NCERT Solutions for Class 7 English Chapter 4 The Ashes that Made Trees Bloom

Ans : The neighbours dragged the dog around their garden to find a treasure for themselves. When the dog stopped near a pine tree and started scratching the ground, they dug happily hoping to find a treasure. When they saw that there was nothing in there except a dead kitten, they became furious at the dog. They kicked it and beat it to death. They killed it because it did not help them find a Treasure. 

Ans : (i) The old farmer and his wife loved the dog as if it was their own baby.
(ii) When the old couple became rich, they lived comfortably and were generous towards their poor neighbours.
(iii) The greedy couple borrowed the mill and the mortar to make a pile of gold. 

Ans : The old farmer was a kind person. He loved his dog as if it was his own baby. He fed it with fish with his own chopsticks and all the boiled rice it wanted. He was patient and kind to everything that had life, and often dug up a sod on purpose to give food to the birds. 

Ans : The dog came running to the farmer, putting its paws against his legs and motioning with its head to some spot behind. He thought it was only playing and did not mind it. However, the dog kept on whining and running to and fro for some minutes. Then the farmer followed it a few yards to a place where it began scratching the ground. The farmer thought there was a bone or a bit of fish buried there and therefore, struck his hoe in the earth. However, what he found was a pile of gold. 

Ans : (i) The spirit of the dog asked the farmer to cut down the pine tree over its grave, and make from it a mortar for rice pastry and a mill for bean sauce. The farmer did so. Some time close to the New Year, the farmer wanted to make some rice pastry. When the rice was boiled, his wife put it into the mortar and he pounded the mass into dough. When the pastry was ready for baking, the whole mass turned into a heap of gold coins. Similarly, when beans were ground in the hand-mill, gold started dropping from it like rain and in a few minutes, the tub under the mill was filled with gold.
(ii) Informing the farmer about how his wicked neighbours had burned the hand mill, the spirit of the dog asked him to take the ashes of the mill and sprinkle them on withered trees to make them bloom. The old man did so and found to his delight that the words of the spirit were indeed true. The bare cherry tree in his garden sprouted blossoms when a pinch of the ashes were sprinkled on it. Later, he was rewarded by the daimio for making an old withered cherry tree blossom once again.