Packing Class 9 | Chapter 7 | Summary | Question Answers | Beehive |

Packing Class 9 , Chapter 7, Summary, Question Answers, Beehive, Jerome K. Jerome

Summary of Packing

Packing Class 9 : This chapter revolves around three friends who are packing their luggage and getting ready for setting out on a journey.

The author and his two companions George and Harris, Planned to go on a holiday. The author said that he would take the responsibility of packing. He thought nobody was as good as him in packing. He told his friends to leave the whole job to him. His friends readily agreed.

George made himself comfortable on an easy chair. He started smoking a pipe. Harris put his legs on a table and lit a cigar. The author had not intended this. He had meant to boss about and make his friends do the work. He enjoyed giving directions while others worked. However, he didn’t utter a word and started to pack. It took him a long time to complete the task. Finally he, was able to finish it and then he strapped the bag.

Harris enquired the writer if he had put the boots in. The writer looked around and realized that he had forgotten to put the boots in. George mocked the author in his usual way. It irritated the author. He opened the bag and put the boots in. Suddenly it came to his mind whether he had packed his toothbrush or not. This was a thing which always bothered (troubled) him while travelling.

So he wanted to be doubly sure about it. So he put out everything from the bag to cross check it. He couldn’t find the toothbrush inside the bag. He found George’s and Harris’ brush several times but not his own. He shook everything while placing them back in the bag and finally found the brush inside a boot.

In this way he had to repack his bag. He was just finished with repacking his bag another question hit him. This time the question was from George. He asked the author if he had put the soap in. Now the irritation level of author was on the peak. He said he didn’t care about the soap.

All of a sudden he realized that unwittingly (mistakenly) he had put his spectacles inside the bag. So he had to reopen the bag. Finally he shuts the bag at 10:05 P.M. Only the articles of food remained to be packed. Harris and George offered to do the rest of the work. The author agreed at once. He made himself comfortable at a side.

Both of them started in a light mood. There were piles of plates, cups, kettles, bottles, stove, tomatoes etc. They started with breaking a cup. Then Harris put the strawberry jam on the top of tomato. Fair enough to crush them. The tomatoes had to be picked out with a teaspoon.

Then George accidentally stepped on the butter. The writer continued to sit at the edge of the table and watched them making this mess. It made them more nervous. They put the pastries at the bottom and heavy things on the top. Thus the pastries got squashed. The butter got stuck to George’s slipper. He got it off from there and tried to put in the kettle. It wouldn’t go in fully and what was in wouldn’t come out. They managed to get it out at last. They put butter on the chair. Now Harris sat on it and it stuck to him.

They looked for butter all over the room. Finally they found butter stuck to Harris’ back. They got it off and put it in the teapot. Now their dog, Montmorency, added to their confusion. The dog came and sat down on the things that they were going to pack whenever the two reached out for anything, the dog would put his nose in their way. The dog put his leg inside the jam. He spoilt the lemons.

The packing was completed by 12:50. They all were ready to go to bed. After some arguments they reached to the conclusion that they would get up at half past six (6:30) in the morning. George was already asleep. They placed a bathtub near his bed so that he could tumble into as soon as he got out of bed in the morning. Then both of them also went to the bed.

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Textual Questions of Packing

Question 1. How many characters are there in the narrative? Name them. (Don’t forget the dog!).

Answer : There are three characters in the story. They are as follows Jerome (Author) and his two friends George and Harris. There is another character called Montmorency their pet dog.

Question 2. Why did the narrator (Jerome) volunteer to do the packing?

Answer : He has a misconception that he knew more about packing than any other person. That was why he volunteered himself to do the packing.

Question 3. How did George and Harris react to this? Did Jerome like their reaction?

Answer : They agreed to it at once. They sat down comfortably and began to smoke. Jerome didn’t like this at all. He had not intended this at all. He had only wanted to superintend the job and keep on directing them about how to do it .

Question 4. What was Jerome’s real intention when he offered to pack?

Answer : He never wanted to do the packing himself. He only wanted to boss the job.

Question 5. What did Harris say after the bag was shut and strapped? Why do you think he waited till then to ask?

Answer : Harris asked the narrator if he didn’t want to put the boots in. He did it with an intention to irritate the narrator and to show the narrator that he is not good at packing. That is why he waited till then.

Question 6. What ‘horrible idea’ occurred to Jerome a little later?

Answer : He didn’t know if he had packed his toothbrush or not. The thought of forgetting it always haunted him whenever he started for a journey.

Question 7. Where did Jerome finally find the toothbrush?

Answer : The narrator unpacked everything. He couldn’t find his toothbrush anywhere. He put the things back one by one, and held everything up and shook it. At last, he found it inside a boot.

Question 8. Why did Jerome have to reopen the packed bag?

Answer : Jerome packed his spectacles in the bag. So he had to reopen the packed bag to have spectacles back.

Question 9. What did George and Harris offer to pack and why?

Answer: George and Harris offered to pack hampers. It was already 10 p.m. They were to start their journey in the morning. That is why they offered to do the rest of the packing. They also wanted to prove that Jerome was not good at packing.

Question 10. While packing the hamper, George and Harris do a number of foolish and funny things. Tick the statements that are true.

(1) They started with breaking a cup.
(2) They also broke a plate.
(3) They squashed a tomato.
(4) They trod on the butter.
(5) They stepped on a banana.
(6) They put things behind them, and couldn’t find them.
(7) They stepped on things.
(8)They packed the pictures at the bottom and put heavy things on top.
(9) They upset almost everything.
(10) They were very good at packing.

Answer: The true statements are as follow:

(1),(3),(4),(6),(7) and (9)

Very Short Answer Type Questions of Packing

Q1. What was the skill the author was proud of?

Answer: The author was proud of his packing skills.

Q2. What are names of Author’s friends?

Answer: Their names are Harris and George.

Q3. What irritated the author the most?

Answer: Seeing other people sitting comfortably while he worked, irritated him the most.

Q4. How did Harris start the packing?

Answer: He started the packing with breaking a glass.

Q5. Who was Montmorency?

Answer:  Author had a pet dog. Its name was Montmorency.

Short Answer Type Questions of Packing

Q1. The author once lived with a man. Explain what kind of person was he?

Answer:  Once the author lived with man who used to irritate the author most of the times. He used to watch the author working while resting on the sofa. His eyes chased the author wherever he went.

Q2. Why did George and Harris have to pick the tomatoes with a teaspoon?

Answer: George and Harris knew nothing about the packing. They packed the stuffs in very unsystematic way. Harris had placed the jar of strawberry jam on the top of tomatoes which had crushed them all and they had to be picked out with a teaspoon.

Q3. Do you agree that author had packed better than his friends? If yes, then give reason to your answers.

Answer: Yes, we completely agree that the author had better packing skills than his friends. That is true that he had missed/forgotten few things to pack but he did not make any commotion. On the other hand George and Harris created a mess by breaking the cup, squashing the tomatoes and by doing mess with butter. Thus we can say that the author had packed better than his friends.

Q4. Describe the butter incident.

Answer: Harris and George had begun the packing of bag. George stepped onto the butter and it clung against the slippers of George. When they got to know that the butter is there on the slipper they got off butter. They put the butter on the chair and Harris accidentally sat on it. Butter stuck behind him. They probed the entire room but couldn’t find it. Eventually they found butter on Harris’ back. The scene of butter created lots of humor in the story.

Q5. “No, I am not like that”. What does the author intend to say by this statement?

Answer: By this statement the author wants to say that he doesn’t like to sit idle and watch others work. He favors to walk around and boss the work.

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