Back to: CBSE 9th English Chapters Summary
Table of Contents
Introduction
The story is about a girl named Johnsy who was not mentally ready to be healthy.
The Sick Johnsy
Sue and Johnsy shared a flat. Johnsy fell ill. The doctor checked her every day, but there was no change in her condition. The doctor told Sue that Johnsy had made up her mind not to get well.
Sue tried her best to revive Johnsy’s attention but all in vain. She also started to paint. One day, Johnsy’s whisper caught her attention, and she went close to Johnsy to hear. Johnsy told her that when the last leaf on that creeper falls, she will die.
Sue told her that it was autumn season and leaves were supposed to fall off their plants. Sue dismissed Johnsy’s statement and told her that the doctor was confident about her health.
A Leaf: The Harbinger of Death
Johnsy showed no interest in the soup that Sue bought her. Sue told Johnsy not to look out of the window and let her finish that painting so that she could get both of them some money. Johnsy wanted to die peacefully while watching the last leaf fall.
Kind Behrman
Sue went to Behrman, who lived on the ground floor. She asks Sue if Johnsy was stupid. Behrman came to see Johnsy, and she was ill as always. He returned to his room. The next Johnsy woke up and saw the leaf, and it was green and healthy. Johnsy was excited and told Sue to check the leaf as it was intact.
Johnsy now started to recover and was healthy again. She drank a lot of soup. Sue told her that sometimes you have to live for your friends. The following day Sue told Johnsy that Mr Behrman had died as he had pneumonia.
It was later discovered that Behrman went out in the stormy night to paint a leaf so that Johnsy would see the leaf still intact and recover. It was not a natural leaf but a painted one by Behrman.
