Page 33 - English Expedition Class 4

5 Peter’s Coal-Mine

Is it right to take someone else’s property without paying for it because you need it but do not
have the money to pay for it? What would you do if you saw a poor boy steal food from a stall
because he was very hungry but did not have the money to buy it?

The following excerpt is from the novel The Railway Children. Roberta (Bobbie), Peter
and Phyllis lived with their parents in London. Their parents loved them a lot and cared for
them. The children had everything they needed. One day, two men came to their house and
their father had to leave with them. Their mother told them that their father had to go away on

some urgent business. Everything changed after their father left. Soon they moved to another
town. Read the chapter to find out what happens there.

The house the three children and their
mother moved into was on top of a hill. The

railway station was situated at the bottom.
The very next day the children went down
the hill to the station.
There was a wooden fence at the end of
the way and the children climbed on top of

it to watch the trains. They became excited
when they saw one going past them.
They walked around the station and saw

a large heap of coal on one side in the station
1
yard and a white line on the coaly wall.
2
When the porter came out of his room,
Peter asked, ‘How do you do? What is that
white mark on the coal for?’ The porter told

him that it indicated how much coal there was in the heap and if anyone stole it, he
would come to know.
Mother had often told them that they were ‘quite poor now’, but this did not seem

to be anything but a way of speaking. There was always enough to eat and they wore

1 coaly: covered with coal 2 porter: a person who carries luggage at a railway station
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