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Stuart Little
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Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “A Fair Breeze”
One day, Stuart sets out on an adventure. His destination is Seventy-second Street. At the bus stop, the other travelers don’t notice him because of his small size. He thinks, “I’m not tall enough to be noticed, yet I’m tall enough to want to go to Seventy-second Street” (27).
On the bus, Stuart tells the driver he doesn’t have an ordinary dime to pay the fare, only a bit of tinfoil that his father has made to look like a Stuart-sized coin. The driver remarks that it’s no wonder, since Stuart is hardly bigger than a dime himself. Stuart is offended to have his size underestimated and declares that he is more than twice the size of a dime.
He leaves the bus at Central Park and hurries to the sailboat pond, where a crowd of men and boys are sailing model ships. The boats are miniature perfection—beautiful sloops and schooners. The most beautiful of them all is the Wasp, a black schooner. Stuart approaches the ship’s owner and asks for a berth (a job) on her.
The owner of the vessel, Dr. Paul Carey, is impressed by Stuart’s manner. He points out one of the other boats, a racing schooner named Lillian B. Womrath. She is the Wasp’s chief rival on the pond, and Doctor Carey promises Stuart a regular job if he can beat the Lillian B. Womrath in a race. Stuart accepts with alacrity, leaps aboard the Wasp, and takes her wheel.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Sailboat Race”
The news that a mouse is steering the Wasp attracts a crowd. The race between the Wasp and the Lillian B. Womrath has hardly begun when the excited crowd accidentally pushes the police officer into the pond, which—as he is quite a large man—creates a towering wave that washes Stuart overboard. It seems that Stuart may be drowned and the race lost before it has begun. However, a determined Stuart pulls himself back aboard and seizes the helm again.
Reaching the far end of the pond, the Wasp and the Lillian B. Womrath are head-to-head. They turn and sail for the other side of the pond and the finish line. Stuart sees that the ship’s barometer is falling, and a cloud blocks out the sun. The Lillian B. Womrath is behind but coming up fast. While Stuart is distracted, he fails to see a paper bag floating on the surface of the pond. He tries to turn at the last moment, but he is too late. The Wasp plows right into the bag, and a moment later the bow of the Lillian crashes through his rigging.
Leaping for the halyards (ropes), Stuart drops the sails, then cuts away the paper bag. Grabbing the foresail boom, he rolls the Wasp’s rail out from under the Lillian’s bow. The Wasp shakes herself free and sails again for the finish line while the Lillian spins out of control. Stuart reaches the finish to great applause, and Doctor Carey assures Stuart that he is welcome to command the Wasp anytime he likes.
Stuart returns home triumphantly. George asks him where he has been all day, to which Stuart replies merely, “Oh, knocking around town” (46).
Chapter 8 Summary: “Margalo”
Stuart is so small that he is often overlooked even by his own family. His father makes him a bright red hunting cap in the hope of making him a bit more visible. One day, Stuart is in the kitchen feeling hungry, so when his mother opens the refrigerator, Stuart pops in to find a snack. He assumes, wrongly, that his mother has seen him, and he is trapped when she closes the door. He is in the refrigerator for half an hour before Mrs. Little finds him again. By that time, he has contracted bronchitis and is sick in bed for two weeks.
While he is ill, his father makes him a little pair of ice skates, and George makes him a bow and arrow. During this same period, Mrs. Little finds a small bird unconscious on the windowsill and brings it inside. The bird quickly recovers and goes hopping about the house, eventually finding her way into Stuart’s room. Stuart is entranced by the delicate little creature, and she tells him her name is Margalo.
Margalo goes to bed in the Boston fern in the living room, and Stuart asks his mother if she will be safe there. He is concerned that Snowbell might hurt her, but Mrs. Little assures him that Snowbell would never do such a thing.
Stuart knows better. He can’t sleep until he knows that Margalo is safe. Taking the little bow and arrow, he goes downstairs and climbs up to the shelf with the Boston fern. He waits in hiding until he spots Snowbell’s eyes gleaming from behind the sofa. Snowbell creeps onto a chair and prepares to spring to the shelf. Nocking the arrow and drawing his bow, Stuart fires the arrow into Snowbell’s ear, driving him off. Stuart blows a kiss toward the sleeping Margalo and returns to bed.
Chapter 9 Summary: “A Narrow Escape”
Margalo stays with the Littles for a while, and Stuart loves her more every day. After he recovers from his illness, he takes the skates his father made him and goes out in search of an icy pond. No sooner does he step out on the street, however, than he sees a dog. He scrambles into a garbage can and waits for the dog to pass, but while he’s there, the garbage truck arrives, and Stuart is dumped into the back.
The truck carries him to a garbage scow, and he is dumped out with the garbage and knocked unconscious. When he recovers his senses, he finds the scow is being towed out into the ocean where the garbage will be dumped. Stuart sees no escape. Sure he is about to die, he thinks of his home and weeps at the thought of never seeing it again.
Fortunately, Margalo saw him getting dumped in with the trash and followed the truck. She reaches Stuart on the scow and offers to carry him home. Stuart is a heavy load for the tiny bird. Halfway across the water, Stuart realizes he is still carrying his skates, which are hanging around his neck by the laces. He has no choice but to drop them, which lightens the load enough for Margalo to get them both home. The Littles are overjoyed when they return; Mr. Little asks about the ocean, and for the first time, Stuart describes one of his adventures to his parents.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Springtime”
A household pet by day, Snowbell is a nighttime prowler. One night, when he is out with a beautiful Angora, he confesses how nerve-racking it is to live in the same house as a mouse and a bird and have to control his instinct to hunt them. The Angora recommends that he simply eat them, but Snowbell is well aware that Stuart is a member of the family and Margalo is a “permanent guest,” as Snowbell is himself.
The Angora offers to relieve Snowbell’s dilemma by eating Margalo herself. This seems reasonable to Snowbell, and he tells her how to get into the house the following night. A pigeon overhears the plot and writes Margalo a note reading, “Beware of a strange cat who will come by night — A Well Wisher” (70).
Margalo is so frightened by the note that she doesn’t dare show it to anyone. After some deliberation, she hops to the windowsill, and, without saying goodbye to anyone, flies away north—north being the direction for a bird to go when spring comes.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
These middle chapters deal with the motif of playacting, which ties into The Balance Between Youth and Maturity. Stuart wears costumes like his sailor suit and acts out adventures. There is one sense in which Stuart has the advantage over more ordinary-sized people. For him, adventure on the high seas is a mere bus ride away, while for grown men like his father or Doctor Carey, such adventures are limited to the world of imagination. This will remain true for Stuart even when he becomes an adult.
This description of the sloops and schooners reflects the author’s own love of sailing. The scene is full of drama and movement. The waves are cresting, billowing, and crashing. The ships are heeled over, sailing “into the teeth of the wind” with their deck rails near the water and their decks gleaming (38). The action is described in grand terms. This is juxtaposed by the imagery of the solid land of New York City, such as honking taxis and peanut shells. These types of contradictory descriptions are called conceit, and White uses them to add a humorous level of gravity to the boat race.
In these chapters, Stuart deals with the more negative aspects of Being Small in a Large World. Stuart is aware that he seems small to other people, and yet he wistfully notes that his dreams are as big as anyone else’s, if not bigger. Consequently, Stuart is offended by the bus driver’s remark about his height. Though the comment was innocuous, Stuart does not want other people underestimating him. Being so small and easily overlooked, Stuart must stand up for himself to make sure he is seen and respected. Despite his desire for recognition and acknowledgment, Stuart keeps his adventures private, especially from his family. His triumph in the boat race is one of the few occasions when he is not only noticed but widely acclaimed in public, and he keeps it to himself.
Margalo’s entry into Stuart’s life tips the scale on The Balance Between Youth and Maturity. His interactions with her are the first intimation that the boy will soon become a man, though they maintain a childish, fairytale quality. His defense of Margalo, and especially the chaste kiss he blows her way while she sleeps, is the act of a chivalrous knight or a pure-hearted hero. Margalo and Stuart’s pure love embodies the theme of Embracing the Differences of Others. They look out for each other—Margalo rescues Stuart just as he rescued her—and do not care that they are entirely different species.
Stuart is growing toward adulthood, but the experience with the garbage scow shows that he is not yet ready to leave home. As he is being carried out to sea, all he can think of is his home and family. However, the dropping of the skates his father made for him foreshadows the reality that following Margalo will mean leaving behind the love and protection of his family. Another small sign of his maturity comes when Stuart tells his family about his adventure on the garbage scow. Previously, he has kept his adventures private, like a child who lives in his imagination. Margalo draws his secret life out of him and turns his focus to the outer world. Stuart’s father, by contrast, dreams of seeing and doing the things Stuart has seen and done, but he is constrained by family and responsibility. In a sense, he has never left home himself.
White reminds readers in these chapters that his characters, while anthropomorphized, are not human. Snowbell’s confession—that he must fight against hunting Stuart and Margalo—shows that although Snowbell can talk, and is capable of expressing emotions like a human, he is still very much a cat. Likewise, the title of Chapter 10, “Springtime,” suggests the reason Margalo doesn’t tell Stuart about the warning note but instead flies away without a goodbye. As a bird, her heart tells her to fly north; her love for Stuart holds her back. The note shifts the balance and gives her an excuse to leave. Margalo is a wild bird. She was never meant to live tamely in a house, and she was never really meant for Stuart. He is meant to follow her, not necessarily to have her. In the final chapters, Margalo’s abrupt departure becomes the jolt Stuart needs to leave home and step toward adulthood.
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By E. B. White
