Chapter 6 of the novel ‘The Invisible Man’

Chapter 6 of the novel ‘The Invisible Man’

Summary

The Furniture That Went Mad

In the previous chapter, you have come to know about the theft in Mrs. And Mr. Bunting’s house. The stranger entered their house and stole money because day by day he was unable to meet out his daily expenditure.

In this chapter, we find that Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall had woken up earlier than before. Then they went silently down in the cellar to take care of the beer that was under the process of preparation. The moment they entered the cellar, Mrs. Hall remembered that she had forgotten to bring a bottle of sarsaparilla (a kind sweet liquid prepared from this plant) from their room. Mr. Hall went upstairs to get it. While going upstairs, he found that the door of the stranger’s room was open, but he kept going on towards his room and found the bottle there. Picking up it, he started returning and suddenly he noticed that the front door was simply on the latch. He also remembered that the previous night it was properly closed by Mrs. Hall. His curiosity increased and he proceeded towards the stranger’s room to see something more there.  He rapped at the door of his room upstairs. There was no response. He rapped again. When he found no reply, he pushed the door in and entered. Mr. Hall found everything as he had expected. The bed and the room was also empty. His garments, the bandages were all lying scattered on the bedroom chair and along the rail of the bed.

In the meantime, Mrs. Hall became impatient as Mr. Hall was not going down with the bottle which she needed immediately. So she started calling him aloud from the cellar.

At this, Mr. Hall tried to tell Mrs. Hall by going downstairs that the stranger’s room was quite open at that time. At first, she could not understand the whole matter, but, at last, she decided to see the empty room for herself. Mr. Hall, still holding the bottle in his hand started moving upstairs first, followed by his wife. As both of them came up the cellar steps, they heard the front door open and shut, but seeing it closed, neither of them said any word to each other. Then, Mrs. Hall passed her husband in the passage and ran upstairs. She also heard someone sneeze. As she was going on first, she thought that it was Mr. Hall who was sneezing. She at once flung open the door and entered the room.

She heard a sniff close behind her head. She thought it might have been Mr. Hall just behind her. But the moment she turned behind ascertain it, she found that her husband was at a distance from her. But soon he came near her. She came near the bed and bent forward and touched the pillow and the bed clothes to feel the warmth on them. But she felt it all cold. It meant the stranger must have left his bed before one hour or more.

As she did all that, a most extraordinary thing happened. The bed-clothes gathered themselves together, leapt to one side as a heap. It all happened as if a person had rolled up the bed-clothes into a heap and then threw them to one side.

After that the stranger’s hat hopped off, and after a whirling flight in the air was it was hit straight at Mrs. Hall’s face. Then some other things like sponge from the wash-stand, chair, coat and trousers, etc. were all flung aside carelessly, and the chair suddenly started moving towards Mrs. Hall. Both the husband and the wife went out of the room in panic. The door was slammed violently from behind then and was locked from inside. After some time, everything became quiet and calm.

Mrs. Hall was so much petrified at this unusual scene she had ever seen in her life that she was almost fainted. With a great difficulty, Millie and Mr. Hall were able to bring her downstairs.

She became so much panicked that she started speaking as if she was in delirium. She was constantly saying that it was all done by the stranger and it was he who had stirred the spirits in the room by doing irreligious activities. He himself was irreligious and also he misused the furniture that was used by her mother, so the spirit of her mother got annoyed and started throwing the things into the air. She was also talking about his goggled eyes and bandaged head. She also wished that her husband must lock the stranger in the room and held him responsible for all the misdoings as he never visited the church on Sundays. She also mentioned that normally a person never kept such a big number of bottles in his possession as he had in the room.

Mr. Hall again tried to make her drink some more drops of a liquid so that her nerves would become steady.

After that, Millie was sent to call Mr. Sandy Wadgers, the blacksmith, who was told by Millie that Mrs. Hall’s furniture was behaving in a most extraordinary way. He soon reached the inn and Mrs. Hall and her husband wanted the blacksmith to lead him to the stranger’s room at once. But he seemed to be in no hurry as he wanted to study the facts before taking further step.   Therefore he talked with Mr. Hall about the case while passing through the passage. In the meantime, Mr. Huxtar also joined them. They could not reach a decision, so they decided to know the facts first.

As they were busy discussing all that, the door of the room upstairs opened itself and they were wonderstruck to see the stranger’s muffled figure stepping downstairs, perhaps staring more sternly than ever form under his those unreasonably large blue glasses of his goggles. He came down stiffly and slowly staring all the time while walking down the steps. The he stopped and said to them, “Look there!” At this, they all saw towards the point where he was indicating with his gloved finger. He was pointing towards the bottle of sarsaparilla that was left by Mr. Hall near the cellar door. Then he entered the parlour and suddenly, viciously slammed the door in.

They kept staring at one another without uttering any word until the sound created by the slammed door died down.  After that, Mr. Wadgers said that he would like to go I and ask for an explanation for all that he had done there. Mr. Hall took some time to give his approval to what Mr. Wadgers saying.

Then Mr. Wadgers went upstairs and knocked at the door, opened it and said, “Excuse me…”

“Go to the devil!” came a tremendous voice from the room and ordering him to shut the door.

Thus his brief interview was terminated!

The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse by William Saroyan for CBSE Class XI

The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse by William Saroyan

Synopsis of the Lesson

This is an interesting story about two boys. They belonged to a family, which was famous for its honesty. The boys had a craze for horse-riding. One day, the narrator’s cousin, Mourad, bought a beautiful white horse for riding. He had stolen it from some place. The narrator was shocked to think that Mourad had stolen the horse. Such a thing had never happened in their family. But the narrator also wanted to enjoy the ride. So he cooperated with his cousin in keeping the stealth a secret. They continued enjoy horse-riding for many days early in the morning. They used to hide the horse somewhere in a barn. One day, they came across the owner of that horse and he recognized it, but he could not blame the boys for the theft of his horse. It was because he knew that the boys belonged to a reputed family. The next morning, the narrator and his cousin left the horse at its usual place.

Main Points of the Story

One day, Mourad, the narrator’s cousin woke him up early in the morning at four o’clock. He was sitting on a beautiful horse. The narrator could not believe his eyes. He always longed for horse-riding. Mourad and the narrator belonged to a family that was very famous for its honesty. It was known as Garoghlanian family. They had been famous for the honesty for about eleven centuries. Every member of the family felt proud of being a Garoghlanian. They believed in the right and the wrong and never took advantage of anybody in the world.

The narrator could not believe that his cousin could steal the horse. But the reality was before his eyes, so he had to believe it. Then the narrator that stealing a horse only for a raiding was different from stealing money or for selling the horse for money. After that, the narrator jumped down on the yard from window of his room. He sat on the horse’s back behind Mourad, who was considered one of the craziest members of his family. He was considered the natural successor of the craziness found in his family.

His uncle Khosrove was also a crazy fellow. He was a big man with a big head and black hair on it. He had very long moustaches on his face. He was a man of irritable temple. He was also very impatient in his behaviour.  He would stop anybody by saying, “It is no harm; pay no attention to it.”

Once Khosrove’s own son, Arak, came running at a barber’s shop, where he was getting his moustaches trimmed. Arak told him that their house was on fire. Khosrove stood up at once and roared, “It’s no harm; pay no attention to it.

Thus Mourad was the natural descendant of Khosrove.

At present Mourad and his cousin were enjoying riding. Mourad was also singing while riding. After sometime, Mourad told the narrator to get down of the horse because he wanted to have the ride alone.

The narrator obyed and got down of the horse. He also told Mourad that he would also like to have a ride alone.

Mourad kicked the horse and it soon started galloping. The horse crossed a field of dry grass and then an irrigation ditch. He returned after five minutes.

Now it was the narrator’s turn to enjoy the ride alone.

He also leapt to the back of the horse and kicked it. The horse reared and snorted. Then it ran suddenly. Instead of running across the field and then to the irrigation ditch, it ran down road to the vineyard of Dikran Halabian. The horse threw the narrator on to the ground while jumping on the vines.

The narrator and Mourad made a search for it and after half an hour, Mourad came back with the horse. They thought of hiding the horse at a secret place.

The narrator also came to know that Mourad had been enjoying rides for the last many days. They went home and the narrator had his breakfast.

That afternoon, the narrator’s uncle Khosrove came to his house to sip coffee and smoke a cigarette.

Another visitor, named John Byro, also came there. He complained that his white horse had been missing for a month.

The narrator’s uncle Khosrov and John Byro had an argument on the loss of the horse. Khosrove advised John Byro to forget about the horse and not to give any importance to money.

John Byro got angry and went out of the house.

The narrator went to Mourad’s house and told him all about John Byro’s visit to his house. The narrator requested Mourad not to return the horse until he learnt how to ride. Mourad agreed not to return it for six months.

One morning, on the way, they came across John Byro, the owner of the white horse.

He recognized the horse and he knew that it was his own horse, but still, he could not make a claim over it because he knew the reputation of the narrator’s family. He just called the horse the twin of his horse.

Early next morning, the narrator and his cousin left the horse to John Byro’s barn.

That afternoon, John Byro came to the narrator’s house. He showed the horse to the narrator’s mother. He said that his horse had become stronger and better tempered than before. Then the narrator’s uncle became irritated. He shouted, “ Your horse has been returned. Pay no attention to it.”

Mrs. Packeltide’s Tiger by Saki: Comprehension Passages:

Passage 1:

“The compelling motive for her………………….that sort of thing.”

Q1. Name the lesson & its writer.

Ans. The lesson is Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger and its writer is Saki (Hecter Hugh Munro)

Q2. Who was Nimrod?

Ans. He was a famous legendary hunter.

Q3. What was Mrs. Packletide’s compelling motive for hunting?

Ans. She wanted to counter Loona Bimberton’s flight that she had with an Algerian aviator for eleven miles in an aeroplane.

Q4.What did Loona Bimberton boast of?

Ans. She boasted of her flight that she had with an Algerian aviator for eleven miles in an aeroplane.

Q5. What does ‘that sort of thing’ stand for?

Ans. The phrase stands for Loona’s flight with an Algerian aviator for eleven miles in an aeroplane.

Passage 2:

 “Not that the lust  to kill……………….an Algerian aviator.”

Q1. Who is ‘she’ in the above passage?

Ans. ‘She’ is  Mrs. Packletide in the passage.

Q2. What is meant by the phrase ‘the lust to kill’?

Ans It means the strong desire to kill.

Q3. What is her lust here?

Ans. It is to kill a tiger.

Q4. What was her motive and why was it called ‘compelling’?

Ans. Mrs’ Packletide’s motive was to outshine Loona Bimberton. It was compelling because she did not want to waste any time.

Passage 3: 

"Circumstances proved propitious…….antecedents.”

Q1. How had the circumstances become propitious?

Ans. An old tiger stayed in the forest of a village for feeding itself on domestic animals. Mrs. Packletide waited for such an opportunity.

Q2. Why did Mrs. Packletide offer a big prize for the villagers?

Ans. She offered it to lure the villagers so that they could arrange for her a safe and riskless tiger hunt.

Q3.What type of shooting did she want to have?

Ans. She wanted to have a shooting without much risk or exertion.

Q4. Who has been called the animal of ‘respectable antecedents’?

Ans. The tiger has been called so.

Q5. What became the favoured rendezvous of the animal?

Ans. A neibouring village.

Q6. What is the meaning of ‘rendezvous’?

Ans. Fixed meeting place