The Little Girl
by Katherine Mansfield
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This story is about Kezia, a little girl who is afraid of her stern father and longs for his love. To Kezia her father is 'a figure to be feared and avoided'; he only gives orders, corrects her and makes her nervous, so that she even stutters when speaking to him. When she innocently tears up his important speech to stuff a pin-cushion she has made for his birthday, he punishes her by hitting her palms with a ruler, and she wonders 'What did God make fathers for?' Watching the neighbours, the Macdonalds, romp and laugh with their father, she decides there are different sorts of fathers. But one night, when her mother and grandmother are away in hospital and Kezia has a nightmare, her father takes her into his own bed and comforts her. Feeling how tired he is and realising he has 'no one to look after him', she snuggles close and says, 'What a big heart you've got, father dear.' The story shows how a lack of communication can make a child fear a parent, and how understanding can bring them together.
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A father to be feared
To Kezia, her father was a figure to be feared and avoided. Every morning he gave her a casual kiss and left, and she felt a glad sense of relief as the carriage rolled away. In the evenings he only gave orders, for his tea, his paper, his slippers, and when Kezia was sent to pull off his boots he looked at her over his spectacles in a terrifying way. She stuttered only with her father, because she tried so hard to say the words properly. Even on Sunday 'nice talks' he was asleep and snoring, and would tell her, 'Don't stare so, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl.'
The pin-cushion and the punishment
For her father's birthday, Kezia lovingly stitched a pin-cushion out of yellow silk, but to fill it she tore up sheets of fine paper from her mother's room, which turned out to be her father's great speech for the Port Authority. That night there was a hue and cry; when the truth came out, her father beat her little pink palms with a ruler, saying she must be taught 'not to touch what does not belong to you', even though she cried that it was for his birthday. Comforted later by her grandmother, Kezia sobbed, 'What did God make fathers for?', and she never forgot the hurt.
Different sorts of fathers
Through a hole in the fence Kezia watched the Macdonalds next door, five children playing 'tag' with their father, who ran round the flower beds with the baby on his shoulders, everyone shaking with laughter. Watching this, she decided there were different sorts of fathers.
'What a big heart you've got'
When her mother fell ill and went to hospital with the grandmother, Kezia was left alone with Alice the cook. That night the old nightmare of the butcher returned and she woke screaming for her grandmother. Her father came, blew out the candle, carried her to his big bed and tucked her up beside him. Half asleep, she crept close, snuggled her head under his arm and held tightly to his shirt. Tired out, he fell asleep before her, and a funny feeling came over her, poor father, not so big after all, with no one to look after him, working all day and too tired to be a Mr Macdonald. Laying her head on his chest she said, 'What a big heart you've got, father dear.'