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Pu b l i sh ed at t h e Pu b l i cat i onDivision by t h e Secr et ar y, Nat ion alCou n cil of Educat ion al Research andTr ai n i n g, Sr i Au r obi n do Mar g,New Delh i 110 016 an d pr in t ed atNi k h i l Of f set , 2 2 3 , 1 2 7 , D SI D CCom p l ex , Ok h l a I n d u st r i a l Ar ea,Ph ase-I, New Delh i -110 020

I SBN 81-7450-709-4

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Pu bl i cat i on Team

Head, Publ icat ion : M. Siraj Anw arDivision

Chief Edi tor : Shveta Uppal

Ch ief Bu siness : Gautam GangulyMan ager

Ch ief Pr odu ct ion : Arun ChitkaraOffi cer

Edi tor : Vi jayamSankaranarayanan

Pr oduct ion Assistant : Om Prakash

Cover and LayoutBlue Fish

I l l ust r a t i onsNidhi Wadhw a and Anuranjan Pegu

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Ack now l edgemen t s

Karnatak a Textbook Society (R.) wholehear tedly ack nowledges the valu ablecontr ibu t ion of the officials of publicat ion division. NCERT. Chairperson andMembers of Textbook Preparat ion Commit tee. Review Commit tee. Officials ofReview Commit tee. Officials of Computer Sect ion and all officers of NCERT.

We are also thank fu l to NCERT officials for providing Copyr ight for publicat ionofr Government of Karnataka. Department of Public Instruct ion.

ForewordThe National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, recommendsthat children's life at school must be linked to their life ou tsidethe school. This principle marks a departu re from the legacy ofbook ish learning which cont inues to shape our system andcauses a gap between the school, home and community. Thesyllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF signify anat tempt to implement th is basic idea. They also at tempt todiscou rage rote lear n in g an d t he main ten ance of sharpboundaries between different subject areas. We hope thesemeasures will take us significant ly fu rther in the direct ion of achild-centred system of education outlined in the National Policyof Educat ion (1986).

The success of this effort depends on the steps that schoolprincipals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflecton their own learning and to pursue imaginat ive activit ies andquestions. We must recognise that, given space, time and freedom,ch i ldren generate n ew k nowledge by en gaging wit h th einformation passed on to them by adults. Treating the prescribedtextbook as the sole basis of examination is one of the key reasonswhy other resources and sites of learning are ignored. Inculcatingcreativity and init iat ive is possible if we perceive and treat childrenas part icipants in learning, not as receivers of a fixed bodyof knowledge.

These aims imply considerable change in school rou t inesand mode of funct ioning. Flexibility in the daily t ime-table is asnecessary as r igour in implement ing the annual calendar sothat the requ ired number of teaching days are actually devotedto teaching. The methods used for teaching and evaluat ion willalso determine how effect ive th is book proves for makingchildren’s life at school a happy experience, rather than a sourceof st ress or boredom. Syllabus designers have t r ied to addresst he problem of cu r r icu lar bu rden by r est r u ct u r in g an dr eor ien t in g k n owledge at d i ffer en t st ages wi t h gr eat erconsiderat ion for child psychology and the t ime available for

teaching. The supplementary reader at tempts to enhance th isendeavour by giving higher prior ity and space to opportunit iesfor contemplat ion and wondering, discussion in small groups,and act ivit ies requ ir ing hands-on experience.

The National Council of Educat ional Research and Training(NCERT) appreciates the hard work done by the textbookdevelopment commit tee responsible for th is book. We wish tot h an k t h e Ch ai r p er son of t h e adv i sor y com m i t t eefor t ex t b ook s i n l an gu ages for t h e secon dar y st age,Professor Namwar Singh, and the Chief Advisor for th is book,Professor R. Amritavalli for guiding the work of this commit tee.Several t eachers con t r ibu ted to the development of t h issupplementary reader; we are gratefu l to their pr incipals formaking th is possible. We are indebted to the inst itu t ions andorganisations which have generously permitted us to draw upontheir resources, mater ials and personnel. We are especiallygratefu l to the members of the Nat ional Monitoring Committee,appoin ted by th e Depar t men t of Secon dar y an d High erEdu cat ion , M in ist r y of Hu m an Resou r ce Developm en tu nder the Chairpersonsh ip of Professor Mr inal Mir i andPr ofessor G.P. D esh pan de for t h ei r valu abl e t im e an dcontr ibut ion. As an organisat ion committed to systemic reformand cont inuous improvement in the quality of its products,NCERT welcomes comments and suggest ions which will enableus to undertake fu rther revision and refinements.

DirectorNew Delhi Nat ional Council of Educational20 November 2006 Research and Training

A Note to the TeacherFootprints w ithout Feet, a supplementary reader in English forClass X, is based on the new syllabus prepared as a follow-up tothe Nat ional Curr iculum Framework, 2005. The curricu lumenvisages language learning opportun it ies that are r ich incomprehensible inpu t , and adopts a langu age-across-the-curriculum, mu lt ilingual perspective on English in the school.Input-r ich communicational environments are a prerequisitefor language learning. Therefore, learners must be exposed to avariety of texts.

The supplementary reader is meant for students to read ontheir own; it aims at developing their reading sk ills. Learnersneed to develop the habit of reading for in format ion andpleasure, drawing inferences from what they read, and relat ingtexts to their previou s knowledge. They need to learn toread cr i t ical ly and to develop the con fidence to ask andanswer questions.

The select ions in t he su pplementary reader take in toaccount the interests of young learners while making themaware of issu es th at t h ey n eed t o r eflect on : per son alrelationships, the neighbourhood, and the community. Thematicvariety has been taken care of and there is a good representationof a variety of genres as well as of writers from across the world—In dian , B r i t ish , Fr en ch , Am er ican an d Japan ese. Th issupplementary reader has ten pieces including a play and afactual prose piece, as well as science fict ion.

Each piece begins with questions under the head ‘Read andFind Out’ to gu ide learners in their reading and comprehensionof the text , which is divided into two to three sect ions, eachsect ion prefaced with relevant quest ions. Thus the texts donot need to be read ou t or explained by the teacher in class.Word glosses have similar ly been kept to the minimum so asto en cou rage in feren ces abou t mean in g from sen ten t ialan d discou rse con t ext s. The teacher, aft er a qu ick or alcomprehension check, if necessary, can progress to the questions

under the head ‘Think Abou t It’ at the end of each unit . Theseare meant to take the learner beyond factual comprehension tocontemplate on the issues that the texts raise; the questions areopen ended and thought provok ing.

The quest ions given under ‘Talk Abou t It’ are intended toencourage the learners to express their own ideas in a creativeand coherent way. It is hoped that the topics suggested fordiscussion will encourage learners to develop a construct iveanalysis of t he relevan t issues, involving cr it ical t h ink ing,reasoning, and previous knowledge as well as new knowledge.

The list of suggested readings given at the end of each storyis meant to encourage learners to read fu rther on their own.The idea is to promote the habit of self-learning and reducedependence on the teacher.

Language learning is essent ially a mat ter of acquiring in anintegrated way the sk ills of listening, speak ing, reading andwrit ing; and of honing these sk ills for effect ive communicat ionin the classroom, and later in real life. This book offers anopportunity for tak ing learners in that direct ion.

Textbook Development CommitteeCHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR TEXTBOOKS IN

LANGUAGES FOR THE SECONDARY STAGE

Pr ofessor Nam war Singh , for m er ly Chair man, School ofLanguages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

CHIEF ADVISOR

R. Amritaval li , Professor , Engl ish and Foreign LanguagesUniversity (EFLU), Hyderabad

CHIEF COORDINATOR

Ram Janma Sharma, Former Professor and Head, Departmentof Educat ion in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi

MEMBERS

Kalyani Samantray, Reader in English, S B W College, Cuttak,OdishaLak sh m i Rawat , TGT (Engl ish), BRD Sar vodaya Kan yaVidyalaya, Prasad Nagar, Karol Bagh, New DelhiNasiruddin Khan, Former Reader in English, Department ofEducation in Languages, NCERT, New DelhiPadmini Baruah, Associate Professor in English, Departmentof ELT, Guwahat i University, Guwahat i, AssamR. Meganathan, Assistant Professor in English, Department ofEducation in Languages, NCERT, New DelhiSadhana Agarwal, TGT (English), Rajk iya Prat ibha Vidyalaya,Link Road, Karol Bagh, New DelhiSadhana Parashar, Education Officer (ELT), CBSE, CommunityCentre, Preet Vihar, DelhiSandhya Sahoo, Professor in English, Regional Inst it u te ofEducat ion, BhubaneswarShru t i Sircar, Associate Professor in English, Centre for ESLStudies, EFLU, Hyberabad

MEMBER –COORDI NATOR

Kir t i Kapur, Associate Professor in English, Depar tment ofEducation in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi

AcknowledgementsThe Nat ional Council of Educational Research and Train ing isgrat efu l t o Professor M.L.Tickoo, for mer ly of t he CIEFL,Hyderabad, and the Regional Language Centre, Singapore forhis valuable suggest ions and advice in the development ofth is book.

For permission to use copyright material, NCERT wou ld liketo thank Scot t , Foreman and Company, Glenview, Ill inois forthe pieces ‘The Making of a Scient ist’ by Robert W. Peterson and‘The Book that Saved the Earth’ by Claire Boiko. Special thanksare due to Professor Yash Pal and Dr Rahu l Pal from whoseDiscovered Questions (NCERT, 2006) we have taken threequestions along with their answers.

We also thank the Publicat ion Department , NCERT, fortheir su ppor t . We gratefu l ly acknowledge the services ofParash Ram Kaushik , Incharge, Computer Resource Centre,NCERT; Razi Ahmad and Arvind Sharma, DTP Operators;G.C. Chandrakar, Copy Editor ; and Mathew John, Proof Reader.

ContentsForeword ii i

A Note to the Teacher v

1. A Tr iumph of Surgery 1

J AMES HERRIOT

2. The Thief’s Story 8

RUSK IN BOND

3. The Midnight Visitor 14

ROBERT ARTHUR

4. A Question of Trust 20

VICTOR CANNING

5. Footpr ints wi thout Feet 26

H.G. WELLS

6. The Mak ing of a Scientist 32

ROBERT W. PETERSON

7. The Neck lace 39

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

8. The Hack Dr iver 47

SINCLAIR LEWIS

9. Bhol i 54

K.A. ABBAS

10. The Book That Saved the Earth 63

CLAIRE BOIK O

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about Tricki?• What does she do to help him? Is she wise in this?• Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?

I WAS really worr ied about Tr ick i th is t ime. I had pu l led up my carwhen I saw him in the street with his mistress and I was shocked athis appearance. He had become hugely fat, l ike a bloated sausage witha leg at each corner. His eyes, bloodshot and rheumy, stared straightahead and his tongue lolled from his jaws.

Mrs Pumphrey hastened to explain, “He was so l ist less, Mr Herr iot.He seemed to have no energy. I thought he must be su ffer ing frommalnu t r i t ion , so I have been giving h im some l i t t le ext ras betweenmeals to bu i ld h im up, some mal t and cod-l iver oi l and a bowl ofHor licks at night to make him sleep — nothing much really.”

“And did you cut down on the sweet things as I told you?”“Oh, I did for a bit , bu t he seemed to be so weak I had to relent. He

does love cream cakes and chocolates so. I can’t bear to refuse him.”I looked down again at the l i t t le dog. That was the trouble. Tr ick i’s

on ly fau l t was greed. He had never been k nown to refuse food; hewould tack le a meal at any hour of the day or night. And I wonderedabout all the things Mrs Pumphrey hadn’t mentioned.

“Are you giving him plenty of exercise?”“Wel l, he has h is l i t t le walks with me as you can see, bu t Hodgk in,

the gardener, has been down wi th lumbago, so there has been nor ing-throwing lately.”

Footprints without Feet2

I tr ied to sound severe: “Now I really mean this. If you don’t cu t hisfood r ight down and give him more exercise he is going to be really i l l .You must harden your heart and keep him on a very str ict diet.”

Mrs Pumphrey wrung her hands. “Oh I wil l , Mr Herr iot. I’m sureyou are r ight, bu t it is so difficu lt , so very difficu lt .” She set off, headdown, along the road, as i f determined to pu t the new regime in topract ice immediately.

I watched their progress with growing concern. Tr ick i was totter ingalong in his li t tle tweed coat; he had a whole wardrobe of these coats —for the cold weather and a raincoat for the wet days. He struggled on,drooping in his harness. I thought it wou ldn’t be long before I heardfrom Mrs Pumphrey.

The expected cal l came wi t h in a few days. Mr s Pumphrey wasdistraught. Tr ick i wou ld eat nothing. Refused even his favour ite dishes;and besides, he had bouts of vomit ing. He spent all h is t ime lying on arug, panting. Didn’t want to go for walks, didn’t want to do anything.

I had made my plans in advance. The only way was to get Tr ick i ou tof the house for a per iod. I suggested that he be hospitalised for abouta for tnight to be kept under observation.

The poor lady almost swooned. She was sure he wou ld pine and dieif he did not see her every day.

But I took a firm l ine. Tr ick i was very i l l and this was the only wayto save him; in fact, I thought it best to take him without delay and,

A Triumph of Surgery 3

fol lowed by Mrs Pumphrey’s wail ings, I marched out to the car carryingthe l i t t le dog wrapped in a blanket.

The entire staff was roused and maids rushed in and out br inginghis day bed, his night bed, favour ite cushions, toys and rubber r ings,break fast bowl, lunch bowl, supper bowl. Realising that my car wou ldnever hold all the stu ff, I star ted to dr ive away. As I moved off, MrsPumphrey, with a despair ing cry, threw an armfu l of the l i t t le coatsthrough the window. I looked in the mirror before I tu rned the cornerof the dr ive; everybody was in tears.

Out on the road, I glanced down at the pathetic l i t t le animal gaspingon the seat by my side. I pat ted the head and Tr ick i made a braveeffor t to wag his tail. “Poor old lad,” I said. “You haven’t a k ick in youbut I think I know a cure for you.”

READ AND FIND OUT

• Is the narrator as rich as Tricki’s mistress?• How does he treat the dog?• Why is he tempted to keep Tricki on as a permanent guest?• Why does Mrs Pumphrey think the dog’s recovery is “a

triumph of surgery”?

At the surgery, the household dogs surged round me. Tr ick i lookeddown at the noisy pack with dull eyes and, when put down, lay motionlesson the carpet. The other dogs, after sniffing round him for a few seconds,decided he was an uninterest ing object and ignored him.

I made up a bed for him in a warm loose box next to the one wherethe other dogs slept. For two days I kept an eye on him, giving him nofood but plenty of water. At the end of the second day he started toshow some interest in his surroundings and on the third he began towhimper when he heard the dogs in the yard.

When I opened the door, Tr ick i trotted out and was immediatelyengu lfed by Joe, the greyhound, and his fr iends. After roll ing him overand thoroughly inspecting him, the dogs moved off down the garden.Tr ick i fol lowed them, roll ing slight ly with his surplus fat.

Later that day, I was present at feeding t ime. I watched while Tr istanslopped the food into the bowls. There was the usual headlong rushfollowed by the sounds of high-speed eating; every dog knew that if hefell behind the others he was l iable to have some competit ion for thelast part of his meal.

When they had finished, Trick i took a walk round the shining bowls,l ick ing casually inside one or two of them. Next day, an extra bowl wasput out for him and I was pleased to see him jost ling his way towards it .

From then on, his progress was rapid. He had no medicinal treatmentof any k ind bu t al l day he ran about with the dogs, joining in theirfriendly scrimmages. He discovered the joys of being bowled over, trampedon and squashed every few minutes. He became an accepted member ofthe gang, an unlikely, silky l i tt le object among the shaggy crew, fight inglike a tiger for his share at mealt imes and hunting rats in the old hen-house at night. He had never had such a t ime in his li fe.

All the while, Mrs Pumphrey hovered anxiously in the background,r inging a dozen t im es a day for t he latest bu l let ins. I dodged thequestions about whether his cushions were being tu rned regu lar ly orhis correct coat worn according to the weather; bu t I was able to tellher that the l i t t le fellow was out of danger and convalescing rapidly.

The word ‘convalescing’ seemed to do something to Mrs Pumphrey.She started to br ing round fresh eggs, two dozen at a t ime, to bu ild upTr ick i’s strength. For a happy per iod my partners and I had two eggseach for break fast, bu t when the bott les of wine began to arr ive, thereal possibil i t ies of the situation began to dawn on the household.

It was to enr ich Tr ick i’s blood. Lunch became a ceremonial occasionwith two glasses of wine before and several dur ing the meal.

We cou ld hardly believe it when the brandy came to put a final edgeon Tr ick i’s consti tu t ion . For a few n ights the fine spi r i t was rol ledaround, inhaled and reverently drunk .

They were days of deep content, star t ing well with the extra egg inthe morning, improved and sustained by the midday wine and finishingluxur iously round the fire with the brandy.

It was a temptat ion to k eep Tr ick i on as a per manent guest , bu tI k n ew M r s Pu m ph r ey was su ffer i n g an d af t er a for t n igh t , fel tcompel led t o phone and tel l her t hat the l i t t le dog had recover edand was awai t ing col lect ion .

Within minutes, about thir ty feet of gleaming black metal drew upoutside the surgery. The chauffeur opened the door and I cou ld justmake out the figure of Mrs Pumphrey almost lost in the inter ior. Herhands were t ight ly clasped in front of her; her l ips trembled. “Oh, MrHerr iot, do tell me the tru th. Is he really better?”

“Yes, he’s fine. There’s no need for you to get ou t of the car — I’ll goand fetch him.”

I walk ed through the house into the garden. A mass of dogs washurt l ing round and round the lawn and in their midst, ears flapping,tail waving, was the l i t t le golden figure of Tr ick i. In two weeks he hadbeen transformed into a l i the, hard-muscled animal; he was keepingup well with the pack , stretching out in great bounds, his chest almostbrushing the ground.

I carr ied him back along the passage to the front of the house. Thechauffeur was st i l l holding the car door open and when Tr ick i saw his

GLOSSARY

sausage: finely minced meat stu ffed into long cyl indr ical cases anddivided into small lengths by twist ing or tying

rheum y: a water y discharge fr om a mucous m embrane especially ofthe nose or eyes

l i st l ess: lack ing energy and enthusiasml um bago: muscu lar pain in the lower par t of the back (lumbar region)regim e: prescr ibed course of exercise and dietdist raught : extremely wor r iedsurgery : a place where a doctor, a dent ist or a veter inary surgeon treats

pat ien tsscr im m age: rough or confused struggleconvalescing: recover ing fr om an il lnessl i t he: flexible

1. What k ind of a per son do you th ink the nar r ator, a veter inar ysurgeon, is? Would you say he is tactfu l as well as fu ll of commonsen se?

2. Do you think Tr ick i was happy to go home? What do you think willhappen now?

3. Do you think this is a real-l ife episode, or mere fict ion? Or is it amixture of both?

mistress he took off from my arms in a tremendous leap and sai ledinto Mrs Pumphrey’s lap. She gave a star t led “Ooh!” And then had todefend herself as he swarmed over her, l ick ing her face and bark ing.

Dur ing the excitement, I helped the chauffeur to br ing out the beds,toys, cushions, coats and bowls, none of which had been used. As thecar moved away, Mrs Pumphrey leaned out of the window. Tears shonein her eyes. Her l ips trembled.

“Oh, Mr Herr iot,” she cr ied, “how can I ever thank you? This is atr iumph of surgery!”

JAMES HERRIOT

1. This episode descr ibes the sil ly behaviour of a r ich woman who isfoolishly indu lgent , per haps because she is lonely. Do you th inksuch people are merely sil ly, or can their act ions cause harm toother s?

2. Do you think there are also parents l ike Mrs Pumphrey?

3. What wou ld you have done if you were: (i) a member of the staff inMrs Pumphrey’s household, (i i) a neighbour? What wou ld your l ifehave been like, in general?

4. What wou ld you have done if you were in the nar rator’s place?

• ‘Rikk i Tikk i Tawi’ by Rudyard Kipling

• Dog Stories by James Herr iot

• ‘A Zoo in My Luggage’ by Gerald Dur rell

• ‘A Tiger Comes to Town’ by R.K. Narayan

T i m e

The butterf ly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

Time is a w ealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no w ealth.

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the t ip of a leaf.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

READ AND FIND OUT

• Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?• What is he “a fairly successful hand” at?• What does he get from Anil in return for his work?

I WAS st i l l a th ief when I met An i l . And though on ly 15, I was anexper ienced and fair ly successfu l hand.

Anil was watching a wrestl ing match when I approached h im. Hewas about 25 — a tall, lean fellow — and he looked easy-going, k indand simple enough for my purpose. I hadn’t had much luck of late andthought I might be able to get into the young man’s confidence.

“You look a bit of a wrestler yourself,” I said. A l i t t le flattery helpsin mak ing fr iends.

“So do you,” he replied, which put me off for a moment because atthat t ime I was rather thin.

“Well,” I said modestly, “I do wrestle a bit .”“What’s your name?”“Hari Singh,” I l ied. I took a new name every month. That kept me

ahead of the police and my former employers.After this in troduction , An il talk ed about the wel l-oi led wrestlers

who were grunt ing, l i ft ing and throwing each other abou t . I didn’thave much to say. Anil walked away. I fol lowed casually.

“Hello again,” he said.I gave him my most appealing smile. “I want to work for you,” I said.“But I can’t pay you.”

I thought that over for a minute. Perhaps I had misjudged my man.I asked, “Can you feed me?”

“Can you cook?”“I can cook ,” I l ied again.“If you can cook , then may be I can feed you.”He took me to his room over the Jumna Sweet Shop and told me I

cou ld sleep on the balcony. But the meal I cooked that night musthave been terr ible because Anil gave it to a stray dog and told me to beoff. But I just hung around, smil ing in my most appealing way, and hecou ldn’t help laughing.

Later, he patted me on the head and said never mind, he’d teachme to cook . He also taught me to wr ite my name and said he wou ldsoon teach me to wr ite whole sentences and to add numbers. I wasgratefu l . I k new that once I cou ld wr ite l ike an educated man therewould be no l imit to what I cou ld achieve.

It was qu ite pleasant work ing for Anil. I made the tea in the morningand then wou ld take my t ime buying the day’s supplies, usually mak inga profit of about a rupee a day. I think he knew I made a l i t t le moneythis way but he did not seem to mind.

The Thief’s Story 9

Anil made money by fits and starts. He would borrow one week, lendthe next. He kept worrying about his next cheque, but as soon as itarrived he would go out and celebrate. It seems he wrote for magazines —a queer way to make a l iving!

One evening he came home with a small bundle of notes, saying hehad just sold a book to a publisher. At night, I saw him tuck the moneyunder the mat tress.

I had been work ing for An il for almost a month and, apar t fromcheating on the shopping, had not done anything in my l ine of work . Ihad every opportunity for doing so. Anil had given me a key to the door,and I cou ld come and go as I pleased. He was the most trust ing personI had ever met.

And that is why it was so difficu l t to rob him. It’s easy to rob agreedy man, because he can afford to be robbed; but it’s difficu lt to roba careless man — sometimes he doesn’t even notice he’s been robbedand that takes all the pleasure out of the work .

Well, i t’s t ime I did some real work , I told myself; I’m out of pract ice.And if I don’t take the money, he’ll only waste it on his fr iends. Afterall, he doesn’t even pay me.

READ AND FIND OUT

• How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?• What does he say about the different reactions of people

when they are robbed?• Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?

Anil was asleep. A beam of moonlight stepped over the balcony andfell on the bed. I sat up on the floor, consider ing the situation. If I tookthe money, I cou ld catch the 10.30 Express to Lucknow. Slipping out ofthe blanket , I crept up to the bed. Anil was sleeping peacefu l ly. Hisface was clear and unlined; even I had more marks on my face, thoughmine were mostly scars.

My hand slid under the mattress, searching for the notes. When Ifound them, I drew them out without a sound. Anil sighed in his sleepand turned on his side, towards me. I was start led and qu ick ly crawledout of the room.

When I was on the road, I began to run. I had the notes at my waist,held there by the str ing of my pyjamas. I slowed down to a walk andcounted the notes: 600 rupees in fift ies! I cou ld l ive l ike an oil-r ichArab for a week or two.

When I reached the stat ion I did not stop at the t icket office (I hadnever bought a t icket in my l ife) bu t dashed straight to the platform.The Lucknow Express was just moving out. The train had st i l l to pickup speed and I shou ld have been able to jump into one of the carr iages,but I hesi tated — for some reason I can’t explain — and I lost thechance to get away.

When the t rain had gone, I found myself standing alone on thedeserted platform. I had no idea where to spend the night. I had nofr iends, believing that fr iends were more trouble than help. And I didnot want to make anyone cur ious by staying at one of the small hotelsnear the stat ion. The only person I knew really well was the man I hadrobbed. Leaving the stat ion, I walked slowly through the bazaar.

In my short career as a thief, I had made a study of men’s faceswhen they had lost their goods. The greedy man showed fear; the r ichman showed anger; the poor man showed acceptance. But I knew thatAnil’s face, when he discovered the theft, wou ld show only a touch ofsadness. Not for the loss of money, but for the loss of trust.

I found myself in the maidan and sat down on a bench. The nightwas chil ly — it was ear ly November — and a l ight dr izzle added to mydiscomfor t. Soon it was raining qu ite heavily. My shir t and pyjamasstuck to my sk in, and a cold wind blew the rain across my face.

I went back to the bazaar and sat down in the shelter of the clocktower. The clock showed midnight. I felt for the notes. They were dampfrom the rain.

Anil’s money. In the morning he would probably have given me two orthree rupees to go to the cinema, but now I had it all. I couldn’t cook hismeals, run to the bazaar or learn to write whole sentences any more.

I had forgot ten about them in the excitement of the theft . Wholesentences, I knew, cou ld one day br ing me more than a few hundredrupees. It was a simple matter to steal — and sometimes just as simpleto be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man,was something else. I shou ld go back to Anil, I told myself, i f only tolearn to read and wr ite.

I hu r r ied back to the room feel ing very nervous, for i t is mucheasier to steal something than to retu rn it undetected. I opened thedoor qu iet ly, then stood in the doorway, in clouded moonligh t. Ani lwas st i l l asleep. I crept to the head of the bed, and my hand came upwith the notes. I fel t h is breath on my hand. I remained st i l l for aminu te. Then my hand found the edge of the matt ress, and slippedunder it with the notes.

I awoke late next morning to find that Anil had already made thetea. He stretched out h is hand towards me. There was a fi fty-rupeenote between his fingers. My heart sank . I thought I had been discovered.

“I made some money yesterday,” he explained. “Now you’ll be paidregu lar ly.”

My spir its rose. But when I took the note, I saw it was st i l l wet fromthe night’s rain.

“Today we’ll star t wr it ing sentences,” he said.He knew. But neither his l ips nor his eyes showed anything. I smiled

at Anil in my most appealing way. And the smile came by itself, withoutany effor t.

RUSKIN BOND

GLOSSARY

f l at t ery : insincere pr aisem odest l y : without boast ing; in a humble waygrunt ing: mak ing low guttu ral soundsappeal i ng: at t r act iveun l ined: (here) showing no sign of wor ry or anxiety

1. What ar e Har i Singh’s r eact ions to the prospect of receiving aneducat ion? Do they change over t ime? (Hint: Compare, for example,the thought: “I knew that once I cou ld wr ite l ike an educated manthere wou ld be no lim it to what I cou ld achieve” with these laterthoughts: “Whole sentences, I knew, cou ld one day br ing me morethan a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal — andsometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man,a clever and respected m an, was someth ing else.”) What m ak eshim return to Anil?

2. Why does not Anil hand the thief over to the police? Do you thinkmost people wou ld have done so? In what ways is Ani l di ffer entfrom such employers?

1. Do you think people l ik e Ani l and Har i Singh ar e fou nd only infict ion, or are there such people in real l ife?

2. Do you th ink i t a sign i fican t detai l in the stor y th at An i l is astruggling wr iter? Does this explain his behaviour in any way?

3. Have you met anyone like Har i Singh? Can you think and imaginethe circumstances that can tu r n a fifteen-year -old boy into a thief?

4. Where is the story set? (You can get clues from the names of thepersons and places ment ioned in it .) Which language or languagesar e spoken in these places? Do you think the characters in thestory spoke to each other in English?

• ‘He Said It with Arsenic’ by Rusk in Bond

• ‘Vanka’ by Anton Chekhov

• ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ by Ar thur Conan Doyle

READ AND FIND OUT

• How is Ausable different from other secret agents?• Who is Fowler and what is his first authentic thrill

of the day?

AUSABLE d id not fi t any descr ipt ion of a secret agent Fowler had everread. Fol lowing h im down the musty cor r idor of the gloomy Frenchhotel wher e Au sab le had a r oom , Fowler fel t l et down . I t was asmal l room, on the sixth and top floor, and scarcely a set t ing for aromant ic adventu r e.

Ausable was, for one thing, fat. Very fat. And then there was hisaccent. Though he spoke French and German passably, he had neveraltogether lost the American accent he had brought to Par is from Bostontwenty years ago.

“You are disappointed,” Ausable said wheezi ly over his shou lder.“You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionageand danger. You wished to meet me because you are a wr iter, youngand romantic. You envisioned myster ious figures in the night, the crackof pistols, drugs in the wine.”

“Instead, you have spent a du l l even ing in a French music hal lwith a sloppy fat man who, instead of having messages slipped intoh is hand by dark -eyed beau ties, gets only a prosaic telephone cal lmak ing an appointment in h is room. You have been bored!” The fatman chuck led to h imsel f as he un lock ed the door of h is room andstood aside to let his frustrated guest enter.

“You are disi l lusioned,” Ausable told him. “But take cheer, my youngfr iend. Present ly you wi l l see a paper, a qu i te impor tant paper for

which several men and women have r isk ed their l ives, come to me.Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. In thatthought is drama, is there not?”

As he spoke, Ausable closed the door behind him. Then he switchedon the l ight.

And as the l ight came on, Fowler had his fir st au thentic thr i l l ofthe day. For halfway across the room, a small au tomatic pistol in hishand, stood a man.

Ausable blinked a few t imes.“Max,” he wheezed, “you gave me qu ite a star t. I thought you were

in Ber lin. What are you doing here in my room?”

READ AND FIND OUT

• How has Max got in?• How does Ausable say he got in?

Max was slender, a little less than tall, with features that suggestedslight ly the crafty, pointed countenance of a fox. There was about him —aside from the gun — nothing especially menacing.

“The repor t,” he murmured. “The report that is being brought toyou tonight concern ing some new missiles. I thought I wou ld tak e itfrom you. It wil l be safer in my hands than in yours.”

The Midnight Visitor 15

Ausable moved to an armchair and sat down heavily. “I’m going toraise the devil with the management this t ime, and you can bet on it ,”he said gr imly. “This is the second t ime in a month that somebody hasgot into my room through that nu isance of a balcony!” Fowler’s eyeswent to the single window of the room. It was an ordinary window,against which now the night was pressing black ly.

“Balcony?” Max said, with a r ising inflect ion. “No, a passkey. I didnot k now abou t the balcony. I t m ight have saved me some t roublehad I known.”

“It’s not my balcony,” Ausable said with extreme ir r itat ion. “It belongsto the next apartment.” He glanced explanator i ly at Fowler. “You see,”he said, “this room used to be part of a large unit , and the next room —through that door there — used to be the l iving room. It had the balcony,wh ich extends under my window now. You can get onto it from theempty room two doors down — and somebody did, last month. Themanagement promised to block it off. But they haven’t.”

Max glanced at Fowler, who was standing st iffly not far from Ausable,and waved the gun with a commanding gesture. “Please sit down,” hesaid. “We have a wait of half an hour, I think .”

“Thirty-one minutes,” Ausable said moodily. “The appointment wasfor twelve-thir ty. I wish I knew how you learned about the report, Max.”

The l it t le spy smiled evil ly. “And we wish we knew how your peoplegot the report. But no harm has been done. I wil l get it back tonight.What is that? Who is at the door?”

Fowler jumped at the sudden k nock ing at the door. Ausable justsmi led. “That wi l l be the pol ice,” he said . “I thought that such animpor tant paper as the one we are wai t ing for shou ld have a l i t t leextra protect ion. I told them to check on me to make sure everythingwas all r ight.”

Max bit his l ip nervously. The knock ing was repeated.“What wil l you do now, Max?” Ausable asked. “If I do not answer the

door, they wil l enter anyway. The door is unlocked. And they wil l nothesitate to shoot.”

Max’s face was black with anger as he backed swift ly towards thewindow. He swung a leg over the sil l . “Send them away!” he warned. “Iwi l l wai t on the balcony. Send them away or I’ll shoot and take mychances!”

The knock ing at the door became louder and a voice was raised.“Mr Ausable! Mr Ausable!”

Keeping his body twisted so that his gun st i l l covered the fat manand his guest, the man at the window grasped the frame with his freehand to support himself. Then he swung his other leg up and over thewindow-si l l .

The doorknob turned. Swift ly Max pushed with his left hand to freehimself from the sil l and drop to the balcony. And then, as he dropped,he screamed once, shr i l ly.

The door opened and a waiter stood there with a tray, a bott le andtwo glasses. “Here is the dr ink you ordered for when you returned,” hesaid, and set the tray on the table, deft ly uncorked the bott le, and leftthe room.

White-faced, Fowler stared after him. “But...” he stammered, “thepol ice...”

“There were no police.” Ausable sighed. “Only Henry, whom I wasexpect ing.”

“But won’t that man out on the balcony… ?” Fowler began.“No,” said Ausable, “he won’t retu r n. You see, my young fr iend,

there is no balcony.”

ROBERT ARTHUR

GLOSSARY

rom ant i c: imaginat ive; having a fantast ic view of realitypassably : just well enough; tolerably wellespion age: spyingsloppy : (here) carelessly dressedprosaic: or dinarychuck led: laughed qu iet ly, without opening his mouthwheezed: spoke breathing noisily and heavilym issi l es: weapons directed by remote control or au tomaticallyshr i l l y : piercingly; in a high pitch

1. “Ausable did not fit any descr ipt ion of a secret agent Fowler hadever read.” What do secret agents in books and fi lms look like, inyour opinion? Discuss in groups or in class some stor ies or moviesfeatu r ing spies, detect ives and secret agents, and compare theirappearance with that of Ausable in this story. (You may mentioncharacters from fict ion in languages other than English. In Englishfict ion you may have come across Sher lock Holmes, Hercu le Poirot ,or Miss Marple. Have you watched any m ovies featur ing JamesBond?)

2. How does Ausable m anage to mak e Max bel ieve that there is abalcony attached to his room? Look back at his detailed descr ipt ionof it . What makes it a convincing story?

3. Look ing back at the story, when do you think Ausable thought uphis plan for gett ing r id of Max? Do you think he had worked out hisplan in detail r ight from the beginning? Or did he make up a plantak ing advantage of events as they happened?

1. In this story, Ausable shows great ‘presence of mind,’ or the abil ityto think qu ick ly, and act calmly and wisely, in a situat ion of dangerand surpr ise. Give examples from your own exper ience, or nar ratea story, which shows someone’s presence of mind.

2. Discu ss what you wou ld do in the si tu at ions descr ibed below.Remember that presence of mind comes out of a state of mentalpr epar edness. I f you have thought abou t possible pr oblem s or

dangers, and about how to act in such situat ions, you have a betterchance of dealing with such situat ions if they do ar ise.• A small fire star ts in your k itchen.• A child star ts to choke on a piece of food.• An electr ical appliance star ts to hiss and gives ou t sparks.• A bicycle knocks down a pedestr ian.• It rains cont inuously for more than twenty-four hours.• A member of your family does not retu rn home at the usual or

expected t ime.You may suggest other such situat ions.

• ‘After Twenty Years’ by O. Henry

• ‘The Stolen Bacil lus’ by H.G. Wells

• ‘The Face on the Wall’ by E.V. Lucas

An old pond!A frog jumps in —The sound of w ater.

Right at my feet —and w hen did you get here,snail?

MATSUO BASHO

The above two poems are examples of Haiku. Haiku is a poet ic for m and a type of poetry from the Japanese cu lture. Haiku combines form, content , and language in a meaningfu l, yet compact for m. The most common for m of Haiku is three shor t l ines. The themes include nature, feel ings, or experiences.

Hai k u

READ AND FIND OUT

• What does Horace Danby like to collect?• Why does he steal every year?

EVERYONE thought that Horace Danby was a good, honest citizen. He wasabout fi fty years old and unmarr ied, and he l ived with a housekeeperwho worried over his health. In fact, he was usually very well and happyexcept for attacks of hay fever in summer. He made lock s and wassuccessfu l enough at his business to have two helpers. Yes, HoraceDanby was good and respectable — but not completely honest.

Fifteen years ago, Horace had served his first and only sentence ina pr ison l ibrary. He loved rare, expensive books. So he robbed a safeevery year. Each year he planned carefu l ly ju st what he wou ld do,stole enough to last for twelve months, and secret ly bought the bookshe loved through an agent.

Now, walk ing in the br igh t Ju ly sunsh ine, he fel t su re that thisyear’s robbery was going to be as successfu l as al l the others. Fortwo week s he had been studying the house at Shotover Grange, look ingat i ts rooms, i ts elect r ic wir ing, i ts paths and its garden. Th is afternoonthe two servants, who remained in the Grange whi le the fami ly wasin London, had gone to the movies. Horace saw them go, and he felthappy in spi te of a l i t t le t ick le of hay fever in h is nose. He came ou tfrom beh ind t he garden wal l , h i s tools car efu l ly pack ed in a bagon h is back .

There were about fi fteen thousand pounds’ worth of jewels in theGrange safe. If he sold them one by one, he expected to get at least five

thousand, enough to make h im happy for another year. There werethree very interest ing books coming up for sale in the autumn. Now hewould get the money he wanted to buy them.

He had seen the housekeeper hang the key to the k itchen door on ahook outside. He put on a pair of gloves, took the key, and opened thedoor. He was always carefu l not to leave any fingerpr ints.

A small dog was lying in the k itchen. It st ir red, made a noise, andmoved its tail in a fr iendly way.

“All r ight , Sherry,” Horace said as he passed. All you had to do tok eep dogs qu iet was to cal l t hem by their r i gh t names, and showthem love.

The safe was in the drawing room, behind a rather poor paint ing.Horace wondered for a moment whether he shou ld col lect pictu resinstead of books. But they took up too much room. In a small house,books were better.

Ther e was a great bowl of fl owers on t he table, and Horace fel th i s nose t ick le. He gave a l i t t le sneeze and then pu t down h is bag.H e car efu l l y ar r an ged h i s t ools. H e h ad fou r h ou r s befor e t h eser van ts r etu r ned.

The safe was not going to be hard to open. After all, he had l ivedwith lock s and safes all h is l i fe. The burglar alarm was poor ly bu ilt .He went into the hall to cu t its wire. He came back and sneezed loudlyas the smell of the flowers came to him again.

How fool ish people are when they own valuable t h ings, Horacethought. A magazine art icle had descr ibed this house, giving a plan ofall the rooms and a picture of this room. The wr iter had even mentionedthat the paint ing hid a safe!

But Horace found that the flowers were hinder ing him in his work .He bur ied his face in his handkerchief.

Then he heard a voice say from the doorway, “What is it? A cold orhay fever?”

Before he cou ld think , Horace said, “Hay fever,” and found himselfsneezing again.

The voice went on, “You can cure it with a special treatment, youknow, i f you find out ju st what plant gives you the disease. I thinkyou’d better see a doctor, i f you’re ser ious about your work . I heard youfrom the top of the house just now.”

A Question of Trust 21

READ AND FIND OUT

• Who is speaking to Horace Danby?• Who is the real culprit in the story?

It was a qu iet, k indly voice, bu t one with firmness in it . A womanwas standing in the doorway, and Sherry was rubbing against her.She was young, qu ite pretty, and was dressed in red. She walked tothe fireplace and straightened the ornaments there.

“Down, Sherry,” she said. “Anyone would think I’d been away for amonth!” She smiled at Horace, and went on, “However, I came backjust in t ime, though I didn’t expect to meet a burglar.”

Horace had some hope because she seemed to be amused at meetinghim. He might avoid trouble if he treated her the r ight way. He replied,“I didn’t expect to meet one of the family.”

She nodded. “I see what an inconvenience it is for you to meet me.What are you going to do?”

Horace said, “My first thought was to run.”“Of course, you cou ld do that. But I wou ld telephone the police and

tell them all about you. They’d get you at once.”

Horace said, “I wou ld, of course, cu t the telephone wires first andthen...,” he hesitated, a smile on his face, “I wou ld make sure that youcou ld do nothing for some t ime. A few hours wou ld be enough.”

She looked at him ser iously. “You’d hurt me?”Horace paused, and then said, “I think I was trying to fr ighten you

when I said that.”“You didn’t fr ighten me.”Horace suggested, “It wou ld be n ice if you wou ld forget you ever

saw me. Let me go.”The voice was suddenly sharp. “Why shou ld I? You were going to

rob me. If I let you go, you’ll only rob someone else. Society must beprotected from men like you.”

Horace smiled. “I’m not a man who threatens society. I steal onlyfrom those who have a lot of money. I steal for a very good reason. AndI hate the thought of pr ison.”

She laughed, and he begged, think ing that he had persuaded her,“Look , I have no r igh t to ask you for anyth ing, bu t I’m desperate. Letme go and I promise never to do th is k ind of th ing again . I real lymean i t .”

She was silent, watching him closely. Then she said, “You are reallyafraid of going to pr ison, aren’t you?”

She came over to him shak ing her head. “I have always l iked thewrong k ind of people.”

She picked up a silver box from the table and took a cigarette fromit . Horace, eager to please her and seeing that she might help him,took off his gloves and gave her his cigarette l ighter.

“You’ll let me go?” He held the l ighter towards her.“Yes, but only if you’ll do something for me.”“Anything you say.”“Before we left for London, I promised my husband to take my jewels

to our bank ; bu t I left them here in the safe. I want to wear them to aparty tonight, so I came down to get them, but… ”

Horace smi led. “You’ve forgot ten the numbers to open the safe,haven’t you?”

“Yes,” replied the young lady.“Just leave it to me and you’ll have them within an hour. But I’ll

have to break your safe.”“Don’t wor ry about that. My husband won’t be here for a month,

and I’ll have the safe mended by that t ime.”

An d w i t h i n an h ou rHorace had opened the safe,given her t he jewels, andgone happily away.

For two days he kept hispromise to the k ind younglady. On the morning of theth i r d day, h owever, heth ou gh t of t he book s hewanted and he knew he wouldhave to look for another safe.But he never got the chanceto begin his plan. By noon apoliceman had arrested himfor t he jewel r obber y atShotover Grange.

His fingerpr in ts, for hehad opened the safe withoutgloves, wer e al l over t h e

room, and no one believed him when he said that the wife of the ownerof the house had asked him to open the safe for her. The wife herself,a gr ay-hai red, sharp-tongu ed wom an of si xt y, said that t he storywas nonsense.

Horace is now the assistant l ibrar ian in the pr ison. He often thinksof the charming, clever young lady who was in the same profession ashe was, and who tr icked him. He gets very angry when anyone talksabout ‘honour among thieves’.

VICTOR CANNING

GLOSSARY

hay fever : a disorder affect ing the nose and throat, caused by allergyto pollen or dust

1. Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the ladywas not the person Horace Danby took her to be? If so, at whatpoint did you realise this, and how?

2. What ar e the su bt le ways in which the lady manages to deceiveHor ace Danby in to think ing she is the lady of the hou se? Whydoesn’t Horace suspect that something is wrong?

3. “Hor ace Danby was good and r espectable — bu t not completelyhonest”. Why do you think this descr ipt ion is apt for Horace? Whycan’t he be categor ised as a typical thief?

4. Horace Danby was a meticu lous planner bu t st i l l he faltered. Wheredid he go wrong and why?

1. Do you th ink Hor ace Danby was u nfai r ly pu nished, or that hedeserved what he got?

2. Do intent ions just i fy act ions? Would you , l ike Horace Danby, dosomething wrong if you thought your ends just ified the means? Doyou think that there are situat ions in which it is excusable to actless than honest ly?

• ‘The Unexpected’ by Ella Edk in

• ‘The Confession’ by Anton Chekhov

• ‘A Case for the Defence’ by Graham Greene

READ AND FIND OUT

• How did the invisible man first become visible?• Why was he wandering the streets?

THE two boys started in surpr ise at the fresh muddy impr ints of a pairof bare feet. What was a barefooted man doing on the steps of a house,in the middle of London? And where was the man?

As they gazed, a remarkable sight met their eyes. A fresh footmarkappeared from nowhere!

Further footpr ints followed, one after another, descending the stepsand progressing down the street. The boys followed, fascinated, unti lt h e m u ddy im p r essi ons becam e fai n ter and fain t er, and at l astdisappeared al together.

The exp lanat ion of t he mystery was real l y sim ple enou gh. Thebewildered boys had been following a scientist who had just discoveredhow to make the human body transparent.

Gr iffin, the scientist, had carr ied ou t exper iment after exper imentto pr ove that t he hum an body cou ld becom e invisible. Final ly heswallowed certain rare drugs and his body became as transparent asa sheet of glass — though it also remained as solid as glass.

Br i l l ian t scien t ist thou gh he was, Gr i f fi n was r ather a lawlessperson. His landlord disl iked h im and tr ied to eject him. In revengeGriffin set fire to the house. To get away without being seen he had toremove his clothes. Thus it was that he became a homeless wanderer,wi t hou t cl oth es, w i t h ou t m oney, an d qu i t e in visib l e — u n t i l hehappened to step in some mud, and left footpr ints as he walked!

He escaped easily enough from the boys who followed his footpr intsin London. But his adventures were by no means over. He had chosena bad t ime of the year to wander about London without clothes. It wasmid-win ter. The ai r was b i t ter ly cold and he cou ld not do wi thou tclothes. Instead of walk ing about the streets he decided to slip into abig London store for warmth.

Closing t ime arr ived, and as soon as the doors were shu t Gr iffinwas able to give himself the pleasu re of clothing and feeding himselfwithout regard to expense. He brok e open boxes and wrappers andfi t ted h imself ou t with warm clothes. Soon, with shoes, an overcoatand a wide-br immed hat, he became a fu lly dressed and visible person.In the k itchen of the restaurant he found cold meat and coffee, and hefol lowed up the meal wi th sweets and wine tak en from the grocerystore. Finally he sett led down to sleep on a pile of qu ilts.

If only Gr iffin had managed to wake up in good t ime all might havebeen wel l. As it was, he did not wak e up unti l the assistants wereal r eady ar r i vi ng nex t m or n i ng. Wh en h e saw a cou p le of t hem

Footprints without Feet 27

approaching, he panicked and began to run. They naturally gave chase.In the end he was able to escape only by qu ick ly tak ing off his newly-found clothes. So once more he found himself invisible but naked inthe chil l January air.

This t ime he decided to try the stock of a theatr ical company in thehope of finding not only clothes but also something that wou ld h idethe empty space above his shou lders. Shiver ing with cold he hurr iedto Drury Lane, the centre of the theatre wor ld.

He soon found a su itable shop. He made his way, invisible, upstairsand came out a l i t t le later wear ing bandages round his forehead, darkglasses, false nose, big bushy side-whiskers, and a large hat. To escapewithout being seen, he callously attacked the shopkeeper from behind,after which he robbed him of all the money he cou ld find.

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why does Mrs Hall find the scientist eccentric?• What curious episode occurs in the study?• What other extraordinary things happen at the inn?

Eager to get away from crowded London he took a t rain to thevil lage of Iping, where he booked two rooms at the local inn.

The ar r ival of a stranger at an inn in winter was in any case anu nu su al even t . A st r anger of su ch uncomm on appear ance set al ltongues wagging. Mrs Hall, the landlord’s wife, made every effor t to befr iendly. But Gr iffin had no desire to talk , and told her, “My reason forcoming to Iping is a desire for solitude. I do not wish to be disturbed inmy work . Besides, an accident has affected my face.”

Satisfied that her guest was an eccentr ic scientist, and in view ofthe fact that he had paid her in advance, Mrs Hall was prepared toexcuse his strange habits and ir r itable temper. But the stolen moneydid not last long, and presently Gr iffin had to admit that he had nomore ready cash. He pretended, however, that he was expect ing acheque to arr ive at any moment.

Short ly afterwards a cu r ious episode occu rred. Very ear ly in themorn ing a clergyman and h is wi fe were awak ened by noises in thestudy. Creeping downstairs, they heard the chink of money being takenfrom the clergyman’s desk .

Without mak ing any noise and with a poker grasped firmly in hishand, the clergyman flung open the door.

“Su r render !”

Then to his amazement he realised that the room appeared to beempty. He and his wife looked under the desk , and behind the curtains,and even up the chimney. There wasn’t a sign of anybody. Yet the deskhad been opened and the housekeeping money was missing.

“Extraordinary affai r !” the clergyman k ept saying for the rest ofthe day.

Bu t i t was not as ext r aordinary as the behaviou r of Mrs Hal l’sfurn itu re a l i t t le later that morn ing.

The landlord and h is wi fe were up very ear ly, and were surpr isedto see the scient ist’s door wide open. Usual ly i t was shu t and lock ed,and he was fu r iou s i f anyone entered h is r oom . The oppor tu n i t yseem ed too good to be m issed. They peeped round the door, sawnobody, and decided to invest igate. The bedclothes were cold, showingthat the scient ist m ust have been up for som e t ime; and st rangerst i l l , the clothes and bandages that he always wore were lying abou tthe room.

All of a sudden Mrs Hall heard a sniff close to her ear. A momentlater the hat on the bedpost leapt up and dashed itself into her face.Then the bedroom chair became alive. Spr inging into the air i t chargedstraight at her, legs foremost. As she and her husband turned away interror, the extraordinary chair pushed them both out of the room andthen appeared to slam and lock the door after them.

Mrs Hall almost fell down the stairs in hyster ics. She was convincedthat t he room was hau nted by spir i t s, and that the st r anger hadsomehow caused these to enter into her fu rnitu re.

“My poor mother used to sit in that chair,” she moaned. “To think itshou ld r ise up against me now!”

The feeling among the neighbours was that the trouble was causedby witchcraft. But witchcraft or not, when news of the burglary at theclergyman’s home became k nown, the st range scientist was stronglysuspected of having had a hand in it . Suspicion grew even strongerwhen he suddenly produced some ready cash, though he had admittednot long before that he had no money.

The vil lage constable was secret ly sent for. Instead of wai t ing fort he constab le, Mrs Hal l went t o t he scien t i st , who had som ehowmyster iously appeared from his empty bedroom.

“I want to know what you have been doing to my chair upstairs,”she demanded. “And I want to know how it is you came out of an emptyroom and how you entered a locked room.”

The scientist was always qu ick -tempered; now he became fur ious.“You don’t understand who or what I am!” he shouted. “Very well —

I’ll show you.”Sudden ly he threw off bandages, wh isk ers, spectacles, and even

nose. It took him only a minute to do this. The horr ified people in thebar found themselves star ing at a headless man!

Mr Jaffers, the constable, now arr ived, and was qu ite surpr ised tofind that he had to arrest a man without a head. But Jaffers was noteasily prevented from doing his duty. If a magistrate’s warrant ordereda person’s arrest, then that person had to be arrested, with or withouthis head.

There fol lowed a remarkable scene as the policeman t r ied to gethold of a man who was becoming more and more invisible as he threwoff one garment after another. Finally a shir t flew into the air, and theconstable found himself struggling with someone he cou ld not see at

1. “Gr iffin was rather a lawless person.” Comment.

2. How wou ld you assess Gr iffin as a scient ist?

1. Wou l d you l i k e t o b ecom e in vi s i b l e? Wh at ad van t ages an ddisadvantages do you foresee, if you did?

2. Ar e t h er e for ces ar ou n d u s t h at ar e in vi sib le, for exam pl e,magnet ism? Are there aspects of matter that are ‘invisible’ or notvisible to the naked eye? What wou ld the wor ld be like if you cou ldsee such forces or such aspects of matter?

3. What m ak es glass or water t r anspar ent (what is the scien t i ficexplanat ion for this)? Do you think it wou ld be scient ifically possiblefor a man to become invisible, or t ransparent? (Keep in mind thatwr iters of science fict ion have often tu rned out to be prophet ic intheir im aginat ion !)

• The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

• ‘As Far As the Human Eye Can See’ by Isaac Asimov

• It Happened Tomorrow (ed.) Bal Phondke

all. Some people tr ied to help him, but found themselves hit by blowsthat seemed to come from nowhere.

In the end Jaffers was knocked unconscious as he made a lastattempt to hold on to the unseen scientist.

There were nervous, excited cr ies of “Hold him!” But this was easiersaid than done. Gr i ffin had shaken h imsel f free, and no one knewwhere to lay hands on him.

H.G. WELLS

READ AND FIND OUT

• How did a book become a turning point in RichardEbright’s life?

• How did his mother help him?

AT the age of twenty-two, a former ‘scout of the year’ excited the scientificwor ld with a new theory on how cells work . Richard H. Ebr ight and hiscollege room-mate explained the theory in an art icle in the Proceedingsof the National Academy of Science.

I t was t he f i r st t im e th is im por tan t scient i fi c jou r nal had everpublished the work of college students. In sports, that wou ld be l ikemak ing the big leagues at the age of fi fteen and hit t ing a home runyour first t ime at bat *. For Richard Ebr ight, i t was the first in a longstr ing of achievements in science and other fields. And it al l star tedwith bu tter fl ies.

An on ly ch i ld, Ebr igh t grew up nor th of Reading, Pennsylvan ia.“There wasn’t much I cou ld do there,” he said. “I cer tainly cou ldn’tplay football or baseball with a team of one. But there was one thing Icou ld do — collect things.”

So he did, and d id he ever ! Beginn ing in k indergar ten, Ebr igh tcollected butter fl ies with the same determination that has marked allhis act ivit ies. He also collected rocks, fossils, and coins. He becamean eager astronomer, too, sometimes star -gazing all night.

* A home run in the game of baseball is when the batter scores a run after running safelyaround all bases and back to the home plate without stopping. A ball hit out of the playingfield is also called a home run. Getting a paper published at the age of fifteen in a scient ificjournal is here compared to scoring a home run while batt ing for the first t ime.

From the first he had a dr iving cur iosity along with a br ight mind.He also had a mother who encouraged his in terest in learn ing. Shetook h im on t r ips, bou gh t h im telescopes, m icr oscopes, cam er as,mounting mater ials, and other equ ipment and helped h im in manyother ways.

“I was h is on ly companion unt i l he star ted school ,” h is mothersaid. “After that I wou ld br ing home fr iends for him. But at night wejust did things together. Richie was my whole l i fe after his father diedwhen Richie was in third grade.”

She and her son spent almost every even ing at the din ing roomtable. “If he didn’t have th ings to do, I found work for h im — notphysical work , bu t learn ing th ings,” h is mother said. “He l ik ed i t .He wanted to learn.”

And learn he did. He earned top grades in school . “On everydaythings he was just l ike every other k id,” his mother said.

By the time he was in the second grade, Ebright had collected all twenty-five species of butterflies found around his hometown. (See following box.)

Speci es and Sub-speci es of But t er f l i es Col lect ed i nSi x Week s i n Readi ng, Pennsy lvan i a

Wood Nym phsand Sat y rs• eyed brown• wood nymph (grayling)

Monarchs• monarch or milkweed

Whi t es and Sulphurs• olympia• cloudless su lphu r• European cabbage

Gossam er-WingedBut t er f l i es• white M hairstreak• acadian hairstreak• bronze copper• bog copper• purplish copper• eastern-tai led blue• melissa blue• silvery blue

Snout But t er fly

Brush-foot edBut t er f l i es• variegated fr i t i l lary• Harr is’s checkerspot• pearl crescent• mourn ing cloak• painted lady• buckeye• viceroy• white admiral• red-spotted purple• hackberry

“That probably wou ld have been the end of my butter fly collect ing,”he said. “Bu t then my mother got me a chi ldren’s book cal led TheTravels of Monarch X.” That book , which told how monarch butter fl iesmigrate to Central America, opened the wor ld of science to the eageryoung collector.

The Making of a Scientist 33

At the end of the book , readers were invited to help study butter flymigr at ions. They wer e ask ed to tag bu t ter fl ies for research by DrFreder ick A. Urquhart of the University of Toronto, Canada. Ebr ight’smother wrote to Dr Urquhart , and soon Ebr ight was attaching l ightadhesive tags to the wings of monarchs. Anyone who found a taggedbutter fly was asked to send the tag to Dr Urquhart.

The butter fly collect ing season around Reading lasts six weeks inlate summer. (See graph below.) If you’re going to chase them one byone, you won’t catch very many. So the next step for Ebr ight was toraise a flock of bu tter fl ies. He would catch a female monarch, take hereggs, and raise them in his basement through their l i fe cycle, from eggto caterpil lar to pupa to adu lt bu tter fly. Then he wou ld tag the butter fl ies’wings and let them go. For several years his basement was home tothousands of monarchs in different stages of development.

Num ber and K i nds of But t er f l i esCol lect ed i n Si x Week s

“Eventually I began to lose interest in tagging butter fl ies. It’s tediousand there’s not much feedback ,” Ebr ight said. “In all the t ime I did it ,”he laughed, “only two butter fl ies I had tagged were recaptured — andthey were not more than seventy-five miles from where I l ived.”

READ AND FIND OUT

• What lesson does Ebright learn when he does not winanything at a science fair?

• What experiments and projects does he then undertake?• What are the qualities that go into the making of a scientist?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Gossamer -Winged

Wood Nymphs and Satyrs

Brush-Footed

Whites and Su lphu rs

Monarch

Nu mber Col l ect ed

Then in the seventh grade he got a h int of what real science iswhen he entered a county science fair — and lost. “It was really a sadfeeling to sit there and not get anything while everybody else had wonsomething,” Ebr ight said. His entry was slides of frog t issues, whichhe showed under a microscope. He realised the winners had tr ied todo real exper iments, not simply make a neat display.

Alr eady t he com pet i t i ve spi r i t that d r i ves Richar d Ebr igh t wasappear ing. “I knew that for the next year’s fair I wou ld have to do a realexper iment,” he said. “The subject I knew most about was the insectwork I’d been doing in the past several years.”

So he wrote to Dr Urquhart for ideas, and back came a stack ofsu ggest ions for exper imen ts. Those k ept Ebr igh t busy al l th rou ghh igh school and led to pr i ze project s in cou nty and in ternat ionalscience fai rs.

For his eigh th grade project, Ebr ight t r ied to find the cause of aviral disease that k i l ls near ly all monarch caterpil lars every few years.Ebr igh t thought the disease might be car r ied by a beet le. He t r iedraising caterpi l lars in the presence of beetles. “I didn’t get any realresu lts,” he said. “But I went ahead and showed that I had tr ied theexper iment. This t ime I won.”

The next year his science fai r project was test ing the theory thatviceroy butter fl ies copy monarchs. The theory was that viceroys looklike monarchs because monarchs don’t taste good to birds. Viceroys,on the other hand, do taste goodto birds. So the more they look l ikemonarchs, the less l ikely they areto become a bird’s dinner.

Ebr igh t’s project was t o seewhether, in fact, birds wou ld eatm on ar ch s. H e fou n d t h at astar l ing wou ld not eat ord inaryb i r d food . I t w ould eat al l t hemonarchs i t cou ld get . (Ebr igh tsaid later research by other peopleshowed that viceroys probably docopy the monarch.) Th is projectwas p laced f i r st i n t he zoologydivision and th ird overall in thecounty science fair.

How is the monarch butterfly (top)different from the viceroy butterfly (bottom)?

In his second year in high school, Richard Ebr ight began the researchthat led to his discovery of an unknown insect hormone. lndirect ly, i talso led to his new theory on the l i fe of cells.

The question he tr ied to answer was simple: What is the purpose ofthe twelve t iny gold spots on a monarch pupa?

“Everyone assumed the spots were just ornamental,” Ebr ight said.“But Dr Urquhart didn’t believe it .”

To find the answer, Ebr ight and another excellent science studentfirst had to bu ild a device that showed that the spots were producing ahormone necessary for the butter fly’s fu ll development.

Th is project won Ebr igh t fi r st place in the county fai r and ent ryin to the In ter nat ional Science and Engineer ing Fair. There he wonth i rd place for zoology. He also got a chance t o work du r ing thesu m m er at t h e en tom ology l abor at or y of t he Wal ter Reed Ar m yInst i tu te of Resear ch.

As a h igh school junior, Richard Ebr ight continued his advancedexper iments on the monarch pupa. That year h is project won fi r stplace at the International Science Fair and gave him another chanceto work in the army laboratory dur ing the summer.

In h is sen ior year, he went a step fu r ther. He grew cells from amonarch’s wing in a cu l tu re and showed that the cel ls wou ld divideand develop in to normal bu t ter fly wing scales only i f they were fedthe hor mone from the gold spots. That project won f i r st place forzoology at the In ternat ional Fair. He spent the summer after graduationdoing fu r ther work at the army laboratory and at the laboratory of theU.S. Depar tment of Agr icu ltu re.

Th e fol l ow i n g su m m er, af t er h i s f r esh m an year at H ar var dUniversity, Ebr ight went back to the laboratory of the Department ofAgr icu ltu re and did more work on the hormone from the gold spots.Using t he labor ator y’s soph ist i cated inst r um en ts, he was ab le t oidentify the hormone’s chemical structu re.

A year -and-a-half later, dur ing his junior year, Ebr ight got the ideafor his new theory about cell l i fe. It came while he was look ing at X-rayphotos of the chemical structure of a hormone.

When he saw those photos, Ebr ight didn’t shout, ‘Eureka!’ or even,‘I’ve got it !’ But he believed that, along with his findings about insecthormones, the photos gave him the answer to one of biology’s puzzles:how the cell can ‘read’ the bluepr int of its DNA. DNA is the substancein the nucleus of a cell that controls heredity. It determines the formand function of the cell. Thus DNA is the bluepr int for l i fe.

Ebright and his college room-mate, James R. Wong, worked all thatnight drawing pictures and const ruct ing plast ic models of molecu lesto show how it cou ld happen. Together they later wrote the paper thatexplained the theory.

Surpr ising no one who knew him, Richard Ebr ight graduated fromHarvard wi th highest honours, second in his class of 1,510. Ebr ightwent on to become a graduate student researcher at Harvard MedicalSchool. There he began doing exper iments to test his theory.

I f t h e t h eor y p r oves cor r ect , i t w i l l b e a b i g st ep t owar d sunderstanding the processes of l i fe. It might also lead to new ideas forpreventing some types of cancer and other diseases. All of this is possiblebecause of Ebr ight’s scientific cur iosity. His high school research intothe purpose of the spots on a monarch pupa eventually led him to histheory about cell l i fe.

Richard Ebr ight has been interested in science since he first begancollect ing butter fl ies — but not so deeply that he hasn’t t ime for otherinterests. Ebr ight also became a champion debater and public speakerand a good canoeist and al l-around ou tdoors-person. He is also anexpert photographer, part icu lar ly of nature and scientific exhibits.

In high school Richard Ebr ight was a straight-A student. Becauselearning was easy, he tu rned a lot of his energy towards the Debatingand Model United Nations clubs. He also found someone to admire —Richard A. Weiherer, h is social studies teacher and adviser to bothclubs. “Mr Weiherer was the per fect person for me then. He opened mymind to new ideas,” Ebr ight said.

“Richard wou ld always give that ext ra effor t ,” Mr Weiherer said.“What pleased me was, here was this person who put in three or fourhours at nigh t doing debate research besides doing all h is researchwith butter fl ies and his other interests.

“Richard was competi t ive,” Mr Weiherer cont inued, “but not in abad sense.” He explained, “Richard wasn’t in terested in winn ing forwinn ing’s sak e or winn ing to get a pr ize. Rather, he was winn ingbecause he wanted to do the best job he cou ld. For the r ight reasons,he wants to be the best.”

And that is one of the ingredients in the mak ing of a scient ist .Start with a first-rate mind, add cur iosity, and mix in the wil l to winfor the r ight reasons. Ebr ight has these qualit ies. From the t ime thebook , The Travels of Monarch X, opened the wor ld of science to him,Richard Ebr ight has never lost his scientific cur iosity.

ROBERT W. PETERSON

GLOSSARY

l eagues: gr ou ps of spor ts clu bs or t eam s playing m atches am ongthem selves

count y : regionst ar l i ng: common European bird (with black , brown-spotted plumage)

which nests near bu ildings and is a good mimicent om ology : the study of insectseureka: a cry of tr iumph at a discovery (originally attr ibuted to Archimedes)canoeist : a person who paddles a canoe, a l ight boat

1. How can one become a scient ist , an economist, a histor ian... ? Doesit simply involve reading many books on the subject? Does it involveobserving, think ing and doing exper iments?

2. You must have read about cells and DNA in your science books.Discuss Richard Ebr ight’s work in the light of what you have studied.If you get an oppor tunity to work like Richard Ebr ight on projectsand exper iments, which field wou ld you like to work on and why?

1. Ch i ld r en ever ywh er e won der abou t t h e wor ld ar ou n d t h em .The qu est ions they ask ar e the beginn ing of scien t i fic inqu ir y.Given below are some quest ions that children in India have askedPr ofessor Yash Pal and Dr Rahu l Pal as repor ted in their book ,Discovered Questions (NCERT, 2006).

(i ) What is DNA fingerpr int ing? What are its uses?(ii ) How do honeybees ident ify their own honeycombs?

(ii i ) Why does rain fall in drops?

Can you answer these questions? You will find Professor Yash Pal’s andDr Rahul Pal’s answers (as given in Discovered Questions) on page 75.

2. You also m ust have wondered about cer tain things arou nd you.Share these quest ions with your class, and try and answer them.

• ‘Journey by Night’ by Norah Burke

• Children Who Made It Big by Thangamani

• School Days by Tom Brown

READ AND FIND OUT

• What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is shealways unhappy?

• What kind of a person is her husband?

SH E was one of t hose pr et ty, you ng ladies, bor n as i f t h rough aner ror of dest iny, in to a family of clerk s. She had no dowry, no hopes,no means of becoming k nown, loved, and mar r ied by a man ei therr i ch or d ist ingu ish ed; and she al lowed h er sel f t o m ar r y a pet t yclerk in the office of the Board of Educat ion . She was simple, bu tshe was unhappy.

She su ffer ed incessant ly, feel ing her sel f bor n for al l del i caciesand luxu r ies. She su ffered from the pover ty of her apar tment , theshabby wal l s and the wor n chai rs. Al l t hese th ings t or t u r ed andangered her.

When she seated hersel f for dinner opposi t e her husband whouncovered the tu reen with a delighted air, saying, “Oh! the good potpie!I know nothing better than that… ,” she wou ld think of elegant dinners,of shining silver; she thought of the exqu isite food served in marvellousdishes. She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved onlythose th ings.

She had a r ich fr iend, a schoolmate at the convent, who she did notl ike to visit — she suffered so much when she returned. She wept forwhole days from despair and disappointment.

One even ing her husband retu rned elated bear ing in h is hand alarge envelope.

“Here,” he said, “here is something for you.”

She qu ick ly drew ou t a pr in ted car d on wh ich were inscr ibedthese words:

The Minister of Public Instructionand

Madame George Ramponneauask the honour of M. and Mme Loisel’s company. Monday

evening, January 18, at the Minister’s residence.

Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she threwthe invi tat ion spi tefu l l y u pon the table mu rmu r ing, “What do yousuppose I want with that?”

“Bu t , my dear ie, I thoughtit wou ld make you happy. Younever go ou t , and t h is i s anoccasi on , an d a f i n e on e!Everybody wishes one, and i ti s ver y select ; not m any ar egiven to employees. You wil l seethe whole official wor ld there.”

She looked at h im with ani r r i t a t ed eye an d decl ar edi m p at i en t l y , “Wh at d o yousuppose I have to wear to sucha thing as that?”

He had not thought of that;he stammered, “Why, the dressyou wear when we go t o thetheatre. It seems very pretty to

me… ” He was si len t , stupefied, in dismay, at the sigh t of h is wi feweeping. He stammered, “What is the matter? What is the matter?”

By a violent effor t, she had controlled her vexation and respondedin a calm voice, wiping her moist cheek s, “Noth ing. On ly I have nodress and consequently I cannot go to th is affair. Give your card tosome colleague whose wife is better fi t ted out than I.”

He was gr ieved, bu t answered, “Let us see, Mat i lda. How muchwould a su itable costume cost, something that wou ld serve for otheroccasions, someth ing very simple?”

She reflected for some seconds think ing of a sum that she cou ldask for without br inging with it an immediate refusal and a fr ightenedexclamation from the economical clerk . Finally she said, in a hesitat ing

The Necklace 41

voice, “I cannot tell exact ly, bu t i t seems to me that fou r hundredfrancs ought to cover it .”

He turned a l i t t le pale, for he had saved just this sum to buy a gunthat he might be able to join some hunting part ies the next summer,with some fr iends who went to shoot larks on Sunday. Nevertheless,he answered, “Very well. I wil l give you four hundred francs. But try tohave a pretty dress.”

READ AND FIND OUT

• What fresh problem now disturbs Mme Loisel?• How is the problem solved?

The day of t he bal l appr oached and Mm e Loisel seem ed sad,distu rbed, anxiou s. Never theless, her dress was near ly ready. Herhusband said to her one evening, “What is the matter with you? Youhave acted strangely for two or three days.”

And she responded, “I am vexed not to have a jewel , noth ing toadorn myself with. I shall have such a poverty-str icken look . I wou ldprefer not to go to this party.”

He repl ied, “You can wear some natu ral flowers. In th is seasonthey look very chic.”

She was not convinced. “No”, she replied, “there is noth ing morehumiliat ing than to have a shabby air in the midst of r ich women.”

Then her husband cr ied out, “How stupid we are! Go and find yourfr iend Mme Forestier and ask her to lend you her jewels.”

She uttered a cry of joy. “It is true!” she said. “I had not thought of that.”The next day she took herself to her fr iend’s house and related her

story of distress. Mme Forestier went to her closet, took out a largejewel-case, brought it , opened it , and said, “Choose, my dear.”

She saw at fi r st some bracelets, then a col lar of pear ls, then aVenetian cross of gold and jewels of admirable workmanship. She tr iedthe jewels before the glass, hesitated, bu t cou ld neither decide to takethem nor leave them. Then she asked, “Have you nothing more?”

“Why, yes. Look for yourself. I do not know what wil l please you.”Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb neck lace of

diamonds. Her hands trembled as she took it ou t. She placed it abouther throat against her dress, and was ecstat ic. Then she asked, in ahesitat ing voice, fu ll of anxiety, “Could you lend me this? Only this?”

“Why, yes, cer tainly.”

She fell upon the neck of her fr iend, embraced her with passion,then went away with her treasure.

The day of the ball arr ived. Mme Loisel was a great success. Shewas the prett iest of all — elegant, gracious, smil ing and fu ll of joy. Allthe men noticed her, asked her name, and wanted to be presented.

She danced wi th enthusiasm, in toxicated with pleasure, think ingof nothing but all th is admirat ion, this victory so complete and sweetto her heart.

She went home towards four o’clock in the morning. Her husbandhad been half asleep in one of the l i t t le salons since midn ight , wi ththree other gentlemen whose wives were enjoying themselves very much.

He threw around her shou lders the modest wraps they had carr iedwhose poverty clashed with the elegance of the ball costume. She wishedto hurry away in order not to be noticed by the other women who werewrapping themselves in r ich fu rs.

Loisel detained her, “Wait,” said he. “I am going to call a cab.”But she wou ld not l isten and descended the steps rapidly. When

they were in the street, they found no carr iage; and they began to seekfor one, hail ing the coachmen whom they saw at a distance.

They walked along toward the r iver, hopeless and shiver ing. Finallythey found one of those old carr iages that one sees in Par is after nightfall.

It took them as far as their door and they went wear ily up to theirapar tment. It was al l over for her. And on h is part , he rememberedthat he wou ld have to be at the office by ten o’clock .

She removed the wraps from her shou lders before the glass, for afinal view of hersel f in her glory. Sudden ly she u t t ered a cry. Herneck lace was not around her neck .

READ AND FIND OUT

• What do M. and Mme Loisel do next?• How do they replace the necklace?

Loisel already half undressed, asked, “What is the matter?”She turned towards him excitedly. “I have — I have — I no longer

have Mme Forestier’s neck lace.”He arose in dismay, “What! How is that? It is not possible.”And they looked in the folds of the dress, in the folds of the cloak , in

the pockets, everywhere. They cou ld not find it .He asked, “You are sure you still had it when we left the Minister’s house?”

The Necklace 43

“Yes, I felt it as we came out.”“But if you had lost it in the

street, we shou ld have heard itfal l. It must be in the cab.”

“Yes, it is possible. Did youtake the number?”

“No. An d you , d i d younotice what it was?”

“No.”They looked at each other

u t t er l y cast d ow n . F i n al l yLoisel dressed himself again.

“I am going,” he said, “overthe t rack where we went onfoot, to see if I can find it .”

And he went. She remainedi n h er even i n g gown , n othaving the force to go to bed.

Toward seven o’clock herhusband returned. He had found nothing.

H e w en t t o t h e p ol i ce an d t o t h e cab of f i ces, an d p u t anadvert isement in the newspapers, offer ing a reward.

She waited al l day in a state of bewi lderment before th is fr igh t fu ld i saster. Loi sel r et u r n ed i n t h e even i n g, h i s face pal e; h e haddiscovered noth ing.

He said, “Write to your fr iend that you have broken the clasp of theneck lace and that you wil l have it repaired. That wil l give us t ime.”

She wrote as he dictated.At the end of a week , they had lost all hope. And Loisel, older by five

years, declared, “We must replace this jewel.”In a shop of the Palais-Royal, they found a chaplet of diamonds,

which seemed to them exactly l ike the one they had lost. It was valuedat for ty thousand francs. They cou ld get it for thir ty-six thousand.

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs, which his father had lefthim. He borrowed the rest. He made ruinous promises, took money fromusurers and the whole race of lenders. Then he went to get the newnecklace, depositing on the merchant’s counter thirty-six thousand francs.

When Mme Loisel took back the jewels to Mme Forestier, the lattersaid to her in a fr igid tone, “You shou ld have retur ned them to mesooner, for I might have needed them.”

Mme Forestier did not open the jewel-box as Mme Loisel feared shewould. What wou ld she think if she shou ld perceive the substitu t ion?What shou ld she say? Would she take her for a robber?

Mme Loisel now knew the horr ible l i fe of necessi ty. She did herpar t , however, completely, heroical ly. I t was necessar y to pay th isfr ightfu l debt. She would pay it . They sent away the maid, they changedtheir lodgings; they rented some rooms in an att ic.

She learned the odious work of a k itchen. She washed the dishes.She washed the soiled l inen, their clothes and dishcloths, which shehung on the l ine to dry; she took down the refuse to the street eachmorning and brought up the water, stopping at each landing to catchher breath. And, clothed l ike a woman of the people, she went to thegrocer’s, the butcher’s and the fru iterer’s, with her basket on her arm,shopping, haggling to the last sou of her miserable money.

The husband worked evenings, pu tt ing the books of some merchantsin order, and nights he often did copying at five sous a page. And thisl ife lasted for ten years. At the end of ten years, they had restored all.

Mme Loisel seemed old now. She had become a strong, hard woman,the crude woman of the poor household. Her hair badly dressed, hersk ir ts awry, her hands red, she spoke in a loud tone, and washed thefloors wi th large pai ls of water. Bu t somet imes, when her husbandwas at the office, she wou ld seat herself before the window and thinkof that even ing party of former t imes, of that ball where she was sobeautifu l and so flattered.

How wou ld i t have been i f she had not lost the neck lace? Whok nows? How singu lar is l i fe, and how fu ll of changes! How smal l athing wil l ru in or save one!

One Sunday as she was tak ing a walk in the Champs-Elysees tor id hersel f of the cares of the week , she suddenly perceived a womanwalk ing with a ch ild. It was Mme Forestier, st i l l young, st i l l pret ty,st i l l at t ract ive. Mme Loisel was affected. Shou ld she speak to her?Yes, cer tain ly. And now that she had paid, she wou ld tel l her al l .Why not?

She approached her. “Good morning, Jeanne.”Her fr i end did not r ecogn ise her and was aston ished t o be so

familiar ly addressed by this common personage. She stammered, “But,Madame — I do not know — you must be mistaken— ”

“No, I am Matilda Loisel.”Her fr iend u ttered a cry of aston ishment , “Oh! my poor Mat i lda!

How you have changed!”

The Necklace 45

“Yes, I have had some hard days since I saw you; and some miserableones — and all because of you ...”

“Because of me? How is that?”“You recall the diamond neck lace that you loaned me to wear to the

Min ister’s bal l?”“Yes, very wel l.”“Well, I lost it .”“How is that, since you returned it to me?”“I returned another to you exactly l ike it . And it has taken us ten

years to pay for it . You can understand that it was not easy for us whohave nothing. But it is fin ished and I am decently content.”

Mme Forestier stopped short. She said, “You say that you bought adiamond neck lace to replace mine?”

“Yes. You did not perceive it then? They were just alike.”And she smi led wi th proud and simple joy. Mm e Forest ier was

touched and took both her hands as she replied, “Oh! My poor Mati lda!Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!”

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

GLOSSARY

i n cessant l y : cont inuouslyt ureen: covered dish from which soup is served at the tableM.: abbreviation for ‘Monsieur’ (form of address for a man in French)Mm e: abbreviat ion for ‘Madame’ (form of address for a woman in French)vexat ion : state of being distressedru inous: disast roususurers: money-lenders, especially those who lend m oney on a h igh

rate of interestsou: a former French coin of low valueawry : not in the cor rect posit ion or shape; twisted

1. The course of the Loisels’ life changed due to the neck lace. Comment.

2. What was the cause of Matilda’s ru in? How could she have avoided it?

3. What wou ld have happened to Matilda if she had confessed to herfr iend that she had lost her neck lace?

4. If you were cau ght in a situ at ion l ike th is, how wou ld you havedealt with it?

1. The characters in this story speak in English. Do you think this istheir language? What clues are there in the story about the languageits characters must be speak ing in?

2. Honesty is the best policy.

3. We shou ld be content with what l ife gives us.

• ‘The Dowry’ by Guy de Maupassant

• ‘A Cup of Tea’ by Kather ine Mansfield

• ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekov

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What doeshe first think about the place?

• Who befriends him? Where does he take him?• What does he say about Lutkins?

AFTER graduating with honours, I became a junior assistant clerk in amagni ficent law fi rm. I was sent, not to prepare legal br iefs, bu t toserve summons, l ike a cheap pr ivate detect ive. I had to go to dir ty andshadowy corners of the city to seek out my vict ims. Some of the largerand more self-confident ones even beat me up. I hated this unpleasantwork , and the side of ci ty l i fe i t revealed to me. I even consideredfleeing to my hometown, where I cou ld have been a real lawyer r ightaway, without going through this unpleasant training per iod.

So I rejoiced one day when they sent me ou t for ty m i les in thecountry, to a town called New Mu ll ion, to serve summons on a mancalled Oliver Lutk ins. We needed this man as a witness in a law case,and he had ignored all our letters.

When I got to New Mul l ion , my eager expectat ions of a sweet andsimple cou nt ry vi l lage were severely disappoin ted. I ts st r eets werer ivers of mud, wi th rows of wooden shops, either pain ted a sou r brown,or bare of any pain t at al l. The on ly agreeable sigh t about the placewas the del ivery man at the stat ion . He was abou t for ty, red-faced,cheerfu l , and thick about the middle. His work ing clothes were dir tyand well -wor n, and he had a fr iendly manner. You felt at once thathe l ik ed people.

“I want,” I told him, “to find a man named Oliver Lutk ins.”

“Lutk ins? I saw him around here about an hour ago. Hard fellow tocatch though — always up to something or other. He’s probably tryingto star t up a poker game in the back of Fr itz’s shop. I’ll tel l you, boy —is there any hurry about locating Lutk ins?”

“Yes. I want to catch the after noon train back to the city.” I wasvery important and secret about it .

“I’ll tell you what. I’ve got a hack. I’ll get it out and we can drive aroundtogether and find Lutk ins. I know most of the places he hangs out.”

He was so open and fr iendly that I glowed with the warmth of hisaffect ion . I k new, of cou rse, that he wanted the business, bu t h isk indness was real. I was glad the fare money wou ld go to this goodfellow. I managed to bargain down to two dollars an hour, and then hebrought from his house nearby a sort of large black box on wheels. Heremarked, “Well, young man, here’s the carr iage,” and his wide smilemade me into an old fr iend. These vi l lagers are so ready to help astranger. He had already made it his own task to find Oliver Lutk insfor me.

He said, “I don’t want to inter fere, young fellow, but my guess isthat you want to col lect some money from Lu tk ins. He never paysanybody a cent. He st i l l owes me fifty cents on a poker game I was fool

The Hack Driver 49

enough to play with him. He’s not really bad, but it’s hard to make himpart wi th h is money. I f you t ry to col lect from him, in those fancyclothes, he’ll be suspicious and get away from you. If you want I’ll gointo Fr itz’s and ask for him, and you can keep out of sight behind me.”

I loved him for this. By myself, I might never have found Lutk ins.With the hack dr iver’s knowing help, I was sure of gett ing my man. Itook him into my confidence and told him that I wanted to serve thesummons on Lu tk ins — that the man had refused to be a witness,when his information wou ld have qu ick ly sett led our case. The dr iverl istened earnestly. At the end, he hit me on the shou lder and laughed,“Well, we’ll give Brother Lutk ins a l i t t le surpr ise.”

“Let’s start, dr iver.”“Most folks around here call me Bil l or Magnuson. My business is

called ‘Will iam Magnuson Fancy Cart ing and Hack ing’.”“All r ight, Bil l . Shall we proceed to Fr itz’s”.“Yes, Lutk ins is just as l ikely to be there as anywhere. Plays a lot of

poker. He’s good at deceiving people.” Bil l seemed to admire Lutk ins’talent for dishonesty. I felt that if he had been a policeman, he wou ldhave caught Lutk ins respectfu lly, and jailed him with regret.

Bil l led me into Fr itz’s. “Have you seen Oliver Lutk ins around today?Friend of his look ing for him,” said Bil l cheer ily.

Fr i t z look ed at me, h iding beh ind Bi l l . He hesi t ated, and thenadmitted, “Yes, he was in here a l i t t le while ago. Guess he’s gone overto Gustaff’s to get a shave.”

“Well, i f he comes in, tel l h im I’m look ing for him.”We drove to Gustaff’s barber shop. Again Bil l went in first, and I

l ingered at the door. He asked not only the Swede but two customers ifthey had seen Lutk ins. The Swede had not. He said angr ily, “I haven’tseen him, and don’t care to. But if you find him you can just collectthat dollar thir ty-five he owes me.” One of the customers thought hehad seen Lutk ins walk ing down Main Street, this side of the hotel.

As we cl imbed back in to the hack , Bil l concluded that since Lutk inshad exhausted h is credi t at Gustaff’s he had probably gone to Gray’sfor a shave. At Gray’s barber shop we missed Lu tk ins by on ly fiveminu tes. He had just left — probably for the poolroom. At the poolroomit appeared that he had just bought a pack of cigaret tes and goneou t. So we pu rsued him, ju st beh ind h im but never catching him, foran hou r t i l l i t was past one o’clock . I was hungry. But I had so enjoyedBi l l’s rough count ry opin ions abou t h is neighbou rs that I scarcelycared whether I found Lutk ins or not.

“How about something to eat?” I suggested. “Let’s go to a restaurantand I’ll buy you lunch.”

“Well, I ought to go home to the wife. I don’t care much for theserestaurants — only fou r of them and they’re all bad. Tel l you whatwe’ll do. We’ll get the wife to pack up a lunch for us — she won’t chargeyou more than half a dollar, and it wou ld cost you more for a greasymeal in a restaurant — and we’ll go up to Wade’s Hil l and enjoy theview while we eat.”

READ AND FIND OUT

• What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?• Does the narrator serve the summons that day?• Who is Lutkins?

I know that Bill’s helpfulness to the Young Fellow from the City wasnot entirely a matter of brotherly love. I was paying him for his t ime; inthe end I paid him for six hours (including the lunch hour) at what wasthen a very high price. But he was no more dishonest than I. I chargedthe whole thing to the firm. But it wou ld have been worth paying himmysel f to have his presence. His cheer fu l count ry wisdom was veryrefreshing to a country boy l ike myself who was sick of the city. As wesat on the hil l top, look ing over the pastures and creek which slippedamong the trees, he talked of New Mull ion, and painted a picture inwords of all the people in it . He noticed everything, but no matter howmuch he might laugh at people, he also understood and forgave theirfoolishness. He descr ibed the minister’s wife who sang the loudest inchurch when she was most in debt. He commented on the boys whocame back from college in fancy clothes. He told about the lawyer whosewife could never succeed in getting him to put on both a collar and a tieon the same day. He made them all l ive. On that day I came to knowNew Mullion better than I did the city, and to love it better.

Bi l l d idn’t k now abou t col leges and ci t ies, bu t he had t ravel ledar ound a lot of the cou nt ry, and had had a lot of j obs. Fr om h isadventures he had brought back a philosophy of simplicity and laugher.He st rengthened me.

We left that peacefu l scene of meadows and woods, and resumedour search of Oliver Lutk ins. We cou ld not find him. At last Bil l cornereda fr iend of Lu tk ins and made him admit what he guessed, “Ol iver’sgone out to his mother’s farm, three miles north.”

We drove out there, laying plans.

The Hack Driver 51

“I know Oliver’s mother. She’s a terror,” Bil l sighed. “I took a trunkout there for her once, and she almost took my sk in off because I didn’ttreat it l ike a box of eggs. She’s about nine feet tall and four feet thickand qu ick as a cat , and she sure can talk . I’ll bet Oliver heard thatsomebody’s chasing him, and he’s gone on there to hide beh ind h ismother’s sk ir ts. Well, we’ll try her. But you’d better let me do it , boy.You m ay be gr eat at l i ter atu re and law, bu t you haven’t had realtraining in swear ing.”

We drove into a poor farmyard; we were faced by an enormous andcheer fu l old wom an . My gu ide br avely wen t u p t o her and said ,“Remember me? I’m Bil l Magnuson, the carter and hackman. I want tofind your son, Oliver.”

“I don ’t k n ow an yt h i n g abou t Ol i ver, an d I don ’t wan t t o,”she shouted.

“Now, look here. We’ve had just about enough nonsense. This youngman represents the cou r t in the ci ty, and we have a legal r igh t tosearch all propert ies for this Oliver Lutk ins.”

Bil l made me sound very important, and the woman was impressed.She ret ired into the k itchen and we followed. She seized an iron fromthe old-fashioned stove and marched on us shouting. “You search allyou want to — if you don’t mind gett ing burnt first.” She shouted andlaughed at our fr ightened retreat.

“Let’s get ou t of here. She’ll murder us,” Bil l whispered. Outside, hesaid, “Did you see her smile? She was laughing at us.”

I agreed that it was pretty disrespectfu l treatment. We did, however,search the house. Since it was only one storey high, Bil l went round it ,peer ing in at all the windows. We examined the barn and stable; wewere reasonably certain that Lu tk ins was not there. It was near ly t imefor me to catch the afternoon train, and Bil l drove me to the stat ion.

On the way to the city I worr ied very l i t t le over my failu re to findLu tk ins. I was too bu sy t h ink ing abou t B i l l Magnu son . Real ly, Iconsidered returning to New Mull ion to pract ise law. If I had found Bil lso deep and r ichly human, might I not grow to love Fr itz and Gustaffand a hundred other slow-spoken, simple, wise neighbours? I picturedan honest and happy l i fe beyond the str ict l imits of universit ies andlaw firms. I was exci ted. I had found a treasure. I had discovered anew way of l i fe.

But if I did not think much about Lutk ins, the office did. I foundthem al l upset . Next morning the case was coming up in the cour t,and they had to have Lutk ins. I was a shamefu l, useless fool . That

morn ing my promising legal career almost came to an end before ithad begun.

The Chief almost murdered me. He hinted that I might do well atdigging ditches. I was ordered back to New Mull ion, and with me wenta man who had worked with Lutk ins. I was rather sorry, because itwou ld prevent my loafing all over again with Bil l .

When the t rain ar r ived at New Mu l l ion , Bi l l was on the stat ionplatform, near his car t . St rangely enough, that old t igress, Lu tk ins’mother was there talk ing and laughing with Bil l, not quarrell ing at all.

From the train steps I pointed Bil l ou t to my companion and said,“There’s a fine fellow, a real man. I spent the day with him.”

“He helped you hunt for Oliver Lutk ins?”“Yes, he helped me a lot.”“He must have; he’s Lutk ins himself.”What really hurt me was that when I served the summons, Lutk ins

and his mother laughed at me as though I were a br ight boy of seven.With loving k indness they begged me to go with them to a neighbour’shouse for a cup of coffee.

“I told them about you and they’re anxious to look at you ,” saidLutk ins joyfu lly. “They’re about the only folks in the town that missedseeing you yesterday.”

SINCLAIR LEWIS

The Hack Driver 53

GLOSSARY

hack : a horse-drawn vehicleagr eeable sigh t : pleasant sightpok er : a card game in which blu ff is used as players bet on the value of

their cardsearnest l y : very ser iouslycreek : shor t arm of r iver ; inlet on sea-coast

1. When the lawyer reached New Mullion, did ‘Bill’ know that he waslook ing for Lu tk ins? When do you think Bil l came up with his planfor fooling the lawyer?

2. Lutk ins openly takes the lawyer all over the vil lage. How is it thatno one lets ou t the secret? (Hint: Not ice that the hack dr iver asksthe lawyer to keep out of sight behind him when they go into Fr itz’s.)Can you find other such subt le ways in which Lu tk ins manipu latesthe tour?

3. Why do you think Lu tk ins’ neighbours were anxious to meet thelawyer ?

4. After his first day’s exper ience with the hack dr iver the lawyer thinksof retu rning to New Mullion to pract ise law. Do you think he wou ldhave reconsidered this idea after his second visit?

5. Do you think the lawyer was gu ll ible? How cou ld he have avoidedbeing taken for a r ide?

1. Do we come across persons like Lu tk ins only in fict ion or do weencounter them in real l ife as well? You can give examples fromfict ion, or nar rate an incident that you have read in the newspaper,or an incident from real l ife.

2. Who is a ‘con man’, or a confidence tr ickster?

• ‘The Quest ionable Cargo’ by Captain W. E. Johns

• ‘My Last Dollar’ by Stephen Leacock

• ‘Bar in Bhowmik’s Ailment’ by Satyajit Ray

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why is Bholi’s father worried about her?• For what unusual reasons is Bholi sent to school?

HER name was Su lekha, but since her chi ldhood everyone had beencall ing her Bholi , the simpleton.

She was the fourth daughter of Numberdar Ramlal. When she wasten months old, she had fallen off the cot on her head and perhaps ithad damaged some part of her brain. That was why she remained abackward child and came to be known as Bholi, the simpleton.

At bir th, the child was very fair and pretty. But when she was twoyears old, she had an attack of small-pox. Only the eyes were saved,but the entire body was permanent ly disfigured by deep black pock -marks. Lit t le Su lekha cou ld not speak t i l l she was five, and when atlast she learn t to speak , she stammered. The other ch i ldren oftenmade fun of her and mimicked her. As a resu lt , she talked very l i t t le.

Ramlal had seven children — three sons and four daughters, andthe youngest of them was Bholi. It was a prosperous farmer’s householdand there was plenty to eat and dr ink . All the children except Bholiwere healthy and strong. The sons had been sent to the city to study inschools and later in colleges. Of the daughters, Radha, the eldest, hadalready been married. The second daughter Mangla’s marr iage had alsobeen sett led, and when that was done, Ramlal wou ld think of the third,Champa. They were good-look ing, healthy girls, and it was not difficultto find bridegrooms for them.

But Ramlal was worr ied about Bholi. She had neither good looksnor in tel l igence.

Bholi was seven years old when Mangla was marr ied. The sameyear a pr imary school for gir ls was opened in their vi l lage. The Tehsildarsahib came to perform its opening ceremony. He said to Ramlal, “As arevenue official you are the representat ive of the government in thevil lage and so you must set an example to the vil lagers. You must sendyour daughters to school.”

That n igh t when Ramlal consu l ted h is wi fe, she cr ied, “Are youcrazy? If gir ls go to school, who wil l marry them?”

But Ramlal had not the courage to disobey the Tehsildar. At last hiswife said, “I will tel l you what to do. Send Bholi to school. As it is, thereis l i tt le chance of her gett ing marr ied, with her ugly face and lack ofsense. Let the teachers at school worry about her.”

READ AND FIND OUT

• Does Bholi enjoy her first day at school?• Does she find her teacher different from the people at home?

The next day Ramlal caught Bholi by the hand and said, “Comewith me. I wil l take you to school.” Bholi was fr ightened. She did not

Bholi 55

know what a school was l ike. She remembered how a few days agotheir old cow, Lakshmi, had been turned out of the house and sold.

“N-n-n-n NO, no-no-no,” she shouted in terror and pu lled her handaway from her father’s gr ip.

“What’s the matter with you, you fool?” shouted Ramlal. “I am onlytak ing you to school.” Then he told his wife, “Let her wear some decentclothes today, or else what wil l the teachers and the other schoolgir lsthink of us when they see her?”

New clothes had never been made for Bholi. The old dresses of hersisters were passed on to her. No one cared to mend or wash herclothes. But today she was lucky to receive a clean dress which hadshrunk after many washings and no longer fit ted Champa. She waseven bathed and oil was rubbed into her dry and mat ted hair. On lythen did she begin to believe that she was being taken to a place betterthan her home!

When they reached the school, the chi ldren were already in theirclassrooms. Ramlal handed over his daughter to the headmist ress.Left alone, the poor gir l looked about her with fear -laden eyes. Therewere several rooms, and in each room gir ls l ike her squatted on mats,reading from books or wr it ing on slates. The headmistress asked Bholito sit down in a corner in one of the classrooms.

Bholi 57

Bhol i d id not k now what exact l y a school was l i k e and whathappened there, bu t she was glad to find so many gi r l s almost ofher own age present there. She hoped that one of these gi r ls m ightbecome her fr iend.

The lady teacher who was in the class was saying something to thegir ls bu t Bholi cou ld understand nothing. She looked at the pictureson the wall . The colours fascinated her — the horse was brown justl ike the horse on which the Tehsildar had come to visit their vi l lage;the goat was black l ike the goat of their neighbour ; the parrot wasgreen l ike the parrots she had seen in the mango orchard; and the cowwas just l ike their Lakshmi. And suddenly Bholi not iced that the teacherwas standing by her side, smil ing at her.

“What’s your name, l i t t le one?”“Bh-Bho-Bho-.” She cou ld stammer no fu r ther than that.Then she began to cry and tears flowed from her eyes in a helpless

flood. She kept her head down as she sat in her corner, not dar ing tolook up at the gi r ls who, she knew, were st i l l laughing at her.

When the school bell rang, all the gir ls scurr ied out of the classroom,but Bholi dared not leave her corner. Her head st i l l lowered, she kepton sobbing.

“Bhol i .”The teacher’s voice was so soft and soothing! In all her l i fe she had

never been called l ike that. It touched her heart.“Get up,” said the teacher. It was not a command, but just a fr iendly

suggestion. Bholi got up.“Now tell me your name.”Sweat broke out over her whole body. Would her stammering tongue

again disgrace her? For the sake of this k ind woman, however, shedecided to make an effor t. She had such a soothing voice; she wou ldnot laugh at her.

“Bh-Bh-Bho-Bho-,” she began to stammer.“Well done, well done,” the teacher encouraged her. “Come on, now —

the full name?”“Bh-Bh-Bho-Bholi.” At last she was able to say it and felt relieved

as if i t was a great achievement.“Wel l don e.” The t eacher pat t ed her af fect i onately an d said ,

“Pu t the fear ou t of you r hear t and you wi l l be able to speak l ik eeveryone else.”

Bholi looked up as if to ask , ‘Really?’

“Yes, yes, it wil l be very easy. You just come to school everyday.Will you come?”

Bholi nodded.“No, say it aloud.”“Ye-Ye-Yes.” And Bholi herself was astonished that she had been

able to say it .“Didn’t I tel l you? Now take this book .”The book was full of nice pictures and the pictures were in colour —

dog, cat, goat, horse, parrot, t iger and a cow just l ike Lakshmi. Andwith every picture was a word in big black letters.

“In one month you will be able to read this book . Then I will give youa bigger book , then a st il l bigger one. In t ime you will be more learnedthan anyone else in the village. Then no one wil l ever be able to laugh atyou. People will l isten to you with respect and you wil l be able to speakwithout the slightest stammer. Understand? Now go home, and comeback early tomorrow morning.”

Bhol i fel t as i f sudden ly al l the bel ls in the vi l lage temple werer inging and t he t rees in fron t of the school-hou se had b lossom edin to big red flowers. Her hear t was throbbing wi th a new hope and anew l i fe.

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why do Bholi’s parents accept Bishamber’s marriage proposal?• Why does the marriage not take place?

Thus the years passed.The vil lage became a small town. The l i t t le pr imary school became

a high school. There were now a cinema under a t in shed and a cottonginning mil l. The mail train began to stop at their railway stat ion.

One n igh t , aft er dinner, Ramlal said to h is wi fe, “Then, shal l Iaccept Bishamber’s proposal?”

“Yes, certain ly,” his wife said. “Bholi wi l l be luck y to get such awel l -to-do br idegroom. A big shop, a house of h is own and I hearseveral t housand in the bank . Moreover, he i s not ask ing for anydowry.”

“That’s r ight, bu t he is not so young, you know — almost the sameage as I am — and he also l imps. Moreover, the children from his firstwife are qu ite grown up.”

Bholi 59

“So what does it matter?” his wife replied. “Forty-five or fi fty — it isno great age for a man. We are lucky that he is from another vi l lageand does not know about her pock -marks and her lack of sense. If wedon’t accept this proposal, she may remain unmarr ied all her l i fe.”

“Yes, but I wonder what Bholi wil l say.”“What wil l that wit less one say? She is l ike a dumb cow.”“May be you are r ight,” muttered Ramlal.In the other corner of the cou rtyard, Bholi lay awake on her cot,

l istening to her parents’ whispered conversat ion.Bishamber Nath was a well-to-do grocer. He came with a big party

of fr iends and relat ions with him for the wedding. A brass-band playinga popu lar tune from an Indian fi lm headed the procession, with thebr idegroom r iding a decorated horse. Ramlal was over joyed to see suchpomp and splendou r. He had never dreamt that his fourth daughterwould have such a grand wedding. Bholi’s elder sisters who had comefor the occasion were envious of her luck .

Wh en t h e au sp i ci ou s m om en t cam e t h e p r i est sai d , “B r i n gthe br ide.”

Bholi, clad in a red silken br idal dress, was led to the br ide’s placenear the sacred fire.

“Garland the bride,” one of his friends prompted Bishamber Nath.The br idegroom l ifted the gar land of yellow mar igolds. A woman

sl ipped back the silk en veil from the br ide’s face. Bishamber took aqu ick glance. The gar land remained poised in h is hands. The br ideslowly pu lled down the veil over her face.

“Have you seen her?” said Bishamber to the fr iend next to h im.“She has pock -marks on her face.”

“So what? You are not young either.”“Maybe. Bu t i f I am to mar ry her, her father must give me five

thousand rupees.”Ramlal went and placed his tu rban — his honour — at Bishamber’s

feet. “Do not humiliate me so. Take two thousand rupees.”“No. Five thousand, or we go back . Keep your daughter.”“Be a l i t t le considerate, please. If you go back , I can never show my

face in the vil lage.”“Then out with five thousand.”Tear s st r eam in g down h i s face, Ram lal wen t in , opened th e

safe an d cou n t ed ou t t h e n ot es. H e p l aced t h e bu n d l e at t h ebr idegr oom’s feet .

On Bishamber’s greedy face appeared a tr iumphant smile. He hadgambled and won. “Give me the gar land,” he announced.

Once again the veil was slipped back from the br ide’s face, bu t thist ime her eyes were not downcast. She was look ing up, look ing straightat her prospective husband, and in her eyes there was neither angernor hate, only cold contempt.

Bishamber raised the gar land to place it round the br ide’s neck ;but before he cou ld do so, Bholi’s hand st ruck out l ike a st reak ofl ightning and the gar land was flung into the fire. She got up and threwaway the veil.

“Pitaji !” said Bholi in a clear loud voice; and her father, mother,sisters, brothers, relat ions and neighbou rs were start led to hear herspeak without even the slightest stammer.

“Pitaji! Take back your money. I am not going to marry this man.”

Bholi 61

Ram lal was t hu nder st r uck . The gu est s began to wh isper, “Soshameless! So ugly and so shameless!”

“Bholi, are you crazy?” shouted Ramlal. “You want to disgrace yourfamily? Have some regard for our izzat!”

“For the sake of your izzat,” said Bholi, “I was wil l ing to marry thislame old man. But I wil l not have such a mean, greedy and contemptiblecoward as my husband. I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.”

“What a shameless girl! We all thought she was a harmless dumb cow.”Bhol i tu r ned violen t ly on the old woman, “Yes, Aun ty, you are

r igh t. You al l thought I was a dumb–driven cow. That’s why you wantedto hand me over to th is hear t less creature. Bu t now the dumb cow,the stammering fool , is speak ing. Do you want to hear more?”

Bishamber Nath, the grocer, star ted to go back with his party. Theconfused bandsmen thought this was the end of the ceremony andstruck up a closing song.

Ramlal stood rooted to the ground, his head bowed low with theweight of gr ief and shame.

The flames of the sacred fire slowly died down. Everyone was gone.Ramlal tu rned to Bholi and said, “But what about you, no one wil l evermarry you now. What shall we do with you?”

And Sulekha said in a voice that was calm and steady, “Don’t youworry, Pitaji! In your old age I will serve you and Mother and I wil l teachin the same school where I learnt so much. Isn’t that r ight, Ma’am?”

The teacher had all along stood in a corner, watching the drama.“Yes, Bholi, of cou rse,” she replied. And in her smil ing eyes was thelight of a deep satisfact ion that an art ist feels when contemplat ing thecomplet ion of her masterpiece.

K.A. ABBAS

GLOSSARY

sim plet on : a foolish person easily t r icked by othersnumber dar : an official who collects revenuem at t ed: entangledsquat t ed: sat on their heelsscur r ied: ran or moved hur r iedlyginn ing: separat ing raw cotton from its seedsdowncast : look ing downwards

1. Bholi had many apprehensions about going to school. What madeher feel that she was going to a better place than her home?

2. How did Bhol i’s teacher play an im por tan t role in changing thecourse of her l ife?

3. Why did Bhol i at first agr ee to an unequ al m atch? Why did shelater reject the marr iage? What does this tell us about her?

4. Bholi’s real name is Su lekha. We are told this r ight at the beginning.But only in the last bu t one paragraph of the story is Bholi calledSu lek ha again . Why do you think she is cal led Su lekha at thatpoint in the story?

5. Bholi’s story must have moved you. Do youthink gir l children are not t reated at par withboys? You are aware that the gover nment hasintroduced a scheme to save the gir l child asthe sex rat io is declining. The scheme is calledBeti Bachao Beti Padhao, Save the Gir l Child.Read about the scheme and design a posterin groups of four and display on the schoolnot ice board.

1. Bholi’s teacher helped her overcome social bar r iers by encouragingand motivat ing her. How do you think you can contr ibu te towardschanging the social at t itudes il lustrated in this story?

2. Shou ld gir ls be aware of their r ights, and asser t them? Shou ld gir lsand boys have the same r igh ts, du t ies and pr ivileges? What aresome of the ways in which society treats them different ly? When wespeak of ‘human r ights’, do we different iate between gir ls’ r ightsand boys’ r ights?

3. Do you think the character s in the stor y were speak ing to eachother in English? I f not, in which langu age were they speak ing?(You can get clu es from the nam es of the persons and the non-English words used in the story.)

• ‘The Brass Gong’ by Qazi Abdu l Sattar

• ‘Old Man at the Br idge’ by Earnest Hemingway

• ‘Gandhiji the Teacher’ by Rajkumar i Amr it Kaur

Ministry of Women & Child Development

Goverment of India

Char act er sH ISTORIAN LIEUTENANT IOTA

GREAT AND M IGHTY THINK-TANK SERGEANT OOP

APPRENTICE NOODLE OFFSTAGE VOICE

CAPTAIN OMEGA

SCENE 1

READ AND FIND OUT

• Why was the twentieth century called the ‘Era of the Book’?• Who tried to invade the earth in the twenty-first century?

TIME : The twenty-fifth century

PLACE : The Museum of Ancient History: Department of the TwentiethCentury on the Planet Earth

BEFORE RISE : Spotlight shines on Historian, who is sitting at a table downright, on which is a movie projector. A sign on an easel besideher reads: Museum of Ancient History: Department of theTwentieth Century. She stands and bows to audience.

H ISTORIAN : Good afternoon. Welcome to our Museum of AncientHistory, and to my department — cur iosit ies of thegood old, far -off twen t ieth centu ry. The twent iethcentury was often called the Era of the Book. In thosedays, t h er e wer e book s abou t ever yt h i n g, f r omanteaters to Zulus. Books taught people how to, andwhen to, and where to, and why to. They i llustrated,educated, punctuated, and even decorated. Bu t the

strangest thing a book ever did was to save the Earth.You haven’t heard about the Mart ian invasion of 2040?Tsk , tsk. What do they teach children nowadays? Well,you know, the invasion never really happened, becausea single book stopped it . What was the book, you ask?A nob le encycloped ia? A t ome abou t r ock et s andmissiles? A secret fi le from outer space? No, it wasnone of those. It was — but here, let me turn on theh istor i scope and show you what happened m anycentur ies ago, in 2040. (She turns on projector, andpoints it left. Spotlight on Historian goes out, and comesup down left on Think-Tank, w ho is seated on a raisedbox, arms folded. He has a huge, egg-shaped head, andhe w ears a long robe decorated w ith stars and circles.Apprentice Noodle stands beside him at an elaboratesw itchboard. A sign on an easel reads:

MARS SPACE CONTROLGREAT AND MIGHTY THINK-TANK, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

(Bow low before entering)

NOODLE : (bow ing) O Gr eat an d Mi gh t y Th in k -Tank , m ostpower fu l an d i n t el l i gen t cr eat u r e i n t h e wh ol euniverse, what are your orders?

THINK-TANK : (peevi sh ly ) You l ef t ou t p ar t of m y sal u t a t i on ,Apprentice Noodle. Go over the whole thing again.

NOODLE : It shall be done, sir. (in a singsong) O Great and MightyThink -Tank , Ru ler of Mars and her two moons, mostpower fu l an d i n t el l i gen t cr eat u r e i n t h e wh ol euniverse — (out of breath) what-are-your -orders?

THINK-TANK : Th at ’s b et t er , Nood l e. I w i sh t o be p l aced i ncommunication with our manned space probe to thatr idicu lous l i t t le planet we are going to put under ourgenerous ru lership. What do they call i t , again?

NOODLE : Earth , you r Intell igence.

THINK-TANK : Earth — of course. You see how insignificant the placeis? But first, something important. My mirror. I wishto consu lt my mirror.

The Book That Saved the Earth 65

NOODLE : It shall be done, sir. (He hands Think-Tank a mirror.)

THINK-TANK : M i r r or , m i r r or , i n m y h an d . Wh o i s t h e m ostfantast ically intellectually gifted being in the land?

OFFSTAGE VOICE : (after a pause) You, sir.

THINK-TANK : (smacking mirror) Qu icker. Answer qu icker next t ime.I hate a slow mirror . (He admires himself in the mirror.)Ah, there I am. Are we Mar t ians not a handsomer ace? So m u ch m or e at t r act i ve t h an t h ose u gl yEarthlings with their t iny heads. Noodle, you keep onexer cising you r m ind, and som eday you ’l l have aballoon brain just l ike mine.

NOODLE : Oh, I hope so, Mighty Think -Tank . I hope so.

THINK-TANK : Now, contact the space probe. I want to invade thatpr imit ive ball of mud called Earth before lunch.

NOODLE : It shall be done, sir. (He adjusts levers on sw itchboard.Electronic buzzes and beeps are heard as the curtainsopen.)

SCENE 2

READ AND FIND OUT

• What guesses are made by Think–Tank about the booksfound on earth?

TIME : A few seconds later

PLACE : Mars Space Control and the Centerville Public Library

AT RISE : Captain Omega stands at centre, opening and closing cardcatalogue draw ers in a confused fashion. Lieutenant Iotais up left, counting books in a bookcase. Sergeant Oop is atright, opening and closing a book, turning it upside dow n,shaking it and then riffling the pages and shaking his head.

NOODLE : (adjusting knobs) I have a close sighting of the spacecrew, si r.

(Think-Tank puts on a pair of enormous goggles andturns tow ards the stage to w atch.) They seem to haveentered some sort of Earth structure.

THINK-TANK : Excel lent. Make voice contact.

NOODLE : (speak ing into a microphone) Mar s Space Con t r olcal l ing the crew of Probe One. Mars Space Cont rolcal l ing the cr ew of Probe One. Com e in , CaptainOmega, and give us your location.

OMEGA : (speaking into a disk w hich is on a chain around herneck ) Cap t a i n Om ega t o M ar s Sp ace Con t r ol .Lieu tenant Iota, Sergeant Oop, and I have arr ived onEarth without incident. We have taken shelter in this(indicates room) — th is square place. Have you anyidea where we are, Lieu tenant Iota?

IOTA : I can’t figure it ou t, Captain. (holding up a book ) I’vecounted two thousand of these pecu liar items. Thisplace must be some sort of storage barn. What do youthink , Sergeant Oop?

OOP : I haven’t a clue. I’ve been to seven galaxies, bu t I’venever seen anyth ing l ik e th is. Maybe they’re hats.(He opens a book and puts it on his head .) Say, maybethis is a haberdashery!

OMEGA : (bow ing low ) Perhaps the Great and Mighty Th ink -Tan k wi l l gi ve u s t h e ben ef i t of h i s t hou gh t onthe matter.

THINK-TANK : Elementary, my dear Omega. Hold one of the itemsup so that I may view it closely. (Omega holds a bookon the palm of her hand .) Yes, yes, I understand now.Since Ear th creatu res are always eat ing, the placein which you find yourselves is undoubtedly a cruderefreshment stand.

OMEGA : (to Iota and Oop) He says we’re in a refreshment stand.

OOP : Well, the Ear thlings certainly have a strange diet.

THINK-TANK : That item in your hand is called a sandwich.

OMEGA : (nodding) A sandwich.

IOTA : (nodding) A sandwich.

OOP : (tak ing book from his head) A sandwich?

THINK-TANK : Sandwiches are the main staple of Earth diet. Lookat it closely.(Omega squints at book .) There are twoslices of what is cal led bread, and between them issome sort of fi l l ing.

OMEGA : That is correct, sir.

THINK-TANK : To confirm my opinion, I order you to eat it .

OMEGA : (gulping) Eat it?

THINK-TANK : Do you doubt the Mighty Think -Tank?

OMEGA : Oh, no, no. But poor Lieu tenant Iota has not had herbreak fast. Lieu tenant Iota, I order you to eat this —this sandwich.

IOTA : (dubiously ) Eat i t? Oh , Captain ! I t ’s a ver y greathonour to be the first Mart ian to eat a sandwich, I’msure, bu t — but how can I be so impolite as to eatbefore my Sergeant? (handing Oop the book and sayingbrightly) Sergeant Oop, I order you to eat the sandwichimmediately.

OOP : (making a face) Who, Lieu tenant? Me, Lieu tenant?

IOTA and OMEGA : (saluting) For the glory of Mars, Oop!

OOP : Yes, of course! (unhappily ) Immediately. (He opens hismouth w ide. Omega and Iota w atch him breathlessly .He bites dow n on a corner of the book, and pantomimeschew ing and sw allow ing, w hile making terrible faces.)

OMEGA : Well, Oop?

IOTA : Well, Oop? (Oop coughs. Omega and Iota pound him onthe back .)

THINK-TANK : Was it not delicious, Sergeant Oop?

OOP : (salut ing) That is correct, sir. It was not del icious. Id on ’t k n ow h ow t h e Ear t h l i n gs can get t h osesandwi ch es down w i t hou t water. They’r e dr y asMart ian dust .

NOODLE : Si r, si r. Great and Mighty Th ink -Tank . I beg you rpardon, but an insignificant bit of data floated intomy mind about those sandwiches.

THINK-TANK : It can’t be worth much, but go ahead. Give us yourtr ifl ing bit of data.

NOODLE : Wel l , si r , I h ave seen su r veyor f i l m s of t h osesandwiches. I not iced that the Earthlings did not eatthem. They used them as some sort of communicationdevice.

THINK-TANK : (haughtily ) Naturally. That was my next point. Theseare actually communication sandwiches. Think -Tankis never wrong. Who is never wrong?

ALL : (saluting) Great and Mighty Think-Tank is never wrong.

THINK-TANK : Therefore, I order you to l isten to them.

OMEGA : Listen to them?

IOTA AND OOP : (to each other, puzzled) Listen to them?

THINK-TANK : Do you have marbles in you r ears? I said, l isten tothem. (Martians bow very low .)

OMEGA : It shall be done, sir. (They each take tw o books fromthe case, and hold them to their ears, listening intently .)

IOTA : (w hispering to Omega) Do you hear anything?

OMEGA : (w hispering back ) Nothing. Do you hear anything, Oop?

OOP : (loudly ) Not a thing! (Omega and Iota jump in fright.)

OMEGA AND IOTA : Sh-h-h! (They listen intently again .)

THINK-TANK : Well? Well? Report to me. What do you hear?

OMEGA : Noth ing, si r. Perhaps we ar e not on t h e cor r ectfrequency.

IOTA : Noth ing, si r. Perhaps the Ear th l ings have shar perears than we do.

OOP : I don’t hear a th ing. Maybe these sandwiches don’tmake sounds.

THINK-TANK : What? Does somebody suggest the Mighty Think -Tankhas made a mistake?

OMEGA : Oh, no, sir ; no, sir. We’ll keep l istening.

NOODLE : Please excuse me, your Br i l l iance, bu t a cloudy pieceof information is twir l ing around in my head.

THINK-TANK : Well, twir l i t ou t, Noodle, and I wil l clar ify it for you.

NOODLE : I seem to recall that the Earthlings did not listen tothe sandwiches; they opened them and watched them.

THINK-TANK : Yes, that is qu ite correct , I wil l clar ify that for you,Captain Omega. Those sandwiches are not for earcommunication, they are for eye communication. Now,Captain Omega, take that large, colourfu l sandwichover there. It appears to be important. Tell me whatyou observe.

(Omega picks up a very large volume of Mother Goose,holding it so that the audience can see the title. Iotalooks over her left shoulder, and Oop peers over herright shoulder.)

OMEGA : It appears to contain pictures of Earthlings.

IOTA : There seems to be some sort of code.

THINK-TANK : (sha rp ly in terest ed ) Code? I t ol d you t h i s w asimportant. Descr ibe the code.

OOP : It’s l i t t le l ines and squ iggles and dots — thousandsof them alongside the pictures.

THINK-TANK : Perhaps the Ear th l ings are not as pr im i t ive as wehave thought. We must break the code.

NOODLE : Forgive me, your Cleverness, bu t did not the chemicaldepartment give our space people vitamins to increasetheir in tel l igence?

THINK-TANK : Stop! A thought of magnificent br i l l iance has come tome. Space people, our chemical department has givenyou vitamins to increase your intell igence. Take themim m edi at el y an d t h en wat ch t he san dwich . Themeaning of the code wil l slowly unfold before you.

OMEGA : It shall be done, si r. Remove vitamins. (Crew takesvitamins from boxes on their belts.) Present vitamins.(They hold vitamins out in front of them, stiffly .) Swallow

vitamins. (They pop the vitamins into their mouths andgulp simultaneously . They open their eyes w ide, theirheads shak e, and t hey pu t t hei r hands t o t hei rforeheads.)

THINK-TANK : Excellent. Now, decipher that code.

ALL : It shall be done, sir. (They frow n over the book, turningpages.)

OMEGA : (brightly ) Aha!

IOTA : (brightly ) Oho!

OOP : (bursting into laughter) Ha, ha, ha.

THINK-TANK : What does i t say? Tel l me th is instant. Transcr ibe,Omega.

OMEGA : Yes, sir. (She reads w ith great seriousness.)

Mistress Mary, qu ite cont rary,How does your garden grow?With cock le shells and silver bellsAnd pretty maids all in a row.

OOP : Ha, ha, ha. Imagine that. Pretty maids growing in agarden.

THINK-TANK : (alarmed) Stop! This is no t ime for levity. Don’t your ea l i se t h e ser i ou sn ess of t h i s d i scover y? Th eEar t h l i n gs h ave d i scover ed h ow t o com b i n eagr icu ltu re and mining. They can actually grow cropsof rare metals such as silver. And cock le shells. Theycan grow h igh explosives, too. Noodle, contact ou rinvasion fleet .

NOODLE : They are ready to go down and take over Earth, sir.

THINK-TANK : Tell them to hold. Tell them new information has cometo us about Earth. Iota, transcr ibe.

IOTA : Yes, sir. (She reads very gravely .)

Hey diddle diddle! The cat and the fiddle,The cow jumped over the moon,The l it t le dog laughed to see such sport,And the dish ran away with the spoon.

OOP : (laughing) The dish ran away with the spoon!

THINK-TANK : Cease l au gh t er. D esi st . Th i s i s m or e an d m or ealarming. The Earthl ings have reached a h igh levelof civi l isat ion. Didn’t you hear? They have taught theirdom est i cated an imals m u sical cu l t u r e and spacetechniques. Even their dogs have a sense of humour.Why, at this very moment, they may be launching anin terplanetary at tack of mil l ions of cow s! Noti fy theinvasion fleet. No invasion today Oop, transcr ibe thenext code.

OOP : Yes, sir. (reading)

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,Cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Oh, look , sir. Here’s a pictu re of Humpty Dumpty.Why, sir, he looks l ike — he looks l ike — (turns largepicture of Humpty Dumpty tow ards Think -Tank andthe audience)

THINK-TANK : (screaming and holding his head) It’s me! It’s my Greatand Mighty Balloon Brain. The Earthlings have seenme, and they’re after me. “Had a great fall!” — Thatmeans they plan to capture Mars Central Control andme! It’s an invasion of Mars! Noodle, prepare a spacecapsu le for me. I must escape without delay. Spacepeople, you must leave Earth at once, but be sure toremove all traces of your visit . The Earthlings mustnot know that I know. (Omega, Iota, and Oop rushabout, putting books back on shelves.)

NOODLE : Where shall we go, sir?

THINK-TANK : A hundred mil l ion miles away from Mars. Order theinvasion fleet to evacuate the entire planet of Mars.We are heading for Alpha Centaur i, a hundred mil l ionmi les away. (Omega , Iota , and Oop run off right asNoodle helps Think-Tank off left and the curtain closes.Spotlight shines on Historian dow n right.)

H ISTORIAN : (chuck ling) And that’s how one dusty old book ofnu r ser y r hym es saved the wor ld fr om a Mar t ianinvasion. As you all know, in the twenty-fifth century,f i ve h u nd r ed year s af t er al l t h i s h appen ed , weEarthlings resumed contact with Mars, and we evenbecame very fr iendly with the Mart ians. By that t ime,Great and Mighty Think -Tank had been replaced bya ver y clever Mar t ian — t he wise and wonder fu lNoodle! Oh, yes, we taught the Mart ians the differencebetween sandwiches and books. We taught them howto read, too, and we established a model l ibrary inthei r capi tal ci ty of Marsopol is. Bu t as you m ightexpect, there is st i l l one book that the Mart ians cannever br ing themselves to read. You’ve guessed it —Mother Goose ! (She bow s and exits right.)

CURTAIN

CLAIRE BOIKO

GLOSSARY

easel : wooden frame to suppor t a blackboard or a pictu reZulus: an Afr ican ethnic group belonging to South Afr icaappren t i ce: learner of a t rade who has agreed to work for a cer tain

per iod of t ime in retu rn for being taughtpeevish ly : ir r itablyr i f f l i ng: qu ick ly tu rning over the pages of a bookbarn : covered bu ilding for stor ing hayhaberdashery : shop which sells clothing, small ar t icles of dress, pins,

cotton, etc.squiggles: scrawls; i l legible wr it ing or mark ingsdecipher : find the meaning of something which is puzzling or difficu lt

to under standt ranscr ibe: wr ite in fu ll form from shor t-handl ev i t y : tendency to t r eat ser iou s m at ter s wi thou t r espect ; lack of

ser iou sness

1. Noodle avoids offending Think -Tank but at the same t ime he cor rectshis mistakes. How does he manage to do that?

2. If you were in Noodle’s place, how wou ld you handle Think -Tank’sm istak es?

3. Do you think book s are being replaced by the elect ronic media?Can we do away with books altogether?

4. Why are books refer red to as a man’s best companion? Which isyour favour ite book and why? Wr ite a paragraph about that book .

1. In what ways does Th in k -Tank m isin ter pr et innocen t n u r ser yrhymes as threats to the Mar t ians? Can you think of any incidentswhere you misinterpreted a word or an act ion? How did you resolvethe misu nder standing?

2. The al iens in this play speak English. Do you think this is theirlanguage? What cou ld be the language of the aliens?

• ‘Diamond Cuts Diamond‘ by J.H. Parker

• ‘The Cindrella Story’ by Kenneth Lil l ington

• ‘The Fun They Had’ by Isaac Asimov

Answers gi ven by Professor Yash Pal and Dr Rahul Pal(see questions on page 38)

(i ) DNA exists as st r ands of bases that car ry genet ic in for mat ionspeci fic to each living thing. The sequ ence of bases of DNA ineach of our cells is the same, bu t differs from that of any otherliving thing except possibly an ident ical twin. This difference makesthe DNA br eak at di fferent places when cer tain pr oteins calledenzymes are added to it , resu lt ing in smaller DNA fragments ofdiffer ent sizes. These fragments migrate at different rates in anelectr ic field, resu lt ing in a unique pattern; this pattern is refer redto as a DNA fingerpr int .

Our DNA is inher ited from our parents. Some parts come fromthe father and some from the mother. DNA fingerpr inting can helpident ify parentage, since a son or a daughter would always exhibita p at t er n i den t i f i ab l e as com i n g f r om bot h p ar en t s. DNAfingerpr int ing analysis is very usefu l in forensic science; from asingle hair or a t iny spot of blood, it is possible to prove the innocenceor gu ilt of a murder suspect. Similar ly, it is also possible to ident ifyhuman remains after violent accidents have caused disfigurement.

It has been suggested that in the not so distant fu tu re, a DNAfingerpr int ing profi le of the individu al wi l l have to accom panyapplicat ions for an ID card, a bank account and a dr iving license.Human r ight groups say this type of “genet ic profil ing” const itu tesan invasion of pr ivacy. As wi th a lot of new technology, DNAfingerpr int ing also has a potent ial for abuse.

(i i ) Hon eybees ar e ver y sop h ist i cat ed at posi t i on locat ion an dnavigat ion . It is known that they use the sun as a gu ide. Theyalso appear to have a good memory. They convey the informationof a new find of food to the hive through an amazingly clever dancelanguage. The dance indicates the direct ion and distance of thefood source with respect to the direct ion of the sun in the sky! If itis dark inside the hive and a light bu lb is switched on, the danceis modified to include the light bu lb as a new reference direct ion!Since bees have pictor ial memory of some sor t , a direct ion-findingmechanism and a way of reckoning distance, they are probablybetter equ ipped for gett ing back home than any of us!

(i i i ) Rain is the resu lt of condensat ion of vapour when the air is cooledbelow the dew point. All the vapour in a cloud cannot condense atthe same t ime and tu rn into a large pool of water . Pockets of airmove up independent ly and slowly cool t i l l condensat ion beginsand water droplets form. It is believed that most raindrops star tou t as t iny ice cr ystals — so t iny that they float down, slowlyaccret ing more moisture on the way; at lower alt itudes, the crystalsmelt into water droplets. In colder climates, the crystals reach theground as snowflakes.

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