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“Huh! Six o’clock. I am not getting up,” he said to himself.

He turned over and went back to sleep.

A few minutes later, his mother came in again and said,
“Aren’t you going to school, Chintu? Wake up or you’ll be

late to school.” But Chintu didn’t want to go to school.

He lay in the bed thinking. He wished he was sick

so that he could stay at home.

He examined himself to find some sign of sickness.

Suddenly, to his delight, he felt a slight pain in the

stomach. But soon, it died away. Now he looked for other symptoms. He looked at
the bruises on his knee.

He had fallen down the stairs a week ago and hurt his knee. He touched it to see if

there was any pain. There was no pain at all.

“This is not a very good excuse,” he said to himself. He had What according to Chintu

taken part in a running race just the other day. “Mother will was not a very good excuse?
surely find out,” he thought.

Time was running out. Now Chintu sat up in bed and began to think hard.

Suddenly, he discovered something.

One of his teeth was loose.

Now, there was some hope. Why did Chintu groan?

He decided it was time to act.

He got back into bed and groaned,

“Oooh! Oooh! I’m dying! Aaah! Oooh!” Chintu’s mother came rushing in.

“What’s all this noise about?” she asked.

“Help me, mummy! I can’t bear the pain any longer.”

“What pain? You were fine just a little while ago.”

“I’m dying mummy. It’s all over. Aaah! Ouch!”

“But what’s the matter with you, child?” his mother asked.

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