Family and Friends 6 (Extensive reading: The Railway Children)

The Railway Children

Once there were three children that lived happily with their parents in a nice, big house in London. Their names were Roberta, who was always called Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis. Then, one day, their lives changed. Their father was taken away for a crime he didn't commit.

While the children's father was away, the family became very poor. Their mother wrote stories and sold them to magazines but they didn't pay her much money. At last, the family were so poor they didn't have enough money to live in London in a big house. They moved to the countryside and lived in a much smaller house.

Their new house was on a hill near the railway line. The children explored the area around the railway and found out lots of things about trains. They met the people that worked at the station and made friends with one of the passengers.

They had many adventures there. And on one very important day, they even saved a train from having an accident ...

One day, the children were walking along the top of the hills beside the railway line. It was very rocky on the hill, but flowers, plants and trees grew among the rocks. The children were standing and looking down at the railway below when suddenly they heard a noise.

Peter pointed to the other side of the railway line. "Look!" he shouted. "The trees are moving!" The girls looked and saw that part of the hill on the other side of the railway line was falling away. Rocks, stones, earth and trees were moving down the hillside. Soon, a big rock crashed down onto the railway line below. "There are rocks and trees all over the railway line!" said Phyllis. "If a train comes now, there will be a terrible accident!"

"You're right," said Peter. "And look at the time. It's already 1l o'clock. There's always a train here at 11.29. We must go to the railway station and tell them."

"But there isn't time," said Bobbie. "The station's too far away. The train will be here in thirty minutes." The children looked at each other. They were frightened.

"Right," said Peter. "We need to warn the train driver when he comes. We need to tell him to stop the train. How can we do that?" "We could wave your red scarf," said Phyllis. "Everyone knows that red means danger." "Good idea!" said Peter. He took off his scarf and tore it into pieces. Then the children collected some sticks and tied the red material onto them. Now they had red flags to wave. They went down the hill, stood next to the track and waited for the train to come.

At last, they heard the train coming. "Wave your flags!" shouted Peter. "But be careful!

Don't stand on the line!" The train came very fast along the track. The children jumped up and down. They waved their flags and screamed and shouted at the big, black engine. "It's not going to stop!" screamed Bobbie. "They can't see us!" But the train driver did see the red flags in the distance and then he saw the rocks and the trees on the line. He stopped the train and all the passengers looked out of the windows.

The children put down their flags and sat down beside the railway. They were tired but they were happy. "You're very brave," said the driver. "You have saved this train and all the people inside." A few weeks later, a letter from the railway company arrived for the children. It asked them to come to the station at 3 o'clock on Saturday. The children were very excited.

On the day, they wore their best clothes and went down to the station with their mother. When they got there, they were taken into the waiting room. Usually the waiting room was a gloomy place, but today there was a red carpet on the floor and there were flowers on the tables. There were many important people from the railway company in the room. The town mayor gave them each a beautiful, gold watch. "These are to say thank you for your bravery," he said.

The children were very pleased and happy and their mother was very proud

Based on a story by Edith Nesbit