Betty Bunter

4.9

Part I

Betty is a good pupil, she learns her lessons well, but she is often inattentive. She does not always think before she says or does something.

One day, Betty had English and history at school in the morning and sports in the afternoon. Her mother prepared her sports clothes and Betty put out her books for school and put her sports clothes into her bag.

At the beginning of the English lesson, the teacher said, “Take your English books and open them at page twenty-three. Betty opened her school-bag and took out her white sports shoes. All the pupils laughed.

Another day Betty’s mother said to her, “Betty, go and get some bread for tea.” Betty ran out into the street where the shops were. Then she thought, “What did Mum want me to get?” She looked to the right and saw a milk shop. “Oh yes, milk for tea,” she said. And she went in and got a bottle of milk.

“Oh, Betty!” said her mother when she came home. "Can’t you pay attention to what I say? I wanted you to get some bread for tea!”

“Oh, well,” said Betty, “we must have milk for tea too.”

Part II

Betty has an aunt who lives not far from the town. This aunt asked her to come and see her one Sunday. Betty went to the stop and got on the bus. When the bus stopped near Betty’s school, Betty got out and went to the school door. But the door was closed, and Betty went home.

“School is closed today,” she said to her mother.

“School?" said her mother. “You wanted to go to your aunt?" The next Saturday Betty made a cake to take to her aunt. On Sunday, she took the bus and went to her aunt's house. It is a very nice house in a beautiful garden where there are apple-trees.

She gave the cake to her aunt.

“What a beautiful cake!” said her aunt.

“I made it myself,” said Betty.

“Well, I shall lay the table and then we shall have some tea and eat some cake. You go and play in the garden. I shall call you when tea is ready.”

Betty went to play in the garden. There she saw a small tree with many, many flowers. “What nice flowers," Betty thought. So she took a lot of the nice flowers to her aunt.

“Look, Auntie,” she said, “here are some nice flowers for the tea-table.”

“They are not flowers,” said her aunt, “they are the blossoms from my young apple-tree. Now I shall have no apples!”

*I'm sorry, Auntie,” said Betty.

“Well, sit down, we shall have tea now,” answered her aunt.

Betty’s aunt cut two large pieces of cake. She gave Betty one and took one for herself.

“We cannot eat this cake,” Betty’s aunt said. “You have put a lot of salt in it and no sugar.”

Betty understood. “Oh,” she thought “I took salt for sugar.”

“Well, you wanted to please me, and I thank you for that, but next time, my dear, you must be attentive.”

“Yes" said Betty, “I shall always be attentive to what I am doing.”