NCERT Book Class 9 English (Beehive) Chapter 5 A Legend of the Northland; The Snake and the Mirror

5. The Snak Mirrror
Snakee and the Mir

BEFORE YOU READ
• Do you like to look at yourself in the mirror? What do you
think about at such times? Have you ever seen a dog, a cat
or a bird look into a mirror? What do you think it sees?
• Now read this humorous story about a doctor, a snake, and
a mirror.

1. “H AS a snake ever coiled itself round any part of
your body? A full-blooded cobra?” All of us fell silent.
The question came from the homeopath. The topic
came up when we were discussing snakes. We
listened attentively as the doctor continued with
his tale.

It was a hot summer night; about ten o’clock. I had
my meal at the restaurant and returned to my room.
I heard a noise from above as I opened the door.
The sound was a familiar one. One could say that
the rats and I shared the room. I took out my box of
matches and lighted the kerosene lamp on the table.
2. The house was not electrified; it was a small rented
room. I had just set up medical practice and my
earnings were meagre. I had about sixty rupees in meagre: small in
my suitcase. Along with some shirts and dhotis, I quantity.
also possessed one solitary black coat which I was
then wearing.
gable
3. I took off my black coat, white shirt and not-so-
white vest and hung them up. I opened the two
windows in the room. It was an outer room with
one wall facing the open yard. It had a tiled roof
gable: upper part of
with long supporting gables that rested on the beam a wall below a
over the wall. There was no ceiling. There was a sloping roof

56 / Beehive