NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet Chapter 8 The Hack Driver||class 10 summary of chapter the hack driver||class 10 English ||
CLASS 10 ENGLISH
[Footprints without feet]
Chapter 8 – The hack driver
(By-Sinclair Lewis)
SUMMARY
THE HACK DRIVER
The narrator of the story sinclair Lewis explains that after completing his graduation he started working with a famous law firm in the city. He was working as an assistant clerk there. He was not very happy with his job of serving summons because sometimes he was beaten up. One day, he got a task of serving summons to Mr. Oliver Lutkins who was a key witness in some case. He lived in a small town named New Mullion.
The narrator was very excited to visit a small and beautiful town but his excitement got ended when he saw the dull appearance of the town. He saw a hack driver standing at the platform who was very cheerful and nice. He went up to him and enquired about Oliver Lutkins as he was new in the town and wanted to find him. The hack driver told him that Oliver was a nasty man who owed debt to many people. He also cunningly extracted information from the lawyer that he needed Lutkins for some court case.
A deal was set between both- he decided to hire Bill’s hack and go on a search for Lutkins. Bill somehow traps the lawyer in his story and they visit different places in search of Lutkins. He always asks the lawyer stay behind and he went to go to search. They go to Fritz’s shop to catch Lutkins while playing poker. But he tells them that he has gone to Gustaff shop for a shave. At Gustaff’s they weren’t able to find him and were told that someone saw him at the pool room. Here also somebody said that he left the poolroom after buying cigarettes.
Bill described Lutkins as a cunning man and guessed that he must have gone to gray’s for a shave. In the afternoon, Bill offered him to buy lunch from his wife only in half dollar as it would be less costly than at the restaurant. They had lunch at wade’s hill which was a very beautiful place. By that time the author was totally impressed by Bill’s nature. He had even started comparing village people to city people. Later , they went to search for Lutkins at his mother’s house.
On raching his mother's home ,there is the lady who was horrible and they hurriedly left the place as she was about to attack them with a hot iron rod. At last, the lawyer had to leave mullion without serving summons to Lutkins. Next day he was scolded badly by his chief as he not done his task for serving summons to lutkings and was again sent to New Mullion with a companion who knew how Lutkins look like. Upon reaching the station, the clerk happily pointed out that Bill was such a helpful person to him search Lutkins.
At this time, the truth was revealed by his companion that the hack driver was none other than Lutkins himself. The clerk felt so bad and ashamed of how he had been fooled by a hack driver.
INTEXT QUESTIONS
Q1:Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?
Ans: The lawyer is sent to New Mullion to serve summons to a man called Oliver Lutkins.He thinks that New Mullion would be a sweet and simple country village.
Q2:Who befriends lawyer? Where does he take him?
Ans:A hack driver at the station, who called himself Bill Magnuson, befriends him. He told the lawyer that he knew Lutkins and would help in finding him. Bill took him to all the places where Lutkins was known to hang out. He took the lawyer to Fritz’s shop, where Lutkins played a lot of poker; to Gustaff’s barber shop and then to Gray’s barber shop; to the poolroom and several other places before finally taking him to Lutkins’ mother’s farm. However, Oliver Lutkins was not found.
Q3: What does he say about lutkings?
And:Bill told the lawyer that Lutkins was a hard fellow to catch. He lend debt to many people, including me and had never even paid anybody a cent. He also said that Oliver played a lot of poker and was good at deceiving people.
(Page no 50)
Q1. What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?
Ans: Bill says that he knows Lutkins’ mother. He says that she is a terror. He shared the incident where he had gone to her farm to deliver a trunk and she almost took his skin off because he did not carry it as tenderly as one would carry a box of eggs. He told that she was about nine feet tall and four feet thick. She was very quick and could talk a lot.
He also said Lutkins must have heard about them chasing him and thus, would have come to hide behind his mother’s skirts.
Q2. Does the narrator serve the summons that day?
Ans: No, the narrator is not able to serve the summons that day.
Q3 Who is Lutkins?
Ans: The hack driver, Bill Magnuson, himself is Lutkins
Q1-When the lawyer reached New Mullion, did ‘Bill’ know that he was looking for Lutkins? When do you think Bill came up with his plan for fooling the lawyer?
Ans:No, Bill didn’t know anything about the lawyer. It was a matter of chance that he went himself to Bill and enquired about Oliver Lutkins. Bill came up with his plan for fooling the lawyer as soon as he got to know that the lawyer was looking out for Lutkins and he did not know Lutkins by face.
Q2-Lutkins openly takes the lawyer all over the village. How is it that no one lets out the secret? (Hint: Notice that the hack driver asks the lawyer to keep out of sight behind him when they go into Fritz’s.) Can you find other such subtle ways in which Lutkins manipulates the tour?
Ans:Lutkins openly takes the lawyer all over the village but no one lets out the secret. He never lets the lawyer talk to the village people at first. It is always him who approaches them. He keeps telling the lawyer how deceiving Lutkins is and scares him of Lutkins’ mother. The villagers and Lutkins’ mother also join him in deceiving the lawyer.
Q3- Why do you think Lutkins’ neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer?
And:Lutkins took the lawyer all across the town in search of Lutkins himself. He was able to fool a lawyer with his cooked up stories about Lutkins and other villagers. All this must have become the talk of the town as how a man could fool the other man in his own search. Everyone had seen this happening. So, Lutkins’ neighbours were keen to see him as they missed seeing him that day.
Q4: After his first day’s experience with the hack driver the lawyer thinks of returning to New Mullion to practise law. Do you think he would have reconsidered this idea after his second visit?
Ans:No, absolutely not. After knowing how Lutkins had made fool of him, he would never return to New Mullion to practice law.
Q5- Do you think the lawyer was gullible? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride?
Ans:Yes, the lawyer was gullible. He believed every word of what Oliver Lutkins said. He should have asked about Lutkins from other villagers. Instead, he depended completely on the hack driver.
