Answer: B) Roughness.
Step-by-step explanation: the denotation of a word is its literal meaning, the definition that we can find in a dictionary, a word can have several denotations (or definitions). The definition or denotation of the word "coarse" is "rough or harsh in texture" but in the given excerpt from "Digging" it can be interpreted also as ordinary or lacking of refinement, so the correct answer is the corresponding to option B: roughness.