NCERT English Beehive Class 9 Chapter 3 - The Little Girl

Chapter 3 - The Little Girl

Writer of the Story - Katherine Mansfield
Question and Answers
Question 1: Why was Kezia afraid of her father?
Answer: To the little girl, Kezia, father was a figure to be feared and avoided. Kezia’s father was so big, that his hands and his neck, specially mouth when yawned. Thinking about him alone was like thinking about a giant.

Question 2: Who were the people in Kezia’s family?
Answer: Father, mother, Kezia herself, and grandmother were the people in Kezia’s family.

Question 3: What was Kezia’s father routine
i) before going to his office?
ii) after coming back from his office?
iii) on Sundays?
Answer:
i) Every morning before going to office, Kezia’s father came to Kezia’s room and gave a casual kiss to which she responded ‘Goodbye, Father’.
ii) In the evening, when father came back home, he would order his tea to the hall and ask mother if the paper had come and ask for his slippers. He would then call Kezia to take off his boots.
iii) On Sunday afternoon, he would stretch out on the sofa, his handkerchief on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions, sleeping soundly and snoring.

Question 4: In what ways did Kezia’s grandmother encourage her to get to know her father better?
Answer: On Sunday afternoons, Grandmother would send Kezia to the drawing-room to have some talks with her father and mother. Also, when Kezia was kept indoors with a cold, her grandmother suggested her to make a pin-cushion made with yellow silk for his birthday.

Question 5: Kezia’s efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much. How did this happen?
Answer: Kezia stitched three sides of the pin-cushion. She was confused what to fill the cushion. She could not ask grandmother as she was out in the garden. So, Kezia wandered in Mother’s bedroom to search for scraps. On the bed-table she saw many sheets of fine paper.
She collected all of them and tore them into tiny pieces and stuffed the cushion with those papers. And then sewed up the fourth side. Later, on the same night there was hue and cry that the papers for Port Authority were lost. Kezia then revealed that she had done for making the pin-cushion. Her father then scolded her and beat her with ruler for touching things that did not belong to her.

Question 6: 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: Mr MacDonald was a loving father, he would play and laugh with his children. He was very friendly with his children. He also used to forgive for the mistakes done by his children. While Kezia’s father was very strict and not much friendly in nature. He hated playing with his daughter.

Question 7: How did Kezia began to see her father as a human being who needs her sympathy?
Answer: One day, when Kezia’s mother got ill, she and grandmother went to hospital. So, Kezia was left with Alice, the cook. At night, Kezia got a nightmare about a butcher. Shivering with fear, she screamed for her grandmother but saw her father near the bed.
Father took her in his arms and carefully tucked her into the bed. He then lay down beside her. Half-asleep she crept close to him, snuggled her head under his arm, held tightly to his shirt.
She saw her father go off to sleep before her. She understood that he had to work so hard everyday which made him tired to behave like MacDonald. She later realised that her father had big heart.