NCERT summary for Class 9 English (Beehive) Chapter 3 The Little Girl

 NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English (Beehive) Chapter 3 The Little Girl

The Little Girl" is a story written by Katherine Mansfield about Kezia, who misunderstood that her father is rigorous and does not love him. She used to avoid him because she thought he was ruthless. She tore the important pages of his father with intentions of gifting paper pins to him, but she got severely beaten because those papers had important speech. After then, she used to hate her father. But when she saw her neighbour, she thought that there are different fathers only she had the cruel father among them. The story took a turn when her mother was down with a fever, and her grandmother had to take her to the hospital. Kezia was left alone at the house with a nurse.

One day she had a nightmare where she saw a butcher with a knife. She became terrified and gave a loud cry on hearing that her father rushed down to her and took her to own bed. She lay beside her father, and then she thought that his father is not a bad person; it's just that he remains too busy that he does not have time to play with her. The girl changed all of her feelings. This story is about a child's viewpoint about her father. The theme of the story is about the relationship shared by a parent and their child.

 Question 1. Why was Kezia afraid of her father? 

Answer: Kezia was afraid of her father because he was extremely strict and commanding. He never played with her. He used to give her a terrifying look over his spectacles. 

Question 2. Who were the people in Kezia’s family? 

Answer: Kezia’s family comprised her father, mother and grandmother and herself. 

Question 3. What was Kezia’s father’s routine 

(i) before going to his office? 

(ii) after coming back from his office? 

(iii) on Sundays?

Answer: i) Before going to office, Kezia’s father would come to Kezia’s room and give her a goodbye kiss.

 ii) After coming back from his office, he would order his tea to be brought to the drawing room and would ask his mother to get his papers and slippers. He would then order Kezia to take off his boots. 

iii) On Sundays, he would stretch out on the sofa with his handkerchief on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions, sleep and snore.

Question 4. In what ways did Kezia’s grandmother encourage her to get to know her father better? Answer: Kezia’s grandmother would encourage her to know her father better by asking her to go down to the drawing room and have a nice talk with her father. She also asked Kezie to stitch a pincushion out of a beautiful yellow silk piece and give it to her father as a birthday present.

II. Discuss these questions in class with your teacher and then write down your answers in two or three paragraphs each. 

Question 1. Kezia’s efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much. How did this happen?

 Answer: Kezie stitched three sides of the pin-cushion. She was confused at what to fill the cushion with. Grandmother was not around. So, Kezie went to her parents’ room to ask her mother for some scrap. But, her mother wasn’t there in the room. Kezie then saw some sheets of papers on the bed table. She collected them all, tore them into small pieces and stuffed the cushion with those pieces. Her efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much when at night her father searched for those sheets of paper on the bed table. The sheets of paper had the speech for Port Authority. Her father scolded and beat her with a ruler for touching things that did not belong to her. 

Question 2. Kezia decides that there are “different kinds of fathers”. What kind of father was Mr Macdonald, and how was he different from Kezia’s father? 

Answer: Kezia decides that there are “different kinds of fathers”. Mr Macdonald was a loving father. He was very gentle and forgiving. He used to play and laugh with his children. He was friendly with them. He was quite different from Kezia’s father. Her father was very strict and unfriendly. 

Question 3. How does Kezia begin to see her father as a human being who needs her sympathy? Answer: One day, when her mother and grandmother were at the hospital, Kezia was left at home with Alice, their cook. At night, she had a nightmare. Shivering with fear, she called for her grandmother but saw her father near her bed. He took her in his arms and carefully tucked her on his bed. He then lay down beside her. Half asleep, she went close to him, snuggled her head under his arm and held onto his shirt tightly. She saw her father go off to sleep before her. She understood that he had to work so hard every day which made him too tired to behave like Mr Macdonald. She told his father that he had a big heart.

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