WORKSHEET

Subject: English Class and Section: 7 Date:

Name: _________________________________________________ Topic: Fiction (Reading comprehension)

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum

by Mary Hooper

This is the opening part of a longer story that takes place in London at the outbreak of the plague. It
is a story about a girl called Hannah who has arrived in London from the country.

At the bottom of the street there was a series of alleys and I went down the first, past a dunghill and
some piles of rotting rubbish, and through into a small, busy market selling all manner of roots and
herbs. Laid out here were rough tables loaded with produce, and there were more traders selling
from baskets or sacks on the ground.

I stopped, fascinated, amid the jostling people, but the shrill cries of the stallholders urging
customers to, “Come buy before night!” reminded me that I had to get on. If I got lost in the
backstreets in the dark I knew for certain that I’d get my throat cut and never be seen again.

Being hungry, I started to wonder what my sister Sarah would have prepared for supper.

A little further on was another small square with a number of ways leading off it and I stood there,
perplexed, for a moment. Sarah had told me that the city was like a rabbit-warren and it surely was.
After some thought I went along an alleyway, passed more shops and entered the churchyard of St
Olave’s.

There I came across six small children standing among the tombstones playing a game. One was
pretending to be the minister, for he had a long dark piece of cloth round his shoulders and was
proclaiming in a solemn voice. One was a body, lying ‘dead’ on the ground muffled in a sheet and
the others – the mourners – were wailing and crying. I deduced they were playing at funerals and
after staring at them for some moments – fascinated, for I’d never seen children play such a game at
home – I stepped past the ‘body’ and went out of the back gate of the churchyard.

Excited now, I looked up at the swinging shop and house signs, searching for Sarah’s. I saw the
Pigeon Pie Shop, the Half Moon, the Oak Tree, the Miller’s Daughter – and then, in a line of four or
five shops, found the one I’d been looking for: a painted picture of a sugared plum. I swung my

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bundle of clothes over my shoulder and broke into a run, slipping and sliding on the cobbles in my
effort to get there quickly, and thinking all the while how happy Sarah would be to see me.

Sarah was in the back of the shop, rolling something on a marble slab and looking very cool in a
cotton dress with a starched white apron over it.

I went in to greet her, sniffing in appreciation. The shop smelt of spices and sugar water and its
wooden floor was thick with straw and herbs, which was pleasant after some of the odious smells
outside.

“Sarah!” I said. “Here I am.”

She looked up at me and I was disconcerted to see that she seemed surprised – even shocked – at the
sight of me. Surely she hadn’t forgotten that I was coming?

“Hannah!” she said. “How did you …”

“Just as we planned,” I said. “I took Farmer Price’s cart to Southwark and then walked from there.
But what a muddle and a mess it all is in London. What stinks! What crowds!”

“But what are you doing here?”

I put down my bundle and my basket. “I’ve come to help you, of course – just as you asked. The
Reverend Davies brought your letter to me and I was that excited – Father said he’s never had a letter
in his life. But where is your living space? Where shall I sleep? Can I look round?”

“But I wrote to you again,” she said. “I wrote two weeks back and said not to come.”

“Not to come?” I said in disbelief. “Surely you didn’t —”

“I wrote to you care of Reverend Davies again. Didn’t he come to see you?”

I shook my head, upset and bitterly disappointed. I couldn’t bear it if I had to go back home! What
about all my grand plans for living in London, for attending playhouses and bear pits, and going to
fairs?

“But why don’t you want me here?” I asked. “I’ll be of such a help to you!” I couldn’t understand
why she didn’t want me to stay. I began to wonder what I had done in the past for which she might
not, after all, have been able to forgive me.

“It’s not because I don’t want you here,” she said. “It’s because … well, haven’t you heard?” She
began to whisper.

“Heard what?” I asked.

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“About … about the plague,” she said, looking round and shuddering slightly, as if the thing she was
talking about was standing like a great and horrible brute behind her. “The plague has broken out in
London.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh is that it?” I said. So it wasn’t because of me or anything I’d done. “Is
that all? Why, there’s always a plague somewhere and as long as it’s not here – I mean, not right here
—!”

“Well, it’s not in this parish,” she admitted. “But there are some cases nearby – and a house has been
shut up in Drury Lane.”

“Shut up?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

“One of the people inside it – a woman – has the plague, and they’ve locked her up with her husband
and children so it can’t be spread.”

“So there – it’s all contained!” I said. “And it’s just one house, Sarah – we don’t need to worry about
that, do we? London must have all the best doctors. I bet we’re safer here than anywhere.”

“I don’t know —” said Sarah.

“But I’m here now, Sarah. Don’t send me back!” I pleaded. “I can’t bear it if I’ve got to go home.”

She sighed. “I’m not sure.”

“I’ll do everything you say,” I went on anxiously. “I won’t go anywhere I’m not supposed to. I’ll be
such a help to you, really I will —”

She gave a sudden smile. “Come and give me a hug and we’ll close the shop early and go out and
buy a venison pasty to celebrate your coming.”

“I can stay?” I asked joyfully.

She nodded. “You can for the moment. But if the plague comes closer —”

“Oh, it won’t!” I said. “Everything is going to be perfectly fine.”

Or so it seemed.

Read the text and answer the questions.

Choose the best word or group of words to fit the passage and put a ring around your choice.

1. This story is about a girl called Hannah who has arrived in London from the country. At first,
she wandered through the streets to a [1]
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 market.

farm.

shop.

Fair

2. There, Hannah saw people selling [1]

firewood.

Fish

roots and herbs.

flowers and plants.

3. She was fascinated by the [1]

goods for sale.

unusual street names.

bad smells.

back streets.

4. She watched for a while and moved on. Her walk then took her through a [1]

park

churchyard

garden

station

5. where she saw some children [1]

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 singing.

playing.

hiding.

arguing.

6. Finally, Hannah arrived at her sister’s shop. It was called the ‘Sugared Plum’ and it probably
sold [1]

sweets.

meat.

books.

shoes.

7. When Hannah arrived, Sarah was [1]

writing a letter.

ironing her apron.

spreading out straw.

preparing food.

8. Why was Hannah in a hurry? Give two reasons. [2]

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_________________________________________________________________________________________

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9. Look at the paragraph about the funeral game (second last paragraph on page 1). Why are the
words ‘dead’ and ‘body’ written in inverted commas? [1]

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10. What did the author mean when she described Sarah as: looking very cool? (page 2, second
paragraph) [1]

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11. . Explain how modern readers might misunderstand that description. [1]

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12. When Hannah arrived, there was a misunderstanding between her and Sarah. Explain fully
the different reasons why both Hannah and Sarah were upset. [3]

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13. When Sarah told Hannah that the plague had broken out in London (page 8), Hannah
breathed a sigh of relief. Why? [1]

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14. Look at the paragraph starting with “I shook my head…” to the end of the text
How can you tell that Sarah was scared of the plague from how she spoke and what she did?
[2]

How she spoke___________________________________________________________________________

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What she did_____________________________________________________________________________

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15. The inside of Sarah’s shop was very different from the market described at the beginning of
the story.
Explain fully the differences between the shop and the market.
Think about:
• what was happening in each place
• the atmosphere
• the words used by the writer. [3]

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16. The text ends with these two lines:

“Everything is going to be perfectly fine.”
Or so it seemed.
What does the last line suggest about what was going to happen? [1]

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