that he was provided with an extra mule loaded with
provisions and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a log house near the
trail. "Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the Innocent,
pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself." |
propriety- the state conforming to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals.
14. What did the Innocent bring along
and what had he discovered?
(use text) |
|
Nothing but Mr.
Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved
Uncle Billy from bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt
compelled to retire up the canyon until he could recover his gravity. There he confided the joke
to the tall pine trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of his face, and
the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he found them seated
by a fire--for the air had grown strangely chill and the sky overcast--in
apparently amicable conversation. Piney was actually talking in an impulsive,
girlish fashion to the Duchess, who was listening with an interest and
animation she had not shown for many days. The Innocent was holding forth,
apparently with equal effect, to Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Shipton, who was
actually relaxing into amiability.
"Is this yer a damned picnic?" said Uncle Billy with inward scorn
as he surveyed the sylvan group,
the glancing firelight, and the tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly
an idea mingled with the alcoholic fumes that disturbed his brain. It was
apparently of a jocular nature,
for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist into his mouth. |
to admonish-to reprimand gravity- seriousness profanity- swearing amiability-friendliness sylvan-woodland jocular- humorous |
|
As the shadows
crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the tops of the pine
trees, and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. The ruined cabin,
patched and covered with pine boughs, was set apart for the ladies. As the
lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a kiss, so honest and sincere that
it might have been heard above the swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the
malevolent Mother Shipton were probably too stunned to remark upon this last
evidence of simplicity, and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was
replenished, the men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were
asleep. Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke
benumbed and cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now
blowing strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave
it--snow! He started to his feet with the intention
of awakening the sleepers, for there was no time to lose. But turning to
where Uncle Billy had been lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to
his brain and a curse to his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had
been tethered; they were no longer there. The tracks were already rapidly
disappearing in the snow. The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the
fire with his usual calm. He did not waken the sleepers. The Innocent
slumbered peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the
virgin Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended
by celestial guardians; and Mr.
Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his shoulders, stroked his mustaches and
waited for the dawn. It came slowly in a whirling mist of snowflakes that
dazzled and confused the eye. What could be seen of the landscape appeared
magically changed. He looked over the valley, and summed up the present and
future in two words--"snowed in!" |
celestial- heavenly
15. What has Uncle Billy done? (complete sentence /weave in text)
16. How has the landscape changed? (complete sentence / text) |
|
A careful
inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, had been
stored within the hut and so escaped the felonious
fingers of Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence
they might last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst, sotto voce to the Innocent, "if
you're willing to board us. If you ain't--and perhaps you'd better not--you
can wait till Uncle Billy gets back with provisions." For some occult
reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring himself to disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the
hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally stampeded
the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother Shipton, who of
course knew the facts of their associate's defection. "They'll find out
the truth about us all when they find out anything," he added,
significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now." Tom Simson not only put all his
worldly store at the disposal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the
prospect of their enforced seclusion. "We'll have a good camp for a
week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll all go back together." The
cheerful gaiety of the young man, and Mr. Oakhurst's calm, infected the others.
The Innocent with the aid of pine boughs extemporized
a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the Duchess directed Piney in the
rearrangement of the interior with a taste and tact that opened the blue eyes
of that provincial maiden to their fullest extent. "I reckon now you're
used to fine things at Poker Flat," said Piney. The Duchess turned away
sharply to conceal something that reddened her cheeks through its
professional tint, and Mother Shipton requested Piney not to
"chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a weary search for
the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He
stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first naturally reverted to the
whisky, which he had prudently cached. "And yet it don't somehow sound
like whisky," said the gambler. It was not until he caught sight of the
blazing fire through the still-blinding storm and the group around it that he
settled to the conviction that it was "square fun." |
felonious- criminal sotto voce- low voice rascality- trickery to extemporize-to put together
without much preparation 17. For how many days does the party haveprovisions? |
|
Whether Mr. Oakhurst had cached his
cards with the whisky as something debarred the free access of the community,
I cannot say. It was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "didn't
say cards once" during that evening. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, produced
somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. Notwithstanding some
difficulties attending the manipulation of this instrument, Piney Woods
managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from its keys, to an
accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone castanets. But the crowning
festivity of the evening was reached in a rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers,
joining hands, sang with great earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a
certain defiant tone and Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any
devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last
joined in the refrain: "I'm proud to live in the
service of the Lord, And I'm bound to die in His
army." The pines rocked, the storm eddied
and whirled above the miserable group, and the flames of their altar leaped
heavenward as if in token of the vow. At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted,
and the stars glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose
professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible amount
of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson somehow managed to take upon himself
the greater part of that duty. He excused himself to the Innocent by saying
that he had "often been a week without sleep." "Doing
what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst,sententiously; "when a man gets
a streak of luck,—nigger luck—he don't get tired. The luck gives in first.
Luck," continued the gambler, reflectively, "is a mighty queer
thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And
it's finding out when it's going to change that makes you. We've had a streak
of bad luck since we left Poker Flat—you come along, and slap you get into
it, too. If you can hold your cards right along you're all right. For,"
added the gambler, with cheerful irrelevance, "'I'm proud to live in the
service of the Lord, And I'm bound to die in His
army.'" |
To beguile-to charm or enchant sententiously- with feeling 18. How did the snowed-in party pass the time? (complete sentence/ text) 19. What is Mr. Oakhurst’s
attitude toward luck? (complete sentence /text) |
|
The pines rocked, the storm eddied
and whirled above the miserable group, and the flames of their altar leaped
heavenward as if in token of the vow. At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted,
and the stars glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose
professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible amount
of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson somehow managed to take upon
himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself to the Innocent by saying
that he had "often been a week without sleep." "Doing
what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst, sententiously;
"when a man gets a streak of luck, he don't get tired. The luck gives in
first. Luck," continued the gambler, reflectively, "is a mighty
queer thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change.
And it's finding out when it's going to change that makes you. We've had a
streak of bad luck since we left Poker Flat—you come along, and slap you get
into it, too. If you can hold your cards right along you're all right.
For," added the gambler, with cheerful irrelevance, "'I'm proud to live in the
service of the Lord, And I'm bound to die in His
army.'" The third day came, and the sun,
looking through the white-curtained valley, saw the outcasts divide their
slowly decreasing store of provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the
peculiarities of that mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth
over the wintry landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But
it revealed drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut—a hopeless,
uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which the
castaways still clung. Through the marvelously clear air the smoke of the
pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton saw it, and
from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fastness hurled in that direction a final
malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and perhaps for
that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. It did her good,
she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out there and cuss, and
see." She then set herself to the task of amusing "the child,"
as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney was no chicken, but
it was a soothing and original theory of the pair thus to account for the
fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper. When night crept up again through
the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms
and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But music failed to fill
entirely the aching void left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was
proposed by Piney—storytelling. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female
companions caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have
failed too but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced upon a
stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the ILIAD. He now proposed
to narrate the principal incidents of that poem—having thoroughly mastered
the argument and fairly forgotten the words—in the current vernacularof Sandy Bar. And so for
the rest of that night the Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan
bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canyon
seemed to bow to the wrath of the
son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet satisfaction. Most especially
was he interested in the fate of "Ash-heels," as the Innocent
persisted in denominating the "swift-footed Achilles." |
to abate- to stop vernacular- common language malediction- curse vituperative-bitter and abusive wrath- anger 20. What is the relationship developing among the women? (Incorporate text) 21.How does Tom telling the story of the Illiad in the vernacular indicate that the story is an example of realism? |
|
So with small food and much of Homer
and the accordion, a week passed over the heads of the outcasts. The sun
again forsook them, and again from leaden skies the snowflakes were sifted
over the land. Day by day closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at
last they looked from their prison over drifted walls of dazzling white that
towered twenty feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to
replenish their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now
half-hidden in the drifts. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from
the dreary prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr.
Oakhurst settled himself coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess,
more cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother
Shipton—once the strongest of the party—seemed to sicken and fade. At
midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm
going," she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say
anything about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head
and open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations
for the last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said,
pointing to the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the
gambler. "That's what they call it," said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again
and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away. The accordion and the bones were put
aside that day, and Homer was forgotten. When the body of Mother Shipton had
been committed to the snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed
him a pair of snowshoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack saddle.
"There's one chance in a hundred to save her yet," he said,
pointing to Piney; "but it's there," he added, pointing toward
Poker Flat. "If you can reach there in two days she's safe."
"And you?" asked Tom Simson. "I'll stay here," was the curt reply. |
querulous-shaking curt- short and to the point 23. How
do her actions in terms of rations
relate to Realism? (look at the list) |
|
The lovers parted with a long
embrace. "You are not going, too?" said the Duchess as she saw Mr.
Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany him. "As far as the
canyon," he replied. He turned suddenly, and kissed the Duchess, leaving
her pallid face aflame and her trembling limbs rigid with amazement. Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It
brought the storm again and the whirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the
fire, found that someone had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last
a few days longer. The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney. The women slept but little. In the
morning, looking into each other's faces, they read their fate. Neither
spoke; but Piney, accepting the position of the stronger, drew near and
placed her arm around the Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the
rest of the day. That night the storm reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the protecting pines,
invaded the very hut. Toward morning they found themselves
unable to feed the fire, which gradually died away. As the embers slowly
blackened, the Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many
hours: "Piney, can you pray?" "No, dear," said Piney,
simply. The Duchess, without knowing exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting
her head upon Piney's shoulder, spoke no more. And so reclining, the younger
and purer pillowing the head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast,
they fell asleep. The wind lulled as if it feared to
waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from the long pine boughs, flew
like white-winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon
through the rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp. But all
human stain, all trace of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless
mantle mercifully flung from above. They slept all that day and the
next, nor did they waken when voices and footsteps broke the silence of the
camp. And when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have
told from the equal peace that dwelt upon them which was she that had sinned.
Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving them
still locked in each other's arms. But at the head of the gulch, on one
of the largest pine trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark
with a bowie knife. It bore the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand: BENEATH
THIS TREE LIES
THE BODY OF JOHN
OAKHURST, WHO
STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK ON
THE 23D OF NOVEMBER, 1850, AND HANDED
IN HIS CHECKS ON
THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850. And pulseless and cold, with a
Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in
life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the
weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. |
to render asunder- to tear apart wan- pale 24. Why did Mr. Oakhurst turn “suddenly and kiss the Duchess”? |
Comments
Post a Comment