summary of mrs packletides tiger
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Mrs. Packletide, the main character of the story, is jealous of Loona Bimberton, who talked of nothing else but her recent travel in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator. Mrs. Packletide became jealous and decided at that moment to kill a tiger and gift a tiger-claw brooch to Loona on her next birthday. For this, she even offered one thousand rupees to the villagers to arrange the shooting of a tiger, without much risk or exertion. The villagers were excited at the prospect of one thousand rupees and were ready to help her.
The great night arrived when the killing was to be done. Mrs. Packletide, along with a paid companion, Miss Mebbin, crouched on a platform constructed specially for this purpose on a tree.
A goat was fastened as bait for the tiger and everyone started waiting for the tiger. They had to wait for sometime and then they heard the footsteps of the tiger.
Mrs. Packletide fired a shot using her rifle and the tiger was dead. Everyone rejoiced over the killing, when they came down from the tree. Miss Mebbin drew Mrs. Packletide’s attention towards the bullet wound on the goat and not the tiger.
Actually, the bullet from the rifle had hit the goat which died instantly whereas, the tiger being an old one, just succumbed to heart-failure at the mere sound of a bullet. Anyhow, Mrs. Packletide was everywhere on the pages of the weekly newspapers and she sent the tigerclaw brooch to Loona Bimberton also. As for Miss Mebbin, she never forgot about the bullet-injury on the goat due to which Mrs. Packletide had to do something so that she didn’t give her away. She had to buy a weekend cottage for her near Darking in which Louisa Mebbin lived happily.