Page 15 - English Reader - 4

After a while Abu said to himself, “I must see if

all nine donkeys are here.” And he turned
round to count them.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

eight,” he counted and then scratched
his head. “Where is the ninth

donkey?” he wondered aloud.

Abu jumped down and began searching for the missing donkey. He looked beside the

rocks and behind the trees. But there was no donkey to be seen.

“I’ll check again,” he thought, and began counting loudly. “One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine.” To his amazement all nine donkeys were there!

Oh, he must have come back,” thought Abu and climbed back on to this donkey and
trotted away.

After a while, he recounted his donkeys. And, found only eight! So, once more he got

down and searched for the missing donkey, but couldn’t find it. But when he counted

again, to his utter disbelief, he saw that there were nine donkeys.

“This is unbelievable!” cried Abu.

Just then, he saw one of his friends, Musa, walking along the road. “Musa,” he called.

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