Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Our Summer Visitor
We lost Granddad in the fall of my sixth grade year. He had been sick only a short time. Our old house seemed empty without him there. We were glad there was school to keep us busy. None of us were looking forward to summer without Granddad.
Mom left his upstairs room untouched. She said she wasn't ready to clean it out yet. The following spring, Dad lost his job at the factory. Our parents decided to rent out Granddad's room for the summer. Mom said they needed to do it to help make ends meet. She said that taking in a boarder would help pay the bills until Dad found work again.
My two younger brothers and I didn't take to the idea at all. Everyone missed Granddad. We didn't want anyone taking his place, or his room, no matter how much we needed the money. Nevertheless, our parents informed us they had found a suitable boarder that May. Mom said he was an older gentleman wanting to summer on the coast because of his lungs. He arrived on Friday afternoon that Memorial Day weekend.
Mom introduced us to Cyrus Grey at supper that evening. He appeared to be about sixty, but I never was a good judge of age. Something about him seemed familiar. He was tall and thin and had thickset broad shoulders. His salt and pepper hair matched his name. He seemed a good-natured fellow, and he chuckled a lot. Sometimes he winked when he spoke to one of us boys. We did not warm to him right away simply out of principle.
