Cedric Errol is seven years old. He lives with his mother in a little house in New York. They don’t have much money, but mother and son are very good friends. Cedric is a kind, friendly little boy, and everybody likes him.
His father was English, but he is now dead, and Cedric and his mother are alone in the world. But one day a lawyer arrives from England with some very surprising news about Cedric’s grandfather.
Glossary
- alone without any other person
- bad-tempered often angry and impatient
- belong if something is yours, it belongs to you
- boot-black somebody who cleans people’s shoes in the street
- brave ready to do dangerous or difficult things and not be afraid
- busy with a lot of things to do
- curly (of hair) with lots of little round shapes
- dear / dearest words for someone that you love
- earl a British title for a man from an old, important family
- farm land and buildings where people keep animals and grow food
- feelings something that you feel inside yourself, like happiness or sadness
- fine (adj) good, nice, beautiful, etc.
- game (illus) something you play that has rules
- great very big
- grocery-man a man who has a grocery store (a food shop)
- hate (v) to have a very strong feeling of not liking somebody
- heart the place inside you where your feelings are
- heir somebody who gets money, buildings, land, etc. when another person, usually in the same family, dies
- jump (v) to move very quickly and suddenly
- kind friendly and good to other people
- lawyer a person who knows about the law
- lord a British title for a man (or boy) from an important family; my lord words you use when you speak to lords, earls, etc.
- marry to take somebody as your husband or wife
- miserable feeling very unhappy
- pain a feeling in your body when you are hurt or ill
- painful giving pain
- philanthropist a rich person who helps the poor and those in need, often by giving money
- poor (1) with very little money; (2) a word that you use when you feel sad for someone
- pretty nice to look at
- rent (n) money you pay to live in another person’s house
- sad not happy
- selfish thinking too much about what you want, and not about what other people want
- servant a person who works in another person’s house
- shake (past tense
- shook) to move quickly from side to side, or up and down
- shaky (adj) shaking because you have strong feelings or are afraid
- soldier a person in an army, who fights for their country
- stare (v) to look at somebody or something for a long time
- store (n) a shop
- stupid not intelligent, not clever
- surprise the feeling you have when something happens that you did not expect
- surprised feeling or showing surprise
- surprising making you feel surprise
- sweet (of a person) pretty, kind
- toy a thing for a child to play with
- unhappy not happy
- unkind not kind
- vicar a priest in some Christian churches
- worried unhappy because you think that something bad is going to happen