Page 13 - English Class 06

Aunt Polly was angry but she had to laugh. “He’s a bad boy”, she said to herself. “But, I

love him. He’s my poor dead sister’s boy and I must look after him. I don’t like to hit him,
but I have to, if I don’t punish him, he’ll grow up lazy and wicked. Yes, I must be strict,” aunt
Polly sighed. “I’ll have to punish him for stealing the jam. But how? I know tomorrow is
Saturday and there’s no school on Saturdays. The boys have a holiday. But, I’ll make Tom

work and it will punish him.”
The next day was Saturday. The school was shut. All the boys in the village were free. It

was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. The trees and flowers
looked so fresh and lovely. Tom, of course, wanted to go for swimming. All the other boys
were also going.

Tom came sadly out of the house. In one hand, he held a long brush and in the other, he
carried a bucket which was full of whitewash. His aunt was making him whitewash the
fence. Tom looked sadly at the fence. “How high it is! How long it is!”, he thought. Indeed

the height of the fence was nine feet and its length was thirty yards. Tom put his brush into
the whitewash. He drew it slowly across the fence. It made a very small white mark. Tom
tried again. Another very small white mark. Tom sat down and sighed heavily.

look after : take care
sigh : a long deep breath

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