A Triumph of Surgery Summary

The story starts when Mrs. Pumphrey, a rich lady takes her dog out for a walk. A nearby
veterinary doctor who knows the lady sees the dog and is shocked as he sees that the dog looks
like a bloated sausage with a leg at each end. He advises her to stop giving him unhealthy things
to eat but Mrs. Pumphrey is not able to refuse him. Soon he falls sick and the doctor is called.
The narrator, Mr. Herriot then somehow takes Tricki, the dog to the hospital even though he
knows
that Mrs. Pumphrey is not ready to leave her dog and nearly fainted just by hearing these
words.Then he takes the dog along and puts a bed for him in his surgery. The dog doesn't move
much nor eats anything for the first two days. On the second day he looks around and whimpers
a bit. He wanted to go out on the third day and started playing with the bigger dogs when he
was taken out. He also licked the bowls of other dogs clean on the third day. Then his condition
started improving very fast. He started fighting for his meals with other dogs. Then when this
news reached Mrs. Pumphrey, she started sending him eggs as she thought that Tricki was
recovering from an illness and needed energy foods. Mr. Herriot and his partners started eating
those eggs for morning breakfast. Then for improving Tricki’s blood, Mrs. Pumphrey started
sending in bottles of wine which was again consumed by Mr. Herriot. He used to take two
glasses before lunch and some more glasses while having his lunch. Then when she started
sending in bottles of brandy for Tricki that was the time when Mr. Herriot thought that he would
really like to keep Tricki as a permanent guest in the surgery. Mr. Herriot used to be really
happy someday by having two extra eggs every morning. Then having few glasses of wine in
the afternoon and closing the day by having brandy at night. But then he took a wise decision
and called up Mrs. Pumphrey as she was really worried and on this side Tricki wasready to be
taken back home. Tricki was really happy to see his mistress and jumped into the car. Mrs.
Pumphrey said that she won't be able to ever thank him for what he had done and also, that his
surgery had been successful as Tricki was now cured.
The Thief’s Story Summary
The story is about two different people. One is a thief of 15 years of age and the other is a man
of approximately 25 years, watching a wrestling match somewhere. The name of the person
watching the match is Anil. The thief approaches Anil and starts talking to him because he feels
that he had not robbed anyone in the past few days and thought that it would be easy to rob a
simple person like Anil. They both start talking and Anil asks the thief his name. The thief
introduces himself as Hari Singh. This is not his real name as he changes his name every month
to escape his ex employers or police. Then they started talking about the wrestlers and Anil was
leaving when Hari called him again and asked him if he could work for Anil. Anil said that he
won't be able to pay him but could feed him if he knew how to cook. Hari lied that he knew
how to cook. Anil took Hari to his room which was above a sweet shop. Hari cooked a meal
which was really bad because Anil did not eat it. Anil asked Hari to leave but he tried to please
Anil. Hari smiled in his most attractive way and Anil could not stop laughing looking at him.
Anil agreed to teach Hari how to cook, write full sentences and add numbers. Hari was grateful
as he knew that there would be no limit to robbing people once he learnt how to read and write.
The narrator used to like working for Anil as he used to make him tea in the morning and then
go out to buy the groceries for the day. He also used to steal 1rupee from the money that was
given to him to buy the groceries everyday. Anil knew that he used to steal but did not mind.
Anil used to make money by irregular works. Sometimes he used to borrow money and the
other day, when he had money, he would be lending it to other people. Whenever he used to get
money, he would go out with his friends to celebrate. One day, Anil came in with a bundle of
notes and told Hari that he had sold a book to a publisher. At night he kept the money safely
under the mattress of his bed. Hari realized that he had been working for Anil for more than a
month and had not stolen anything apart from the 1 rupee that he kept everyday from the
grocery money. Hari had many chances to steal as he had the key to the room as well. But he
was surprised with the amount of trust Anil had on him as he had never seen such a trusting
person in his life. This trust thing was preventing him from robbing Anil as Hari thought that
robbing a careless person like Anil didn't make much difference because he might not even
notice that he had been robbed and that took out all the fun from the work. Then he thought of
stealing Anil’s money and justified himself that if he didn't steal money from Anil then also
he would waste it on his friends and also, Anil didn't pay him for the work that he did. Hari then
woke up at night and quietly crawled to Anil’s bed. He steals the money and decides to leave
the city by Lucknow Express that departed at 10:30. When he reached the station, the train had
slowly started moving from the platform. He could have easily caught the train, but he hesitated
and he himself did not know the reason for it. Before he had reached the station he counted the
money and it was 600 rupees in 50 rupee notes. He could live a lavish life for 2 -3 weeks with
so much money. After the train had left, Hari was all alone at the train station. He was left with
no place to sleep at night. The only person he knew was Anil and he had looted him as well. He
sat on a bench in a park and as it started to rain, he sat down under the clock tower. Then he
realized that the notes had got wet. He realized that learning how to read and write would help
him to get a much more respectable and honest job which would pay him much more than these
few hundred rupees. Then he decided to go back to Anil’s house. He reached the room and
placed the money back. Next morning, he woke up a bit late and Anil had already made his tea.
Aniul gave a 50 rupee note to Hari as he had got paid for some work and he would be paid
regularly. Hari took the note in his hand and realized that the note was still wet from the rain
last night. Hari realized that Anil had come to know about his misdeed but there was no
sadness, anger or guilt in his mind. The narrator smiled in a beautiful way and it was genuine
happiness as he knew that he had saved himself from the wrong road.
Footprints without Feet Summary
The story is about a scientist named Griffin. He had been discovering ways which could make a
man invisible and finally swallowed certain rare drugs that made him invisible. He was first
noticed by two boys in staircase of a house where they could just see his footsteps and started
following it. They follow it until the footsteps are fainter and cannot be seen. First, as he is
feeling cold he enters a mall for some warmth. After the stores shut down, he decides to wear
some warm clothes and eat something. He first unboxes a few clothes and wears them. Then
from the kitchen of a restaurant, he eats cold meat and some coffee. Later he goes to a grocery
store and eats sweets and drinks wine. He then falls asleep on a pile of quilts. He then wakes up
in the morning when some of the store assistants had seen him and started chasing him. He
quickly threw away all the clothes he was wearing and became invisible again. Then he started
roaming around again without any clothes in the cold winters of London. He then decides to
steal clothes from a theatre company as he knew he would get something there to cover his face
as well. He then steals bandages for his face, dark glasses, false nose and a hat for covering
himself. He then hits the shopkeeper and steals all his money. Soon he realizes that London is
too crowded to live like this and decides that he would go to a remote village. He books two
rooms at an inn at the Iping village. He reaches there and it is strange for the people of Iping
that a stranger with such a weird appearance has come to stay at an inn during the winter
season. Once his money is over, he steals from people and also hits the landlord and his wife
when they try to check his room in his absence. Then the village constable is asked for help but
before that Mrs. Hall, the wife of the landlord asks him questions regarding who he is and what
he did to her furniture. This makes him really furious and he decides to show her who he really
is. The people then see a headless man and Mr. Jaffers, the constable also finds out that he
would have to arrest a man who does not have a head. They are unable to catch Griffin as he
removes all his clothes and becomes invisible. He even knocks out Jaffers as he tries to catch
him.

The Making of a scientist Summary

The chapter, ‘The Making of a Scientist’ is a story about the famous scientist Richard Ebright.
Richie as his mother used to call him was a very curious child right from his childhood. He had
started collecting butterflies in his childhood and when he was 2 years old, he had already
collected all the 25 species found near his hometown. He thought it to be an end of butterfly
collection until one day his mother bought him a book named ‘The Travels of Monarch X’. This
was a turning point in his life and he got much more interested in dealing with science. He
started with tagging butterflies which a task given at the end of the book that his mother bought
for him. Then, when he first entered the county science fair with a slide of the frog tissue he
lost. Everybody won something but his project did not win any prize. He was sad but also
understood that to win, he needed to do real experiments and not just make neat and clean
models. Then he wrote down to Dr. Urquhart at the University of Toronto, asking him for ideas
to make projects. He stayed busy during his high school, working on the long list sent to him by
Dr. Urquhart. Then, for the next year’s fair, he chose the project of looking at the viral disease
that killed nearly all the monarch caterpillars every few years. He thought that the reason for
this could be a beetle, so he started raising caterpillars in the presence of beetles but could not
get any results. So, when he showed his trial experiment at the county science fair, his project
won a prize. Then for the next year he made an experiment to show that the viceroy butterflies
copied monarchs. This project also made him win prizes. Then he started his research as to the
purpose of the 12 golden spots on the back of a monarch pupa. Everybody believed that it was
just a design but Dr. Urquhart thought otherwise. Then Ebright and another brilliant science
student got together and made advice that could show that the gold spots were responsible for
releasing a hormone that was necessary for its growth. With the help of sophisticated
instruments at one of the labs, he got a chance to work and found the chemical structure of the
hormone in the gold spots. Then, one day, while looking at the photo of the chemical structure,
he solved one of the biggest puzzles of life. He came to know how a cell blueprints its DNA. It
was a big breakthrough and was published in a magazine. He also had many other interests and
also admired his social studies teacher as he was the one who used to give him new ideas. He
was good at debating, public speaking and a great canoeist. He never used to win for the sake of
winning or for prizes but because he wanted to be the best at whatever he used to do. It is
shown in this chapter that with the right amount of curiosity, a bright mind and the will to win
for right reasons are the qualities needed to be a scientist. His mother also played a big role in
making him what he was as it was she who supported him throughout his journey and bought
him the book ‘The Travels of Monarch X’ which aroused his curiosity in the field ofscience.

The Necklace Summary

Mme. Matilda Loisel lived in an apartment with her husband M. Loisel and was very unhappy
and unsatisfied with what life had given her. She was unhappy with the apartment’s shabby
walls and the worn out furniture. She was also irritated by the way her husband reacted to the
home made food while she dreamt of royal dinners being served in exquisite silver dishes. They
were neither rich nor poor. She had to marry a clerk in the office of the board of education just
because her family couldn't afford to give her dowry. She also hated visiting her old friend
Mme. Jeanne Forestier as she was a rich lady and Matilda envied her. Whenever she visited her,
she became sad and cried for days together. One day when her husband returned home from
work, he got an invitation to a party at the house of minister of public instruction. Contrary to
his expectation, Matilda was irritated and angry and threw the card away. She was upset
because she didn't have anything to wear at such an extravagant party. Her husband gave her
400 francs to buy a new dress, that he had been saving to buy a gun so that he could go hunting
with his friends. After buying the dress she was sad because she didnot have jewellery to make
herself look more appealing and attractive. Her husband suggested that she could borrow
jewellery from her friend Mme. Forestier. When Mme. Loisel went to her friend’s house and
described the situation, she showed her the cupboard and asked her to choose whatever she
liked. Matilda chose a precious diamond necklace which was kept in a black satin box.
They went to the minister’s party and all the men admired her as she was looking gorgeous in
her new dress and jewellery. They returned at 4 in the morning. By that time M. Loisel had
already dozed off in one of the rooms with three other men. They decided to leave and couldn't
find a carriage. Finally, after walking for a while, they got a carriage which dropped them right
outside their door. Matilda realized that she did not have the necklace. M.Loisel went out to
search the railway tracks for the necklace. M. Loisel went to the police station, cab offices and
also gave an advertisement for reward to the person who returned the necklace. Meanwhile, he
told his wife to tell her friend that the clasp of the necklace had broken and had given it for
repair. After a week, when the necklace could not be found, they decided to replace it with a
similar one. They found a similar necklace priced at 36000 francs. Fortunately M. Loisel had
inherited 18000 francs from his father and the rest he borrowed. It took them ten years to repay
all the loans and in these years their lives changed drastically. They moved to a smaller
apartment and removed the maid. Matilda cooked the food and washed the clothes herself. Even
M. Loisel worked multiple jobs to repay the borrowed money. In these years, Mme. Loisel
started looking much older, her hair badly dressed, her voice became loud and she became a
normal person who would carry a basket to the grocery store, the butcher store and the fruit
store to buy their daily supplies. One day she met her friend Jeanne with a child and decided to
tell her the truth and explained how she was indirectly responsible for her aged looks and her
living conditions. She explained how she lost the borrowed necklace and had to take a loan for
replacing it. On hearing this, Jeanne told Matilda that the necklace that she had borrowed was a
fake one and was not worth more than 500 francs.

Bholi Summary of the story

The story opens up with the introduction of a little girl named Sulekha. She was called ‘Bholi’
for being a simpleton. This was so because some part of her brain had got damaged due to an
injury during her childhood. She stammered and had pockmarks on her face which she got
when she had contracted smallpox at the age of two. She was a laughing stock for everyone.
Her father Ramlal was a Numberdar. He had three sons and four daughters, Bholi being the
youngest of all. Ramlal was always worried about her as it seemed impossible to marry her
with her having an ugly face and a dumb mind. One day, the Tehsildar visited their village to
inagurate a girl’s primary school. He persuaded Ramlal to send his daughters to school.
Ramlal’s wife suggested to send Bholi to school, although she was against sending girls to
school because no boy would marry such a girl. She reasoned that as Bholi had no chance of
getting married, so she could go toschool. In the beginning, Bholi was frightened to leave her
house but when for the first time in her life, she was dressed up and her hair was washed and
oiled, she felt that she was to visit a better place. In the school, she met a teacher who was very
kind and polite to her. She encouraged her to study and speak with confidence. This filled hope
in Bholi and she began to go to school every day. Years passed and her village upgraded into a
small town with some facilities like a cotton mill, a cinema and the primary school being
converted into a secondary school. One day Bholi’s parents decided to marry her to a lame old
man who was a widower but was rich and had not demanded any dowry. They thought it to be
the best marriage proposal for their dumb daughter and fixed up her marriage. On the wedding
day, the bridegroom arrived with great pomp and show which filled Ramlal with joy. The
groom discovered that Bholi had pock marks and demanded dowry in return for marrying her.
He demanded a sum of five thousand rupees. Ramlal begged for mercy and even placed his
turban in Bishamber’s feet but Bishamber Nath did not agree. Ramlal had to give the money in
order to save both his family’s honour and his daughter’s marriage. Bholi could not bear all this
and refused to marry a greedy old man. People accused her of being shameless. The wedding
party returned. The marriage ceremony ended without Bholi getting married. Her father was
surrounded by grief and said that now no one would marry her and what would she do in future.
To this, she replied that she would take care of her parents when they grew old and would teach
in her school. Her teacher who was quietly watching all this felt proud of her decision.

“The Midnight Visitor”

The story is about a secret agent, Ausable who has spent an evening with a writer named
Fowler who had expected that as he would be meeting a secret agent he would be looking into a
lot of adventure. But instead, he rather gets bored when he meets Ausable as the things that
happened were exactly the opposite of what he had imagined. How Ausable gets rid of his
unexpected guest proves his expertise as a secret agent.
Summary
The story is about Ausable, a witty secret agent. He was with a writer named Fowler throughout
the evening as Fowler was interested in spending time with a secret agent but when he spends
time with Ausable he realizes that he is exactly the opposite of what he had imagined and that
he was a bore. Ausable then told Fowler that he had been thinking wrong and that soon he
would be looking at a report that would change the country’s future. Then Ausable takes Fowler
to his room and when they entered the room a guy with a gun named Max was standing in the
room. He asked them to be comfortable until the reports about the missiles arrived in 30
minutes as he was there to steal the reports. This was the first adventure out of many that
Fowler had expected when he had thought of meeting a secret agent. While they were talking,
Ausable started with a story about how a guy had entered from the balcony last month below
his room. While this talk was going on, a sudden knock was heard at the door. Ausable said that
it must be the police as he wanted them to check on him after sometime because he wanted to
make the reports that were coming in extra secure. Max, pointing his gun towards them, said
that he would be waiting in the balcony and that Ausable should send away the police otherwise
he would shoot them and even take the risk of being caught by the police. As the doorknob is
turned, Max jumps out of the window and a loud scream is heard. The door opens and a waiter
comes in and says that he has brought the wine that Mr. Ausable had ordered. He keeps the
bottle, tray and glasses on the table and leaves. Fowler is surprised and asks him about the
police to which Ausable replied that there was no police. Then Fowler asked what about the
person who was waiting in the balcony outside the window to which Ausable replied that the
person would not return and that there was no balcony there. This shows the quick wit of
Ausable as he took advantage of the situation and made Max nervous due to which he jumped
out of the window without thinking and looking down. He had jumped from the top floor of the
hotel and would have possibly died. This is how Ausable outwitted Max and saved himself
from a very dangerous situation.

A Question of Trust
The story is about a man named Horace Danby who is 50 years old and everyone around him
thinks he is a good and an honest man. He used to build locks and used to earn enough profit so
that he could hire two servants to help him. He was sent to jail once about 15 years ago
because he used to commit robberies every year. This year, when he goes to a house for robbery,
he meets a woman who pretends to be the owner of the house. Later when he leaves from there
and is arrested after 2-3 days, he comes to know the truth of that lady.
Theme
The central idea is that cheats also expect honesty in their profession. On the same mission to
rob a home safe, two experienced thieves and burglars come face to face. They both went to
great lengths to ensure that the theft would go off without a hitch.
Summary
The story is about a 50 year old man who makes locks and lives with his housekeeper. He is a
good citizen but not an honest one as he commits a robbery every year. He plans his robberies
in such a way that the money he gets from there lasts him for at least an year and he is able to
buy rare and expensive books with it. He buys these books because he is really fond of
collecting rare and expensive books. He plans to commit a robbery at a grange named Shotover
Grange. He takes all the information about the house like where the family had gone, how many
servants were there in the house, what was the name of the dog, the wiring in the house, the safe
in the house and even information like how much worth of jewels were there in the safe. The
real twist in the story comes when he reaches the grange to commit a robbery and a woman
claiming to be the owner’s wife enters. She gives him an option that she will forget that she had
seen him if he opens the safe for her as she has forgotten the code of the safe and has to go to a
party. He does not realize that he is opening the safe for another thief and that she is not the
actual owner of the house. He leaves happily thinking that he is safe but doesn’t realize the fact
that he had opened the safe for someone else that too without wearing his gloves. 3 days later a
police officer comes and arrests him saying that his fingerprints had been found at the shotover
grange. He then realizes that he had been fooled by a lady who was herself a thief and from the
same background as his. He is sent to the jail and becomes an assistant librarian. He feels angry
whenever someone talks about honour among thieves as he had been cheated by one from his
own community.
The Book that Saved the Earth
The book that saved the earth is a story that revolves around a book of nursery rhyme titled ‘the
Mother Goose’ that has been picturised as the book that saved the earth from an alien attack.
The story begins with a historian that describes to the audience that how one day in the
twentieth century Martians planned to attack the earth. A crew of their lands in a library on
earth; they try to find out the meaning of the content of the books which they mistook as a
sandwich. There they come across a rhyme on Humpty dumpty which resembles their master
Think tank. They all get terrified with the idea of their master’s losing control over Mars
because of humans and cancel their plan of invading earth.
Theme of the Lesson
The central idea of the play “The Book that Saved the Earth” is that incomplete
information is always hazardous. It also describes how the world was saved from a Martian
invasion by an old book of rhymes called “Mother Goose.” The play takes place in the year
2550. However, Historian activates the hysteroscope and transports us five centuries, to the
twentieth century. The personnel of Marks Central Control are in a powerful Think-Tank at the
start of the play.
Summary
The story begins with a stage show of twenty fifth century in which a historian is sitting in the
museum and she explains the truth about the Martian invasion that happened in twentieth
century. To prove her statement she asks the audience to look into the historiscope, a device that
can show things happened in the history. In the next scene two characters are shown one of
them which has a balloon brain is shown as the master. His name is Think Tank and another one
is his assistant Noodle. Both of them are discussing about their plan to invade earth. They think
that earth is a ridiculous plan and they should invade earth so as to establish their kind rule over
the planet. So, the master think tank sends one of his crew to inspect earth. The crew lands into
a library and look confuse as they know nothing about the items (books) of the library. So, they
consult it with their master Think Tank that they think is very intelligent. He asks them to show
the item and tells them that they are sandwiches which is a staple diet of the earthlings. He
commands his crew to eat it, which they then consider as a tasteless eatable. His assistant
Noodle corrects him and tells him that they are the communication devices. He on hearing this,
asks his crew to listen to the information from the devices. They try to hear it but they get
nothing to hear from them. Once again Noodle corrects his master Think Tank that they are to
be read and not hear. So with the help of the vitamins provided by the chemical department of
Mars, the crew tries to read the book. It was a book of rhymes.