Children of the New Forest Chapter One

An abridged version of Children of the New Forest (chapter one). Having looked for suitable books when teaching the English Civil War to KS2 pupils I found that there was little to choose from. Although Children of the New Forest is a fantastic story, the lengthy nature of Victorian writing meant that it was a challenge to enable the pupils to both understand the language itself, and read sufficient of the story to gain enough from the plot. Therefore, as the book is in the public domain and not subject to copyright laws, I have abridged the first chapter, with the intention of looking at the whole book. Comprehension and reading activities to accompany this book will follow.
In this chapter I have highlighted certain words that teachers may wish to use for dictionary work, or pause to discuss (a resource for this will follow).
I hope that this will prove useful to someone and would value any feedback.