Page 112 - Viva Real English 2 : Ebook

‘Let them pass!’ exclaimed the other. ‘And be more careful with your stick, or
you may make my flock leap into the river!’

So they argued and shouted, running this way and that, until Martin, a third
man of Gotham, appeared. He was coming back from Nottingham Market.
There was a sack of flour on the back of his horse.

He looked silently at the two men fighting with each other. Then he said
loudly, ‘Be calm! Don’t fight! Please help me lift this sack of flour onto my
shoulders, and I shall teach you an important lesson.’

They helped him lift the sack
onto his shoulders. Then

Martin walked to the edge of
the bridge. He opened the sack

and emptied the flour into
the river. He shook out the
sack and said, ‘Tell me, good

neighbours, how much flour is
in the sack now?’

‘Why, none,’ the two men

answered together.

‘That is a good reply,’ said he.

‘There is no flour in the sack
and there is no sense in your

foolish heads because you were
fighting about sheep which are
not here at all.’

Who do you think was the wisest of these three men of Gotham?

flock : a group of animals of a appeared : arrived, came
kind emptied : took out everything that
leap : jump quickly was in the sack

argued : spoke angrily because they

disagreed with each other
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