The Borrowers Chapter 4 Summary

  • Pod tells Arrietty to run off to bed, while he tells Homily some pretty bad news.
  • He's been "seen."
  • Oh no. Not "seen"! Wait a minute—what does he mean? And why is it so bad?
  • Doesn't everybody see everybody else all the stinkin' time?
  • Pod tells his wife that as he was trying to climb down the curtain with the teacup and saucer, he was seen by a boy.
  • Homily freaks out again, rambling on about how they will have to emigrate—that is, move to a new land—like Hendreary and his wife Aunt Lupy, who now live in a badger hole with their four children. That does not sound ideal.
  • Homily says she and her cultured and educated daughter could never adjust to eating mice and nuts and berries and living among the earthworms like the Hendrearys do. Ew.
  • Pod tries to calm his wife down by saying that the boy actually helped him get down, and seemed very gentle. So hey, it's all good in the hood.
  • But Homily reminds him that Eggletina was about Arrietty's age when she was snatched by a cat after Hendreary was seen upstairs. Me-ouch.
  • The same thing won't happen to their Arrietty, Pod says, because her cousin Eggletina didn't know about how dangerous "Upstairs" is.
  • When Homily points out that they never actually told their daughter, they decide to tell her tonight.
  • The sooner the better.