Summary
Chapter 12: The Schoolroom
Stuart goes shopping for proper clothes for his trip, finding what he needs at a dolls’ shop. He spends the night at the dentist’s and then departs the next morning. He vows not to push the troublesome button on the car again.
As he drives out of the city, he sees a man sitting glumly by the side of the road. Engaging him in conversation, Stuart learns the man is a superintendent of schools and is worried because he needs a substitute teacher and has no one. Stuart volunteers, and promises to maintain discipline. The man is thrilled.
At 8:45 the students of School Number Seven gather, excitedly whispering that they have a substitute. When Stuart marches in and clambers onto the desk, they crowd around the desk to have a look at him. They are pleased to see how well he is dressed.
He calls them to order, shuts down useless questions, and moves deftly through the curriculum, getting rid of arithmetic and spelling. He suggests they just talk about something, such as the “King of the World.” They can discuss what laws they would make if they were King. Their eyes light up but they are confused by the term “King,” so they decide on “Chairman.” Stuart asks for good laws for the world and they propose several, ranging from no stealing to no being mean. He creates a test to see what will happen when young Harry is mean, stealing a little pillow sachet from Katharine. It is successful, and they decide not being mean is a good rule.
Stuart realizes he wants the pillow for himself and asks Katharine if she wants to sell the pillow, but she says it was given to her by a boy last summer. Stuart waxes poetic on the loveliness of summer, and tells the students never to forget their summers. He tells them it was a pleasure, and then dismisses them for the day. The children race along the little car’s side as he drives off, wishing he was their substitute every day.
Chapter 13: Ames’ Crossing
Stuart stops in a lovely little town for a drink. He parks his car in front of the general store and sits in the sun “for a few moments to enjoy the feeling of being in a new place on a fine day” (100). He thinks he could live here forever except that he would miss his family and New York City, and he wants to find Margalo.
The storekeeper comes out to smoke and joins Stuart. Stuart orders a sarsaparilla and tells the man he is looking for a bird. The storekeeper has not seen her, but ask Stuart how tall he is and then says there is someone in this town he must meet. Her name is Harriet Ames and she is his size, maybe a little shorter. She is young and pretty, and is well-dressed. Her family is prominent in the town, her ancestor a ferryman during the Revolutionary days.
Stuart replies that he is not much of a society man these days and never stays anywhere for a long time; he can be found on the “highways and byways…always looking for Margalo” (104). He departs from the town, intending to continue his journey, but decides to pull over for a swim and a rest on the bank of the river. He thinks of Harriet Ames, lingering at the river through supper and eventually spending the evening.
The next morning, he visits the post office and is startled to see a beautiful girl whom he knows must be Harriet Ames. He is not bold enough to talk to her but decides he will write her a letter. He tells her he is a “young person of modest proportions” who is traveling on business, and has received a “a most favorable report of your character and appearance” (109). He admits he looks something like a mouse but is well-proportioned and “muscular beyond my years” (109). He ends by proposing they meet, in particular take a canoe trip on the river where he is staying. He suggests sundown the following day, dreamily saying he loves the water and his canoe is his greatest friend.
Upon sealing the envelope, he remembers he does not have a canoe. He asks the storekeeper if he has one, which the man does, and for paddles, which he has in the form of two little ice cream spoons. Stuart is disgusted by the “paddles” but knows he is an excellent boatman and looks forward to showing off.
Chapter 14: An Evening on the River
When he gets back to his campsite, Stuart realizes he has been swindled—the canoe leaks. He plugs the hole, but it is still a cranky craft and he is displeased.
The afternoon passes; he thinks with great anticipation of nothing except his date tomorrow as he works on the canoe. He is full of plans and dreams, playing it all out in his head.
The next day dawns, but unfortunately it is rainy, not sunny. Stuart spends the day figuring out what to wear and worrying about how the date will go. At five he is relieved to hear Harriet coming down the path.
Stuart adopts an English accent and behaves courteously toward Harriet, asking her if she needs help getting into the canoe, but she is “an active girl and not inclined to stumble or fall” (120). To Stuart’s horror, the canoe is not there. He and Harriet look around the bank, and once Stuart finds it, he is dismayed to see that it is a wreck. He sits and buries his head in his hands, telling Harriet that he had everything perfect for their trip today but it is all ruined. Her suggestions about what to do instead annoy him, and she asks why he wants to simply sit and sulk. Finally she says goodbye, and he bids her goodbye as well. He is alone “with his broken dreams and his damaged canoe” (124).
Chapter 15: Heading North
Stuart sleeps under the canoe and wakes the next day to good weather. He leaves the town, but stops at a filling station to ask for five drops of gas for his car. The man is initially flummoxed, but gets a dropper to carry out the task.
Stuart is pleased and refreshed to be on the move again. He passes a man who seems to be a repairman for the telephone company, and they make polite conversation. Stuart describes Margalo and the man writes it down in his notebook, promising to keep his eyes open for the bird.
The man asks Stuart what direction he is heading, and when Stuart replies north, says that it is a nice direction and a person “who is heading north is not making any mistake, in my opinion” (129). Stuart agrees, and adds that he believes he will be traveling north until the end of his days. The repairman speaks of some of the amazing places he has been while following a telephone line north, and ends by saying he hopes Stuart finds the bird.
Stuart climbs into his car and begins heading north, the sun just coming up over the hills on his right. It seems a long way, but “the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction” (131).
Analysis
In these final chapters Stuart moonlights as a rather untraditional substitute teacher, and arrives at a town where he is waylaid by the beauty of the landscape and the dreams of a successful date with Harriet Ames, whose small stature complements his own. At the end of the novel he finally heads out of town, meeting a pensive repairman and deciding he will go north.
Like the rest of the book, these final chapters are odd. What explains Stuart’s odd approach to the classroom? Why is he so excited to go on a date with Harriet when he was on a literal journey to find Margalo, whom he professed to love? And why does White end the novel with pretty much no closure? In a New Yorker article on White, critic Jill Lepore gave her thoughts on the end of the novel: “‘Stuart Little’” leaves you in doubt, a good deal of doubt, really; it doesn’t exactly end so much as it’s just, abruptly, over. In Chapter VIII, Stuart falls in love with a bird named Margalo, and when she flies away he goes on a quest. In the book’s last chapter, he stops his coupe at a filling station and buys five drops of gas. In a ditch alongside the road, he meets a repairman, preparing to climb a telephone pole. ‘I wish you fair skies and a tight grip,’ Stuart says, thoughtfully. ‘I hope you find that bird,’ the repairman says. Then come the book’s final, distressing lines…Stuart Little isn’t Gregor Samsa. He’s Don Quixote, turning into Holden Caulfield.”
The book’s ending is indeed abrupt, and though there is a sequel, it’s not as well known and not as often read, so the end of Stuart Little really does seem like the complete end. We do not know if Stuart finds Margalo, where he finds her, if she is happy to see him, if she accompanies him back ,or if he stays with her. We can assume that it will turn out okay, since the ending features a sunrise and “the sky was bright, and [Stuart] somehow felt he was headed in the right direction” (131), but a happy ending is not necessarily provided. It is far from the traditional “happily ever after” of children’s books, offering readers of all ages the opportunity to reflect on the open-ended nature of many of our stories.
Returning to Lepore’s article, in her conclusion she refers to three other novels to make her point. Gregor Samsa is the man who wakes up as a large bug in Kafka’s Metamorphosis (1915), and eventually dies a lonely death. Don Quixote is the titular character of Miguel de Cervantes’ 1605 novel, a delightful dreamer who tilts at windmills and fails to really achieve his goals. And Holden Caulfield is the main character in J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye (1951), an alienated young man looking for meaning in the world. Her yoking together these three famous literary figures paints a compelling portrait of Stuart—he is lonely and not like everyone else, but he is adventurous and hopeful.
