NCERT Textbook - Packing | English Literature for Grade 9 PDF Download

 Page 1


BB B B B EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE Y Y Y Y YOU OU OU OU OU R R R R READ EAD EAD EAD EAD
• Do you like going on trips? What kind of trips do you enjoy
most?
• How do you feel about having to pack for a trip?
• Have you ever discovered on a trip that you have forgotten to
pack a few things you very much need, or that you can’t find
them easily?
• Does this make you angry or does it make you laugh at
yourself?
Now read this description of how the author and his friends
pack.
1. I SAID I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing
is one of those many things that I feel I know
more about than any other person living. (It
surprises me myself, sometimes, how many such
things there are.) I impressed the fact upon George
and Harris and told them that they had better
leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell
into the suggestion with a readiness that had
something uncanny about it. George spread
himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked
his legs on the table.
2. This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant,
of course, was, that I should boss the job, and
that Harris and George should potter about under
my directions, I pushing them aside every now and
then with, “Oh, you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There
you are, simple enough!” — really teaching them,
as you might say. Their taking it in the way
7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing
pride myself on: am
proud of
fell into: here,
accepted
uncanny: strange,
weird
potter about: do
some unimportant
things
2022-23
Page 2


BB B B B EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE Y Y Y Y YOU OU OU OU OU R R R R READ EAD EAD EAD EAD
• Do you like going on trips? What kind of trips do you enjoy
most?
• How do you feel about having to pack for a trip?
• Have you ever discovered on a trip that you have forgotten to
pack a few things you very much need, or that you can’t find
them easily?
• Does this make you angry or does it make you laugh at
yourself?
Now read this description of how the author and his friends
pack.
1. I SAID I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing
is one of those many things that I feel I know
more about than any other person living. (It
surprises me myself, sometimes, how many such
things there are.) I impressed the fact upon George
and Harris and told them that they had better
leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell
into the suggestion with a readiness that had
something uncanny about it. George spread
himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked
his legs on the table.
2. This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant,
of course, was, that I should boss the job, and
that Harris and George should potter about under
my directions, I pushing them aside every now and
then with, “Oh, you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There
you are, simple enough!” — really teaching them,
as you might say. Their taking it in the way
7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing
pride myself on: am
proud of
fell into: here,
accepted
uncanny: strange,
weird
potter about: do
some unimportant
things
2022-23
they did irritated me. There is nothing does irritate
me more than seeing other people sitting about doing
nothing when I’m working.
3. I lived with a man once who used to make me mad
that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me
doing things by the hour together. He said it did
him real good to look on at me, messing about.
Now, I’m not like that. I can’t sit still and see
another man slaving and working. I want to get up
and superintend, and walk round with my hands
in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my
energetic nature. I can’t help it.
4. However, I did not say anything, but started the
packing. It seemed a longer job than I had thought
it was going to be; but I got the bag finished at last,
and I sat on it and strapped it.
“Ain’t you going to put the boots in?” said Harris.
And I looked round, and found I had forgotten them.
That’s just like Harris. He couldn’t have said a word
until I’d got the bag shut and strapped, of course.
And George laughed — one of those irritating,
senseless laughs of his. They do make me so wild.
5. I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then,
just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea
occurred to me. Had I packed my toothbrush? I don’t
know how it is, but I never do know whether I’ve
packed my toothbrush.
My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I’m
travelling, and makes my life a misery. I dream
that I haven’t packed it, and wake up in a cold
perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it.
And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it,
and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always
the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I
repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for
it at the last moment and carry it to the railway
station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.
6. Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now,
and, of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the
things up into much the same state that they
haunts: here, to
repeatedly give
trouble
every mortal thing:
every ordinary thing
rummaged: searched
in a hurried or
careless way
Packing / 83
2022-23
Page 3


BB B B B EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE Y Y Y Y YOU OU OU OU OU R R R R READ EAD EAD EAD EAD
• Do you like going on trips? What kind of trips do you enjoy
most?
• How do you feel about having to pack for a trip?
• Have you ever discovered on a trip that you have forgotten to
pack a few things you very much need, or that you can’t find
them easily?
• Does this make you angry or does it make you laugh at
yourself?
Now read this description of how the author and his friends
pack.
1. I SAID I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing
is one of those many things that I feel I know
more about than any other person living. (It
surprises me myself, sometimes, how many such
things there are.) I impressed the fact upon George
and Harris and told them that they had better
leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell
into the suggestion with a readiness that had
something uncanny about it. George spread
himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked
his legs on the table.
2. This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant,
of course, was, that I should boss the job, and
that Harris and George should potter about under
my directions, I pushing them aside every now and
then with, “Oh, you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There
you are, simple enough!” — really teaching them,
as you might say. Their taking it in the way
7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing
pride myself on: am
proud of
fell into: here,
accepted
uncanny: strange,
weird
potter about: do
some unimportant
things
2022-23
they did irritated me. There is nothing does irritate
me more than seeing other people sitting about doing
nothing when I’m working.
3. I lived with a man once who used to make me mad
that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me
doing things by the hour together. He said it did
him real good to look on at me, messing about.
Now, I’m not like that. I can’t sit still and see
another man slaving and working. I want to get up
and superintend, and walk round with my hands
in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my
energetic nature. I can’t help it.
4. However, I did not say anything, but started the
packing. It seemed a longer job than I had thought
it was going to be; but I got the bag finished at last,
and I sat on it and strapped it.
“Ain’t you going to put the boots in?” said Harris.
And I looked round, and found I had forgotten them.
That’s just like Harris. He couldn’t have said a word
until I’d got the bag shut and strapped, of course.
And George laughed — one of those irritating,
senseless laughs of his. They do make me so wild.
5. I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then,
just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea
occurred to me. Had I packed my toothbrush? I don’t
know how it is, but I never do know whether I’ve
packed my toothbrush.
My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I’m
travelling, and makes my life a misery. I dream
that I haven’t packed it, and wake up in a cold
perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it.
And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it,
and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always
the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I
repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for
it at the last moment and carry it to the railway
station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.
6. Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now,
and, of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the
things up into much the same state that they
haunts: here, to
repeatedly give
trouble
every mortal thing:
every ordinary thing
rummaged: searched
in a hurried or
careless way
Packing / 83
2022-23
84 / Beehive
must have been before the world was created, and
when chaos reigned. Of course, I found George’s
and Harris’s eighteen times over, but I couldn’t find
my own. I put the things back one by one, and held
everything up and shook it. Then I found it inside a
boot. I repacked once more.
7. When I had finished, George asked if the soap was in.
I said I didn’t care a hang whether the soap was in or
whether it wasn’t; and I slammed the bag shut and
strapped it, and found that I had packed my spectacles
in it, and had to re-open it. It got shut up finally at
10.05 p.m., and then there remained the hampers to
do. Harris said that we should be wanting to start in
less than twelve hours’ time and thought that he and
George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat
down, and they had a go.
8. They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently
intending to show me how to do it. I made no
hampers: large
baskets for carrying
food
I found the toothbrush inside a boot.
2022-23
Page 4


BB B B B EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE Y Y Y Y YOU OU OU OU OU R R R R READ EAD EAD EAD EAD
• Do you like going on trips? What kind of trips do you enjoy
most?
• How do you feel about having to pack for a trip?
• Have you ever discovered on a trip that you have forgotten to
pack a few things you very much need, or that you can’t find
them easily?
• Does this make you angry or does it make you laugh at
yourself?
Now read this description of how the author and his friends
pack.
1. I SAID I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing
is one of those many things that I feel I know
more about than any other person living. (It
surprises me myself, sometimes, how many such
things there are.) I impressed the fact upon George
and Harris and told them that they had better
leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell
into the suggestion with a readiness that had
something uncanny about it. George spread
himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked
his legs on the table.
2. This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant,
of course, was, that I should boss the job, and
that Harris and George should potter about under
my directions, I pushing them aside every now and
then with, “Oh, you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There
you are, simple enough!” — really teaching them,
as you might say. Their taking it in the way
7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing
pride myself on: am
proud of
fell into: here,
accepted
uncanny: strange,
weird
potter about: do
some unimportant
things
2022-23
they did irritated me. There is nothing does irritate
me more than seeing other people sitting about doing
nothing when I’m working.
3. I lived with a man once who used to make me mad
that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me
doing things by the hour together. He said it did
him real good to look on at me, messing about.
Now, I’m not like that. I can’t sit still and see
another man slaving and working. I want to get up
and superintend, and walk round with my hands
in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my
energetic nature. I can’t help it.
4. However, I did not say anything, but started the
packing. It seemed a longer job than I had thought
it was going to be; but I got the bag finished at last,
and I sat on it and strapped it.
“Ain’t you going to put the boots in?” said Harris.
And I looked round, and found I had forgotten them.
That’s just like Harris. He couldn’t have said a word
until I’d got the bag shut and strapped, of course.
And George laughed — one of those irritating,
senseless laughs of his. They do make me so wild.
5. I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then,
just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea
occurred to me. Had I packed my toothbrush? I don’t
know how it is, but I never do know whether I’ve
packed my toothbrush.
My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I’m
travelling, and makes my life a misery. I dream
that I haven’t packed it, and wake up in a cold
perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it.
And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it,
and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always
the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I
repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for
it at the last moment and carry it to the railway
station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.
6. Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now,
and, of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the
things up into much the same state that they
haunts: here, to
repeatedly give
trouble
every mortal thing:
every ordinary thing
rummaged: searched
in a hurried or
careless way
Packing / 83
2022-23
84 / Beehive
must have been before the world was created, and
when chaos reigned. Of course, I found George’s
and Harris’s eighteen times over, but I couldn’t find
my own. I put the things back one by one, and held
everything up and shook it. Then I found it inside a
boot. I repacked once more.
7. When I had finished, George asked if the soap was in.
I said I didn’t care a hang whether the soap was in or
whether it wasn’t; and I slammed the bag shut and
strapped it, and found that I had packed my spectacles
in it, and had to re-open it. It got shut up finally at
10.05 p.m., and then there remained the hampers to
do. Harris said that we should be wanting to start in
less than twelve hours’ time and thought that he and
George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat
down, and they had a go.
8. They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently
intending to show me how to do it. I made no
hampers: large
baskets for carrying
food
I found the toothbrush inside a boot.
2022-23
Packing / 85
comment; I only waited. With the exception of
George, Harris is the worst packer in this world;
and I looked at the piles of plates and cups, and
kettles, and bottles, and jars, and pies, and stoves,
and cakes, and tomatoes, etc., and felt that the
thing would soon become exciting.
It did. They started with breaking a cup. That
was the first thing they did. They did that just to
show you what they could do, and to get you
interested.
Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top
of a tomato and squashed it, and they had to pick
out the tomato with a teaspoon.
9. And then it was George’s turn, and he trod on the
butter. I didn’t say anything, but I came over and
sat on the edge of the table and watched them.
trod on: stepped on
George trod on the butter.
2022-23
Page 5


BB B B B EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE EFORE Y Y Y Y YOU OU OU OU OU R R R R READ EAD EAD EAD EAD
• Do you like going on trips? What kind of trips do you enjoy
most?
• How do you feel about having to pack for a trip?
• Have you ever discovered on a trip that you have forgotten to
pack a few things you very much need, or that you can’t find
them easily?
• Does this make you angry or does it make you laugh at
yourself?
Now read this description of how the author and his friends
pack.
1. I SAID I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing
is one of those many things that I feel I know
more about than any other person living. (It
surprises me myself, sometimes, how many such
things there are.) I impressed the fact upon George
and Harris and told them that they had better
leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell
into the suggestion with a readiness that had
something uncanny about it. George spread
himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked
his legs on the table.
2. This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant,
of course, was, that I should boss the job, and
that Harris and George should potter about under
my directions, I pushing them aside every now and
then with, “Oh, you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There
you are, simple enough!” — really teaching them,
as you might say. Their taking it in the way
7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing 7. Packing
pride myself on: am
proud of
fell into: here,
accepted
uncanny: strange,
weird
potter about: do
some unimportant
things
2022-23
they did irritated me. There is nothing does irritate
me more than seeing other people sitting about doing
nothing when I’m working.
3. I lived with a man once who used to make me mad
that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me
doing things by the hour together. He said it did
him real good to look on at me, messing about.
Now, I’m not like that. I can’t sit still and see
another man slaving and working. I want to get up
and superintend, and walk round with my hands
in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my
energetic nature. I can’t help it.
4. However, I did not say anything, but started the
packing. It seemed a longer job than I had thought
it was going to be; but I got the bag finished at last,
and I sat on it and strapped it.
“Ain’t you going to put the boots in?” said Harris.
And I looked round, and found I had forgotten them.
That’s just like Harris. He couldn’t have said a word
until I’d got the bag shut and strapped, of course.
And George laughed — one of those irritating,
senseless laughs of his. They do make me so wild.
5. I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then,
just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea
occurred to me. Had I packed my toothbrush? I don’t
know how it is, but I never do know whether I’ve
packed my toothbrush.
My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I’m
travelling, and makes my life a misery. I dream
that I haven’t packed it, and wake up in a cold
perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it.
And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it,
and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always
the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I
repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for
it at the last moment and carry it to the railway
station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.
6. Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now,
and, of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the
things up into much the same state that they
haunts: here, to
repeatedly give
trouble
every mortal thing:
every ordinary thing
rummaged: searched
in a hurried or
careless way
Packing / 83
2022-23
84 / Beehive
must have been before the world was created, and
when chaos reigned. Of course, I found George’s
and Harris’s eighteen times over, but I couldn’t find
my own. I put the things back one by one, and held
everything up and shook it. Then I found it inside a
boot. I repacked once more.
7. When I had finished, George asked if the soap was in.
I said I didn’t care a hang whether the soap was in or
whether it wasn’t; and I slammed the bag shut and
strapped it, and found that I had packed my spectacles
in it, and had to re-open it. It got shut up finally at
10.05 p.m., and then there remained the hampers to
do. Harris said that we should be wanting to start in
less than twelve hours’ time and thought that he and
George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat
down, and they had a go.
8. They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently
intending to show me how to do it. I made no
hampers: large
baskets for carrying
food
I found the toothbrush inside a boot.
2022-23
Packing / 85
comment; I only waited. With the exception of
George, Harris is the worst packer in this world;
and I looked at the piles of plates and cups, and
kettles, and bottles, and jars, and pies, and stoves,
and cakes, and tomatoes, etc., and felt that the
thing would soon become exciting.
It did. They started with breaking a cup. That
was the first thing they did. They did that just to
show you what they could do, and to get you
interested.
Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top
of a tomato and squashed it, and they had to pick
out the tomato with a teaspoon.
9. And then it was George’s turn, and he trod on the
butter. I didn’t say anything, but I came over and
sat on the edge of the table and watched them.
trod on: stepped on
George trod on the butter.
2022-23
86 / Beehive
It irritated them more than anything I could have
said. I felt that. It made them nervous and excited,
and they stepped on things, and put things behind
them, and then couldn’t find them when they
wanted them; and they packed the pies at the
bottom, and put heavy things on top, and smashed
the pies in.
10. They upset salt over everything, and as for the
butter! I never saw two men do more with one-and-
two pence worth of butter in my whole life than
they did. After George had got it off his slipper, they
tried to put it in the kettle. It wouldn’t go in, and
what was in wouldn’t come out. They did scrape it
out at last, and put it down on a chair, and Harris
sat on it, and it stuck to him, and they went looking
for it all over the room.
11. “I’ll take my oath I put it down on that chair,” said
George, staring at the empty seat.
“I saw you do it myself, not a minute ago,” said
Harris.
Then they started round the room again looking
for it; and then they met again in the centre and
stared at one another.
“Most extraordinary thing I ever heard of,” said
George.
“So mysterious!” said Harris.
Then George got round at the back of Harris
and saw it.
“Why, here it is all the time,” he exclaimed,
indignantly.
“Where?” cried Harris, spinning round.
“Stand still, can’t you!” roared George, flying
after him.
And they got it off, and packed it in the teapot.
12. Montmorency was in it all, of course. Montmorency’s
ambition in life is to get in the way and be sworn
at. If he can squirm in anywhere where he
particularly is not wanted, and be a perfect
nuisance, and make people mad, and have
be sworn at: here,
get scolded
2022-23