Lesson-3

The Little Girl

By Katherine Mansfield

The Little Girl Introduction

The title of the storey is a reference to the main character, a young girl named Kezia. The story's theme is the relationship between children and their parents, and the author Katherine Mansfield wants us to understand that children have a very important love bond with their parents. Although children are small, when they are young, they do not believe that their parents love them because their parents are strict and many of their parents' actions appear to be unjustified. However, as children grow older, they realise that all of their parents' actions were beneficial to them. The parents were worried about them, and beneath the strictness is a heart filled with love for the children.

And this storey has highlighted the bond of love that exists between parents and their children. Do you think you know your parents better now than you did when you were younger? Perhaps you now understand why they did some of the things that used to irritate you. We don't understand why our parents are so strict with us when we're small, when we're very small. But as we get older, we mature and realise why they were being so strict with us, and when we realise that, we also realise how much our parents love us. As a result, the reader can relate to this as well.

You can all feel that when you were younger, your parents' actions and strictness toward you were for your benefit. And as you grow older, you will realise that whatever actions your parents took in the past were for your benefit, and that they truly love you. This storey about a young girl whose feelings for her father change from fear to understanding will most likely echo in every home.

What do we mean by "will almost certainly find an echo in every home"? This means that all of the children will have the same reaction. So you can all relate to Kezia, the little girl. Just as Kezia is terrified of her father, she later understands his actions and realises that he was worried about her and loved her. All of the children feel the same way about their parents, and Kezia's storey is very relatable.

The Little Girl Summary

'The Little Girl' tells the storey of Kezia, a young girl who misunderstood her father's strictness and was often terrified of him. When he was at home, she kept her distance from him. He was as big as a giant in her opinion. When she was talking to him, she would often become nervous and stutter. She yearned for his love and affection, just like her next-door neighbour, Mr Macdonald.

She was once kept indoors because she was susceptible to cold. Her grandmother suggested she make a gift for her father's birthday, which is coming up next week. They decided that Kezia would make him a pincushion. Kezia created a lovely pin cushion, but she made a mistake.

She filled it with scraps of paper from tearing her father's important speech. She was punished as a result of this. This incident strained Kezia's relationship with her father even more. She would frequently gaze out the window at her next-door neighbours, the Macdonalds, who were having a good time on their lawn. Mr. Macdonald was a wonderful father who delighted in playing with his children. She wondered if he was a different sort of father.

Her mother once became ill and had to be hospitalised. She was left alone at home with the cook to look after her. She had a nightmare and awoke screaming in the middle of the night. Her father was standing by her bedside. He took her to her room and picked her up. He tucked her into his bed and promptly fell asleep. Kezia felt safe lying next to her father. She realised that her father was not a giant. She could feel her father's large, loving heart beating in her chest. Finally, she realised her father was extremely loving and generous.

The Little Girl Lesson Explanation

To the little girl he was a figure to fear and avoided.

  • a figure to be feared: a person to be feared

And who is the figure to be feared in this situation – Kezia's father. So he's talking about Kezia's Father, and the little girl is Kezia. As a result, the first line of the storey conveys Kezia's fear about her Father. And because she is afraid of her father, she tries to avoid him and stay away from him.

Every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual kiss, to which she responded with “Goodbye, Father”.

So, every morning before leaving for work, Kezia's father would pay her a visit in her room and give her a casual kiss. In response, Kezia would say, "Goodbye, Father." As a result, Kezia's father's action demonstrates his love for her.

And oh, there was a glad sense of relief when she heard the noise of the carriage growing fainter and fainter down the long road!

  • Glad sense of relief: feeling relaxed
  • Fainter and fainter: to lessen or reduce

Carriages, such as horse carts, were popular modes of transportation in the past. So we can see Kezia's fear about her father here. According to the author, when Kezia heard her father's carriage driving away from home and him leaving, and the sound became fainter and fainter, implying that the sound was reduced, Kezia would feel at ease. She'd be relieved that her father had gone. Why did she feel relieved now? She was afraid of him because she feared her father, and she was relieved when he left the house.

In the evening when he came home she stood near the staircase and heard his loud voice in the hall.

When Kezia's father returned home in the evenings, she could hear his loud voice. And her fear of him was intensified by his loud voice.

“Bring my tea into the drawing-room… Hasn’t the paper come yet? Mother, go and see if my paper’s out there — and bring me my slippers.”

As soon as Kezia's father returned home, he began ordering a variety of items. He'd ask for tea in the drawing room, he'd want the newspaper, he'd ask his mother to go outside and see if the newspaper was there, and he'd ask her to get him his slipper as well.

“Kezia,” Mother would call to her, “if you’re a good girl you can come down and take off father’s boots.”

Kezia's mother would call out to her and request that she take off her father's boots. To get her to obey, she would say that if she was a good girl, she would surely obey her command.

Slowly the girl would slip down the stairs, more slowly still across the hall, and push open the drawing-room door.

  • slip down: come down quietly and unwillingly

So, once again, we see Kezia's fear for her father, which is why she comes down the stairs quietly and reluctantly. She was unwilling because she did not want to confront her father. She was terrified of him.

By that time he had his spectacles on and looked at her over them in a way that was terrifying to the little girl.

Imagine Kezia's father sitting on a sofa in the drawing room, wearing his spectacles and looking at Kezia through the spectacles. And the way he looked at her now terrified her. She was afraid because it appeared to her that he was staring at her.

“Well, Kezia, hurry up and pull off these boots and take them outside. Have you been a good girl today?”

Kezia was hesitant about her work. Her movements were sluggish. As a result, her father would tell her to hurry up and take off his boots, keeping them out of the room. Then he'd ask her if she'd been a good girl that day.

“I d-d-don’t know, Father.”

Kezia responded that she didn't know. So she was stammering because she lacked confidence. When a person experiences fear, he lacks confidence.

“You d-d-don’t know? If you stutter like that Mother will have to take you to the doctor.”

  • Stutter: to stammer, to speak with pauses

So Kezia's father is mimicking her. He also stammers like she does. He tells her that if she continues to stutter, her mother will have to take her to the doctor for a checkup.

She never stuttered with other people — had quite given it up — but only with Father, because then she was trying so hard to say the words properly.

  • given it up: stopped doing it
  • Trying so hard: making a lot of efforts

So the author tells us here that Kezia never stammered when she spoke to other people. She only lacked confidence when she spoke to her father, which is why she tried so hard to speak properly and stammered.

“What’s the matter? What are you looking so wretched about? Mother, I wish you taught this child not to appear on the brink of suicide…Here, Kezia, carry my teacup back to the table carefully.”

  • Wretched: unhappy, sad
  • on the brink of suicide: about to commit suicide
  • suicide: kill oneself

When Kezia's father looks at her, he gets the impression that something is wrong with her. And he inquired as to why she was so dissatisfied. Then he tells the mother that she should teach Kezia better behaviour and that she should not appear to be so unhappy that she is about to end her life. So he'd like to say that Kezia appears to be so dissatisfied with her life that she didn't want to live any longer. He hands her his teacup and instructs her to place back it to the table.

He was so big — his hands and his neck, especially his mouth when he yawned. Thinking about him alone was like thinking about a giant.

This is Kezia's sentiment, this is her vision for her father. Her father appears to have been a giant in her opinion. And the author says that Kezia thought his hand, neck, and mouth were all huge, especially when he yawned. He appeared to be a massive monster. And whenever Kezia thought of her father, she felt as if she were thinking of a giant.

On Sunday afternoons Grandmother sent her down to the drawing-room to have a “nice talk with Father and Mother”.

So, every Sunday afternoon, Kezia's Grandmother would send her downstairs to the drawing-room to spend time with her parents. So Kezia had to be nice and decent in front of her parents, and they had a formal get-together.

But the little girl always found Mother reading and Father stretched out on the sofa, his handkerchief on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions, sleeping soundly and snoring.

  • Snoring: the sound produced by some people when there are asleep.

So we can conclude that Kezia felt a little neglected in this situation. Every Sunday afternoon, when she went to her parents' house to meet them in the drawing room and have a nice conversation with them, they were busy with their own things. Her mother was reading, and her father was snoring and sleeping. So Kezia had this mental image of her parents. They didn't talk to her or spend any time with her. They, on the other hand, were preoccupied with their own activities.

She sat on a stool, gravely watched him until he woke and stretched, and asked the time — then looked at her.

  • Gravely: seriously.

So, while Kezia's father was sleeping, she would sit on a stool and carefully observe him until he woke up and stretched his body, and then he would ask the time and look at her.

“Don’t stare so, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl.”

Kezia's father compared her to a small brown owl. He would say that Kezia was staring at him in the same way that an owl does.

One day, when she was kept indoors with a cold, her grandmother told her that father’s birthday was next week and suggested she should make him a pin-cushion for a gift out of a beautiful piece of yellow silk.

Kezia was sick with a cold, so she was supposed to stay at home. So, since she was at home and her father's birthday was approaching, her grandmother suggested she make him a birthday gift. She asked Keziato to make a pin cushion for him and gave her a yellow silk fabric to make the cushion out of.

Laboriously, with double cotton, the little girl stitched three sides.

  • Laboriously: with lot of effort or difficulty.

Kezia worked very hard to make the birthday gift. She stitched three sides of the cushion with double cotton (refers to a thread).

But what to fill it with? That was the question.

Kezia had finished preparing the bag. The cushion's bag shape. She needed to stitch the fourth side, but first she needed to fill the cushion with something, and she had no idea what to fill the cushion with.

The grandmother was out in the garden, and she wandered into Mother’s bedroom to look for scraps.

  • Wandered into: went into, by chance
  • Scraps: small pieces of cloth or paper etc that are not needed.

So Kezia was perplexed as to what she should use to fill the cushion. She arrived at her mother's bedroom while her grandmother was out in the garden looking for something. She was looking for scraps of paper or fabric to stuff inside the cushion.

On the bed-table, she discovered a great many sheets of fine paper, gathered them up, tore them into tiny pieces, and stuffed her case, then sewed up the fourth side.

Kezia is now a small little girl, very young. What did she do? She found a pile of sheets of paper on her bedside table. So she simply gathered all of the sheets, tore them, and stuffed the shredded paper into the cushion. She then finished stitching the fourth side of the cushion and had completed a birthday gift for her father. Many of you can relate to Kezia's act. Many children unknowingly engage in such behaviour. They have no intention of causing mischief or causing harm to anyone, but they end up doing so. Kezia has now ripped some important papers.

That night there was a hue and cry in the house. Father’s great speech for the Port Authority had been lost.

  • Hue and Cry: angry protest.

There was a lot of shouting in the house now because Kezia's father had prepared a speech for the Port Authority (for a specific meeting) and couldn't find it. We all know where the speech went now. It's been ripped into tiny pieces and stuffed into the cushion by Kezia.

Rooms were searched; servants questioned. Finally Mother came into Kezia’s room.

The family was now searching in all directions. They asked the servants, but no one knew what had happened to the sheets of paper. Finally, the mother entered Kezia's room.

“Kezia, I suppose you didn’t see some papers on a table in our room?”

So Kezia's mother asked her if she had noticed some papers on a table in her mother's room.

“Oh yes,” she said, “I tore them up for my surprise.”

Now we can see that Kezia is a sweet young girl who had no intention of causing harm and was simply preparing her birthday gift. And she tells her mother, quite honestly, that she found some pieces of paper and, because she needed them to stuff into the cushion, she tore them and prepared her surprise gift. That is a birthday present she had planned for her father. Unknowingly, Kezia had caused a major disaster.

“What!” screamed Mother. “Come straight down to the dining-room this instant.”

Kezia's mother is now angered after knowing that her daughter has torn the speech that her father is looking for. As a result, she directs Kezia to enter the dining room at that instant.

And she was dragged down to where Father was pacing to and fro, hands behind his back.

Kezia's father is now tense because an important document has gone missing. Kezia has ripped it to shreds. Kezia will now be scolded for her misbehaviour.

“Well?” he said sharply.

Mother explained.

He stopped and stared at the child.

“Did you do that?”

“N-n-no”, she whispered.

“Mother, go up to her room and fetch down the damned thing — see that the child’s put to bed this instant.

  • The damned thing: used to express anger at something.

Why is Kezia's father referring to the cushion she has prepared as a damned thing? He is angry at the cushion because Kezia has torn his important document to prepare it. He is now furious with Kezia, and he stared at her and asked if she had torn the papers. Kezia was so terrified that she stammered once more. Then Kezia's father told her mother to go downstairs and bring that cushion downstairs, and to put Kezia to bed right then and there.

Crying too much to explain, she lay in the shadowed room watching the evening light make a sad little pattern on the floor.

  • shadowed room means that as it was dark, there was a light outside the room which was making shadows in the room.
  • a sad little pattern refers to the sad atmosphere in the room.

Kezia wanted to justify her actions because she was innocent; she had no intention of hurting her father and was simply preparing a surprise birthday gift for him. Kezia was in a bad mood. She was pleased that she had planned a surprise for her father and that he would enjoy it, but she had unintentionally caused a disaster.

Then Father came into the room with a ruler in his hands.

He is about to punish Kezia for the wrongdoing she committed.

“I am going to beat you for this,” he said.

“Oh, no, no”, she screamed, hiding under the bedclothes.

  • Bedclothes Refers to the sheets, the top sheets that you cover yourself when you are sleeping.

Kezia's father now threatened to beat her with the ruler. Kezia was terrified and attempted to hide under the sheets.

He pulled them aside.

“Sit up,” he ordered, “and hold out your hands.

You must be taught once and for all not to touch what does not belong to you.”

Now we can understand why Kezia's father was so strict with her. What was he punishing her for? Because he wanted Kezia to understand once and for all that she should not touch anything that is not hers. He wanted to teach her this so that she would benefit in the future. She was a small child at the time, and she had no idea what was important or not. That is why, unknowingly, she has torn her father's important document. As a result, he was punishing her. He didn't mean to hurt Kezia, but he did want her to know that she shouldn't touch anything that wasn't hers in the future.

“But it was for your b-b-birthday.”

Kezia attempted to explain her stance. She explained that she was preparing a birthday present for her father and needed to stuff it with something. She simply ripped the pages and stuffed them into the cushion. She was attempting to persuade him that she was simply preparing a birthday gift for him. She wanted to catch him off guard. She didn't want to rip any of his important documents. Kezia's father, however, did not accept her excuses.

Down came the ruler on her little, pink palms.

Kezia's father hit her palms with a ruler.

Hours later, when Grandmother had wrapped her in a shawl and rocked her in the rocking chair, the child clung to her soft body.

  • Clung: to attach yourself to something.

Kezia was terrified at this point. She'd taken a beating. Her father had hit her small palms with the ruler. Many hours later, her grandmother had wrapped her in a shawl and was attempting to calm her down. She forced her to sit in her lap on a rocking chair while she tried to put Kezia to sleep. And Kezia clutched her grandmother's hand.

“What did God make fathers for?” she sobbed.

As a result, Kezia was still uneasy. She was sobbing and saying that God should not have created fathers. She hated her father. She seemed so innocent. She had no idea what she had done wrong. She was just getting ready to give him a gift. She was heartbroken because he didn't understand her and said that God shouldn't have created fathers.

“Here’s a clean hanky, darling. Blow your nose. Go to sleep, pet; you’ll forget all about it in the morning. I tried to explain to Father but he was too upset to listen tonight.”

Kezia's Grandmother was now attempting to calm her down. She handed her a handkerchief and told her to blow her nose in it before going to bed. She went on to say that by the next morning, Kezia would have forgotten about the beating. Kezia attempted to defend herself. She stated that she was attempting to explain the reason for tearing the sheets of paper to him, but he was unwilling to listen to her. So, once again, we see that the little child was so innocent that she did not realise her father hit her in order to teach her a lesson about not touching anything that did not belong to her.

But the child never forgot. Next time she saw him she quickly put both hands behind her back and a red colour flew into her cheeks.

Kezia's grandmother had told her to go to bed and that by morning she would forget the beating she had received from her father. Kezia, on the other hand, would never forget the beating she had received. When she saw her father approaching, she would keep her hands behind her back, fearful that he would hit her again, and a flush of red colour flowed into her cheeks. When she saw her father, she became terrified and her cheeks turned bright red.

The Macdonalds lived next door. They had five children. Looking through a gap in the fence the little girl saw them playing ‘tag’ in the evening.The father with the baby, Mao, on his shoulders, two little girls hanging on to his coat pockets ran round and round the flower-beds, shaking with laughter. Once she saw the boys turn the hose on him—and he tried to catch them laughing all the time.

The author tells us about Kezia's neighbours in this section. Her next-door neighbours were the McDonalds. The McDonalds had five children in total. And Kezia would peer through a gap in the fence at them. She'd notice that the family was having a good time. They engaged in a game of tag. (Tag is a children's game that involves catching one another, similar to catch catch.) As a result, all of the children, as well as their father, would have a great time. Mr. Macdonald would place his baby Mao on his shoulders. And he had two small daughters who would hang to his coat pockets. As a result, all of the children were extremely close to their father.

They were so engaged to him that they would do anything for him. Then they'd run around the garden, around the flower beds, laughing and laughing and laughing. Kezia, too, wished she could have fun with her father, and she missed it. She noticed one day that Mrs. Macdonald's little sons had opened the hose on him. They turned on the water and tried to wet him. Mr. Macdonald, on the other hand, was not upset with them. He was laughing as he tried to catch them. This was odd for Kezia because her father was the absolute opposite of Mr. Macdonald.

Then it was she decided there were different sorts of fathers.

When Kezia saw Mr. Macdonald, she realised he was the absolute opposite of her father. She believed that God had created various types of fathers.

Suddenly, one day, Mother became ill, and she and Grandmother went to hospital.

When Kezia's mother became ill, she was taken to the hospital, and her grandmother accompanied her.

The little girl was left alone in the house with Alice, the cook. That was all right in the daytime but while Alice was putting her to bed she grew suddenly afraid.

Kezia was now at home alone with the cook. Alice is the name of the cook. Kezia was fine during the day, but when the cook put her to bed all alone, she became terrified.

“What’ll I do if I have a nightmare?” she asked.

  • Nightmare: a bad dream.

Kezia asked Alice what she would do if she had a bad dream on her own.

I often have nightmares and then Granny takes me into her bed—I can’t stay in the dark—it all gets ‘whispery’…”

Kezia told Alice that whenever she had nightmares, she went to her Grandmother and slept with her. As a result, she stated that she could not stay alone in the dark because she would be terrified. She could hear various types of whispering sounds, giving her the impression that she was being watched.

“You just go to sleep, child,” said Alice, pulling off her socks, “and don’t you scream and wake your poor Pa.”

As a result, Kezia's father was sleeping in the next room, and Alice told Kezia to sleep quietly. She took Kezia's socks off and told her not to scream. She warned her not to scream because it would wake her father. But Kezia was helpless.

But the same old nightmare came — the butcher with a knife and a rope, who came nearer and nearer, smiling that dreadful smile, while she could not move, could only stand still, crying out, “Grandma! Grandma!” She woke shivering to see Father beside her bed, a candle in his hand.

  • A Butcher is a person who cuts animals, who cuts meat.

So this is a recurring nightmare for Kezia – she sees a butcher. So this butcher would approach Kezia with a big knife – a huge butcher's knife – and a rope. He had a terrible grin on his face. And whenever Kezia saw him, she felt as if she couldn't move. She was terrified of him. She was terrified when she saw this butcher. And Kezia did it all in her sleep. She cried out for help and summoned her grandmother. When Kezia awoke, she was shivering and trembling, and she noticed her father standing next to her bed with a candle in his hand. So Kezia's father heard her screams and realised she was calling for her grandmother, so he came to help her.

“What’s the matter?” he said.

He now inquired of Kezia as to the nature of the problem. Why was she screaming and shouting?

“Oh, a butcher — a knife — I want Grannie.”

Kezia was still terrified by her nightmare. She stated that there was a butcher present, who was holding a dreadful knife, and that she wanted her grandmother.

He blew out the candle, bent down and caught up the child in his arms, carrying her along the passage to the big bedroom.

So we can see Kezia's father's affection for her here. He extinguished the candle. He picked her up and carried her into his bedroom.

A newspaper was on the bed. He put away the paper, then carefully tucked up the child.

  • tucked up: covered up nicely in bed

Kezia's father lay her next to him in his bed and covered her with the top sheets.

He lay down beside her. Half asleep still, still with the butcher’s smile all about her it seemed, she crept close to him, snuggled her head under his arm, held tightly to his shirt.

  • Snuggled: moved into a warm, comfortable position, close to another person

Kezia felt her father's affection and moved closer to him. She snuggled up to her father, clutching his shirt tightly so she wouldn't be scared again. Kezia had finally overcome her fear about her father.

Then the dark did not matter; she lay still.

Kezia was no longer afraid once she was with her father.

“Here, rub your feet against my legs and get them warm,” said Father.

He asked Kezia to rub her feet against his legs to warm them up.

Tired out, he slept before the little girl. A funny feeling came over her.

Because Kezia's father was tired, he fell asleep before she did. She had a funny feeling.

Poor Father, not so big, after all — and with no one to look after him. He was harder than Grandmother, but it was a nice hardness. And every day he had to work and was too tired to be a Mr Macdonald… She had torn up all his beautiful writing… She stirred suddenly, and sighed.

Now that she is here, Kezia realises her mistake, and she has feelings for her father. Her father, she thought, was a poor man. He worked extremely hard. He wasn't as big as she remembered him being. Now she felt that her father was a poor man who worked very hard, and as a result, he became tired and went to sleep, rather than playing with her as Mr. Macdonald did with his children. Kezia, on the other hand, felt that her father's heart was also full of love for her. She realises she has torn up his important document, the speech he has written, and all of this causes her to take a deep breath. She realises she was wrong, which is why her father had beaten her and was so strict with her.

“What’s the matter?” asked her father. “Another dream”?

Despite the fact that Kezia's father was sleeping, he heard her sigh. When he heard Kezia's sound, he inquired as to what was wrong. Was she witnessing another nightmare?

“Oh,” said the little girl, “my head’s on your heart. I can hear it going. What a big heart you’ve got, Father dear

Kezia told her father that she had placed her head on her father's heart and could hear it beat. And she praised her father for having a big heart. So Kezia is expressing her love for her father because she realised her father also loved her.

About the Author

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is New Zealand's most famous author on a global scale. She was a writer of short stories, poetry, letters, journals, and reviews who revolutionised the way short stories were written in English. She was a modernist and a rebel who made the most of her 34-year life. Even before her death at the age of thirty-four, she had established herself as one of the most gifted writers of the modern short storey.