Potato People: More Notes and Exercises

Chapter 7 – Bread

Chapter Overview
This chapter is about:
- Peter’s kindness
- The many hungry and desperate people everywhere.
- Mary falls sick.

Patrick and Peter stopped outside a Baker’s shop in a town call Killkaddy. Peter took out a new penny from his pocket and bought a big juicy meat pie for them to eat. The baker told Peter that he was also getting ready to leave. The people in the town had three years of hunger and starvation. They could not take it any more and want to leave this town. Only the old and sick were left behind. The baker said he would leave as soon as he could sell his shop.

As they went out in the crowded streets, they found heavily-armed soldiers and hungry people everywhere. They found a place to sleep under some bushes at night. The next day it rained heavily. The little girl, Mary was coughing badly. Peter and Patrick went their separate ways, as Peter wanted to go back to town to find a doctor.

Chapter 8 – The Egyptian Girl

Chapter Overview
This chapter is about:
- Peter meeting Marie, a gipsy.

At the junction to Cork, Patrick met Marie, a gipsy girl. He offered to share his bread with her. She was about his age. She had a dark face and dark hair. She looked so happy and Patrick gave her more bread. She told Patrick that she was a gipsy princess from Egypt and they used to live in a pyramid.

Marie took Patrick’s palm to read his future. She told him that he was going on a long journey. He will find what he was looking for. He would never return home. He will find a new home far across the sea. He would become a soldier in a blue uniform with a big white horse and marry a beautiful princess. Then she told Patrick that she knew a place where they could get something to eat. There is a big feats and Patrick followed Marie as she danced on the road to Cork.

ENRICHMENT EXERCISES

Rearrange the following sentences according to the sequence of events in the story.

1 Peter and Patrick stopped outside a baker’s shop in the market place.
2 The baker would leave after he sold his shop.
3 The baker like all the other people was getting ready to leave the town.
4 The people had suffered three years of hunger and starvation and could not take it any more.
5 Peter bought a juicy meat pie for them to eat.
6 When they left the shop, they met soldiers and desperate people wandering the streets.
7 Peter went back into town with Mary who was sick while Patrick walked on towards Cork.
8 It rained heavily the next day and Mary fell ill. She coughed badly.
9 Marie was very happy and decided to read his palm to see his future.
10 He met Marie, a gipsy princess and shared his bread with her.
11 Marie invited Patrick to follow her to a place she knows for a big feast.
12 She said he will never return home and will make his new home far away across the sea.
13 Patrick followed Marie as she ran and danced on the road to Cork.

Read the following statements. Write T next to the statement that is True and F to the statement that is False.

1 Patrick bought the meat pie from the baker’s shop.
2 The baker does not want the leave Ireland.
3 The villagers were walking towards the sea, getting ready to leave the town.
4 The baker wants to sell his shop at a cheap price.
5 Patrick and Peter went their separate ways as Peter took Mary who was sick back into town.
6 As Patrick sat down to eat his bread he heard an old lady’s voice.
7 Marie, the gipsy shared his bread and was very happy.
8 Marie said she came from Egypt and her family lives in a pyramid.
9 She read Patrick’s future and said he will be a powerful and rich man.
10 Patrick went with Marie to buy more bread from the baker.