Then she gave her some bread and butter and a little bottle of milk and a big apple, too.

"Nancy must not go into the water. You must look after2 her," my mother said to me.

"All right, Mother," I said.

We went to the little river. Then my friends and I took off our shoes and socks and went into the water to fish with our fishing-nets. It was summer, and the water was warm.

"You must not go into the water," I said to my sister. "Don't take off your shoes and socks. You can't fish. Pick stones and put them into your bag."

We fished and fished, but we did not catch any fish. Then one boy said:

"Look, your sister is in the water."

We saw my naughty little sister in the water with her shoes and socks on.

"Get out of the water3!" I said.

"No," said my naughty little sister.

I wanted to catch her, but she ran away and fell down in the water. Her dress was wet, her hair was wet, and her shoes and socks were wet, too.

 

 

We pulled her out of the water.

"She may catch cold4," said the children.

"Go and sit in the sun!" they said to her.

We took off her wet things and put them all on the grass to dry. My sister began to cry.

We gave her some bread and butter, and she ate it all up5. She ate up all her bread and butter and all my bread and butter. She drank her milk and my milk, too. Then she ate her apple.

When her dress and her shoes and socks were dry6, she put them on and we went home.

"Your sister was in the water," said my mother.

"How did you guess, Mother," I said. "We dried all her things."

"Yes, you dried them, but you did not iron them."

At supper I did not get any cake. Mother said:

"Only bread and butter for you. You did not look after your sister very well."

So I got only bread and butter.

My sister went to bed, and my mother gave her some hot milk.

But do you know what my mother found in the little bag?

She found a fish! Yes, a little fish!

 

 

"Look!" said my mother. "Your little sister caught a fish with her little bag."

II. My Naughty Little Sister Is Ill

My little sister liked to talk. She talked to everybody. She talked to the people who came to our house. She talked to the people in the street and in the shops. She talked to her friend the postman. Everybody liked to talk to my little sister. She was very funny.

One day my little sister fell ill7.

"I am ill," she said.

"You must stay in bed," said my mother, "and I shall call the doctor8."

"No doctor! Bad doctor! I don't like the doctor!" said my naughty little sister.

"The doctor is a nice man. He will make you well again9," I said to Nancy.

My mother gave Nancy a cup of hot milk. She gave her a doll and her best books. But my little sister did not want to play with her toys. She did not want to look at the pictures in her books.

"I am ill today," she said. Her friend the postman came to see her. He gave her a big red apple, a pencil and a little notebook, and he gave my mother a letter.

"I am ill," said my little sister to the postman.