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Let’s read the story and find out how cleverly Granny got out of a tricky situation.
We were all very excited. This holiday was to be spent in Dindigul where Grandpa
1
had decided to settle down, because the climate there was good for people with
weak lungs. His doctor had said that the damp sea air of Madras would not suit
2
Grandpa any more.
Dindigul is near a hill station called Kodaikanal, from English- burglar Language
where fruits and vegetables came to market every day by Hindi – चोर Connect
lorry and cart. In Dindigul itself one could get excellent Your language-
bananas and grapes, as well as many varieties of vegetables
and milk too. So, in every way it was an ideal place for
Grandpa, who had been advised to eat lots of vegetables and drink plenty of milk.
The house was an old-fashioned one with many rooms, a large garden, a cowshed,
and a well. Granny, who had lived in a village, had decided to keep a cow, and said she
would show us how to draw water from the well.
‘I will teach you how to milk a
cow, too,’ she said and laughed.
Our neighbours told us to be very
careful at night, to lock all our
doors and windows, because a
gang of burglars had been on the
prowl for some time. The police
had not been able to catch them,
though they had tried ever so hard.
The doors in our house had heavy
iron bolts and the windows had
bars. In one room, there was an
iron safe built into the wall, and
the family jewels and money were
kept in this.
‘How can any burglar break open
this safe?’ Grandpa asked.
One night, when we were fast asleep, the burglars came! They
were not ordinary thieves. They came armed with knives and hill station: a town in the low
mountains
clubs. They did not try to open the doors or windows. Instead, on the prowl: moving around
an area and observing
1 a city in Tamil Nadu everything
2 now, Chennai
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