A Triumph of Surgery: Class 10 English · Chapter 1

1.1 Before you read

Picture a grandmother who slips one more laddoo onto your plate after you have said no twice. Or think of a colony dog that every family feeds biscuits on the way to work. Each treat is given with love. But what happens when love never says no? Can kindness itself make someone ill?

This story answers that question with a smile. A wealthy lady pampers her small dog until he falls dangerously ill, and a level-headed country vet has to rescue him from her kindness. As you read, keep two puzzles in mind: what does the vet actually do to cure the dog, and why does the owner give the credit to surgery?

The story is told by a first-person narrator: the “I” is the vet himself, Mr Herriot. Fig. 1.1 introduces everyone you will meet, with Tricki, the patient, at the centre.

1.2 Reading the story

The events cover a little over two weeks. We can read them in three parts: trouble at Mrs Pumphrey's house, Tricki's stay at the vet's, and his return. Because Herriot tells the story himself, we see everything through the eyes of a calm, amused professional. Fig. 1.2 tracks how Tricki's fitness falls and then rises.

1.2.1 Part I: Too much love

As you read this part, look for answers to three questions. What worries Mrs Pumphrey, and what is her remedy? Is that remedy sensible? And who is the “I” telling us all this?

From his car, Herriot catches sight of Tricki out with Mrs Pumphrey, and he is horrified. The dog is now grossly overweight, with sore, watery eyes and a drooping tongue. His owner is sure she knows the cause. Because he has seemed so sluggish, she has decided he is not getting enough nourishment. So she has been treating him with tonics (malt and cod-liver oil), snacks between meals and a malted bedtime drink, a programme she sums up as “nothing much really”. Herriot had told her earlier to cut down on sweets. She confesses that she managed it only briefly: Tricki loves cream cakes and chocolates, and refusing him is more than she can bear.

The diagnosis is simple. Greed is Tricki's one weakness, and he is now eating far more while moving far less. His short strolls with his owner are all the exercise he gets, since Hodgkin, the gardener who used to throw rings for him, is off work with lumbago. So Herriot puts on his sternest manner and lays down the law: much less food, much more activity, and no giving in. Mrs Pumphrey agrees to the new regime, while protesting how hard it will be. Watching the little dog stagger away in a tweed coat, one of a whole collection, Herriot is sure this is not the end of the matter.

Herriot's fears come true only days later. A frantic phone call reports a dog who will not touch food, is being sick and does nothing but lie and pant. Herriot is ready with a plan: the patient must leave home and spend about two weeks under his eye at the surgery. The idea horrifies Mrs Pumphrey, who is certain that separation will kill her pet. Herriot refuses to budge and leaves at once with Tricki bundled in a blanket. What follows is pure farce. Servants rush about with bedding, playthings and a bowl for each meal, far more than the car could carry, and the weeping owner flings a bundle of coats in after him. Once they are alone on the road, Herriot gives the limp little dog a pat and promises him a cure.

1.2.2 Part II: Life with the pack

In this part, notice how Herriot's home compares with Mrs Pumphrey's, how he handles the sick dog, and why he is half tempted to keep Tricki for good.

Herriot's treatment begins with nothing at all. Tricki is so limp on arrival that the surgery dogs, after a quick sniff, decide he is not worth bothering with. He is given a bed in a cosy loose box near their sleeping quarters and, for two whole days, only water to drink. Slowly the fast works. By the second evening he is looking about him with some curiosity, and by the third day he is whining to join the dogs he can hear outside.

Once let out, he is swamped by Joe the greyhound and the rest of the gang, who knock him over, inspect him and then let him tag along, still wobbling with fat. Mealtimes teach him a sharper lesson. When Tristan dishes out the food, the pack eats at a gallop, since any dog that dawdles may lose his last mouthfuls to a neighbour. On the first day Tricki arrives too late and can only nose round the empty bowls. On the next he has a bowl of his own and elbows his way to it with the rest.

No medicine is ever needed. Life in the pack does the job: endless chasing and tumbling, scraps over food and, at night, rat hunts in an old hen-house. The pampered pet becomes one of the gang and plainly enjoys himself more than ever before. Mrs Pumphrey, meanwhile, rings constantly for news. Herriot tactfully skips her questions about cushions and the right coat for the weather and sticks to the good news: Tricki is safe and convalescing. That word inspires her. Gifts begin to arrive “for Tricki”: first eggs by the dozen, then wine “to enrich Tricki's blood”, and finally brandy. The dog sees none of it. Herriot cheerfully confesses that he and his partners enjoyed the lot, from breakfast eggs to fireside brandy.

1.2.3 Part III: The homecoming

In the last part, look for the moment that shows how Tricki feels about his owner, and work out why she gives the credit to surgery.

Herriot would happily keep such a rewarding guest for ever, but his conscience wins: the owner is pining. Two weeks after the rescue he rings her with the good news. She arrives within minutes in a car so long that he calls it “thirty feet of gleaming black metal”. Small and anxious in the back seat, she wants only one thing: his honest word that Tricki is truly well.

The dog Herriot fetches from the garden is unrecognisable: slim, strong and racing with the big dogs as an equal. The reunion is instant and noisy. Tricki launches himself from Herriot's arms into his owner's lap and covers her with licks and barks. While she recovers, the pile of coats, cushions, beds, toys and bowls goes back into the car, every item untouched. Then, with tears of gratitude, Mrs Pumphrey thanks Herriot and hails the cure as “a triumph of surgery”.

1.3 Thinking about the story

Board questions on this story test the characters, the humour and the title. Whatever you claim about a character, back it up with something that person does or says.

1.3.1 The narrator: a vet with tact and sense

Herriot is a skilled vet, but this story shows his people skills even more than his medical ones. He needs tact, because his patient cannot speak and his patient's owner cannot see the truth. He also has plenty of common sense: he treats the cause of Tricki's illness, not just its symptoms.

1.3.2 Mrs Pumphrey and Tricki

Mrs Pumphrey is rich, warm-hearted and generous, and she truly loves Tricki. Her problem is that her love has no limits. She is indulgent: she gives Tricki whatever he wants, mistakes greed for hunger and meets every problem with more food. She is emotional and dramatic too, wringing her hands, almost fainting and weeping as he leaves. Yet she is no villain. She accepts the vet's plan, suffers while Tricki is away and overflows with gratitude when he returns. Her large staff and grand car, with Tricki at the centre of her days, hint that she may also be lonely.

Tricki himself is not to blame. Like most dogs he is greedy, but he cannot choose his own diet. At the surgery he discovers ordinary doggy pleasures: running, wrestling and competing for food. His joyful leap into Mrs Pumphrey's lap shows that he is happy to go home. Will the cure last? The story does not say. If his owner returns to cakes, tonics and gentle strolls, he may soon be fat and ill again. If she keeps him on plain food and daily exercise, he will stay fit.

1.3.3 Humour, irony and the title

Herriot treats a serious problem, a dog close to death, in a light and amused voice. He keeps a straight face while describing a ridiculous situation, and that is where much of the fun comes from. The table shows his main tools.

The title is the biggest joke. Irony is a gap between what is said or expected and what is actually true. Mrs Pumphrey believes Herriot has worked some marvel of surgery. In fact he did no operation and gave no medicine. Hunger, exercise and the company of other dogs cured Tricki, a plain treatment she could have given him at home. There is a second layer. In British English a vet's clinic is also called a surgery, so the recovery really was a triumph at the surgery, though not of surgery. Fig. 1.4 sets the two ideas side by side.

• Theme 1: love needs good sense. Unlimited indulgence harms the very one we love.
• Theme 2: simple care works. Plain food, exercise and company beat tonics and luxuries.
• Theme 3: wealth cannot buy health. Money buys coats, cushions and cars, but not fitness.
• Theme 4: professional tact. A good professional helps the patient and handles the client kindly.
• Message: real care sometimes means saying no, to pets and to children.

1.3.4 Real life or fiction?

Herriot's stories grew out of his own working life as a country vet, but they are not exact records. He changed names (even his own, since James Herriot was a pen name), altered details and heightened the comedy for his readers. So this episode is best seen as a mixture: a real-life kind of case, retold with a storyteller's freedom. In his books Tricki has a grander full name, Tricki Woo, and he is a Pekingese, a small breed with a long, silky coat.

1.4 Talk about it

The textbook ends with questions for discussion. There are no fixed answers, but a strong answer takes a clear position and supports it with reasons and examples. Fig. 1.5 shows how one person's over-indulgence spreads outwards to others.

1.5 Board exam practice

Board papers test the supplementary reader through short answers of about 40–50 words and long answers of about 100–120 words. The extracts below help you revise the details quickly. For long answers, follow the four-step plan in Fig. 1.6: make a point, give evidence, explain it, then link it back to the question.