The Borrowers

Pod interrupts Homily, saying that they did not bring Arrietty into the living room to talk about their former fun-filled lives. He begins asking Arrietty questions in order to determine how much she already knows about the world outside their home. Unlike her parents, Arrietty can read, so she is relatively worldly and assures her father that she knows the world is much larger than what she can see around her. Eventually, he explains that since he was seen by the boy, it is time to tell her about what happened to her cousin Eggletina.

Eggletina was Uncle Hendreary’s daughter, and unlike Arrietty, she was ignorant about the outside world, for her father Hendreary and her stepmother Lupy had tried to shield her from learning anything about it. They did not tell her that Hendreary had been seen or that the human family had gotten a cat in response. Eggletina eventually got frustrated with the restrictions in her life and decided to venture out on her own. At that point, there was only one gate between the clock and the Clock family’s home, so Eggletina was easily able to escape one day when her father absentmindedly left it open. Eggletina never returned, and the family eventually concluded that the cat had eaten her. After their loss, Hendreary and Lupy could not bear to live in the house, and Hendreary refused to go borrowing for fear of finding definitive evidence of Eggletina’s demise, so they left with their other five children, never to return.

After Eggletina disappeared, the Borrowers who remained in the house lived a quiet, fearful life, and Pod installed multiple gates to keep the cat at bay and keep the family inside. The cat was not the only problem the Borrowers faced; the human population of the house began to decline, and resources became scarce. Many Borrower families left when the humans put in a gas pipe, which gave them a tunnel of safety through which to escape across the fields and over to the nearby village of Leighton Buzzard. Eventually, the Clocks were the only family left in the house.

Arrietty listens to her parents intently but declares that she would rather leave the house or risk being eaten by a cat than continue to live such a restrictive, secluded life. Eventually, Homily begins to agree with her daughter and persuades Pod to take Arrietty with him on a borrowing trip on a day when they know the humans will not be home.

Three weeks later, Arrietty gets her first chance to explore the world when Homily asks Pod to get supplies to make her a new scrubbing brush. Ever since the boy spotted him, Pod only borrowed what they needed for survival, but Homily convinces him that the brush is a necessity and that Arrietty should go with him. She reassures him that since the housekeeper, Mrs. Driver, will be out and the lady of the house, Aunt Sophy, is bedridden, conditions will be relatively safe. Arrietty runs excitedly to get her shoes, eager to finally see the world outside their house.

Both father and daughter make their way through the maze of passageways between their home and the clock, with Pod stopping every so often to unlatch one of his complicated gates. He reminds her to never close a gate on the way out just in case a quick escape back home becomes necessary. Arrietty holds her breath as they reach the hole under the clock, trying to hide her excitement and concentrate on her father’s instructions. She watches him run across the tiled floor, looking tiny among the humans’ giant possessions. When he sees that the coast is clear, he beckons for Arrietty to follow him, and they make their way to a floor mat near the front door and begin pulling out fibers for Homily’s new brush. The door is open, and Arrietty can see the outside world beckoning her from beyond its frame. Although she wants to appear helpful to Pod so that she will be invited borrowing again, she struggles to pull out the mat fibers and sneezes in the resulting cloud of dust. Eventually, he tells her to go to the front steps so she can see outside since he will be able to gather supplies much more quickly by himself.

Once she is out the front door, Arrietty cannot help but begin to explore. She climbs down the shoe scraper despite Pod’s previous warning never to climb down something that a human might move, for fear of becoming stuck if they do so. Despite the stern lesson, Pod allows Arrietty to make her way into the yard, although he asks her not to wander too far. She convinces him to let her run around the side of the house to the grate that looks into their hole, hoping to get her mother’s attention from the outside. Homily is startled to see her daughter but is happy to see how much Arrietty is enjoying herself. Arrietty notes that there is moss growing on the outside of the grate, a result of her family throwing water through the slats year after year.

While Pod finishes gathering things from the house, he allows Arrietty to stay outside, and she is overjoyed by the opportunity to explore. She runs to a patch of primroses to pick the giant petals, watches insects crawling in the grass, and lies on her back in the undergrowth, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the smell of living things around her. She has a twinge of loneliness as she realizes that none of the bugs or birds are able to play with her, but she is excited to finally get firsthand experience of the world she has only seen through the narrow grate. As she sits among the primroses taking everything in, she realizes that there is a giant eye starting at her.