The Last Letter PDF - Class 7 Ruskin Bond

## The Last Letter ### Page 1 - "I'll give them to you." I was dismissed from his presence. - I never saw those letters again. - And I’m glad to say I did not see Mr Priestley again. - All he'd given me was a lifelong aversion to violinists. ### Page 2 - I was given the news of my father’s deat...

## The Last Letter ### Page 1 - "I'll give them to you." I was dismissed from his presence. - I never saw those letters again. - And I’m glad to say I did not see Mr Priestley again. - All he'd given me was a lifelong aversion to violinists. ### Page 2 - I was given the news of my father’s death. - Those frequent bouts of malaria had undermined his health, and a severe attack of jaundice did the rest. - A kind but inept teacher, Mr Murtough, was given the unenviable task of breaking the news to me. - He mumbled something about God needing my father more than I did, and of course I realized what had happened. - I broke down and had to be taken to the infirmary, where I remained for a couple of days. - It never made any sense to me why God should have needed my father more than I did, unless of course He envied my father’s stamp collection. - If God was Love, why did He have to break up the only loving relationship I’d known so far? - What would happen to me now, I wondered… would I live with Calcutta Granny or some other relative or be put away in an orphanage? - Mr Priestley saw me in his office and said I’d be going to my mother when school closed. - He said he’d been told that I had kept my father's letters and that if I wished to put them in his safe keeping he’d see that they were not lost. - I handed them over, all except the one I’ve reproduced here. - The day before we broke up for the school holidays, I went to Mr Priestley and asked for my letters. ### Page 3 - "What letters?" He looked bemused, irritated. - He’d had a trying day. - "My father's letters”, I answered. - “You said you’d keep them for me.” - “Did I? Don’t remember. Why should I want to keep your father's letters?” - “I don't know, sir. You put them in your drawer.” - He opened the drawer, shut it. - “None of your letters here. I’m very busy now, Bond. If I find any ### Page 4 - that became loose and topsy-turvy after people came and went through the collections to buy stamps. - A good many got sold, the rest got mixed up a bit and it is now taking up all my putting the balance of collection in order. - But as I am at home all day, unable to go to work in the collection. - Ellen loves drawing. - I give her paper and a pencil and let her draw for herself without any help, to get her used to holding paper and pencil. - She has got expert at using her pencil now and draws some wonderful animals like camels, elephants, dragons with many heads, cobras, rain clouds shedding buckets of water, tigers with long grass around them - horses with manes and wolves and foxes with bushy hair. - Sometimes you can’t see much of the animals because there is too much grass covering them or too much hair on the foxes and wolves and too much mane on the horses' necks - or too much rain from the clouds. - All this decoration is made up by a sort of heavy scribbling of lines, but through it all one can see some very good shapes of animals, elephants and ostriches and other things. - I will send you some. - Well, Ruskin, I hope this finds you well. - With fond love from us all. Write again soon. ### Page 5 - and Ellen send you their fond love. - The last I heard a week ago, that William and all at Dehra were also well. - We have been without a cook for the past few days. - I hope we find a good one before long. - There are not many. - I wish I could get our Delhi cook, the old man is now famous for his black puddings which Ellen hasn't seen since we arrived in Calcutta four months ago. - I have still got the records and gramophone, but most of the best books, but as they are all getting old and some not suited to you ### Page 6 - when your holidays are on. - Do the holidays begin from the 9th of Sept? - What will you do? - Is there to be a scouts camp at Taradevi? - Or will you catch butterflies on sunny days on the school cricket ground? - I am glad to hear you have lots of friends. - Next year you will be in the top class of the prep. school. - You only have three and a half months more for the Xmas holidays to come round, when you will be glad to come home. - I am sure, to do more stamp work and library study. - The New Market is full of book shops here. Ellen loves the market. - I wanted to write before about your writing Ruskin, but forgot. - Sometimes I get letters from you written in very small handwriting, as if you wanted to squeeze a lot of news into one sheet of letter paper. - It is not good for you or for your eyes, to get into the habit of writing small: I know your handwriting is good and that you came first in class for handwriting, but try and form a larger style of writing and do not worry if you can't get all your news into one sheet of paper - but stick to big letters. - We have had a very wet month just passed. - It is still cloudy, at night we have to use fans, but during the cold weather it is nice - not too cold like Delhi and not too warm either, but just moderate. Granny is quite well. She ### Page 7 - My dear Ruskin, - Thank you very much for your letter received a few days ago. - I was pleased to hear that you were quite well and learning hard. - We are all quite OK here, but I am still not strong enough to go to work after the recent attack of malaria I had. - I was in hospital for a long time and that the reason why you did not get a letter from me for several weeks. - I have now to wear glasses for reading, but I do not use them for ordinary wear - but only when I read or do book work. - Ellen does not wear glasses at all now. - Do you need any new warm clothes? Your warm suits must be getting too small. - I am glad to hear the rains are practically over in the hills where you are. - It will be nice