It was the spring of 1875. I remember the exact season and year because I had just turned ten. We arrived home late from a trip to the countryside. Father asked me to take our horse to the ____ and feed him. By the time I got to bed, my throat was sore. The next morning I had a high fever and a red rash on my chest. “Miles, you must go back to ____ this minute,” my mother insisted. As I left the living room, I heard her whisper fearfully to my father, “I think he has scarlet fever.” I went to sleep and did not awaken for many days. When I did, I saw my mother sitting beside me. She was holding a cold ____ to my head. “He’s opening his eyes,” cried the haloed angel. Father ran into the room and hugged my mother. I slowly ____ my strength. Of course, I wanted to go outside as soon as I felt a little better. “Sorry, Miles, but the doctor says you’ve got to stay in bed for a while,” my father explained. “But I want to swim and ____ and play ball with Ned and John,”I said. My father just shook his head. The next day, Father set up his ____ in my bedroom. He began painting a picture of a place by the river where my brothers and I used to play. “Use your imagination,” he said, “and you can put yourself right there at our favorite spot.” Father painted the most beautiful of all his paintings. Every tree, every ____ in the river, every cloud, and every inch of blue sky looked real. He painted a group of young boys enjoying themselves by the river, playing ball, swimming, and fishing. I ____ myself there with my brothers, shouting and laughing. And so the days passed Sixty years have now gone by since my scarlet fever summer. My father’s paintings are no longer ____. Even his grandchildren and great-grandchildren have no interest in his work. Only I, his eldest son, hold them dear, especially the one that brought me back to ____.

Benchmark Unit 4 (4th grade)

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