NCERT Solutions Class 10 English (Footprints without Feet)
The NCERT Solutions in English Language for Class 10 English (Footprints without Feet) Chapter – 8 (The Hack Driver) has been provided here to help the students in solving the questions from this exercise.
Chapter – 8 (The Hack Driver)
Read and Find Out
1. Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion ? What does he first think about the place ?
Answer – The lawyer is sent to New Mullion to serve summons on Oliver Lutkins. He first thinks about the place to be a sweet and simple country village. But he finds it dirty and unclean.
2. Who befriends him ? Where does he take him ?
Answer – A delivery man (Oliver Lutkins himself) befriends him. He takes him to the Fritz’s, Gustaffs barber shop and Wade’s Hill. He finally takes him to Lutkins’ house and his mother’s.
3. What does he say about Lutkins ?
Answer – He says that Lutkins never pays anybody a cent. He is not really bad. But it is hard to make him part with his money. Then he escapes meeting.
1. What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family ?
Answer – Bill says that Lutkins has a mother. They have a farm three miles north. But her mother is a real terror. She is about nine feet tall and four feet thick. She is as quick as a cat.
2. Does the narrator serve the summons that day ?
Answer – No, the narrator did not serve the summons that day.
3. Who is Lutkins ?
Answer – The hack driver himself is Lutkins but pretends to be Bill Magnuson. He tricks the lawyer to avoid the summons to be a witness in a case.
Think About It
1. 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 ?
Answer – No, ‘Bill’ did not know initially that the lawyer was looking for him. He must have made his plan for fooling the lawyer when the lawyer told him that he was looking for Lutkins, as he knew that he was required as a witness but did not want to give his testimony.
2. 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 ?
Answer – Lutkins never allows the lawyer to reach the place where the imaginary Lutkins is supposed to be present at a given time. The way he weaves stories about Lutkins’ vagabond nature and the way he scares the lawyer about Lutkins’ mother are ways of fooling the lawyer devised by the hack driver. Everywhere he does not allow the lawyer to ask about Lutkins but he himself pretends to ask about him, which the villagers are knowing is a pretence. So the villagers also join in the whole drama.
3. Why do you think Lutkins’ neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer ?
Answer – The neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer because he was a lawyer. A lawyer is supposed to be intelligent and clever. But Lutkins deceived such a man. This was really superb of him. So they were anxious to see such a lawyer who had been befooled.
4. 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 ?
Answer – No, absolutely not. After knowing how Lutkins had made fool of him, he would never return to New Mullion to practice law.
5. Do you think the lawyer was gullible ? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride ?
Answer – Yes, the lawyer was surely gullible. If he had had a worldly experience, he would not have been befooled by Lutkins himself.
Talk About It
1. Do we come across persons like Lutkins only in fiction or do we encounter them in real life as well ? You can give examples from fiction, or narrate an incident that you have read in the newspaper, or an incident from real life.
Answer – Persons like Lutkins are found in real life as well. They do not just appear in stories. They are very much real. Newspapers are full of reports of such tricksters. There is this famous con man in ‘David Copperfield’ written by Charles Dickens. His name is Uriah Heep. He traps a gullible, rich old man. The old man depends on him entirely. He takes advantage of his trust and takes all his money. He makes the old man an addict to alcohol. Then he forces the old man to marry his daughter to him.
2. Who is a ‘con man’, or a confidence trickster ?
Answer – A ‘con man’ is a trickster. He is a master at deceiving people like the young lawyer being deceived by Lutkins himself.
