The Borrowers

Before the boy leaves to find a book, he asks Arrietty about the Borrowers’ world. She tells him about her family and about how Uncle Hendreary had to leave the house after a human saw him. She describes all of the beautiful items that her parents used to own, borrowed from his Great Aunt Sophy, and how most of their things were destroyed when the kitchen boiler broke and flooded their home. According to Arrietty, Great Aunt Sophy is the only human whom Pod sees regularly, and he lets her see him as well since he knows that she represents no risk. Because she is old and is often drunk on Fine Old Pale Madeira, Great Aunt Sophy believes that the tiny man is just a figment of her imagination. The boy begins to complain about Great Aunt Sophy and the housekeeper, Mrs. Driver, saying that they are always scolding him and telling him what to do.

As Arrietty describes all the items that her father has borrowed over the years, the boy becomes convinced that Borrowers are actually thieves. Arrietty disagrees, claiming that humans exist for the sake of Borrowers. Both children argue that the other’s species is dying out. The boy believes his view is correct because he has only seen two Borrowers but knows hundreds of humans; likewise, Arrietty has seen only one human but claims to know many Borrowers. The boy believes Arrietty and her parents to be the last Borrowers on earth, a declaration that angers Arrietty, who threatens never to read to him. He appeases her by saying that if she does, he will help her get a letter to her aunt and uncle in the badger den two fields away. The boy leaves to grab a book, but before he comes back, Pod calls Arrietty to head home for dinner.

When Pod and Arrietty return home, Homily is waiting for them at the gate, eager to hear about Arrietty’s first borrowing experience. She has made a delicious feast in their absence: two roasted chestnuts to be eaten in slices like bread, along with a few dried currants, crumbs of cinnamon bread, and one potted shrimp for each Borrower. They use silver coins for plates and sit on old thread spools as chairs. Arrietty looks around her familiar home in wonder, seeing everything in a newly appreciative light after her adventure to the outside world. She is especially drawn to watching her mother use their makeshift teapot, an “oak apple” with a piece of quill for a spout.

Homily asks if Pod was able to get her any blotting paper, which she knew was in the morning room. Pod reports that he did not go into that room because he got his “feeling” indicating the dangerous presence of humans. According to Pod and Homily, every Borrower has a different strange feeling they get when a human is nearby. For Pod, this feeling occurs in his head and fingers. Arrietty’s parents ask her whether she had a similar feeling, and when she says no, they tell her that such sensitivity will come with time and that she should learn what her feeling is by standing in their kitchen when Mrs. Driver is in the human kitchen above. Arrietty does not mention the boy, although she feels flustered by lying to her parents, worried that she will slip and somehow reveal what she saw. After dinner, Arrietty sits down with her diary. She tears out a page, writes a quick letter to Uncle Hendreary, and hides it inside another book.

For the next several days, Pod decides not to go borrowing and instead organizes the storeroom, a hole where the family keeps their spare borrowed items. Although Arrietty is usually fascinated by this job, this time she is distracted and frustrated; she wants to go back into the main house so that she can slip her letter under the front mat where the boy said he would look for it. One day, she sees him through the grate, running around the yard pretending to be a train. Despite his proximity to her vantage point, she has no way to reach him, and he cannot hear her yelling over his train noises. She tries to escape the house but cannot even unlatch the first gate.

Eventually, Homily convinces Pod to go to the morning room to get her blotter paper, and Arrietty finally has her chance to deliver the letter. She is excited to see a new room and thinks about the Overmantles as she gazes at the mantlepiece, imagining their elegant style, old-fashioned clothing, and upper-class way of life. She wonders where they are now, as she cannot imagine them being willing to live in a badger hole like her aunt and uncle. Suddenly, she remembers her letter and sneaks into the hall to hide it beneath the heavy doormat. When Pod returns with the blotting paper, she helps him roll it up so they can carry it down the hole.

Homily is worried when they return, for she heard Mrs. Driver and the gardener, Crampfurl, discussing their anger at the boy, who has been moving the mats in the hall. Arrietty cannot hide her disappointment, although she tries to feign ignorance to her parents even as she worries that the boy will never find the letter she just placed beneath the mat. She runs to kitchen to listen to the humans’ conversation but falls when she tries to climb onto a spool to get closer to the floor. Meanwhile, Mrs. Driver and Crampfurl sit in the human kitchen above, drinking Fine Old Pale Madeira. They hear the crash of Arrietty’s fall, but Mrs. Driver insists that it is only coal falling in the boiler.