Page 128 - English Expedition Class 4

ALL : Merry Christmas, Mother! Thank you for our books.
MRS MARCH : Merry Christmas, dear ones! I want to say something before
we sit down. Not far away from here, stays a poor woman with

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a little newborn baby. Six children are all huddled into one
bed to keep warm for they have no fire. They have nothing to
eat. The eldest boy came to tell me they were suffering from

hunger and cold. My girls, will you give them your breakfast as
a Christmas present?
NARRATOR : The girls were very hungry as they had waited for breakfast for

nearly an hour. For a while everyone was silent.
JO : (excited ) I’m so glad you came back before we began to eat!

BETH : May I help you carry the things to the poor little children?
AMY : (heroically) I shall take the cream and the muffins.

MRS MARCH : I thought you’d do it. You shall all come along with me to help
the family. When we return, we will have bread and milk for

breakfast, and make it up at dinner time.
NARRATOR : So they packed their breakfast and set out to help the poor,
starving family. When they reached the place, they saw a poor,

bare, miserable room with broken windows, no fire and ragged
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bedclothes. They saw the sick mother, a wailing baby and a
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group of pale and hungry children all cuddled under one old
quilt, trying to keep themselves warm.
POOR WOMAN : The good angels have come to us!

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JO : Funny angels in hoods and mittens !
NARRATOR : The family began to help their neighbours immediately. Hannah,

who had carried wood, made a fire and blocked the broken
windowpanes with old hats and her own cloak. Mrs March gave
the mother tea and comforted her while she dressed the little
baby. The girls, in the meantime, spread the table, set the children

around the fire and fed them like they were hungry birds, laughing
and talking to them.

CHILDREN : This is the angel children!
NARRATOR : The girls had never been called ‘angel children’ before, and it
made them very happy to think that the children thought so.

6 huddled: crowded together 8 cuddled: (here) curled up
7 wailing: crying loudly 9 mitten: glove
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