The Borrowers

Synopsis

A little girl named Kate is told by a certain Mrs. May about little people called the Borrowers that live in the house. Supposedly, Mrs. May’s brother saw them. The bulk of the story is about the little family he saw.

Pod, the father, Homily, the mother and Arrietty, the daughter, all live under the kitchen in Firbank, an old house. Pod is ‘seen’, the worst thing that could happen to a borrower. Because of this (Though egged on by Homily), he decides to teach Arrietty to borrow, in case something should happen to him. Arrietty meets Mrs. May’s brother, just a boy then, and writes a letter to her aunt for him to send to her. He finds out where they live and pulls up the floorboards so he can give them trinkets from the dollhouse in the nursery. This new arrangment is eventually accepted by the Borrowers, and all goes well for a time. The boy eventually goes too far, and the cook, Mrs. Driver, notices things going missing. She finds the ‘nest’, as she calls it, and pulls all the borrowers belongings out. She sends for the rat-catcher to smoke them out. The boy finds a pick-axe and breaks the grating on the side of the house so the Borrowers can escape. He never sees the small family leave, but always believes they made it.

Mrs. May ends the story and Kate thinks about it.