Of all the children in Grade 5, Danni lives the furthest away from the school. That's Danni, with an "i"! His parents have a farm next to the town, but on the other side of the river.

If Danni walks quickly, he gets to school in twenty minutes. But Danni's not always so quick!

He's a dreamer who ponders about everything on his way to school. He prefers to take a detour to avoid the house with the fierce dog as well.

His teacher came to speak to his mother about the fact that he's always late for school. Later the headmaster did the same. "Mr Williams," said his mom with tears in her eyes, "I do my best. I get up extra early to make Danni's breakfast. He goes out the front gate half an hour before school starts."

"We must to something. If he's late for school again, you must punish him with something that he really doesn't like," said Mr Williams earnestly.

"I know," said Danni's mom. "How about the next time he's late, he has to stay in his room all afternoon for a week? He loves running about the farm in the afternoons. That will be a good punishment for him."

"That sounds like a good plan," said Mr Williams. "It's probably the only thing that will work in Danni's case. He's a sensitive child and a real dreamer."

The threat of this punishment was enough for Danni to make up his mind that it was not worth being late for school again. If there's one thing that Danni was more afraid of than fierce dogs, it was being shut in his room for a week!

For two weeks Danni was on time for school. His teacher phoned his mother to say how pleased she was at this great improvement. Danni's father pinched his cheek and called him Danni-boy a few times.

But then, one day, things went wrong for Danni. He left the house at half past eight with his schoolbag on his back and his lunch tin in his hand. He stopped on the bridge and gazed into the river when suddenly a flying fish leapt right out of the water in front of his very eyes and the plopped back into the river. His first thoughts was that nobody would believe that story. Flying fish had become very scarce in Shallow Stream. No one ever saw them anymore.

Source

Danni walked on slowly, deep in thought.

He was so deep in thought that he forgot all about the fierce dog in Mrs Robin's yard. The dog leapt at the fence as if he would really like to swallow Danni whole. His great black head with the flecks of froth around the mouth was dangerously close to Danni. He screamed in fear and started to run.

A block or two later he flopped down onto the edge of the pavement. He knew for sure now that Mrs Robin didn't keep a dog - she kept a wolf, or even a bear. Danni decided to eat half of his sandwich. Maybe the apricot jam would help with the shock.

He ate half his sandwich. His eyes closed with delight at the sour sweetness of jam, and then decided to eat the other half of the sandwich as well.

In the distance the school bell rang, but Danni didn't hear it, because something else caught his eye!

To be continued

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