Page 16 - New Medley 5 Semester 1

By the time summer came round again, the cherry tree had sent several

new shoots with tender green leaves. Rakesh had grown taller too. He
was eight now, a sturdy boy with curly black hair and deep black eyes.

“Blackberry,” Grandfather called them.

That monsoon, Rakesh went home to his village to help his father and

mother with the planting, ploughing and sowing. He was thinner but
stronger when he came back to his grandfather’s house at the end of

rains to find that the cherry tree had grown another foot. It was now
up to his chest.

Even when there was rain, Rakesh would
sometimes water the tree. He wanted it to know

that he was there.

One day he found a bright green praying
mantis perched on a branch, peering at him

with bulging eyes. Rakesh let it remain there.

It was the cherry tree's first visitor.

The next visitor was a hairy caterpillar, who started making a meal of

the leaves, Rakesh removed it quickly and dropped it on a heap of dry
leaves.

“Come back when you are a butterfly,”

he said.
shoots new parts of a plant
Winter came early. The cherry tree tender soft and delicate

bent low with the weight of snow. Field sturdy strong and healthy
mice sought shelter in the roof of the praying mantis a large green insect

cottage. The road from the valley was that holds its front legs in a way that
blocked, and for several days there was it appears to be praying when it is
waiting to catch a insect
no newspaper. This made Grandfather perched sat
quite grumpy, and his stories began sought tried to find or get something

to have unhappy endings. grumpy bad-tempered

In February it was Rakesh’s birthday.

He was nine—and the tree was four, but almost as tall as Rakesh.

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