It was Jimmy’s birthday, and he was five years old. He got quite a lot of nice
birthday presents from his family, and one of them was a beautiful big drum.
‘Who gave him that thing?’ Jimmy’s father said when he saw it.
‘His grandfather did,’ answered Jimmy’s mother.
‘Oh,’ said his father.
Of course, Jimmy liked his drum very much. He made a terrible noise with it,
but his mother did not mind. His father was working during the day, and Jimmy
was in bed when he got home in the evening, so he did not hear the noise.
But one of the neighbours did not like the noise at all, so one morning a few
days later, she took a sharp knife and went to Jimmy’s house while he was hitting
his drum. She said to him, ‘Hullo, Jimmy. Do you know, there’s something very
nice inside your drum. Here’s a knife. Open the drum and let’s find it.’
Elementary Stories for Reproduction
First Series
L. A. HILL
Copyright of OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS