Page 44 - English Reader - 4

‘Who’s that man?’ Daddy asked. ‘He’s the shunter,’ he was

told. Now little Daddy knew what he wanted to be! Just think!
He would shunt the trains! What in the world could be more

interesting? Nothing, obviously.

When little Daddy said that he would be a shunter, his mother
asked him, ‘But what about the ice cream?’ This was a problem.

Little Daddy had decided to become a shunter, but he did not
want to give up the bright green ice cream cart. At last, he

found a way out.

‘I’ll be a shunter and an ice cream man too!’ he told his
mother.

Everyone was very surprised. But little Daddy explained it

all quite clearly.

‘That’s not hard at all. I’ll sell ice cream in the morning.
After selling it for a while, I’ll go to the station. There I’ll

shunt some trains and go back to sell some more ice cream.

Then I’ll go back to the station and shunt the trains again, and then I’ll sell some more
ice cream. It won’t be hard because I’ll park my cart near the station and I won’t have

far to go to the trains.’

Everyone laughed at him. This made little Daddy angry and he said, ‘If you’re going to
laugh at me, I’ll be a night watchman, besides. After all, there’s nothing to do at night.’

It was all settled for that time. But then little Daddy wanted to be a pilot. Then he
wanted to be an actor. After Grandpa took him to a factory, he decided to be a turner.

Besides, he wanted to be a sailor. Or at least a shepherd and spend his days walking
about with the goats and sleeping under a tree as the cattle grazed in the sun.

Finally, he decided that he really wanted

to be a dog. All that day he ran around
on all fours, barking at strangers. He

even tried to bite an elderly lady when
she wanted to pat his head. Little Daddy

learned how to bark very well, but he
couldn’t learn how to scratch behind his

ears with his foot, though he tried very

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