His Name Was Walter chapter sampler

him. That’s why she made him stay with us instead of walking to town — so she could keep her eye on him. Suddenly he felt quite sorry for Lucas Cheah. If computers were what Lucas loved, and what he was good at, why should he be forced to be bored out of his mind by having to go along with someone else’s idea about what was important in life? ‘Go on, Colin!’ Mrs Fiori said. Colin cleared his throat, allowed himself another quick glance at the painting of the baby on the hive doorstep, and began reading again. One night, a newborn baby wrapped in a black shawl printed with red roses was left on the porch of the giant beehive that was the city’s Home and School for Orphans. That baby was Walter. He was found at sunrise by a wizened old worker called Ida, who carried him inside to the Matron. The Matron looked down at the sleeping infant without a smile and with no surprise. It was not the first time a baby had arrived at the hive in this fashion, and it would not be the last. Pinned to the red-rose shawl was a lock of brown hair and a note in weak and straggling writing. The note meant nothing to old Ida, for she had never learned to read, but the Matron could read it well enough. It said, His name is Walter . It so happened, however, that there were two other Walters in the beehive already, so when the Matron made out the child’s official papers she gave him a name of her own

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