Quick Check 3 in English 4

Leopard lay beneath a tree, carefully counting his spots. There were ninety-eight sooty black spots on his soft yellow fur.

"Oh, do stop counting your silly spots," Monkey called from the branches above.

"Eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven," counted Leopard. "Silly Leopard!" Monkey said. "I'm tired of hearing you count." And away he ran to the house where Man lived.

Man was painting a yellow fence, and Monkey watched from behind a thorn bush. When noon came, Man put down his pot of paint and went inside his house. This was what Monkey had waited for! He snatched up the yellow paint and the brush, and ran back to the tree where Leopard still counted his spots. He hid the paint in the long grass, climbed the tree, sat on a branch, and waited.

Leopard counted his spots once more. Then he said: "They're all there. That's good. Now I can sleep."

Soon Leopard began to snore. Monkey came quietly down the tree. He picked up the pot of yellow paint and tiptoed close to Leopard. He dipped the brush in the yellow paint and painted over a big black spot so that it didn't show. Then he hid the paint in the grass and climbed up into the tree. He sat on a branch and waited.

When Leopard woke up, he started counting his spots.

"One, two, three," he said, and counted up to ninety-seven.

"I've lost a spot!” he cried. "Oh, what shall I do?

Monkey, on his branch above, laughed so much that he nearly choked.

"Where is my spot?" cried Leopard. "Where is it?

He searched high and he searched low. But he could not find that missing spot.

Then thunder rolled across the sky and drops of rain splashed on Leopard. When the storm passed and the sun shone, Leopard was tired and very wet.

"I'll rest for a while under this tree, and the sun will dry my fur," he said. Then he had an awful thought. Perhaps he had lost another spot!

"One, two, three," he said, and counted up to ninety-eight.

"My spot has come back!" he cried in delight. Now how could a spot get lost and then find its way back?"

Monkey, on his branch above, laughed so much that he nearly fell out of the tree. But he didn't tell Leopard about the paint. He didn't say that the rain had washed it off so that the spot could show again.

"Strange!" said Leopard. "Very strange!

Then Monkey laughed so much that he really did fall out of the tree. He didn't fall on the soft leaves. He didn't fall in the long grass. He fell where he deserved to fall in the pot of yellow paint!

William thought more and more about the hard times he'd had.

He thought most about the hard times he'd had in St. Louis. And he wrote a song about them. He called the song the "St. Louis Blues."

William C. Handy wrote many other songs, too. And his songs are still enjoyed today. They are enjoyed by people all over the world.