Derry is a fourteen-year-old boy. He walks slowly and hesitantly through the long grass of Mr. Lamb’s garden. He stops for a short while and then walks on again. Derry comes round a screen of bushes so that when Mr. Lamb warns him to mind the apples, he is quite close. Derry is surprised and asks who is there. Mr. Lamb tells his name to him and asks him to be careful as crab apples fallen in the long grass might not be trampled. Derry tells him that he thought it was an empty house. Mr. Lamb comments that the house was empty indeed as he was in the garden.

Mr. Lamb says it being a beautiful day, he would prefer to stay in the garden. Derry says that he has got to go. Mr. Lamb says that the gate is always open and he does not mind who comes in the garden. He tells Derry that he only climbed the wall. Derry says that he had not come to steal anything. Mr. Lamb replied that young boys steal and scrump the apples but Derry was not so young.

Question - 22 : -
What is the impact of their physical impairment on Derry’s and Mr. Lamb’s behaviour towards people ?

Answer - 22 : -

One side of Derry’s face was burnt with acid. He feels that it ate him, ate his face and now it is like this and it won’t ever be any different. His physical impairment changed his behaviour and his attitude towards life. He avoids seeing and meeting people. He feels that he is not afraid of people but people are afraid of him because of his face.

When people see his face they say that is bad and a terrible ugly think. They call him a poor boy, which he thinks he is not. He entered Mr. Lamb’s garden thinking that it was empty. When he looks in the mirror, he is afraid of him. Derry does not like being with people. Derry hates certain people who talk about his face in the most unsympathetic manner like that is a face only a mother could love.

Mr. Lamb’s one leg was blown off in war and he has got a tin leg. But his physical impairment does not make him secluded and he loves to meet and talk to people. He always keeps his door open and has put no curtains on the window of his house. Though some kids call him ‘Lamey-Lamb’ but it does not trouble him. Mr. Lamb has friends everywhere. When Mr. Lamb goes down the street, the kids shout “Lamey-Lamb”. But they still come into the garden, into his house. They are not afraid of him because he is not afraid of them.

Question - 23 : -
“You could lock yourself up in a room and never leave it.” What story does Mr. Lamb tell Derry to illustrate it ? How did Derry react ?

Answer - 23 : -

Derry enters Mr. Lamb’s garden after climbing the wall. He thought that the place was empty. Mr. Lamb asks him if he had seen him, Derry had not have been in. Derry said that he would not have come because he does not like being near people. Then Mr. Lamb said that then Derry could lock himself up in a room and never leave it.

To illustrate his point Mr. Lamb narrated the story of a man who locked himself in his room because he was afraid of everything in this world. He thought that a bus might run him over, or a man might breathe deadly germs onto him, or a donkey might kick him to death.

Or lightening might strike him down, or he might love a girl and the girl would leave him, and he might slip on a banana skin and fall and people who saw him would laugh. So he went into his room, and locked the door, and got into his bed, and stayed there. Derry asked if (he locked) forever.

Mr. Lamb said that for a while because a picture fell off the wall on his head and killed him. Derry liked the story so much that he laughed a lot. I think he must have realised that seclusion from people is never a solution to the problem.

Question - 24 : -
“ I’m going. But I’ll come back. You see. You wait.” Does Derry come back to Mr. Lamb’s garden ? Does Mr. Lamb see him ?

Answer - 24 : -

Derry had grown a sort of bond with Mr. Lamb. He wanted to help him in getting the crab apples down. But he said that his mother would want to know where he is. Mr. Lamb asks him to go back and tell her. Derry told him that once he got home, they had never let him come back. Mr. Lamb said that once Derry got home, he had never let himself come back. When Mr. Lamb goes to see the bees, Derry shouts that he is going but he will come back. But Mr. Lamb says to himself that they never come back.

Derry after reaching home finds that his mother does not seem to have good impression about Mr. Lamb. But Derry told her that Mr. Lamb is an old man with a tin leg and he lives in a huge house without curtains and has a garden.

He told her that Mr. Lamb tells him the things that matter, things nobody else has said and things he wants to think about. He intimates that he is going back there only to help him with the crab apples. His mother persuades him not to go, but he runs and reaches Mr. Lamb’s garden. Derry finds him lying dead on the ground. So Mr. Lamb could not see him. Derry says that he did come back.

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