24 MY SHADOW

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head,

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller, like an India-rubber ball,

An d he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

(Robert Louis Stevenson)

Word list

heels: the back of one's feet

buttercup: a kind of small, yellow flower

arrant: very bad, extreme

You Practice

A) Answer the following questions.

1) Why is the shadow like the little boy from the heels up to the head?

2) Why does the shadow jump into bed before the boy?

3) Why is the shadow sometimes tall and sometimes little?

4) Why wasn't the shadow around before the Sun was up?

5) When was the last time you saw your shadow? How big was it?

B) Rhyme time—Find words in the poem that rhyme with these words.

1) door - m _ _ _

2) bed - h _ _ _

3) snow - g _ _ _

4) smaller - t _ _ _ _ _

5) tall - b _ _ _