Summary of 'The Little Girl' by Katherine Mansfield

The story revolves around a little girl named Kezia. To her, her father was a terrifying giant. He was very strict, demanding, and never played with her. She was so afraid of him that she would stutter (stammer) whenever she had to speak to him, even though she spoke perfectly well with others. Her only comfort was her loving grandmother.

To bridge the gap, her grandmother suggested Kezia make a yellow silk pincushion as a surprise gift for her father's upcoming birthday. Kezia stitched three sides of the cushion but needed something soft to stuff inside it. In her innocent search, she went into her parents' bedroom and found some fine sheets of paper on the table. She tore them into tiny pieces and stuffed the cushion. Tragically, those papers contained her father's highly important speech for the Port Authority. Furious at the loss, her father punished her severely by hitting her little pink hands with a ruler.

Crying, Kezia wondered why God made fathers. She watched her neighbors, the Macdonalds, playing happily and laughing with their children in the garden. She concluded that there were 'different sorts of fathers'—some loving, and some cruel like hers.

One day, Kezia's mother fell ill and had to go to the hospital with the grandmother. Kezia was left alone at home at night with her father. She had a terrifying nightmare about a butcher with a knife. Screaming in fear, she woke up to find her father beside her bed. He gently carried her to his own big bed, tucked her in warmly, and let her hold his shirt. Exhausted from his hard day at work, he fell asleep before she did. In that quiet moment, Kezia finally realized that her father wasn't cruel. He simply worked too hard to have the energy to play like Mr. Macdonald, but he had a 'big, warm heart' underneath his strict exterior.