His Name Was Walter chapter sampler

as vivid colours leaped out at him. Dust? Colin thought confusedly. Paint fumes? After all this time? He rubbed his dazzled eyes with his sleeve and looked down at the page again. This time he saw the picture clearly. It was amazing! He’d never seen anything like it. The picture showed a wizened old bee wearing an apron and a starched white veil standing in the doorway of a giant beehive. The bee was looking down at a tiny human baby lying on the doorstep, wrapped in a black shawl patterned with red roses. Colin told himself that the picture was just an illustration for a children’s story, but somehow he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. It was so lifelike that he felt as if he were inside it, actually standing on the porch of the hive, looking down at the baby in its strange red and black shawl … ‘What’s that, Colin?’ Mrs Fiori asked sharply. Grace was already swinging herself across the room. She crowded beside Colin to look inside the drawer. ‘Hey, look, there’s some gold jewellery back there!’ she exclaimed. Her hand reached out … ‘Don’t touch, Grace!’ Mrs Fiori ordered, hurrying over to look. ‘You can’t go rummaging around in someone else’s things!’ ‘Colin’s already taken something out!’ Grace protested, but she reluctantly edged aside so that the teacher could stand at the desk with Colin. Mrs Fiori looked down into the secret drawer, then at the open book in Colin’s hands. She frowned slightly.

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