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 close 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 was
ready 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 1 rupee from the money that was given to him to buy the groceries every
day. 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 every day 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 that could make a man invisible and
finally swallowed certain rare drugs that made him invisible. He was first noticed by two boys in the 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 a device 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 of science.
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 homemade 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 did not 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
jewelry. 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 – 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 inaugurate 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 to school. 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 Summary
The story is about a witty secret agent named Ausable. 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 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 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.