Читать книгу Landscapes of short stories for Gr 10 Second Additional Language - Blanche Scheffler - Страница 11

by Peter Durbin

A note about the story

This is a very short story illustrating the superstitious optimism of gamblers who hope to make ‘easy money’. The plot is simple, with events taking place in a single morning and culminating in a surprise ending that amuses us. The two characters are opposites: Jimmy gambles as an ‘investment’, while his wife, Maggie, thinks it is a vice. Their conversation at the breakfast table as he tries to convince her that the money is well spent reveals other contrasts too.

Although the story is short, the characterisation is interesting, and we wonder whether Jimmy actually does have a winning ticket. The ending is a surprise, adding a humorous punchline to the story.

Pre-reading

•Skim the text to establish how many characters are involved in the events that unfold.

•Do you think that all gamblers are optimists? Give a reason for your answer.

During reading

•Try to identify the different ways in which Jimmy tries to justify what he has done.

•Work out what Maggie’s life view is.

Macphail’s sweep ticket

‘Hurry up, Jimmy,’ said his wife, ‘or you’ll miss the 7:15 bus again. There’s your lunch all tied up, so don’t be hurrying off and leaving it lying on the table.’

Jimmy grunted. He was never at his best in the morning, but sat down to his porridge. His wife placed a bowl of milk in front of him, and passed the salt.

‘It looks like another scorching day,’ she remarked, and Jimmy Macphail knew it, and was not looking forward to his job of laying bricks roof-high on a scorching day.

‘Maggie,’ he said cautiously, ‘I didn’t tell you I had made a great, and I hope, a wise decision last week. You know we’re not getting any younger and we haven’t much money, so I decided to invest19, only invest, mind you, on a sweep ticket. Here it is. I’m certain it’s going to be a lucky number. Look, the letters are your initials, M.M. Now add up the numbers and they come to fourteen. Now one and four make five; and that’s your lucky number.’

Having been quite carried away by his enthusiasm for numbers, and the mental picture of thousands of pounds sterling, he forgot for the moment all about brick-laying in the heat, until his wife asked him for the second time if he really had spent ten shillings on a sweep ticket.

A little shame-faced he had to admit his extravagant folly20. ‘But that’s gambling,’ said his wife, ‘and you know that I don’t hold with gambling. It’s a wicked vice. Just think what I could have bought with that ten shillings. It’s all very well to say that the hospitals get the benefit of the money, but I’m thinking that with all the money that goes into the sweep, everybody might have a hospital to themselves. Anyway if you did win a prize, I’m sure it would bring us no blessing.’

‘The trouble with you, Maggie, is that you’ve never changed. You and John Knox21 would make a fine couple. You were too strictly brought up. Nowadays you have to be a bit adventurous. All the big financiers say that you must put your money down before you can pick it up. You see the world has changed from the old days when we were young. Women have to get new ideas, as well as the new look.’

Maggie merely sniffled and cut the top off her egg, while Jimmy continued to be fascinated by his sweep ticket.

‘It’s a pleasure just to look at it,’ he said. ‘It has beauty, colour, pictures, everything about it to encourage a man’s optimism. Let’s be optimistic, just for once. Imagine, if I could only win the first prize, couldn’t I just tell the foreman where he gets off.

‘You see the draw takes place to-day. Somebody must draw the winning numbers. Couldn’t it be me as easy as somebody else? “I’ll get ye!” That’s my nom-de-plume. You see, that’s French for your other name. If you win a prize it keeps it quiet like22. You needn’t let the public know, and have all your friends coming round with their tongues hanging out.’

Maggie became more interested. Her moral scruples were weakening. She began to feel that she wouldn’t mind winning even a third prize of £2 000 if she could keep it quiet, and be sure that her sister-in-law would never get to hear about it. She wasn’t like some women who always wanted to swank. It would be enough for her to know it was safely in the bank; and it was quite clever of the French to have invented the nom-de-plume.

But she was convinced there must be a snag somewhere. Some people could make money easily, but never Jimmy Macphail. He would always have to earn it with bricks and mortar, and the skin peeling off the back of his neck. And could you really trust the nom-de-plume? Murder would out23.

The kettle boiled over. Looking at the clock, she shouted to Jimmy that he would miss the bus for sure this morning. He got up quickly and made for the door, then hesitated and came back. ‘Maggie,’ he whispered shyly, ‘supposing, just supposing, a wire24 should come to-day … ’

‘Oh, be off, man,’ she answered, ‘you’ll get so silly in the head thinking about sweeps that you’ll be falling off the scaffold, and that’s a fact.’

But the mystic husband still hesitated. With numbers such as he had, reinforced with his wife’s initials, the thing must not be taken too lightly. Anything could happen.

‘You never know,’ he said, ‘word might come to-day that I have drawn a prize. If it should, will you come down to the job and let me know?’

His earnest manner was unmistakeable and she had to smile. ‘All right, Mr Rothschild25,’ she answered, ‘but if you waste any more time and miss the bus, you’ll lose a perfectly good job. That’s something we are sure of on pay-day.’

Towards twelve o’clock on the same day one of Jimmy’s workmates called out to him. ‘There’s your wife down below. I hope there’s nothing wrong, nobody sick or anything like that.’

Jimmy Macphail almost fainted with excitement. Recovering himself quickly he grasped the hand of his friend. ‘Congratulate me,’ he breathed, ‘I’ve drawn a prize in the sweep.’ And without waiting to explain further, left his mate gasping.

Never did he descend to the bottom of a building so quickly. Ladders, boards, broken tiles, everything that stood in his way were ruthlessly pushed aside in his wild scramble to reach the ground. Arriving breathless and perspiring he hailed his wife. ‘So it’s come. I knew it. I could feel it in my bones. What does it say?’

But his wife did not even appear amiable. In a voice that suggested annoyance she said, ‘Here’s your lunch, you silly old fool. After all I told you this morning, you would go off and leave it on the table.’

Post-reading

1.State how you know that Jimmy is superstitious.(2)

2.Read the first and last paragraphs again. Identify two phrases that occur in both and say how they fit in with the plot.(4)

3.What does Maggie’s opinion of sweepstakes reveal about her character?(2)

4.‘Maggie,’ he said cautiously, ‘I didn’t tell you I had made a great, and I hope, a wise decision.’

What does ‘cautiously’ suggest to you about what has happened in the past?(2)

5.Comment on the writer’s use of figurative language in: ‘all your friends coming round with their tongues hanging out’.(3)