41 pages • 1 hour read
E. NesbitFive Children and It
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Scalps”
Cyril, who has been reading The Last of the Mohicans, idly wishes that there were “Red Indians in England […] just about the right size for us to fight” (179). At the gravel pit, the Sand-fairy tells them that their wish has been granted. None of the children can recall making a wish until Jane turns up Cyril’s book. Afraid that the Lamb will be scalped, Anthea quickly forms a plan, “just like a born general” (182). She breaks her mother’s water jug, breaks into the missionary box for money, and gives Martha the money to buy a new one, convincing the nursemaid to take the Lamb with her. Anthea then bursts into tears of relief, horrifying Jane, who tries to comfort her.
Soon enough, the children see a painted face with feathers in its hair from out a window. Anthea announces that they should dress up like Indigenous people themselves, and they do, using feathers and blankets, black fabric for wigs, and red paint. Then, they rush out to confront the attackers, who are all the same size as Cyril.
Anthea waves a flag of truce, and the leader, Golden Eagle of the “mighty tribe of Rock-dwellers” (188), offers to speak to the children. Anthea introduces herself as “Black Panther” of the Mazawattee (a popular tea company); Cyril is great chief “Squirrel,” Jane is “Wild Cat,” and Robert is “Bobs,” each head of a different group. Anthea tells the Rock-dwellers to leave, as she has a group of warriors hidden out of sight. Then, the children run for the gravel pit, pursued by the Rock-dwellers, who have seen through their ruse. They “scalp” the children but only gain the wigs. Golden Eagle wishes that his people were at home, where there would be wood available to build a fire, and the Psammead grants his wish.
Martha returns with a new jug, given to her for free by a cousin who owns a china shop. She also brings the news that she has become engaged to Beale, the gamekeeper, who has been courting her ever since the children’s adventure at the vicarage. With relief, Anthea returns the money she had borrowed from the missionary box.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Last Wish”
The children are discussing their next wish when they receive a letter from their mother saying that their grandmother is better and that both parents will be home that afternoon. They decide that the wish should be to please their mother. Just then, Martha arrives with the news that Lady Chittenden, who previously tried to steal the Lamb, has been robbed of her jewelry. Jane wishes that their mother could have the jewelry.
Cyril and Anthea look at each other gloomily, knowing that this is bound to get them in trouble with the police. The children consider telling the truth about the Psammead but realize that, although its existence is real, it’s “not true enough for grown-up people to believe it” (197).
Mother arrives, and after she shares all her news, she discovers a jewelry case in her bedroom and places a valuable ring on her finger. Asking how it came to be there, the children “truthfully” answer that they don’t know. More jewelry turns up in other parts of her room.
As Jane begins to sniffle, Mother sternly asks what she knows about the jewelry, to which Jane replies, “We found a Fairy.” Cyril jumps in with the news that Lady Chittenden’s jewelry has been stolen and says that the burglars must have planted it in the house. Mother questions Martha, who admits that she is engaged to Beale, the gamekeeper. Beale helped her clean the bedroom windows but remained outside.
The children long to tell the truth but know that they will be locked up in a psychiatric hospital if they do. Mother decides to go notify the police, disregarding the children’s pleas to stay. The children are miserable until Anthea gets an idea. She and Jane rush to the gravel pit and find the Psammead. Anthea first confirms that it hates giving wishes and then says that the children will never ask for another wish if it will just grant them one more. Together, she and Jane wish that Lady Chittenden will have never lost her jewels and that Mother will not reach the police and will forget about the jewels.
Growing weak, the Psammead asks them to please add a wish that they never tell anyone about it. Grown-ups would get hold of it and wish for “dull” things that would turn the world “topsy-turvy,” like a graduated income tax, old-age pensions, and free secondary education. Anthea repeats the wish, and after adding a few more wishes to clear Martha of any suspicion, the girls thank the Sand-fairy, bid it goodbye, and make a last wish that they will see it again someday. It grants the wish.
Back home, the girls tell their brothers what has transpired as Mother returns from what she describes as a trip to buy the girls’ autumn school dresses. Beale brings the news that the jewels were never lost at all, only taken to be cleaned. As the story closes, the children wonder when they will see the Psammead again. They do see it again, the author explains, but she will not say when.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
The book’s treatment of Indigenous Americans employs racist stereotypes and tropes, including feathers, face paint, and scalping, which perpetuate harmful ideas that Indigenous people are violent and all alike. The author also calls them “poor untutored savages” (191). Like the treatment of the Roma in Chapter 3, the text reflects contemporary imperialist attitudes. J. M. Barrie’s 1904 stage version of Peter Pan introduced similar stereotypes, with the “good” Indigenous character of Tiger Lily in opposition to the “bad” characters who wish to harm Peter and his friends.
Magic continues to betray the inexperienced user in these last chapters. The Psammead is always right about the children’s lack of sense in wish making. In addition to creating tension and humor in the novel, the Psammead gives the children some insight into their shortcomings, as it does in Chapter 10. To Cyril’s wish that the house would be attacked by Indigenous Americans, it remarks, “A nice thing you’ve let yourselves in for!” and Jane answers, “We always do, somehow” (179).
Jane’s thought about acting “like a born general” is one of several places in the novel where the comparison is used as high praise for quick thinking under pressure. Cyril compares himself to “any born general” in Chapter 4 and calls Mother a “born general” in Chapter 11 (92, 202). As the Edwardian period dawned, memories of the great generals of Victorian times were still strong, particularly those who served in the Second Boer War. Nesbit, deeply involved in politics, would also have had military conflicts on her mind as she witnessed Germany’s naval race with England, one of the tensions that led to World War I.
Tears are a sign of weakness in the novel, associated with babyishness and mostly exhibited by Jane and the Lamb. As the children discover that they are locked in the church tower at the end of Chapter 4 and beginning of Chapter 5, the author promises not to tell who cried and instead shows Anthea putting away a handkerchief and hugging Jane. This is why Anthea’s open tears after she rescues the Lamb in Chapter 10 so horrify Jane, although they are tears of relief. The scene is a tender moment between the two sisters and a contrast to the frequent squabbling between Cyril and Robert.
Children who want to do good but instead fail dismally are a familiar topic in children’s literature, and in fact, Nesbit’s Bastable Children series features a book called The Wouldbegoods (1901), in which that set of siblings does just that. In Chapter 11, it is Jane who initiates the most miserable adventure of all, in which the children picture themselves being carted off to a psychiatric hospital as their parents go to jail, all because they tried to help their mother. Fittingly, it is also Jane who, along with Anthea, solves the problem with the help of the Psammead.
Nesbit spoofs her own socialist beliefs as the Psammead describes much-needed social reforms, such as the graduated income tax and free secondary education, as “dull.” The creature symbolizes tradition and common sense, yet Nesbit indicates through this last scene that sometimes tradition isn’t always a good thing. The children have no reaction to the Psammead’s plea except to accede to its wishes not to tell anyone about it. They are not reformers; they are simply realistic young people in search of adventure.
The long-suffering Martha’s kindness to the children is rewarded in the last chapter when she finds romance with the gamekeeper whom the children brought home in Chapter 5. This romance is the only bit of lasting good done by the children.
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