4. Write your opinion, in your own words :-
(a) Why do you think the children dislike their aunt’s story?
Ans: The story was uninteresting and unenterprising. The children did not like the good little girl in the story as she appeared to be too good. Besides, the aunt could not satisfy the questions that they asked. Obviously, the aunt was not only a very bad storyteller, but the story itself was boring. Hence, the children disliked the story.

(b) Why did they appreciate and praise the stranger’s story?
Ans: The children were probably tired of the moral education imparted by the aunt. So when they came across a girl who was ‘horribly’ good and who met a terrible end, they were thrilled. Moreover, the stranger narrated the story well. Hence, they appreciated and praised the story.

(c) Do you think Bertha should have met such a glory end to her life? Justify your answer.
Ans: No, I don’t think that Bertha should have met such a glorious end to her life. After all, she was only a small child, and it was probably not her fault that she was vain about her goodness. She should have merely been frightened by the wolf, not devoured by it.

(d) What did the aunt fail to realise in Bertha’s story?
Ans: The aunt failed to see Bertha’s pride in herself; she only saw that Bertha was good but had yet met a gory end. The aunt failed to realise that Bertha met a glorious end as a punishment for her vanity.

(e) What is that one vice which nullifies all virtues that a person has?
Ans: Pride is the one vice that nullifies all the virtues that a person has. However good or talented a person is, he or she is not liked if he or she is proud or vain. Many tragic heroes in fiction and history were the victims of their own pride. It is often said that “Pride comes before a fall.”

(f) Write down two or three proverbs / axioms that suit the message in Bertha’s story.
Ans:
(i) “Pride goes before a fall.”
(ii) “Wealth is a gift from God, and pride is bequeathed to us from the devil.”
(iii) “Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.”

5. Write 3 to 5 sentences about each of the following characters.
(a) The Aunt
Ans: The aunt was a meek and mild woman. She did not understand children and could not control them. She had no imagination to make up a story and no skills to present the story in an interesting manner. She believed that children needed a strict moral upbringing. She was upset with the bachelor’s story and thought that it was improper.

(b) The Bachelor
Ans: The Bachelor was impatient with the aunt’s inability to control the children. He understood kids well and knew what type of story they wanted. He was resourceful and found a method to keep the children quiet for ten minutes. He also enjoyed the fact that the children would now trouble their aunt for an improper story.

(c) Cyril
Ans: Cyril was a normal, naughty, and restless boy. He had many questions to ask and wanted answers for all those questions. He was quite outspoken in saying that he found the aunt’s story stupid. He found the bachelor’s unusual story beautiful.

(d) Bertha
Ans: Bertha was a very, very good little girl. She was so good that she was horrible. She was also obedient and punctual. She won many medals for her good qualities. But she had one bad quality, and that was pride. However, the moment she was in danger, she wished that she had not been so extraordinarily good. She was finally devoured by the wolf.

6. Say whether you agree or disagree.
(a) The children would have behaved well in the train if their aunt had scolded them harshly.
Ans: Disagree

(b) The youngest child was most irritating.
Ans: Agree

(c) Being a bachelor, the stranger had no patience with children.
Ans: Disagree

(d) The children showed disinterest even in the bachelor’s story-telling, throughout
Ans: Disagree

(e) Bertha was very good but very proud too.
Ans: Agree

(f) The prince had rare, uncommon likes and dislikes.
Ans: Disagree

(g) The wolf could not trace Bertha because she was behind a myrtle bush.
Ans: Agree

(h) The bachelor had narrated an improper story to the children.
Ans: Disagree

7. ‘The Storyteller’ has a story within a story. Search from the Internet or your library books for other stories which have another story within. List at least 3 to 5 of them.
Ans:
(i) The Blind Assassin
(ii) The Thirteen tale
(iii) Canterbury tales
(iv) The Decameron
(v) The Arabian nights
(vi) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

8. List all the verbs related to the verb ‘say’ or ‘tell’ from the story. Note where they occur. Rewrite at least 3 of the speeches near which they occur using indirect speech.

Direct: “Why are those sheep being driven out of that field?” he asked.
Indirect: He enquired why those sheep were being driven out of that field.

Direct: “Perhaps the grass in the other field is better,” suggested the aunt.
Indirect: The aunt suggested that perhaps the grass in the other field was better.

Direct: “Was she pretty?” asked the bigger of the small girls.
Indirect: The bigger of the small girls asked if she had been pretty.

Direct: “It is the only beautiful story I have ever heard,” said Cyril.
Indirect: Cyril said that it was the only beautiful story he had ever heard.

9. Read : ‘The Open Window’ by H. H. Munro (Saki).
Ans:

The Open Window
– Saki (H.H. Munro)

MY AUNT will be down presently, Mr Nuttel,’ said a self-possessed young lady of fifteen. ‘In the meantime, you must put up with me.’

Framton Nuttel tried to make pleasant conversation while waiting for the Aunt.

Privately, he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on total strangers would help the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing in this rural retreat.

‘I’ll just give you letters to all the people I know there,’ his sister had said. ‘Otherwise you’ll bury yourself and not speak to a soul and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping.’

‘Do you know many people around here?’ asked the niece.

‘Hardly a soul. My sister gave me letters of introduction to some people here.’

‘Then you know practically nothing about my Aunt?’ continued the self-possessed young lady.

‘Only her name and address,’ admitted the caller.

‘Her great tragedy happened just three years ago,’ said the child.

‘Her tragedy?’ asked Framton. Somehow, in this restful spot, tragedies seemed out of place.

‘You may wonder why we keep that window open so late in the year,’ said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on a lawn. ‘Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day’s shooting. In crossing the moor, they were engulfed in a treacherous bog. Their bodies were never recovered.’

Here the child’s voice faltered. ‘Poor Aunt always thinks that they’ll come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in the window. That is why it is kept open every evening till dusk. She has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm. You know, sometimes on still evenings like this I get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window -’

She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for keeping him waiting.

‘I hope you don’t mind the open window,’ she said. ‘My husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting and they always come in this way.’

She rattled on cheerfully about the prospects for duck shooting in the winter.

Framton made a desperate effort to turn the talk to a less ghastly topic, conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and that her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.

‘The doctors ordered me a complete rest from mental excitement and physical exercise,’ announced Framton, who imagined that everyone — even a complete stranger — was interested in his illness.

‘Oh?’ said Mrs Sappleton, vaguely. Then she suddenly brightened into attention — but not to what Framton was saying.

‘Here they are at last!’ she cried. ‘In time for tea, and muddy up to the eyes.’

Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic understanding. The child was staring through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. Framton swung round and looked in the same direction.

In the deepening twilight three figures were walking noiselessly across the lawn, a tired brown spaniel close at their heels. They all carried guns, and one had a white coat over his shoulders.

Framton grabbed his stick; the hall door and the gravel drive were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat.

‘Here we are, my dear,’ said the bearer of the white mackintosh. ‘Who was that who bolted out as we came up?’

‘An extraordinary man, a Mr Nuttel,’ said Mrs Sappleton, ‘who could only talk about his illness, and dashed off without a word of apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost.’

‘I expect it was the spaniel,’ said the niece calmly. He told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of stray dogs and had to spend the night in a newly-dug grave with the creatures snarling and foaming above him. Enough to make anyone lose his nerve.’

– (from the book ‘The Short Stories of Saki’ © 1930, The Viking Press)