Page 183 - 8th-language-english-2

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Gandhiji was travelling from Durban to Maritzburg in South Africa.

He had a first class ticket. He sat in the train. After sometime, a
Not to be republished
passenger came and asked him to go to the other compartment. Gandhiji
showed his first class ticket and refused to leave the compartment.

After sometime, two policemen came and forcefully pushed him out
©KTBS
of the train. His baggage was thrown out too. Gandhiji felt very sad.
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A poor little girl was walking along the lonely deserted road. She was
wearing a worn-out dress and her feet were bare. She had been asked

by her father to sell boxes of matches and to bring home the money.

The girl’s pocket was full of unsold boxes of matches. She did not
want to go home because her father would beat her for not bringing

back any money.

Sadly she lit one match after another. Suddenly the figure of her
grandmother who had died a year before appeared in front of her smiling
happily. As the last flaming match was beginning to die out, her grand

mother took her in her arms and carried her up to the heavens. The next
morning the passers by found the frozen girl lying in the snow with a

pretty smile on her lips. Her burnt matches lay scattered all around her.
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Once, to the court of a King came two women with a baby seeking
justice. Each of them claimed that she was the real mother and so she

alone had the right to own and look after it. The King looked at the
minister. The minister stood up, and addressed the women thus: “Both
of you say the child is yours. So, this court orders the baby to be split

in two, and each woman will have a half of the baby.”

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