NCERT Book Class 7 English Quality

Before you read

Can a shoemaker be called an artist? Yes, if he has the same skill and pride in his trade as any other artist, and the same respect for it too. Mr Gessler, a German shoemaker settled in London, is a perfect artist. Read this story to see how he devotes his life to his art.

Quality

knew him from the days of my extreme youth, because he made my father’s boots. He lived with his elder brother in his shop, which was in a small by-street in a fashionable part of London.

The shop had a certain quiet distinction. There was no sign upon it other than the name of Gessler Brothers; and in the window a few pairs of boots. He made only what was ordered, and what he made never failed to fit. To make boots—such boots as he made—seemed to me then, and still seems to me, mysterious and wonderful. I remember well my shy remarks, one day, while stretching out to him my youthful foot. “Isn’t it awfully hard to do, Mr Gessler?” And his answer, given with a sudden smile from out of the redness of his beard: “Id is an ardt!’’

It was not possible to go to him very often— his boots lasted terribly, having something beyond the temporary, some essence of boot stitched into them.

One went in, not as into most shops, but restfully, as one enters a church, and sitting on the single wooden chair, waited. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of his slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking—as if awakened from some dream of boots.

And I would say, “How do you do, Mr Gessler? Could you make me a pair of Russian-leather boots?”

Without a word he would leave me retiring whence he came, or into the other portion of the shop, and I would continue to rest in the wooden chair inhaling the incense of his trade. Soon he would come back, holding in his hand a piece of gold-brown leather. With eyes fixed on it he would remark, “What a beaudiful biece!” When I too had admired it, he would speak again. “When do you wand dem?” And I would answer, “Oh! As soon as you conveniently can.” And he would say, “Tomorrow fordnighd?” Or if he were his elder brother: “I will ask my brudder.”

Then I would murmur, ‘’Thank you! Good morning, Mr Gessler.” “Good morning’” he would reply, still looking at the leather in his hand. And as I moved to the door, I would hear the tip-tap of his slippers going up the stairs: to his dream of boots.

 Working with the Text

Answer the following questions.

1. What was the author’s opinion about Mr Gessler as a bootmaker?

2. Why did the author visit the shop so infrequently?

3. What was the effect on Mr Gessler of the author’s remark about a certain pair of boots?

4. What was Mr Gessler’s complaint against “big firms”?

5. Why did the author order so many pairs of boots? Did he really need them?

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 7 English Quality