Read the first paragraph of the
extract. Do you think the Miller
was really a devoted friend? Read
to find out.
Little Hans had a great many friends, but the most devoted friend of all was big Hugh the Miller. Indeed, so devoted was
the rich miller to little Hans, that he would
5. never go by his garden without leaning over the wall and plucking a large bunch of flowers, or a handful of sweet herbs, or filling his pockets with plums and cherries if it was the fruit season.
10. "Real friends should have everything in comm," the Miller used to say, and little Hans nodded and smiled, and felt very proud of having a friend with such noble ideas. Sometimes, indeed, the neighbours thought
15. it strange that the rich Miller never gave little Hans anything in return, though he had a hundred sacks of flour stared away in his mill, and six cows, and a large flock of woolly sheep; but Hans never troubled his head
20. about these things, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to listen to all the wonderful things the Miller used to say about the unselfishness of true friendship.
little Hans worked away in his garden. During the spring, the summer, and the autumn he was very happy, but when the winter came, and he had no fruit or flowers to bring to the market, he suffered a good deal from cold and hunger, and often had to go to bed without any supper but a few dried pears or same hard nuts.
"There is no good in my going to see little Hans as long as the snow lasts," the Miller used to say to his wife, "for when people
are in trouble they should be left alone, and
not be bothered by visiters.
So I shall
wait till the spring canes,
and then I shall pay him a visit, and he will be
able to give me a large
basket of primroses1 and that will maке him so happy."
"You are certainly very thoughtful about others," answered the
Wife, as she sat in her comfortable armchair by the big pinewood fire, "very thoughtful indeed
"I am sure the clergyman himself could not say such beautiful things as you do, though he does live in a three-storied house, and wears a gold ring cn his little finger."
"But could we not ask little Hans up here?" said the Millet's
youngest sen. "If poor Hans is in trouble, I will give him half my
porridge, and show him my white rabbits."
