Summary Of “Packing” - Class 9 PDF Download

The narrator of the story, Jerome, takes pride in his packing skills. He is supposed to go on a trip with his friends George and Harris. Boasting about his packing skills, he tells them to leave the whole matter of packing to himself, to which they readily agreed. George sat on the easy chair and Harris cocked his legs on the table and watched Jerome do the packing. But this wasn’t what Jerome wanted. When he said that he wanted to do all the packing himself, what he meant was that he was willing to be in charge of everything and direct his friends to work efficiently under his supervision. He was really pissed at them for just sitting about watching him work. It was uncomfortable for Jerome to just sit idle and see another person work alone. His energetic nature made him want to get up and superintend.

But Jerome didn’t express his irritation to George and Harris and finally finished packing the bag, sat on it and strapped it. It is at this point that Harris pointed out that Jerome had forgotten to pack the boots in. So, he had to open the bag again and pack his boots in and just she was going to close it, he doubted if he had packed his toothbrush. Whenever he is about to travel, he sees in his dream that he hasn’t packed his toothbrush, wakes up and goes on to hunt for it. Then, in the morning, he packs it before he uses it abs then he has to unpack again to get it and he repacks and forgets to put the toothbrush in again and then he has to rush upstairs to fetch it. He always ends up carrying the toothbrush wrapped up in his pocket-handkerchief. This was like a tradition.

As usual, Jerome had to search the whole bag only to find George’s and Harris’s eighteen times over but he couldn’t find his own toothbrush. At last, he found it inside a boot and he had to repack once more. After he was done, George asked him if the soap was in but Jerome was so exhausted that he just didn’t seem to care. But after he strapped the bag again, he noticed that he had packed his spectacles inside and he had to open the bag again. Finally, he finished packing at 10:05 pm and now George and Harris decided to do the rest. 

They started their job in a fashion that indicated a sense of condescension as if to show Jerome how to do it. But Jerome just excited to see how they proceed. As he anticipated, they started with breaking a cup. Then, Harris accidentally squashed a tomato by placing strawberry jam on top of it and then he had to pick out the tomato with a teaspoon. Moreover, George stepped on the butter. Now it was Jerome’s turn to sit back and watch them which irritated them. They stepped on things, put things behind them, and then they were unable to find them when they needed them. They put the pie at the bottom and put heavy things on top of it, which ended up ruining the pies. They pour salt all over the place and did wonders with the butter.

After George got the butter off his slippers, they attempted to put it in the kettle but it wouldn’t go in. However, they somehow managed to scrape it out and put it down on a chair but Harris sat on it and then they went around looking for it. After a lot of searching, George discovered that it was at the back of Harris the whole time and finally they packed it in the teapot.

And then the dog, Montmorency, came into the scene only to add to the weird hilariousness of the whole situation. Montmorency was a notorious dog whose aim in life is to get in the way and be sworn at. It is only when he gets screamed at that he feels that his day has not been wasted. So, just when things were ready to be packed, he came into the room and sat on them. Whenever Harris or George extended their hand for anything, Montmorency made it a point that they reach for his nose. He put his leg into the jam, disorganized the teaspoons and hampered the lemons.

After uncountable obstacles and tremendous efforts, finally, the packing was done at 12:50 and Harris sat on the hamper hoping that nothing was broken. George consoled himself and Harris by saying that if anything was found broken then it is because it was already broken.

They all were ready for bed now and they decided to wake up at. George was already asleep by then. So, George and Jerome placed the bath where he could tumble into on getting out in the morning and went to bed themselves.